Mendelssohn's Variations Serieuses, Op. 54

I was amazed to learn that this piece was written six years before Mendelssohn died. He lived such a short life. Sigh. By this time, he had already established his fame in Europe, particularly in the cities of London, Düsseldorf, and Leipzig. Prior to writing this piece, he played an important role in reviving interest in the music of several composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, and Franz Schubert. Like Schumann, Mendelssohn was greatly influenced by Bach, for two reasons. First, his teacher’s taste in music was conservative, with a high regard for Bach’s music. In addition, Mendelsson’s aunt Sarah Levy had a significant connection to the Bach family. She was not only a student of W. F. Bach but also a patron of C.P.E. Bach. She would often play with Carl Freidrich Zelter’s orchestra at the Berlin Singakademie. On top of that, she owned a large collection of Bach family manuscripts. These influences undoubtedly played an important part in forming Mendelssohn’s musical style.

I draw attention to this especially because, at the beginning of the Variations Serieuses, one immediately comes across a style of contrapuntal writing reminiscent of that of Johann Sebastian Bach. The theme is exactly as the title describes: “serious” and solemn. I wonder what led him to write such a melancholy-sounding piece. Prior to this composition, his frame of mind in Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor seems completely different. In my opinion, you gotta love the third movement of that concerto; it’s so bubbly and fun! In theory this might be attributed to the restless rounds of his work. He conducted, organized, taught, composed, and traveled; ultimately, these nonstop activities boil down to an obsession with work. He simply avoided relaxation. This might have been caused by his upbringing, when wealth and success of the family established persistent, laborious endeavor. I went to the library and found that one of his letters to Karl Klingemann, on November 18, 1840, may support this view:

I am living here in as complete quiet and solitude as I could possibly desire…I do not ask Heaven to grant me anything else, and I start every day by enjoying anew my peaceful and monotonous life. I admit that at the beginning of the winter I generally have difficulty avoiding somewhat philistine social gatherings which bloom and thrive here and in which one might be enticed to participate and thus lose much time and pleasure. By now I have pretty well succeeded in getting rid of them…” (Felix Mendelssohn’s Letters, edited by G. Selden-Goth, 297-298).

Whatever the reasons, it is evident that he was somewhat disturbed and thrown off balance by the music he’d written. How he paints his late works is certainly different from his early works. Perhaps this could be a research topic?

According to Radcliffe, Mendelssohn wrote three sets for piano in 1840, but this was the only set published during his lifetime (81). Two other variations are Op. 82 in Eb major and Op. 83 in Bb major. He packed a total of seventeen variations into this approximately eleven-minute work. As mentioned earlier, the theme evokes Baroque keyboard music. Following the two variations, the texture becomes denser, and the rhythm of the accompanying patterns in the alto voice becomes faster. These two variations interest me a lot. Why? They display a technique adopted by Beethoven! This is something I learned from my reading assignments last semester. Beethoven used rhythmic foreshortening obsessively as a means to drive the music forward with intensity. Although I am not quite sure about this, it is evident that Beethoven was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of Bach, Mozart, and Bach.

The third variation, in my opinion, is a wake-up call with its sudden use of chords and octaves. It certainly woke me up. The next one is a scherzo that relieves the tension of the previous variation. At first I thought the fifth variation had been written by Schumann, because the third beats sound like accented first beats because of the ties and syncopations used in this variation. This compositional technique can also be seen in Schumann’s Sonata in F# major, op. 11! To support my hunch, I found that this piece was written a few years after Mendelssohn became acquainted with Schumann. In fact, Mendelssohn was able to revive Franz Schubert’s music largely because Schumann sent the manuscript of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony to him in 1839. In the next one, I feel I must be imagining things. I just hear Schubert’s Piano Sonata D 760, Op. 15, “Wanderer Fantasy.” Both pieces have very similar ideas: chords and arpeggios. Both Variations 8 and 9 consist of incessant triplet figures and arouse excitement. The tenth variation returns to Baroque style as a reference to the theme. The next one, Variation No. 11, demonstrates a quality of Eusebius in Schumann as it suddenly introduces leaps and syncopated rhythms. Variation No. 12 is extremely rhythmic, with an abundance of 32nd notes, and I could feel my heart racing. The next one I have to say is similar in texture to the third variation of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13. The tempo slows down in both Variations 14 and 15. It seems as though these two variations are preparing for the action to resume, as it does in Variation 16. The last variation is virtuosic. The theme comes back, except this time, the left hand is playing the tremolo. Seemingly, the purpose of this tremolo is to hint that a climatic event is coming, but this anticipation of thrill does follow through in the music. As expected, the piece reaches a point of exhaustion at the end.
Again, most of these thoughts are just my own theories. Please feel free to disagree with me, of course, with your justification. I am very open to other interpretative ideas.