Performance Analysis

Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856) - Elegie

Elegie (from french élégie): A lyric poem that declaims themes such as nostalgia, death,
melancholy, love’s hardships, etc…
Although it is not known if the piece was dedicated to the memory of someone or a specific
event, it was composed at the end of Mertz’s life and even if it is unregistered whether the
composer was using a objective or personal approach it is a piece full of emotion, drama and
nostalgia, with intricate, beautiful melodies and very rich sonorities it exploits and demonstrates
the range and uniqueness of the guitar. In my opinion reminiscent of arias and other operatic
connotations it is often considered to be the peak of Mertz compositional prowess.
There are only two sources of biographical input into Mertz's life. 'Memoris of Makaroff' by a
guitarist, contemporary of his time Mikolai Makaroff, and an essay written by Mertz's wife
Josephine, forty years after the composer's death. Although information about his life and
trajectory are very scarce they still shine some light into Mertz’s Elegie. Mertz’s wife was a
pianist, this constant exposure to the instrument as well as to the repertoire of Schumann,
Mendelssohn, Liszt, etc... deeply influenced Mertz; both in the musical language he employed
and in his evident attempts to replicate some of the textures and sonorities of the piano in his
pieces.
One thing often forgotten is that Mertz was a guitar virtuoso performer first and a composer
second. In my opinion a conservative romantic, nevertheless very different from guitar
composers of his time such as Fernando Sor, Mauro Giuliani or Napoleon Coste who were still
composing in a more classic (18th century) style.
Mertz started his studies on a six string guitar but slowly transitioned into eight and the ten
stringed guitars. The ten stringed guitar had four extra strings below the sixth (E) that tensed
outside the neck and were tuned diatonically: D,C,B,A. The Elegie was originally composed for
this instrument. Many differences between the six stringed and ten stringed guitar make this
piece a very interesting piece of study, only the most important will be discussed in this essay.
Evidently, changes and adaptations had to be made as the piece is now almost exclusively
performed in the more conventional six stringed classical guitar.
The two most important sources for Mertz’s material are the Boije and the Rischel collections.
Both containing manuscripts and autographs from the composer, with the later presumably
containing copies of some autographs from the Boje edition. In the Chanterelle publication I use,
edited by Simon Wynberg, the Boije autograph is used as the primary source although some
modifications have been made in order to fit the six stringed guitar employed today.
A very disputed argument in this piece is the existence of two different introductions. The Boije
autograph contains the most widely accepted one but a second version of the Elegie was
published in the journal Muzyka Gitarista (6, 1910, No.5, plate no. A.285.A) in Tyumen, Siberia;
in the mid eighteen hundreds. This version is also regarded as an original as Mertz published
his Concertino in this same journal. It is thought Mertz gave a copy to his friend Mikolai Makaroff
and that he then published it in the journal. Chanterelle edition includes both and leaves it to the

performers discernment.
My personal choice is to play the Boije version. Although both introductions are similar in
harmony I believe the Boije is more dramatic and pianistic, with more interesting textures and a
more compelling structure that allows for a more dramatic build up. Specially the first four bars
of the Boije introduction, in Muzyka Gitarista this seem to be ‘missing’ as the first bar is very
similar to the fifth of the Boije edition. With very simple harmony, as the vast majority of the
piece is in the key of a minor, using various dominant and subdominant chords to reach a
perfect cadence between the fourth and fifth bar it is one of the most important and compelling
moments of the piece. The tempo indication “Largo” and the 12/8 bar signature as well as the
dynamic marking “piano”, imply that the chords have a very legato and sorrowful character..
With dense and ‘pianistic’ textures, the chords should be very clear and allowed to breathe as
much as possible without distorting the pulse. The first melodic motif introduced in the middle of
the third bar should be clear, independent from the harmonic progression. The arpa indication
implies that the chords should be rolled instead of being played in uniformity.

What makes Elegie one of Mertz’s masterworks is also what makes a good performance so
hard to achieve. This piece has a fairly simple, uninteresting harmony. What makes it intriguing
are the textures and beautiful melodies. Elegie has very thick textures, crafted by very
compressed chords or very fast arpeggios, which were probably a little less so in the 19th
century when performed in a ten stringed guitar where some of the base notes where and
octave lower (as we can see by the markings ‘8va’ on bar two or bar six of the score above).
Very often the challenge is to highlight this melodies when playing a chordal accompaniment at
the same time or a very fast arpeggio. We can take for instance the first page of the Andante
con espressione or bars five to seven of the introduction.
One of the technical questions in this piece is whether or not to use apoyando technique to
make it easier to bring out this passages. Although musically it makes it easier to highlight the
desired melodies, it is many times harder on a technical aspect, to achieve the speed and
cleanliness that tirando has. It is known that in the 19th century the balance in guitars was not
as even as it is now and it was easier to bring out a melody in the higher pitches or treble
strings. Although apoyando technique did not start to develop until the late 19th century by
Francisco Tarrega (according to music scholars), it is a technique that a vast number of
classical guitarists employ in music from this and even earlier periods.
My personal choice for this piece is to try and avoid it. Not in a historically informed performance
basis but rather because, although very hard to achieve, a very similar result can be obtained if
developed properly using tirando (in some passages). Using the apoyando technique implies
that the notes ringing in the string above will be muted instantly; this muffles a harmonic sonority
that is many times very important on the piece. However there are passages where the use of
apoyando is very persuasive as it gives some of the melodies a rounder, bolder timbre that can
otherwise not be emulated.
The piece is clearly divided in two parts that are not only different in character but also marked
by two different tempos Largo and Andante con espressione. One very common mistake is that
the time signature changes, for a performer it is almost inevident because even if Andante con
espressione is in a 4/4 bar it is often played as if it was still on 12/8 because of the triplets that
exist throughout the second part.

I use apoyando on the first developing section after the introduction, which consists of fast
arpeggios creating imperfect and plagal cadences in which the harmony uses a couple of
appoggiaturas in the melody, marked in accents, to create dissonance and tension. This section
has to be played at a fast tempo; using apoyando to bring out this accents to highlight the
tension does not really affect the texture created by the arpeggio. The performer has to be very
careful to damp the strings of the bass and the silences in the first string (every three beats) so
that the harmonies are clear and there are no overlapping notes in the harmonic progression;
otherwise because of the agogic character of this section it can sound blurred and unclean.

The first climax of the piece is reached in the third page. This development uses chords l and V
prominently to create a huge build up that finally comes to its climax in bar 19 with an e major
arpeggio. The end of this section finishes in the dominant with the third suppressed so that relief
is not really felt until the beginning of Andante con espressione which goes back to the tonic in
the first arpeggio.

Andante con espressione is similar to the Largo, the first bars reintroduce and later elaborate on
the beautiful melody heard on the introduction from bars five to seven. Furthermore there is the
same contrast between a section with a tempered agogic and a contrasting, agitated one. A
calm arpeggio played on the lower registers accompanies this reencountered melody that this
time is ornamented by many virtuosic flourishes.The Andante con espressione is highly detailed
with the composer's performance indications the most predominant ones are dolce, legato and
espressivo. This clearly implies the performer to play with calm, an andante not very fast, and
bit wavered but never losing the pulse, taking advantage of the agogic markings such as
rubatos and accelerandos written on the score, and maybe others that may seem pertinent. This
can enhance the melancholy which the music is depicting.
The harmony becomes a little more imaginative in this second part as we see the use of some
secondary dominants and inflections to the relative c major. The composer also uses a series of
chromatic dissonances as bridges between different passages.

My approach to this is to try and keep the texture of the melody as homogeneous as possible and the
ascending and descending arpeggio as neat as possible. This many times implies difficult new fingerings
to keep the melody on the same string or the arpeggio as legato as possible when shifting up and down the
guitar. I use this same approach into the following section of the piece where very fast arpeggios
accompany the melody. The arpeggio should be played as light and evenly as possible, creating a very
balanced sonority that allows the melody to be protagonic once more. In the score it is suggested to play
open strings on the melody when possible to make it technically easier. I feel however that this creates a
very accidental timbre. Trying to keep the melody on one string when physically possible permits a
clearer more driven melodic line.

The last eight bars of the piece are extremely dramatic almost operatic in my perception. Starting with
one of the most technically challenging passages of the piece, a series of demi-semiquaver arpeggios
using the tonic and then the dominant. This final bars imply to me a very subtle accelerando and a more
aggressive articulation. The dynamic markings are, in my opinion, more of a subito piano used for the
particular chord than a dynamic that has to be carried through, this is slightly hinted by the fact that we
see four piano (or pianissimo) markings just within one bar, implying to me that between one and the
other the accents and harmonic changes have to experience some intensity alteration. This finale is very
pianistic, textures have to sound very thick and distressing, to achieve this the right hand can move
slightly to the ponticello to create a more angular and sharp timbre. The chords should be let to ring as

much as they can and played with an aggressive attack.

Bibliography:
http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/3436/thesis.pdf?sequence=2