Pianuvo

Venetian Gondola Song (Song Without Words, Op. 30 No. 6)

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

A soft, rocking 6/8 song in F-sharp minor whose gentle left-hand pattern sways like a boat on calm water.

Play it in Pianuvo Free in your browser. Watch the notes fall, then play along on a piano, a MIDI keyboard or the screen.

About this intermediate piano piece

Composer
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Level
Intermediate · Stage 7: Moonlight & Mood
Difficulty
7 on Pianuvo’s scale (1 is your first notes, about 9 is Debussy)
Length
about 2½ minutes, 56 bars
Hands
Both hands
Time and tempo
6/8 at about 66 BPM
Range
A1 to E6

Background

This is the sixth piece in the second book of Felix Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, Op. 30, published in 1835. Most of the fanciful names attached to these pieces were invented by publishers, but this one is Mendelssohn's own: he called it Venetianisches Gondellied, "Venetian Gondola Song". He gave the same title to two others, Op. 19 No. 6 and Op. 62 No. 5, and they are among the few in the whole collection that he named himself.

Mendelssohn had seen Venice in 1830, on his long journey through Italy as a young man. Songs of the Venetian gondoliers, usually called barcarolles, have a gentle rocking rhythm in six beats, like the movement of a boat, and composers from Chopin to Offenbach later wrote their own. Mendelssohn's version is in F sharp minor, quiet and slightly melancholy, with the water always moving underneath.

How to practise it

The left hand is the boat. Its pattern of six eighth notes repeats in almost every bar: a low bass note, a middle note, a two-note chord, the middle note again, the chord again and a top note.

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Bar 1, left hand: the rocking pattern, shown with the three sharps of F sharp minor

Learn it alone until it rocks smoothly with two beats in each bar, not six. Use the little finger on the low F sharp and the thumb on the top C sharp, and keep the hand relaxed so the chords never thump. The bass note can be a little fuller than the rest.

After five bars of introduction, the melody begins on an upbeat at the end of bar 6:

𝄞68𝄞𝄾
From the upbeat in bar 6 to bar 10: long repeated C sharps, then a falling line from the high A

Sing this to yourself before you play it. The repeated C sharps must sound like one long held voice, so give each a slightly different weight, and let the falling line in bar 9 relax rather than hurry.

In the middle of the piece the right hand adds a second voice, doubling the melody in thirds, and the line climbs before sinking back. Practise those bars with the top note slightly stronger than the lower one. The ending is a quiet echo of the tune over the rocking bass, fading to a final low F sharp.

A plan:

  1. Left hand alone at about half speed, counting two beats a bar.
  2. Right hand alone, singing.
  3. Hands together at half speed, then three-quarter speed, then full speed.
  4. Add the pedal, changing it with each bass note, which is usually once a bar.

Listen for a steady, unhurried sway underneath and a melody that floats above it without ever pushing.

Another of Mendelssohn's songs for piano is the Song Without Words in F, Op. 85 No. 1.

Quick tips

  1. Make the left-hand rocking pattern very even and quiet, and let the melody float above it.
  2. It covers a wide A1 to E6, so look ahead for the big moves and keep your arms relaxed. Both hands play: learn each hand on its own first, then put them together slowly. In F♯ minor every F, C and G is sharp: play F♯, C♯ and G♯.
  3. Written at about 66 BPM, but start near 46 BPM (70% speed) and speed up only when two clean plays in a row feel easy. Feel two big beats, each split in three: 1-2-3 4-5-6.

In the Academy

Not yet part of the Academy course. You can still play it any time from the song path. See the Academy course outline for what Year 1 covers.

More songs to try

Source. The music is in the public domain. This version is from Mutopia Project (typeset by Ryan Prince), released as Public Domain (source page).