Expert: David Froom - 9/19/2005

Question
Hi,

I've recently become interested in the work of Mendelssohn, especially the Hebrides Overture and Midsummer Night's Dream. I was wondering if you would be able to help me with something relating to the "Overture" from Midsummer Night's Dream. Obviously, the work is crafted around Shakespeare's play, and I was wondering if you would be able to tell me in the ways Mendelssohn expresses the play, characters, moods etc in his music of the Overture?

Answer
Karan,

A lot of this kind of thing is in the ear of the listener.  Obviously, there are no specific, universal ways to make music tell a story, especially when things get down to details.

You might simply read the play a few times and listen to the music with your imagination open, seeing how you can link things up.  There are some things in the overture that people like to link to characters (for example, you'll hear the music in a few places in the overture doing something that some people say sounds like the braying like a donkey, a kind of "he-haw" sound).

You might want to take a trip to a decent library, and ask a research librarian to help you find things that have been written about this work related to your interests.  Of course, just because something is in a book, that doesn't make it true!  

Good luck searching, and happy listening,
David Froom