Talk:Abschied vom Walde, Op. 59, No. 3 (Felix Mendelssohn)

I studied the text and tune for making a Dutch translation. I am a bit disappointed in fact of the job that Mendelssohn did. For starters, he did not try to musically reflect the mood change through the stanza's, but just repeats the same notes three times. Secondly, his notes do not match the way the poem is recited in speech. To wit, see the last line:

mich einsamen erheben.

The syllable in boldface is set on a high g for the sopranos, so it inevitably stands out, while in spoken German it is an extremely unstressed syllable. The second stanza, that same note is on "ganz", which is much more to the point and the first on "einmal", which is so-so. The stress should really be on "ein", since the poet visits the forest for the last time.

Comparing this with "the long day closes", by Sullivan, the text handling of the latter stands out. Sullivan truly understands what the poem is about and matches the mood (old person, disappointed, tired) perfectly, with a kind of solution offered by the grave "dreamless bed", where the music really gets off. IMHO, Mendelssohn is more a composer of songs without words.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Marcqv (talk • contribs) on 13:12, 17 March 2008.