Mendelssohn – Piano Trio in D Minor

This piece is another great example of writing the bulk of a piece out of a short passage. The cello part begins with this…

This phrase is used extensively throughout the first movement. Mendelssohn chops up this short passage and then composes a lot of the first movement using little cells, and transformations of them,  from the opening phrase.

One example is…The opening phrase ends with a falling third. In bar 25 the falling third is used several times in a row in the violin part.

Then as we near bar 50, the falling third in the violin is disguised.

Such a simple little idea, but it really seems to give the piece great synergy. A great device I am definetly trying to implement in my composing more and more. I like to think of it as a ‘snout to tail’ style of writing, maximising the usage from the one source.

Warren.

Mendelssohn – Piano Trio no.1 in D Minor

Well, this is actually a really long piece! It was a really interesting study though, because I’ve just written an 800 word essay on Mr Mendelssohn.

*Insert picture here*

So, the first thing I noticed was that while it is scored for a regular piano trio, Violin, Cello and Piano, it really features the piano rather heavily. The cello and violin both play sections of more interest and excitement, but generally they’re fairly simple, mostly playing longer notes, and with fairly regular patterns and harmony. There are obviously exceptions to this, more in the cello part than the violin part. Glancing over the individual parts (I find that it can be quite helpful in such a small ensemble to have separate parts as well as the score, it can help you focus on specifics within a part) the cello seems to draw the eye more with its techniques and general blackness of notes!

The piece starts with the melody in the cello and a constant quaver pulse in the piano. The piano alternates hands to generate this pulse, but the piano part generates an arpeggio sound from by ascending up the chord in the right hand.

This piece really is much more virtuosic for the pianist than anyone else.

I found the piano writing to be very arpeggio based, often the melody is the top note of a triplet arpeggio down the chord.

I found the harmonies between the violin and cello to be particularly effective, especially when the two instruments were not indeed playing simple harmonies of one another, but rather a fugue idea or a recapitulation of the melody in one and a countermelody in the other, often changing the underlying harmony that was originally present.

I found that often the piece modulated not to the dominant, but rather to the 4th, to a glorious G minor, but this is probably complete rubbish – non-diatonic chords are hardly anything unusual, and the sharps often add up to Bmajor/G#minor… Which, I don’t think, is probably right! But it was interesting trying to analysise exactly where the chords were going, the progression. One example would be at bar 148-162

For Example

That’s a (or D#dimAdd6) Bmajor⁷⁶₅ D#dim⁶ Amajor⁶₄ Bmajor⁷⁶₅ some more of that, then DMajor7 (written as a DMajorAug6) F#min⁶₄ etc etc..

I don’t really get it, but it sounds cool! It’s all over so quickly that it doesn’t really matter, in my opinion a lot of the intricacy of the suspensions are lost when they’re resolved so quickly.

Saska

Piano Trio in D Minor – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

I couldn't think of an appropriate picture for this song, so here is a cat.

Piano Trio in D minor is scored for piano, violin and cello, and is separated into four sections. To be perfectly honest, nothing in this piece really stuck out as unique to me… but saying that it is one masterfully crafted piece of music. The themes and ideas are crafted and developed quite spectacularly, and the piece is fluid and coherent. The virtuosic piano part was particularly impressive, and had some really nicely written accompaniment. I really loved how the cello and violin play an often really lyrical and expressive melody over a rather intense piano accompaniment. The thematic development throughout the piece was rather superb, with very few places losing my interest. The flow of the piece is standout.

Highly recommended, would listen again. A+++

Nathan

Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op.49

This clip is really fun to watch, especially the piano part- for the intensity.

Generally we get 2 layers-

• legato vs short and staccato- sustained, slow melodic in the strings and fast, generally arpeggiated passages
• the piano usually acts as an independent part from the strings- but when it accentuates the strings becomes quite powerful
• the piano- during its independent fast florid passages adds quite a shimmering effect to the sustained strings- adding an extra tone colour to the overall sound
• to build complexity in the piece- all 3 parts will act independently rather then the violin and cello being paired together- in this case- the the melody is usually displaced- so we get the complexity in the crossing over of 3 parts- but remaining with only 2 different parts.
• cello and violin often octave doubled- thickens the melody
• the use of violin and cello means that we can  clearly identify each part through the use of register

I don’t tend to find this as interesting to write about compared to 20th Century music- it does sound nice and would be great to play.

Ok, this is the worst thing I’ve written thus far.

So, I will not sign it.