Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's incomplete Prelude for Organ in G major: A completion of the work based on melodic and rhythmic motives present in the extant fragment

Claire B Bushong, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The thirty-measure fragment of the incomplete prelude in G major ends with a contrapuntal section, the implications of which suggest a more substantial piece than either of the two known complete organ works by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The subject of this section offers many contrapuntal possibilities which may be employed in its completion. This project offers one possible solution. The opening section of the fragment, which consists of chordal material interspersed with scale passages, is left as it stands. A second section of the original presents a subject which the composer sets against one, two and then three contrapuntal voices. This section provides many of the ideas for the new material, which is treated in a fugal manner, and which then returns to the original opening material, now altered in order to cadence in the tonic.

Subject Area

Recommended Citation

Claire B Bushong, "Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's incomplete Prelude for Organ in G major: A completion of the work based on melodic and rhythmic motives present in the extant fragment" (January 1, 1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Paper AAI9838589.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9838589