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The short answer
The fifth song in Mendelssohn’s first wordless book. Song Without Words in F-sharp minor, Op. 19b No. 5 ('Inquiétude') is a song without words by Felix Mendelssohn from the Romantic era. PlayPiano puts it at Level 7, an estimate.
- song without words
- Romantic
- stormy
History
This F-sharp-minor piece is the fifth member of the first book of Songs Without Words. The collection's printed history begins in London in 1832, with Paris and Bonn editions in 1833. That international publication story belongs to the book as a whole; it does not establish the origin or authorship of every later nickname attached to its pieces.
Sources
What to listen for
Long melody above moving detail
Follow the held upper notes above the continuing eighth-note inner pattern. Hear the slower song and the quicker movement as separate layers.
The melody becomes a running fall
The passage labelled Second Subject begins with a continuous descending eighth-note line. Compare its flowing surface with the opening’s held upper melody.
How to practise it
Held pitch with short neighbours underneath; long arrivals rising through the texture.
- Rehearse the sustained 61 while quietly adding the three moving notes; do not replace the hold with repeated attacks.
- Sing those three arrivals as a rising outline before practising their intervening short notes.
How hard is it
Restless rapid figurations require evenness, secure coordination and clear melodic direction without excessive tension or rushing.
About this piece
- Collection
- Small scenes, big imagination
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Source
- mutopiaproject.org
More by Felix Mendelssohn
- Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 85 No. 1Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro
- Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 30 No. 6Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro
- Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16 No. 2Level 8, estimatedWith Maestro
