Issue 27 - Mendelssohn's Sixth Sonata, Op. 65
I'm particularly excited about the prelude and postlude music for Lent this year. Some of it is music I've played and loved for a long time - others are pieces that I've been yearning to play and finally am getting a chance to learn. For Lent I, I'll be playing the first movement (which is actually a chorale and four variations) from Mendelssohn's Sixth Sonata for Organ, Opus 65. (For some history on Mendelssohn's role in the revival of organ music in the Nineteenth Century, see Bookends Issue 8.)
Initially commissioned as Voluntaries (a shorter composition in a Classical style), Mendelssohn revised these compositions into the eventual "Six Sonatas, Opus 65" published in 1845. There's nothing consistent about these Sonatas - they range in length from eight to fifteen minutes and have anywhere from two to four movements. William Little writes in his forward to the Organ Sonatas, published by Novello, "In musical terms the Six Sonatas are neither sacred nor secular, if one could ever reasonably argue such a distinction. More to the point, however, Opus 65 is Mendelssohn's final statement for the organ, and in it he sums up all that which had gone before and simultaneously formulates a whole new genre for the nineteenth century and thereafter."
The Sixth Sonata is particularly true of the above statement. It opens with the chorale "Vater unser im Himmelreich" which is a sung version of the Lord's Prayer (ELW 746). The first three variations on the chorale will be played as the prelude and the final variation (a fiery toccata) will close the service. The second movement is a fugue and the third movement closes the sonata with tranquil and sweet Andante (a striking departure from the Classical sonata of the previous era which typically had the movements Allegro - Andante - Rondo). In this sonata, we see Mendelssohn's respect and admiration for the past (most importantly the works of J. S. Bach) by electing to base the work on a sacred Lutheran chorale as well as including a Fugue (which reached its compositional height during Bach's era) as an entire movement within the Sonata. Yet he moves the organ repertoire forward into Nineteenth Century Romanticism through his compositional style and harmonic language as well as his subtle, Romantic sensibility.
(Image: Felix Mendelssohn)