Comments on: Not effortless after all http://www.susantomes.com/effortless/ Pianist & writer Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:56:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: peter http://www.susantomes.com/effortless/comment-page-1/#comment-1595 peter Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:21:27 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=1618#comment-1595 You are quite correct, Susan, to criticize the commonplace view of Mendelssohn as writing music without any apparent effort. Indeed, this view can be refuted by actually listening to his music carefully: His String Octet is a work of extraordinary power, written when he was 17, but it did not just appear from nowhere. He wrote 12 string symphonies in his teens, and if you listen to these in the order they were written you can hear him developing as a composer, becoming more sophisticated, trying different voicings and effects, using themes with greater developmental potential, and undertaking more subtle articulations as the sequence progresses. The Octet is thus the culmination of an intense period of composing for string ensembles, of listening to the results, and of learning from the experience, undertaken over years. Believing that Mendelssohn composed as if he were taking dictation from some heavenly god of music is not only incorrect, but also devalues his own effort and contribution to the task of composition: once again, it was 99% perspiration! You are quite correct, Susan, to criticize the commonplace view of Mendelssohn as writing music without any apparent effort. Indeed, this view can be refuted by actually listening to his music carefully: His String Octet is a work of extraordinary power, written when he was 17, but it did not just appear from nowhere. He wrote 12 string symphonies in his teens, and if you listen to these in the order they were written you can hear him developing as a composer, becoming more sophisticated, trying different voicings and effects, using themes with greater developmental potential, and undertaking more subtle articulations as the sequence progresses. The Octet is thus the culmination of an intense period of composing for string ensembles, of listening to the results, and of learning from the experience, undertaken over years.

Believing that Mendelssohn composed as if he were taking dictation from some heavenly god of music is not only incorrect, but also devalues his own effort and contribution to the task of composition: once again, it was 99% perspiration!

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