Final (Sonata 6, mvt. 5)/Andante

from Sonata 6 (Op. 65) by Felix Mendelssohn

Background

The final movement for Sonata no. 6 serves as a great starting place for learning Mendelssohn. It is only thirty-six measures long, and it is in the accessible key of D Major. The piece modulates from D Major to F# Minor, to C# Minor, and back to F# Minor before finally returning to D Major. The chief difficulty in performing this piece lies in the manual parts: for the most part there are only three voices in the manuals, but a handful of measures have four manual voices. It is at these points that the fingering is the most difficult.

"Mendelssohn was one of the finest organists of his day. The Three Preludes and Fugues op.37, dedicated to Mozart's pupil Thomas Attwood, form a pendant to op.35. The Six Organ Sonatas op.65 (1845), teeming with artful fugues and chorales, summarize and epitomize Mendelssohn's rediscovery of Bach, and may have inspired Schumann's six fugues on B–A–C–H op.60." - Grove Music Online: "Mendelssohn, Felix, §10: Keyboard music" [1]

Visit the Wikipedia page on the Organ Works of Felix Mendelssohn for additional information - [2]

Registration and Organs

The dynamic for this piece is p, which for Mendelssohn meant "a combination of several 8-foot stops." On a two-manual organ you might consider coupling the manuals and using one or two of the softest 8' stops from each manual, ensuring that the stops blend well with each other. Soft 16' and 8' stops in the pedal with the manuals coupled would work well.

Fingering and Pedaling

Both the Peters and Dupre Editions of Mendelssohn's Organ Works contain fingering suggestions. Refer to both and you can adjust them to your hands as necessary. The Novello contains no fingering or pedaling.

Articulation and Phrasing

This piece should be played with a very smooth legato. Mendelssohn's phrasing marks are difficult to interpret because they don't seem to make musical sense. Most of the phrases seem to be about four measures long, but the slurs often only cover one measure. Look for prominent cadences to help you decide where the phrase breaks should fall.
Different editions contain different phrasing marks in the score. The Novello edition has a system that shows which phrase marks are used in what editions. Refer to that edition to compare phrasing as you make your own musical decisions.
The piece starts on an anacrusis with only the pedal moving on the downbeat. Make sure that your treatment of the anacrusis does not obscure or weaken the downbeat of the first measure.

Ornamentation

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Tempo and Meter

The meter is compound duple (6/8) and the indicated tempo is 100 eighth notes per minute.

Scores and Editions

File:Mendelssohn Sonata 6 Finale.pdf

Recordings

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Free Online

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Pay to Listen

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Other Resources

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Notes

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