Songs Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Each of Felix Mendelssohn’s eight books of Songs Without Words is a cycle of six short, distinctive pieces in song form for solo piano. This arrangement of his Book 2 for oboe and piano is by the eminent French oboist and composer David Walter.
Mendelssohn was probably the first composer to use the title “Songs Without Words.” His friend Marc-André Souchay once asked for permission to set his own poems to the Songs Without Words. Mendelssohn refused and explained: “What the music I love expresses to me is not too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.”
Book II, opus 30 (1833-34)
7. Andante espressivo
8. Allegro di molto
9. Adagio non troppo
10. Agitato e con fuoco
11. Andante gracioso
12. Venetianisches Gondollied