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Nineteenth-Century Music
Musical History and Self-Consciousness in Mendelssohn's Octet, Op. 20
Benedict Taylor
19th-Century Music, Vol. 32 No. 2, Fall 2008; (pp. 131-159) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2008.32.2.131
Benedict Taylor
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Abstract

The historical past played perhaps a more important role in Mendelssohn's music than in that of any other composer. This article approaches the work traditionally seen as his first major compositional achievement, the Octet in E♭♭ Major for Strings, op. 20 (1825), from the perspective of the composer's strong historical sense and takes up ideas of musical memory, history, and circular narrative journey as embodied in the cyclical structure of the piece. The Octet enacts a coming to self-consciousness of its own musical history, a process with close parallels in the writings of Goethe and Hegel, both of whom Mendelssohn knew personally. In its cyclical manipulations of musical time, Mendelssohn's Octet sets up a new formal and expressive paradigm for a musical work that would be of major significance for the instrumental music of the later nineteenth century.

Key words
  • Mendelssohn
  • Goethe
  • Hegel
  • Octet in E♭♭ Major
  • cyclic form
  • ©© 2008 by the Regents of the University of California
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Vol. 32 No. 2, Fall 2008

19th-Century Music: 32 (2)
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Musical History and Self-Consciousness in Mendelssohn's Octet, Op. 20
Benedict Taylor
19th-Century Music, Vol. 32 No. 2, Fall 2008; (pp. 131-159) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2008.32.2.131
Benedict Taylor
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Musical History and Self-Consciousness in Mendelssohn's Octet, Op. 20
Benedict Taylor
19th-Century Music, Vol. 32 No. 2, Fall 2008; (pp. 131-159) DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2008.32.2.131
Benedict Taylor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
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