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The short answer
Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 85 No. 1 is a song without words by Felix Mendelssohn from the Romantic era. PlayPiano puts it at Level 5, an estimate.
- song without words
- Romantic
- dreamy
- gentle
- voicing
Also known as MWV U 189.
History
Op. 85 No. 1 is a Song Without Words that reached print after Mendelssohn's death. Multiple manuscript versions survive, so the graceful piano piece has an edition history as well as a musical one; this edition follows a later Breitkopf & Härtel collected print.
Sources
What to listen for
A flexible line comes to a breath
The melody moves from a longer note into a small descending flourish, then answers and leaves a short rest. Keep the accompaniment flowing through that breath rather than treating it as silence in both parts.
A quieter repeated thought
The softer phrase repeats its shape over changing chord tones. Make the melody easy to follow and keep the rolling accompaniment below it in volume.
The line gathers momentum
A more active melody and a written crescendo lead into a chromatic turn. Hear the direction of the phrase while keeping its small notes connected and the underlying pulse steady.
How to practise it
Bring out the upper phrase over quietly flowing cross-staff support.
- Practise the C-D-F phrase as one gesture before combining.
- Practise one broken group with a comfortable allocation before repeating it.
- Connect the stated opening gestures at a comfortable tempo, keeping their distinct releases.
How hard is it
The proposed intermediate target values sustained phrase direction and dependable melodic balance across the complete individual song. Its composer-route first slot is not a first-year certification.
About this piece
- Collection
- Small scenes, big imagination
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Source
- mutopiaproject.org
More by Felix Mendelssohn
- Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 30 No. 6Level 5, estimatedWith Maestro
- Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16 No. 2Level 8, estimatedWith Maestro
