Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words are sometimes described as songs with the lyrics removed, but that idea can misdirect the ear. The eight books contain forty-eight piano pieces. Their title chiefly suggests a manner of playing: the melody should move with the direction of a voice, while the accompaniment supports breathing and syntax rather than giving every note equal weight. The pieces borrow the melody-and-accompaniment relationship of song without asking us to recover a hidden text.
In the first piece of Op. 19b, the opening melody does not depend on spectacular material. It rises above an even broken-chord texture, with sustained notes, appoggiaturas and cadential motion creating the tension and release of a sentence. The pianist’s real task is not to decide what the line is “saying”, but to hear where it travels, where it pauses, and how the inner parts and bass avoid stealing its centre of gravity. Merely making the melody louder produces something like speech with accompaniment but no breath. Letting harmonic turns change colour and timing allows the piano itself to sing.
“Without words”, then, is neither a deficiency nor a puzzle waiting to be completed. Words fix an object and a narrative; the piano leaves meaning in the relationships among dynamics, harmony, register and time. The point is not to invent a story for the tune, but to hear how sound without semantics can still possess a distinct tone of voice.
https://imslp.org/wiki/Songs_without_Words%2C_Op.19b_%28Mendelssohn%2C_Felix%29
https://imslp.org/wiki/Songs_Without_Words%2C_complete_%28Mendelssohn%2C_Felix%29
https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/de/konzerte/822
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