No. 1 Scherzo (Allegro vivace) (After the First Act)
Key: G minor
The Scherzo is dominated by winds and strings and serves as an intermezzo between acts 1 and 2. It is meant to epitomize Mendelssohn’s “elfin” character and introduces the subsequent melodrama in which the elf Puck makes his first appearance. The chiaroscuro sound of flutes, low clarinets, and middle bassoons that opens it is another Mendelssohn innovation; it may bring Tchaikovsky to mind.[1] The breathless ascending chromatic scale assimilates the tetrachord previously heard in the Overture.
[1] LA Phil 2013/14, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Overture and Incidental Music)”, http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/midsummer-nights-dream-overture-and-incidental-music-felix-mendelssohn (accessed December 11, 2012)
Key: G minor
The Scherzo is dominated by winds and strings and serves as an intermezzo between acts 1 and 2. It is meant to epitomize Mendelssohn’s “elfin” character and introduces the subsequent melodrama in which the elf Puck makes his first appearance. The chiaroscuro sound of flutes, low clarinets, and middle bassoons that opens it is another Mendelssohn innovation; it may bring Tchaikovsky to mind.[1] The breathless ascending chromatic scale assimilates the tetrachord previously heard in the Overture.
[1] LA Phil 2013/14, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Overture and Incidental Music)”, http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/midsummer-nights-dream-overture-and-incidental-music-felix-mendelssohn (accessed December 11, 2012)
No. 2 Elfenmarsch (Fairies' March) (L’istesso tempo, Allegro vivace)
Key: G minor/major
The Fairies March plays as a background to the entrance of Oberon and Titania, the Fairy King and Queen. Here the descending pizzicato strings retrace the descending form of the terachord in the key of the overture.
Key: G minor/major
The Fairies March plays as a background to the entrance of Oberon and Titania, the Fairy King and Queen. Here the descending pizzicato strings retrace the descending form of the terachord in the key of the overture.
No. 3 Bunte (O ye spotted snakes) (Allegro ma non troppo)
Form: Lied with chorus
Key: A major/minor
This is a vocal piece which is the lullaby sung for Titania in scene 2 of Act II. Prefacing the second strophe of “You Spotted Snakes”... the “roundel” Titania requests as a musical sedative is a descending tetrachord (example not pictured).
Form: Lied with chorus
Key: A major/minor
This is a vocal piece which is the lullaby sung for Titania in scene 2 of Act II. Prefacing the second strophe of “You Spotted Snakes”... the “roundel” Titania requests as a musical sedative is a descending tetrachord (example not pictured).
No. 4 Was du wirst erwachend sehn (The Spells) (Andante - Allegro molto)
Form: Lied
Key: G major
This is another melodrama where Oberon casts his spell on the sleeping Titania. The music is reduced to little more than bare ascending tetrachords.
Form: Lied
Key: G major
This is another melodrama where Oberon casts his spell on the sleeping Titania. The music is reduced to little more than bare ascending tetrachords.
No. 5 Intermezzo (Allegro appassionato) (After the Second Act)
Key: A minor/major
The Intermezzo which connects Acts II and III is in two parts. The first (Allegro appassionato, A minor) represents Hermia's distraught search for her bewitched lover Lysander; the second, a more relaxed section in A major, leads directly to the next movement (No. 6).[1] The theme of the movement is divided between the winds and the violins and the descending chromatic scale (mm 4-6) embodies the tetrachord thread.
[1] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)
Key: A minor/major
The Intermezzo which connects Acts II and III is in two parts. The first (Allegro appassionato, A minor) represents Hermia's distraught search for her bewitched lover Lysander; the second, a more relaxed section in A major, leads directly to the next movement (No. 6).[1] The theme of the movement is divided between the winds and the violins and the descending chromatic scale (mm 4-6) embodies the tetrachord thread.
[1] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)
No. 6 Welch hausbacknes Volk (What hempen homespuns) (Allegro - Allegro Molto - Andante)
Form: Lied
Key: E minor/C Major
This movement is another melodrama which introduces Bottom and his compatriots meeting in the woods to rehearse their play “Pyramus and Thisby”. This rehearsal begins Act III. At the midpoint of the score, a descending tetrachord languidly unfolds in the winds; and as the entranced Tatania encounters the transformed Bottom, Felix revives the motto chords of the overture and their latent tetrachord in a droll reharmonization.[1]
[1] Todd, Larry R. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
Form: Lied
Key: E minor/C Major
This movement is another melodrama which introduces Bottom and his compatriots meeting in the woods to rehearse their play “Pyramus and Thisby”. This rehearsal begins Act III. At the midpoint of the score, a descending tetrachord languidly unfolds in the winds; and as the entranced Tatania encounters the transformed Bottom, Felix revives the motto chords of the overture and their latent tetrachord in a droll reharmonization.[1]
[1] Todd, Larry R. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
No. 7 Notturno (Con moto tranquillo)
Key: E major
The Nocturne comes at the end of Act III, when Puck finally has each of the four lovers sleeping where he or she will wake up and fall in love with the right person. Mendelssohn gives the melody to the first horn, embraced by the two bassoons, while a clarinet and the second horn drone quietly to evoke the still of night. Later the flutes suggest the proverbial wings of night. In the play, the subtle but majestic beauty of the music is a sublime description of the scene of sleeping lovers, but also an incongruous setup for a visual gag: when it ends the curtain opens on the ridiculous sight of Titania, the fairy queen, in her bower with the ass-headed Bottom.[1]
Beteen the third and fourth acts, Felix begins the calming Horn melody with the fourth B-E thus reviving the interval of the original tetrachord.
[1] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)
Key: E major
The Nocturne comes at the end of Act III, when Puck finally has each of the four lovers sleeping where he or she will wake up and fall in love with the right person. Mendelssohn gives the melody to the first horn, embraced by the two bassoons, while a clarinet and the second horn drone quietly to evoke the still of night. Later the flutes suggest the proverbial wings of night. In the play, the subtle but majestic beauty of the music is a sublime description of the scene of sleeping lovers, but also an incongruous setup for a visual gag: when it ends the curtain opens on the ridiculous sight of Titania, the fairy queen, in her bower with the ass-headed Bottom.[1]
Beteen the third and fourth acts, Felix begins the calming Horn melody with the fourth B-E thus reviving the interval of the original tetrachord.
[1] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)
In the closing bars it is filled in by pizzicato violins, in the form of E-D#-C#-C-B. [1]
[1] Todd, Larry R. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
[1] Todd, Larry R. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
No. 8 Andante (Removal of the Spells)
Key: C# minor
This movement is a melodrama that occurs when Oberon and Puck enter to find Titania asleep beside bottom and awaken her by touching a flower to her eyes. This movement is a mirror of movement 4 where the ascending tetrachord that occurs when Titania is placed under Oberons spell is now converted to a descending tetrachord as she is released from it.
Key: C# minor
This movement is a melodrama that occurs when Oberon and Puck enter to find Titania asleep beside bottom and awaken her by touching a flower to her eyes. This movement is a mirror of movement 4 where the ascending tetrachord that occurs when Titania is placed under Oberons spell is now converted to a descending tetrachord as she is released from it.
There are also two quotations from the overture in this movement – the elves music in E minor and the fanfares from the end of the exposition which announce the arrival of Theseus’s hunting party. This last motive helps to transition back into the world of the humans and the upcoming marriages in the Athenians court.
No. 9 Hochzeitmarsch (Wedding March) (Allegro vivace) (After the Fourth Act)
Form: Intro A Intro’ A B A B A C D E A B A Intro’ Coda[1]
Key: C major
The famous wedding march serves as an intermezzo between acts IV and V (the last). This movement contains the only appearance of the trombone in the entire work, and serves to re-establish the world of humans and daylight, and emphasizing that this is a wedding not only of the enchanted lovers, but of the royal Theseus and Hippolyta.[2] No reference to the tetrachord in this movement.
No. 10 Fanfare (Allegro commodo) - Funeral March (Andante commodo)
Key: C major
The Funeral March, hardly a tragic piece (it includes a playful reference to the Intermezzo), accompanies an episode in "Pyramus and Thisby," performed as an entertainment for the three couples.[3] The pieces are very short and instrumentation is at the bare minimum, featuring just Timpani, Trumpet (in the Fanfare) and C Clarinet and Bassoon in the March. This movement also bears no reference to the tetrachord.
No. 11 Ein Tanz Von Rupeln (Dance of the Clowns) (Allegro di molto)
Key: B major
The dance of the clowns is a short Bergamask dance. The music played is a reprise of Bottom’s donkey dance from the overture.
No. 12 Hochzeitmarsch reprise (Allegro vivace)
Key: C major
This is a brief movement which leads into the play’s final scene.
Finale (Allegro di molto)
Key: E Major
In the sung Finale, the fairies appear at the wedding celebration, and Oberon and Titania give their blessings to the newly married couples. Mendelssohn assigned Oberon's benediction to the chorus, Titania's to a single fairy. This concluding piece begins and ends with virtually unaltered music from the Overture, but includes new material as well.
[1] CMP, “’Wedding March’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, http://nebula.wsimg.com/678fcd6d7600bed315f9fc1cbc424de7?AccessKeyId=8D390DA0D522BF058B75&disposition=0, (accessed December 11, 2012)
[2] LA Phil 2013/14, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Overture and Incidental Music)”, http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/midsummer-nights-dream-overture-and-incidental-music-felix-mendelssohn (accessed December 11, 2012)
[3] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)
Form: Intro A Intro’ A B A B A C D E A B A Intro’ Coda[1]
Key: C major
The famous wedding march serves as an intermezzo between acts IV and V (the last). This movement contains the only appearance of the trombone in the entire work, and serves to re-establish the world of humans and daylight, and emphasizing that this is a wedding not only of the enchanted lovers, but of the royal Theseus and Hippolyta.[2] No reference to the tetrachord in this movement.
No. 10 Fanfare (Allegro commodo) - Funeral March (Andante commodo)
Key: C major
The Funeral March, hardly a tragic piece (it includes a playful reference to the Intermezzo), accompanies an episode in "Pyramus and Thisby," performed as an entertainment for the three couples.[3] The pieces are very short and instrumentation is at the bare minimum, featuring just Timpani, Trumpet (in the Fanfare) and C Clarinet and Bassoon in the March. This movement also bears no reference to the tetrachord.
No. 11 Ein Tanz Von Rupeln (Dance of the Clowns) (Allegro di molto)
Key: B major
The dance of the clowns is a short Bergamask dance. The music played is a reprise of Bottom’s donkey dance from the overture.
No. 12 Hochzeitmarsch reprise (Allegro vivace)
Key: C major
This is a brief movement which leads into the play’s final scene.
Finale (Allegro di molto)
Key: E Major
In the sung Finale, the fairies appear at the wedding celebration, and Oberon and Titania give their blessings to the newly married couples. Mendelssohn assigned Oberon's benediction to the chorus, Titania's to a single fairy. This concluding piece begins and ends with virtually unaltered music from the Overture, but includes new material as well.
[1] CMP, “’Wedding March’ from A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, http://nebula.wsimg.com/678fcd6d7600bed315f9fc1cbc424de7?AccessKeyId=8D390DA0D522BF058B75&disposition=0, (accessed December 11, 2012)
[2] LA Phil 2013/14, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Overture and Incidental Music)”, http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/midsummer-nights-dream-overture-and-incidental-music-felix-mendelssohn (accessed December 11, 2012)
[3] The Kennedy Center, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: About the Work”, http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2675 (accessed December 11, 2012)