79 Songs: High Voice Book

This collection gathers Mendelssohn's complete songs for high voice in one accessible volume, eliminating the hunt through scattered editions and different publishers. The writing sits naturally in the upper register while remaining singable across a range of vocal maturity levels, from serious students to advanced amateurs. Mendelssohn's gift for spinning out memorable, singable lines paired with elegant accompaniments makes these songs rewarding to learn and genuinely moving to perform.

Mendelssohn's songs capture the Romantic spirit in miniature: intimate, poetic, sometimes dreamlike, occasionally playful. Each piece glows with melodic generosity and harmonic sophistication that never calls attention to itself, creating an immediacy and warmth that draws listeners into the singer's emotional world.

This book serves advanced high school singers, college-level vocal students, and trained amateurs exploring art song repertoire. It's equally valuable for voice instructors building a library of reliable, musically substantial solo material that challenges and develops singers at multiple levels.

• Attend carefully to the poetry's emotional arc within each song; Mendelssohn's accompaniments often paint specific moods that depend on interpretive choices in phrasing and rubato.
• Balance the voice with the piano part rather than singing over it; these are duets between voice and instrument, not voice with accompaniment.
• Practice the German text rhythmically precise while allowing natural speech inflection to emerge; Mendelssohn sets text with both clarity and lyricism.
• Use the collection's variety to build a diverse recital program; the range of moods and keys across 79 songs means you can construct compelling contrasts and narrative arcs.

Select individual songs for student recitals, studio showcases, or concert programs where art song makes sense alongside other solo repertoire. The collection's breadth allows you to build a complete recital of Mendelssohn alone or to pair individual songs with works by contemporaries like Schubert and Schumann for a focused Romantic-era evening.

• Legit singing in the high tessitura while maintaining healthy vocal technique
• German diction and text expression in Lieder
• Interpretive collaboration with a pianist
• Stylistic understanding of early-to-mid Romantic vocal writing
• Sustained lyrical phrasing across longer melodic lines