Fanny Mendelssohn, Das Jahr, January
This is my first time studying a work by Fanny Mendelssohn. It's beautiful music, very romantic. “The Year” was written when she traveled to Italy with her husband and son.
The manuscript is so beautiful. Fanny's husband, Wilhelm Hensel, who was the court painter to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, painted an illustration at the beginning of each movement. You can see the illustrations in the manuscript at this link:
Also, each movement contains a quotation from a German poem. The poem for January is "Im Herbste" by Johann Ludwig Uhland.
Ahnest du, o Seele wieder
Sanfte, süße Frühlingslieder?
Sieh umher die falben Bäume!
Ach, es waren holde Träume!
English translation:
Can you again foresee, o soul,
The soft, sweet songs of spring?
Behold, all around, the fallow trees!
Ah, there were lovely dreams.
"January" is titled Ein Traum (A Dream). As she wrote "quasi una Fantasia", it has a very fantasy-like atmosphere. I like to use rubato and color changes to portray the abstraction of fantasies and dreams.
Mr.Cosmo shared with me his image of this movement: the darkness of winter, the bare trees, the strong winds, the cold, and the feeling of great difficulty. The major key section in the middle is a dream of spring coming, when the trees will be filled with leaves and flowers.
I've spent most of my winters in Tokyo, and although it's cold there, I remember the impact I felt when I first visited Vienna at the age of 11. It was still November, but I remember being amazed by the darkness, the cold, and the fact that it was snowing at that time (it's usually February in Tokyo).
Also, when I listened to Schubert's Winterreise (Winter Journey), I felt the harshness of a European winter.
Of course, Europe at that time lacked heating facilities and readily available food, so winter probably felt extremely difficult to survive in, even tragic, and perhaps evoked feelings of fear and loneliness. The left octave at the beginning of this piece felt like a death knell, a bell ringing, a harbinger of tragedy. The contrast with the peaceful, yearning, or longing phrase in the middle is wonderful. The fast arpeggio section at the end, to me, feels like a strong, cold, stinging wind, and passionate emotions soaring into the sky.
I'm captivated by Fanny's wonderful music, which takes me on a musical journey from the very first note. I'm looking forward to tackling the other months. I often think of music as a journey that takes us to another world and gives us wonderful experiences and emotions that we would never normally experience. I am very happy to think that through this work I am reliving the scenery that Fanny, a wonderful artist, was able to see.
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