Overture, Op. 21, of Midsummer Night’s Dream Social and Cultural Contexts and Contribution

FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: CLOSE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
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Final paper Assignment: Close Performance Analysis
Introduction
Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21, is an astounding piece of music from Felix Mendelssohn primarily because it is both a musical genre and a musical expression that represents Shakespeare’s literary work. The concert Overture has had a particularly successful afterlife and continues to be a mainstay of orchestral programs as well as film adaptations of Shakespeare’s comedy. Mendelssohn constructed a modified traditional sonata to mirror the play’s narrative by peopling it with numerous motifs that suited the choice of the cast from ordinary to supernatural and from high to low. The Overture is a dazzling summation of the play, entailing a mysterious opening, the recreation of scurrying fairies, the long brays after Bottom transforms into an ass, and the Duke’s hunting horn, among other subtle evocations. This final paper will analyze the Overture, Op. 21, of Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Dromgoole in relation to its social and historical contexts as well as its contribution to the performance of the play. The thesis of this paper is: Overture, Op. 21, is an example of program music with a rich social and cultural context that skillfully transforms the ideas of character, theme, and plot into a work of instrumental music.
Body
The Overture’s Social and Cultural Context
Mendelssohn grew up in an affluent and cultured family that afforded the most intellectually stimulating opportunities imaginable. The family household was a hub of academic and cultural activity and this helped further Mendelssohn’s prodigious talent as an artist. Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the tender age of 17 years after reading the German translation of the play in 1826. From the rich poetic imagery of the Germanic translation of the play, Mendelssohn recognized the work’s musical potential and began composing the overture. Mendelssohn would begin scribbling the chords of his musical instruments to express the magical forest and the cast in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Initially conceived as a piano duet, a fully orchestrated version of the Overture was first publicly performed in Stettin at a concert led by the composer Carl Loewe. This was Mendelssohn’s maiden public appearance as both soloist and composer, and his musical extravaganza propelled him to the forefront of German musicians. The King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, who enjoyed drama and Mendelssohn’s music would help cement Overture, Op. 21, as a mainstay of orchestral programs together with the composer’s other contributions including the Scherzo, Intermezzo, Nocturne, and Wedding March, which all come between the play’s acts.[Marin Alsop, “Marin Alsop’s Guide to Mendelssohn’s ‘a Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” Npr.org, 2014, /sections/deceptivecadence/2014/05/23/315246245/marin-alsops-guide-to-mendelssohns-a-midsummer-nights-dream.] [Georg Kinsky and W. Oliver Strunk, “Was Mendelssohn Indebted to Weber? An Attempted Solution of an Old Controversy,” The Musical Quarterly 19, no. 2 (1933): 178–86, /stable/738798.]
The contemporary version of the Overture is derived from the changes Mendelssohn made to the program in 1833 to better evoke the fairies, lovers, Bottom, and the coarse tradesmen. He scored the Overture for the same orchestra as had been in Mozart’s day with several useful and startling exceptions. To the timpani, strings, trumpets, horns, and pairs of woodwinds, Mendelssohn included an ophicleide, an English bass brass musical instrument that worked like a woodwind but which changes pitch by manipulating its holes with keys. The ophicleide was already in use by Spontini and Berlioz and would have an illustrious career in bands until it was supplanted by the tuba. Furthermore, the orchestra at the time of composing the Overture was becoming more sophisticated, especially in the use of brass instruments because of the advancements in the creation of brass works. It had a favourable coarse sound which was essential in the recapitulation when mimicking Bottom’s brays. However, Mendelssohn also included it for its peculiar shape which resembled the gossamer bower of Titania, the fairy queen.[Aidan Day, “Angela Carter’s Fairy Orientalism: ‘Overture and Incidental Music for a Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” Marvels & Tales 26, no. 1 (2012): 11–29, /stable/41702488.]
The Overture’s Contribution to the Performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Dromgoole
Mendelssohn was the first to include evocations in a composition completely and convincingly after several artists had attempted and failed to lay the orchestra in such a bare and transparent manner. The various themes were presented in a dramatic order as a helpful reminder of the plot and to achieve the desired dramatic purpose. The Overture in Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Dromgoole incorporates several of the classical features, being cast in the traditional sonata form and characterized by intermittent phrasings as well as harmonic transitions. It follows the revisions made to the program in 1833 with its misty opening chords that evoke the forest and fairies just before they wreak havoc on the star-crossed lovers from Athens and the unwitting company of amateur thespians. The play includes the four sonorities that appear to float upward and which contain Mendelssohn’s subtle descending tetrachord, a motif related to the lament that further heightens the aura of mystery in the apprehensive atmosphere.[Pierre-Alain Chevalier, “Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and the Formation of the Mendelssohnian Style,” 2014, https://uh-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10657/731/CHEVALIER-DISSERTATION-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.]
From this comes the theme of staccato strings that darts and soars like the characters in the play (the mischievous Puck as well as the royal pair of fairies, Oberon and Titania). Thereafter comes the gallant theme of brass fanfares, which is essentially a revision of Mendelssohn’s descending tetrachord. The pomp and grandeur appropriate to the court of Theseus and Hippolyta are also demonstrated in the intensifying “love theme” that ultimately follows in the pairs of woodwinds and strings. The transition is the royal music of the court of Athens and introduces the motif of the nob...