String Quartet No. 6

At a glance

• What it isthe second movement, a fast Allegro assai, of String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, the last quartet Mendelssohn completed.
• Who, when, whywritten in 1847 after his sister Fanny died suddenly. That November he died too.
• What to listen forsyncopated rhythms fighting the beat, heavy repeated figures in the low instruments, and a strangely sunken middle section.

Listen for

• The openingthe four instruments charge with strong off-beat accents, a dance that seems about to trip and fall.
• The middleviola and cello repeat the same figure low down, while the violins circle uneasily above.
• The endingafter the rough dance returns, the sound cuts off abruptly.

When it was written

Fanny Mendelssohn, four years older than Felix, was herself a fine pianist and composer. Having learned music together from childhood, the two were each other's first audience all their lives. But it was then extremely hard for a woman to make a name as a composer, and some of Fanny's songs were even published under her brother's name.

When Fanny died suddenly in May 1847, Felix was devastated. This quartet, written that summer while resting in Switzerland, is rough and dark, unlike anything else he wrote. In November of the same year Mendelssohn died, at thirty-eight.