Mendelssohn in 1825: A Snapshot with Two Canons

Abstract

Mendelssohn composed canons throughout most of his career, often giving such pieces as mementos to musical friends and acquaintances. Although his canons certainly occupy a minor place among his works, their significance is by no means negligible. Two hitherto neglected canons are extant in draft form on a manuscript page in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. This single leaf, densely covered with a wide variety of notations, provides a remarkably detailed “snapshot” of the composer at the age of sixteen. Aspects of his life reflected on this one sheet include not only his serious activity as a composer but also his general studies, his home, his skill in pen-and-ink drawing, his friendships, and his humor. These notations, together with analysis of the paper and the handwriting, help to date the manuscript to the year 1825. Analysis of the pair of three-voice canons shows how both rely on some fairly simple principles to extend the imitation, yet they do so quite imaginatively. These canons hold an interesting position within Mendelssohn's oeuvre. Although they do not belong among his student essays in the form, at the same time, they are not yet, like his later canons, artifacts of the composer's convivial life among his fellow musicians. Rather, they represent the personal discipline of the youthful master composer privately exploring his craft.