Romance sans paroles Op. 19 n°6

About this work

A boat moves without haste, but the water is never still. In the sixth of his Op. 19 Songs without Words, Mendelssohn evokes a Venetian gondolier’s song: compound metre supplies the sway, the bass traces the movement of the oar and the melody must remain free above this discreet mechanism. The dark G-minor colour needs neither heaviness nor added pathos.

At the piano, the chief difficulty is balancing the sound layers. The accompaniment repeats its pattern regularly; bring it to the foreground and the gondola acquires an engine. Isolate the singing line, then play the bass alone while feeling two broad beats in each bar. Combine them with a supple hand and pedal changes that follow the harmony—generous enough to connect, clean enough not to blur the suspensions.

Give each return of a phrase a slightly different course: a more inward opening, tension broadening and then receding. Avoid slowing at the end of every motif. The motion comes from the continuity of the sway; the melody can breathe within that stability. This contrast, more than volume, gives the piece its nocturnal character.

What the document containsthe Song without Words Op. 19 No. 6 for solo piano;a 2-page PDF score;a MIDI file for study.The document contains this song alone, not the complete Op. 19 set.