Ex. 14-5: Es lauschte das Laub so dunkelgrün

No. 1 of Mendelssohn's Sechs Gesänge (Six Songs), Op. 86, published after his death, around 1850–1851. He composed this song in 1826, when he was 17. That was the same year he wrote his famous concert overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The poem is by Karl Klingemann, a German poet and diplomat who was one of Mendelssohn's closest lifelong friends. In 1829 Klingemann traveled with Mendelssohn on his tour of Scotland — the trip that later inspired his overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) and his "Scottish" Symphony. Mendelssohn set several of Klingemann's poems to music over the years, including his "Frühlingslied" (Spring Song), Op. 71 No. 2.

The poem starts happily: dark-green leaves, a sunlit window, and birdsong. In the last verse it turns to autumn — the leaves fall, the birdsong dies, and the sun is gone. The music turns from major to minor to match this change.

The piano part is gentle and singing, much like Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words for solo piano.

Op. 86 was put together from songs written across his whole life. Its last song, No. 6, was the last piece Mendelssohn ever finished — he completed it on 7 October 1847, weeks before he died. So this collection holds both an early song, written when he was 17, and his very last completed song.

From the album Mendelssohn: Songs & Duets, Vol. 2 by Sophie Daneman and Eugene Asti (2001)
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