A Midsummer Night's Dream

PROGRAM NOTES by Klay and Karen Woodworth

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

b. Hamburg, February 3, 1809

d. Leipzig, November 4, 1847

Incidental Music to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

As a young man, Felix Mendelssohn was encouraged to pursue philosophy and a thorough study of literature. The works of William Shakespeare were a particular favorite in the Mendelssohn home. Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix’s older sister) wrote, “We were really brought up on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” With his prodigious intellectual and musical gifts, Mendelssohn developed an individual style of composition that falls snugly into the gap between Classicism and Romanticism. Mendelssohn did not shrink from trying to depict narrative and emotion in music—traits we generally ascribe to the Romantics. However, his musical tastes almost always pulled him back to the formal and harmonic language of his predecessors, the Classicists. The concert overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a great example, in which Mendelssohn tells a story using a very Mozartian musical language. Mendelssohn wrote his overture in 1826 as an orchestral concert piece. It is in sonata form, but the themes outline the world of Shakespeare’s comedy. In the play, Shakespeare takes his audience to a magical woods. It is a crossroads where antiquity meets the present, social classes intermingle, and mortal humans are influenced by immortal fairies. Mendelssohn chose to illustrate this world musically with a light touch. His music for the fairies shimmers, the dancing theme of the “rustics” is bright, and his regal touches shine.

When Mendelssohn received a royal commission in 1843 to create incidental music for a complete performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he only needed to unfold the inspiration of his overture. The play is set in Athens and the woods surrounding the city/state in the time leading up to the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Trouble enters the court in the opening scene as Egeus comes to complain to Theseus that his daughter, Hermia, refuses to marry Demetrius. This introduces us to the “lovers”: Hermia, who is actually in love with a young man named Lysander; and Demetrius, who already has a love interest in Helena, although he is quite willing to marry Hermia. Theseus decrees that Hermia must follow her father’s wishes and marry Demetrius. The penalty for disobeying is death, although she may also enter the cloister and remain single for life. Hermia has until the royal wedding to acquiesce or face the consequences, but instead she plots with Lysander to run away together. Shakespeare next introduces his “rustics”—actually tradesmen, who seem to have been plucked from the street outside the Globe Theater rather than Classic Athens. Led by Peter Quince and Nick Bottom, these men have gotten together to practice a play they want to perform as part of the royal wedding celebrations. The royal couple, the lovers, and the tradesmen complete the mortal characters in the play.

The next scene is set in the woods, the realm of the fairies. Here Mendelssohn begins the music with the entr’acte piece that is known as the Scherzo when the music is presented in an orchestral suite. This wonderful music for the small, winged beings that flit about placing dewdrops on flowers is also the introduction for Robin Goodfellow or Puck, who is an imp or sprite—a magical being that revels in causing trouble. The musical underpinning continues through the introduction of the fairy royalty, Titania and Oberon, who have had a falling-out over certain attentions paid by each to the human royals of the opposite sex and a changeling boy that Titania keeps but Oberon wants. Oberon is intent on revenge and sends Puck across the world to get the flower “love-in-idleness” from which a powerful potion can be made. Elsewhere, Titania is preparing to sleep and asks her attendants to sing a song. Shakespeare’s text “You spotted snakes” is set to a sinuous melody for soprano and chorus. Mendelssohn’s music also accompanies Oberon as he casts a spell over the sleeping Titania using the love potion he distilled from Puck’s flower. Puck then confuses the human lovers with a dose of the same potion, just before the entr’acte that brings back the tradesmen, who have assembled for further rehearsal.

The lovers have all fallen asleep completely confused about who should be with whom. Titania becomes magically besmitten with Bottom, who now has the head of an ass. The music illustrates a moment of repose before the business of untangling begins. As Puck says, “Jack shall have Jill; naught shall go ill.” Oberon decides to reverse his spell on Titania. He has gotten the changeling from her and watching her with Bottom is really too much. To accompany Oberon casting his spell, Mendelssohn cleverly inverted the music he used in Act II. To link the fourth and fifth acts, Mendelssohn wrote his Wedding March—certainly the most popular music of his career. The bright and regal march signals the coming of dawn and heralds the royal nuptials that are to come. During the wedding festivities, Quince, Bottom, and their men finally get to mount their production of “Pyramus and Thisbe.” A brass flourish accompanies the opening of the prologue, and we hear a funeral march for the tragic Thisbe. Given the option of hearing the awful play’s epilogue or enjoying a dance, Theseus calls for a “bergomask.” The rustic theme from the Overture becomes the music for the dance, retaining its strong thrumming rhythm and braying countersubject. All turns out well for the mortals of the play: there are three marriages, and the tradesmen have done their duty to their Duke. The King and Queen of the fairies have reconciled and they call for song and dance to bless the palace of Theseus. Mendelssohn has woven the Wedding March together with the fairy music for a striking conclusion. The coda, however, returns to the opening chords of the Overture. As Puck bids the audience goodbye and asks for their applause and goodwill, Mendelssohn quietly closes the book on Shakespeare’s fairytale.