「仲夏夜之夢」序曲
才十七歲的門德爾頌閱讀了莎士比亞的「仲夏夜之夢」後受了感動,創作了一首序曲,原本是單獨在音樂會中演奏的曲目。在門德爾頌三十多歲時,他獲普魯斯國王委任為 柏林藝術學院的音樂總監,作曲家加入了其他段落,薈集成一套完整的組曲,作為莎劇「仲夏夜之夢」的配樂。今天很多音樂會都會抽取其中選段演出。
樂曲一開始奏出四個神妙的和弦,將氣氛帶入仲夏夜的月光下。接著由小提琴以跳弓方式拉奏出描繪精靈嬉戲的第一主題,隨而由樂團強奏,代表國王與仙後的威嚴形象。 第二主題為溫柔的「愛情主題」,由單簧管奏出,小提琴接唱,代表平民世界中戀人的真摯感情。不久,粗獷的舞曲小醜之舞出現,模仿驢子的嘶叫聲。發展部再以精靈主題作 開展,暗示著劇情的曲折變化,進入再現部後重覆主題,至結尾開頭的四個和弦再度出現,氣氛再歸於平靜。
Felix Mendelssohn's score for William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream” is probably the most famous incidental music ever written. Shakespeare’s play inspired the 17-year old Mendelssohn to compose the “overture”, which was first performed in 1827 as an isolated concert piece. In 1842, when the matured Mendelssohn served as Music Director of the newly established Berlin Academy of Arts, the composer added vocal sections and other instrumental movements, and included the overture as one of the 14 sections of a complete set of incidental music to “A Midsummer Night's Dream”. The instrumental movements are often excerpted for orchestral concert performance.
The Overture opens with four of the most evocative chords in music which beguilingly invite the listener into the magical forest outside. Scurrying bouncing strings depict the fairies darting through the woods, and the full orchestra proclaims the noble lovers' music. A series of accented, forceful chords in the low strings and brass pound out an earthy rhythm before the orchestra gives us a musical mischievous magic that has transformed one character into an ass. The development section starts again with fairies, after which Mendelssohn recapitulates the theme for the lovers. With the ass’ hee-hawing, a passage of gentle modulation in the winds opens the end theme of the piece. The strings play a serenely beautiful transformation of the lovers' theme before the overture ends as it began, with those four magical chords.