A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture

Few pieces capture the atmosphere of a fairy-tale world as vividly as Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture. Written in 1826, when Mendelssohn was just 17, it is one of the most remarkable products of his teenage years and a work that immediately established his extraordinary gift for orchestral colour.

Mendelssohn was fascinated by Shakespeare’s play, which had been translated into German by August Wilhelm Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck. Rather than attempting to tell the whole story, the Overture creates a musical portrait of the play’s enchanted world. It opens with four magical chords in the woodwinds, creating an almost weightless atmosphere before the fairies begin their delicate, shimmering music. Mendelssohn achieves this effect with remarkable economy: the light, rapid string writing and finely detailed orchestration suggest the movement of fairies through the night.

Other characters and scenes emerge as the music develops. The lovers are represented by lyrical melodies, while the comic rustics are suggested by more earthy and humorous music. The famous donkey braying is particularly unmistakable, while the lively music associated with the fairy world returns throughout the work. Mendelssohn’s ability to distinguish these contrasting characters while maintaining a coherent musical structure is one of the Overture’s greatest achievements.

The work also demonstrates Mendelssohn’s mastery of orchestration. Strings, woodwind and brass are used with exceptional delicacy, creating a sense of transparency and movement. The famous opening, with its hushed strings and wind chords, is especially striking: Mendelssohn creates the impression of an entire magical world before the main musical action has even begun.

Although the Overture was conceived as a concert work rather than as incidental music for a stage production, Mendelssohn returned to Shakespeare’s play many years later. In 1842, he composed a much larger set of incidental music, Op. 61, for a production in Berlin. This included the famous Wedding March, which has subsequently become one of the best-known pieces of classical music. The original Overture, however, remained unchanged.

There is an extraordinary combination of sophistication and youthful spontaneity in the Overture. Mendelssohn was already capable of handling a large orchestra with the confidence of a mature composer, yet the music retains an infectious sense of wonder and playfulness. It is this combination that has made A Midsummer Night’s Dream one of his most enduring works—and one of the most vivid musical responses to Shakespeare ever written.

• The magical opening:

  Four quiet chords in the woodwind create the mysterious atmosphere of the fairy world before the music really begins.

• The fairies:

  Listen for the extraordinarily light, fast-moving strings—Mendelssohn makes them sound almost weightless.

• The donkey:

  The comic rustics get some wonderfully earthy music, including the unmistakable braying of Bottom after his transformation.

• The lovers:

  More lyrical melodies interrupt the restless fairy music, representing the romantic characters caught up in the confusion of the night.

• The orchestral detail:

  Listen to how individual instruments and sections briefly come to the foreground. At just 17, Mendelssohn was already a master of orchestral colour.

• The ending:

  The magical atmosphere returns, bringing the Overture full circle and leaving us once again in the enchanted world of Shakespeare’s forest.