April greetings! In these strange and unsettling times, it’s good to feel that spring is really here. I hope the daily music posts here on the blog are giving you a boost. 🙂 If you’re new to the series and would like to check out earlier posts, you’ll find the first one here.

Today’s post goes back to my new favorite composer Felix Mendelssohn. He’s a pretty recent entry in my “favorites” list, but as you’ve seen over the past couple of weeks, I can’t seem to get enough of his Songs without Words. 

The first of today’s two songs is what Mendelssohn titled a “Gondolied,” or Gondolier’s Song. It has a gentle rocking motion that suggests the movement of a boat over water, and it’s peaceful and gently sad. The left hand sustains the rhythm while the right hand plays the melody, in this case the gondolier singing as he poles his boat through the canals.

The second song, in the brighter key of G Major, is warm and cheerful. It has the same meter as the Gondolied (6/8, for the music theorists 😉 ), but a very different character. Instead of creating melody and accompaniment, Mendelssohn here seems to suggest a choir of voices all singing together in celebration.

Hope you enjoy today’s pieces. As always, you’re welcome to share your thoughts and responses to the music in the comments. Make sure to subscribe to the blog if you’d like a daily dose of music, and visit back soon!

P.S. If you’re on Facebook: this coming Saturday, 4/4, I’ll be giving a short concert via Facebook Live. If you’ve been enjoying the blog, I’d love to have you tune in on my FB page on Saturday at 7 pm, for about half an hour of music by Mendelssohn, Bach, Beethoven, and Gershwin.