Music of Memory Nicolas Maw

Nicholas Maw’s “Music of Memory”
a Framework of Expanding Recollections
Robert A. Bekkers
Research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in guitar performance at the New England Conservatory
December 16, 2017

i
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Biography of Maw .......................................................................................................... 3
1.2 The background of Music of Memory ............................................................................. 5
1.3 Maw as a composer ......................................................................................................... 6
2. Felix Mendelsssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13 .................................................................. 9
2.1 The Intermezzo ............................................................................................................. 11
3. Music of Memory, overall formal analysis .................................................................... 18
3.1 The Introduction Declamando ...................................................................................... 19
3.2 The first variation, Tranquillo, ma con movimento ...................................................... 21
3.3 The second variation, Poco vivace................................................................................ 22
3.4 The third variation, Andante placido ............................................................................ 23
3.5 The presentation of the Intermezzo, bar 9-18, Tempo del tema .................................... 24
3.7 The fifth variation, Impetuoso....................................................................................... 26
3.8 The sixth variation Senza rigore; non troppo lento –The Antithesis ......................... 27
3.9 The seventh variation, Poco presto ............................................................................... 28
3.10 The Fugue, Moderato e risoluto ............................................................................... 29
3.11 The ninth variation, Allegro energico ....................................................................... 31
3.12 The tenth variation, Tempo giusto ............................................................................ 32
3.13 The Coda ................................................................................................................... 32
4. Memory and related techniques .................................................................................... 34
4.1 References of memory .................................................................................................. 36
5. Is it True? The song behind Mendelssohn’s Quartet................................................... 49
6. The background music ................................................................................................... 54
7. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 60
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 64
ii
List of Examples and Tables
Table 1 The formal structure of the Intermezzo ................................................................ 13

Example 1 The opening theme of the Intermezzo .................................................................. 15
Example 2 Intermezzo, Allegro di molto, mm. 62-65 ............................................................ 17
Example 3 Intermezzo, Allegro di molto, mm. 82-90 ............................................................ 18
Example 4 The Coda of the Intermezzo, ................................................................................ 18
Table 2 Formal structure of Music of Memory ................................................................. 20
Example 5 Maw, Music of Memory, the opening motif ......................................................... 21
Example 6 Maw, The transitional bars of the introduction .................................................... 22
Example 7 Tranquillo, ma con movimento ............................................................................ 23
Example 7a The same collection of notes................................................................................ 23
Example 7b Underlined with chords ........................................................................................ 23
Table 3 Maw, Poco vivace ................................................................................................ 24
Example 8 Two appearances of the Viennese trichord .......................................................... 24
Example 9 Andante Placido ................................................................................................... 25
Example 10 L’istesso il tempo ................................................................................................. 26
Example 11 Maw, Music of Memory, the finale of the fourth variation .................................. 27
Example 12 Maw, Music of Memory, Impetuoso .................................................................... 28
Example 13 The emphasis on the semitone E-F ...................................................................... 28
Example 14 Maw, Senza rigore; non troppo lento .................................................................. 29
Example 14a Maw’s anti-thesis ................................................................................................. 29
Table 4 Maw, Poco presto ................................................................................................ 30
Example 15 Maw, Poco presto ................................................................................................ 30
Example 16 Maw, Moderato e risoluto, the fugue theme........................................................ 31
Table 5 Maw, Moderato e risoluto, .................................................................................. 31
Example 16a Maw, Moderato e risoluto, the stretto ................................................................. 32
Example 17 Maw, Allegro energico ........................................................................................ 32
Example 18 Maw, Tempo giusto.............................................................................................. 33
Example 19 The Intermezzo, set for guitar .............................................................................. 38
Example 20 The secondary theme of the Intermezzo, set for guitar ........................................ 37
iii
Example 21 Maw, L’istesso il tempo, the use of motivic material .......................................... 39

Example 22 The A minor scale and pc-set 3-3 (045)............................................................... 39
Example 23 Maw’s Furioso at the end of the introduction ..................................................... 40
Example 23a Mendelssohn, the transition to the Allegro vivace ............................................... 40
Example 24 Mendelssohn, the trichord in the first violin ....................................................... 42
Example 25 Maw, Tempo giusto. The repeated chord of Mendelssohn ................................. 42
Example 25a Mendelssohn Allegro di molto, the repeated chords ............................................ 43
Example 26 Maw, Impetuoso, allusion to the Mendelssohn fugue theme ............................... 44
Example 26a Mendelssohn, Allegro di molto, the Fugue theme ............................................... 44
Example 27 The final 8 bars of the Mendelssohn Quartet ....................................................... 45
Example 27a Senza rigore; non troppo lento, Mendelssohn’s final motif in MoM .................. 45
Example 28 Maw, Allegro energico, the answer of the Mendelssohn fugue .......................... 46
Example 28a Mendelssohn, the fugue’s answer ........................................................................ 46
Example 29 Mendelssohn, Allegro di molto, chromatic section .............................................. 47
Example 29a The fugato theme of Music of Memory ................................................................ 47
Example 30 Mendelssohn’s fugue, octave jumps in the first violin ........................................ 48
Example 30a Maw, Poco presto, displaced notes...................................................................... 49
Example 30b Maw, Poco presto, continued .............................................................................. 49
Example 31 Mendelssohn’s “Frage” op. 9, No. 1 ..................................................................... 50
Example 31a Maw, Andante placido, The “Ist es Wahr?” motif .............................................. 50
Example 31b Disjunct pitches in the middle of the third variation............................................ 51
Table 6 The appearances of “Ist es Wahr?” in Mendelssohn vs Maw .............................. 52
Table 7 Mendelssohn Motifs in Music of Memory ........................................................... 53
Example 32 Maw, the opening motif compared ...................................................................... 54
Example 33 Maw, Declamando, first phrase ........................................................................... 54
Example 34 Maw, Pesante e liberamente ................................................................................ 55
Example 35 Maw, use of germinals, ........................................................................................ 56
Example 36 Maw, Tranquillo, ma con movimento .................................................................. 56
Example 37 Maw, Poco vivace ................................................................................................ 57
Example 38 Maw, Moderato e risoluto, the fugue theme........................................................ 57
iv
“Lesser artists borrow,

Great artists steal,”
Igor Stravinsky1
[adjust fonts]
1
Leslie Lamport, LATEX: A Document Preparation System, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-
Wesley Publishing Company, 1986, p. 7. In her book, Lamport may have paraphrased an earlier
quote by Stravinsky. In his 1967 book Twentieth Century Music, Peter Yates claims he heard
Stravinsky apparently had said “A good composer does not imitate; he steals.” (p. 41)
v
Acknowledgements
First of all, I’d like to thank Maija Hay for taking the time to talk about her late husband
Nicholas Maw, Faber Music Publishing House for providing me with the latest manuscript, and
the Britten-Pears library for access to their collection.
I am forever grateful to the following individuals, without whom this dissertation would
not have been possible: my advisor Matthias Truniger for his honest and insightful suggestions
and critical questions; my teacher Eliot Fisk for generously sharing everything he had to say
about the music and the composer as well as for his enduring support; Dean Thomas Handel for
always being helpful and guiding the process in silence; and Helen Greenwald for getting me to
understand how to structure my research and my thinking.
I’d like to thank the dear librarians at the NEC Spaulding library who were always ready
to assist: Richard Vallone, Jason Coleman, and Maria Jane Loizou.
I’d like to acknowledge my former landlady Linda Morrison for the many insightful
dialogues over breakfast and her help in proofreading. I’d like to mention those classmates at
NEC who actively stayed in touch and shared this once-in-a-lifetime journey with me: Ian
Howell, Cody Forrest, Lautaro Mantilla, and Jacquelyn Stucker Drye.
Finally, I am forever indebted to my dear wife Anne Ku for her steadfast support and
love throughout the process.

Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, 1 - Introduction 1
1. Introduction
It is no simple feat for composers to find their own unique style. This task seems
especially daunting when they engage themselves in the achievements of their predecessors.
Tools to do so are plentiful and composers can allude, quote, copy, and collude, to name a few.
A categorization of such tools can be found in Peter Burkholder’s article on musical borrowing.2
While engaging with music of others the question arises: where does one’s own music set itself
apart from what is borrowed? Then there comes with the concept of borrowing its implicit
agreement of returning, or otherwise, paying it forward. In other words, should the purpose of
borrowing be to honor the past, or is anything stopping us from using it without any form of
reciprocation?
In this dissertation, I will show the ways in which Nicholas Maw includes the music of
Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, Opus 13 in his Music of Memory (1989), a large-scale
variation set for guitar. His intention was to acknowledge and include the traditions of Western
classical music, in particular, the music from the “Golden Age of Music” which Maw himself
identifies as music from “somewhere between 1850 and 1914”.3 Maw calls the different methods
2
Peter Burkholder, “The Use of Existing Music: Musical Borrowing as a Field.” Notes, Second
Series, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Mar 1994): pp. 851-870.
3
Paul Griffiths, New Sounds, New Personalities: British Composers of the 1980s in
Conversation with Paul Griffiths, London; Faber Music Ltd. 1985, p. 170.
he uses for this purpose in Music of Memory “memory-related techniques”.4 These techniques
are not self-evident and are not always found amongst the established tools that composers use to
refer to works of others, also known as the field of musical borrowing.5
To understand and evaluate Maws’ memory-related techniques within the context of
memory, I will present a detailed analysis of Music of Memory. This will lead to a set of
principles that explain the ways in which the elements of Mendelssohn’s music are woven into
Maw’s work. While Burkholder’s typology of musical borrowing offers a useful way to evaluate
some of the instances in which Maw refers to Mendelssohn’s work, it doesn’t describe how these
instances trigger memory. By categorizing Maw’s techniques in relation to memory, I will show
how they form a framework of references within, and beyond, the individual work of
Mendelssohn.
For convenience sake, I have taken all musical examples from the printed score. For
location references, I use page number and bar number. Where no measures exist, I use line
number. Note that the published scores of both works discussed here have no measure numbers. I
use the exact spelling of tempo indications as they occur in the published text. When discussing
pitch class set theory, I use the abbreviation pc-set, followed by their numerical identification
and numbered pitch collection in parenthesis, in accordance to the categorization by Forte.6
4
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, Faber Music Ltd, 1995, programme note, p. 1
5
Peter Burkholder, “Musical Borrowing as a Field”, Notes, Second Series, p. 870
6
Allen Forte, The Structure of Atonal Music, Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 179-181
1.1 Biography of Maw
Nicholas Maw was born on November 5 of 1935 to Clarence Frederic Maw and Hilda
Ellen Chambers in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The family ran a local music business, and
his father, who was a fervent amateur pianist himself and according to Maw, a very good one,
taught Nicholas the piano. Because Maw could not practice without his father interfering, he
took up the clarinet. 7 He studied composition as well as the clarinet at the Royal Academy of
Music in London from 1955 till 1958. He recalled of this time a sense of shock as he was
overwhelmed by the level of thinking at the academy against his isolation as a developing young
composer in a small village.8 In 1959 he left for Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger and Max
Deutsch, a student of Arnold Schoenberg. He married Karen Graham in 1960 and had a son and
a daughter with her before they divorced in 1976. From 1984 onwards, he worked and lived in
the United States and held positions at Boston University, Bard College, and Yale University. In
1985 he settled in Washington D.C. where he lived with his second wife, Maija Hay, a ceramic
artist, until his death in 2009. Maw’s work as a composer won him the 1959 Lili Boulanger Prize,
the 1980 Midsummer Prize of the City of London, the 1991 Sudler International Wind Band
Composition Competition for American Games and the 1993 Stoeger Prize from the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York.
While at the Royal Academy of Music, Maw adopted the musical ideas and techniques of
the Second Viennese School. But with his Scenes and Arias (1963) for voices and orchestra, he
rejected their concepts. “The particular style that prevailed when I was beginning [as a
7
Paul Griffiths, New Sounds, New Personalities, Faber Music Ltd, 1985, p.166
8
Ibid., pp. 166-178
composer] in the 1950’s was one that rejected too much of the past for my temperament.”9 Maw
further explains his conviction: “You could say that I was rejecting systemization – in other
words, I was interested in a vocabulary rather than a system because it seemed to me at that stage
that was how all art had developed, and I had come to the conclusion that the 20th century had
gone in the wrong direction by actually systemizing too much.”10 Yet, Maw’s moving away from
modernism didn’t default him into a post-modernist but, as Paul Griffiths notes in Maw’s
obituary, much more into the likes of a traditional composer from the beginning of the 20th
century: “Nicholas Maw was a Romantic composer of a decidedly modern sort, one who found
that there still existed, within long continuity, possibilities of extraordinary range and freshness.”
In the same article, he explains further: “He was not a post-modernist. There was no irony in his
extension of the Romantic voice, and nothing makeshift.”11 In his obituary on Maw, Arnold
Whitall has the following to say about the relation with the past in Maw’s work and includes the
work of this paper: “Occasionally, as with his Music of Memory for guitar (1989)… he was able
to dramatize the distance between past and present as a continuum rather than a disjunction, and
9
Kenneth Cloag. Nicholas Maw, Odyssey (Aldershot, 2008), p. 127
10
Christopher Koch, “Nicholas Maw,” A composer's insight: thoughts, analysis, and
commentary on contemporary masterpieces for wind band, ed.: Timothy Salzman. Galesville,
MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2003, p. 121

11
Paul Griffiths, “Nicholas Maw” The Independent (22 May 2009)
without the kind of epic melancholia and fracturing of formal continuity which disturbed him
greatly at an early performance of Birtwistle’s Earth Dances.”12
When listening to Maw’s music, it is easy to hear that it carries a narrative, is written with
particular instruments in mind, and has vital elements of tonality without presenting a particular
key.13 While Maw has overcome the traditional boundaries of tonality as they were applied
during the 19th century, he has not dismissed the past but rather found his own unique way to
include it in his own music.
1.2 The background of Music of Memory
Maw wrote the Music of Memory for Eliot Fisk after hearing his performance in a concert
at the Kennedy Center in Washington on May 1985.14 One of the pieces Fisk played at this
concert was Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal. This work is based on Come, Heavy Sleep by the
English lutenist John Dowland (ca. 1563-1626) and is shaped as a progressive variation with the
theme emerging at the end. It is very well possible that this inspired Maw to elaborate further on
the variation form. He had explicitly explored the variation form only once prior to the Music of
12
Arnold Whitall. “Nicholas Maw and the Music of Memory”, Tempo, Vol. 63, No. 250 (Oct.
2009), p. 6
13
Arnold Whitall, “The Instrumental Music of Nicholas Maw: Questions of Tonality.” Tempo
106 (Sep 1973), pp. 26-33. Whitall observes tonal qualities in Maw’s music and while there
can be multiple tonal centers, no obvious key signature can be found
14
Kate Rivers, “Lucy Shelton,” The Washington Post, Website archive. May, 1985
Memory, namely in the Severn Bridge Variations15 for orchestra (1967) and later with Voices of
Memory (1995). Initially this work was called Variations for Orchestra and was commissioned
by the BBC to celebrate the centennial of Henry Purcell.16 Fisk premiered Music of Memory at
the Lichfield Festival in England on July 9, 1989.
In the same year Maw completed Music of Memory (1989)17, he also wrote several other
works: Five American Folk Songs (1989) for high voice and piano, Romantic Canticle (1989) for
medium voice, flute, viola and piano, and Three Hymns (1989) for SATB choir and organ. The
titles of these works suggest that his concern for the “Golden Age of Music”, or the musical past,
was of much greater influence and importance to him and not confined to Music of Memory
specifically. The work itself sits comfortably between his Odyssey (1972-87) and Concerto for
Violin (1992), two of Maw’s better known works. His only other works for the guitar are most
notably his Little Suite (1984) and the early song cycle Six Interiors (1966).
1.3 Maw as a composer
It is very clear to Maw that the essence of music is the collective endeavor and the
elements are quite basic. “I’ve always believed music goes back to singing and dancing; that we
15
This work is set as a traditional theme and variations: opening with the theme, in a
monophonic style, which is then given 19 variations by a different British composer (Maw being
number 3).
16
Malcolm Miller, “Nicholas Maw’s Variations for Orchestra,” Tempo, New Series, No. 196,
(April, 1996). The work utilizes formal structures, typical of Purcell’s time, while using a theme
of his own personal work: Life Studies (1973)

17
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, for solo guitar, London; Faber Music, 1995, title page
feel this need, as human beings, to sing and dance. The singing is the melody part and the
dancing is the rhythmic part, and of course it gets so much more complicated than that. The
whole of the world’s music has developed in multifarious ways, with extraordinary complexity
and differences. But at absolute rock bottom, they all share that necessity to sing and dance. So,
the purpose of it, in-so-far as one can actually say, is it’s a shared experience … It has to
communicate, and its roots are in song and dance.”18
In the same conversation, Maw specifically speaks of language and music: “One of the
characteristics of the music at that time [60’s and 70’s] is what might be described as an overload
of information. This is quite apart from the language.... One had to question, finally, just how
much of this enormous amount of activity was really significant…You could write music where
there was a great speed of events, but it wasn’t really fast because it didn’t really move fast. So
because it wasn’t possible to write fast music, it wasn’t possible to write music which was
graded through all the other tempi as well — andante, moderato, largo, whatever. So in that
particular sense alone, it seemed to me that certain characteristics of music have become
diminished or denigrated.”
In his conversation with Paul Griffith, he explains this departure from the new techniques
of composers of his generation as follows: “My discomfort with the Darmstadt language was that
it was too systematized to be a language. Charles Rosen says somewhere that a work of art needs
a certain looseness in the language, that imagination seizes on the looseness.” 19
18
Bruce Duffy, A Conversation with Nicholas Maw, Interview, July 13, 1995
http://www.bruceduffie.com/maw.html (accessed: Dec. 2, 2017)
19
Paul Griffiths, New Sounds, New Personalities, Faber Music Ltd, 1985, p. 171.
In his first mature work, Scenes and Arias, a “breakthrough” for Maw according to
Kenneth Gloag, Maw shows he is able of capturing a wide range of musical characters and
moods.20 With the writing of this work Maw himself thought that he had found his own musical
language.21
The distinct musical characters, melodic gestures, and rhythmic flow that can be heard in
the different variations of Music of Memory distinctly speak for Maw’s access to a palette of
expressive tools. With the deliberate use of such elements, but maybe even more so with the
inclusion of another composer’s music, Maw brings forth the idea of sharing and collaboration in
his music on a larger scale of historic relevance.
20
Kenneth Gloag, “Nicholas Maw’s breakthrough: ‘Scenes and arias’ reconsidered”, The Musical
Times, Vol. 152, No. 1915 (Summer 2011), pp 31-57
21
Ibid, p. 32
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, String Quartet Op. 13 9
2. Felix Mendelsssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13
In a novel and unusual manner, Mendelssohn added the song “Frage”, Op. 9, no. 1 to the
Härtel
front page of his string quartet, where he titled it “Thema”. Breitkopf & Härtell published the
score with the song in 1827.22 As Mendelssohn explains in a letter to Lindblad: “You will hear its
notes resound in the first and last movements, and sense its feeling in all four [movements].”23
Indeed, Mendelssohn presents the song’s opening motif “Ist es Wahr?” in the Quartet’s 19-bar
introduction as well as in its coda and references it throughout the quartet.24 It is worth noting
that the song itself was written shortly after Beethoven’s death.
The A-minor Quartet (op. 13) consists of four movements: Allegro vivace, Adagio non
lento, Intermezzo, and Presto. The first movement, which follows the introduction, is set in
sonata form and shaped similarly to Beethoven’s Op. 132. The second movement is ternary in
form, with the faster dance-like poco piu animato contrasting both in tempo as well as in its key
of A minor against the F major of the enclosing Adagio non lento. The third movement is the A-
22
Felix Mendelssohn, Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 13, ed.: Julius Rietz, Leipzig; Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1875, plate M.B. 23
23
Adolf F. Dahlgren, Bref till Adolf Fredrik Lindblad från Mendelssohn, Dohrn, Almquist
Atterbom,Geijer,Fredrika Bremer, C. W. Böttiger och andra, Stockholm: Albert Bonnier, 1913,
p. 20
24
Larry Todd, “The Chamber Music of Mendelssohn”, 19th Century Chamber Music, ed.
Stephen E. Hefling, Routledge, 2004, pp. 170-207

minor Intermezzo from which Maw immediately quotes in Music of Memory. Its form is also
ternary with a fugato in A major, the Allegro di molto as the contrasting middle section against
the Allegretto con moto. Both sections of the Intermezzo are set in ternary form. The passionate
Presto is the quartet’s final movement and, via a short solo passage of the first violin, it
eventually transcends into the coda. The coda is an almost immediate recall of the introduction,
ending on the tonic of A major where the introduction moves into the first movement via the
dominant.
As with his other early string quartets, Mendelssohn alludes to Beethoven’s late String
Quartet Op. 132. Mendelssohn studied Beethoven quartets in great detail whenever he could get
access to scores and used several aspects of, in particular, Op. 132, for his Op. 13. It is his first
mature string quartet, even though he wrote it when he was only 18 years old.
Many scholars have pointed out various similarities between Beethoven’s Op. 132 –his
only a minor quartet– and his op. 95 string quartets and the Mendelssohn op. 13.25 Greg Vitercik
(1992) brings forth evidence of formal and motivic associations: Beethoven’s first movement of
Op. 132 was a model for the first movement of Op. 13 and Mendelssohn also expanded on the
cyclic elements of Op. 132. According to Vitercik: “The similarities - often to the point of
confusion - between the themes and formal gestures of Op.13 and those of the Beethoven Quartet
(and a number of other late works as well) has been noted in most studies of Mendelssohn’s
chamber works. In fact, Op. 13 is only one of works from the late 1820s in which the influence
25
R. Larry Todd, “The Chamber Music of Mendelssohn”, Mendelssohn Essays, New York:
Routledge, 2008, p. 151.

of Beethoven is continually, and quite openly, in evidence.”26 The Intermezzo carries its own set
of allusions to Beethoven: its A-minor key, the opening E-F interval, and its cyclic design.27
Benedict Taylor elaborates in great detail on similarities in form and structure in his
article on the Quartet, pointing to Mendelssohn’s deliberate response to Beethoven’s late
quartets.28
Arguably, by using the Mendelssohn String Quartet, Maw carries Mendelssohn’s
allusions to Beethoven’s late quartets one step further. I will present evidence that this aspect was
a key motivation. Maw does not discuss the other movements in his program notes nor mentions
Beethoven, and only directly quotes the first theme of the Intermezzo, so it is only natural to
assume that all the source material he uses for Music of Memory, springs from it. Nonetheless, it
will become clear that Maw is in fact quoting motifs and ideas from everywhere in the quartet. I
will show that this aspect demonstrates his familiarity with the profound links Mendelssohn
made to Beethoven.
2.1 The Intermezzo

movement
The third section of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, the Intermezzo, is set as a compound
ternary A-B-A’ form: not only does the movement as a whole have a threefold structure, the
but each of its main sections (A and B) is
main sections of the are similarly structured as well. The Intermezzo ends with a coda where
motives
motifs from both larger sections are combined (Table 1).
26
Greg Vitercik, The Early Works of Mendelssohn, Vermont; Gordon and Breach, 1992, p. 227.
27
Ibid. p. 235
28
Benedict Taylor, “Cyclic Form, Time, and Memory in Mendelssohn’s A-Minor Quartet, Op.
13”, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Spring 2010), pp. 45-89
Table 1 The formal structure of the Intermezzo from String Quartet No. 1, Op. 13 by Mendelssohn. The
complementary ternary structure of the piece is clear
A B A’ Coda
Allegro con moto – A minor Allegro di molto – A major Tempo I, A minor (A minor)
A B A A-fugato B Coda A B A A & B combined
1-8 9-18 19-26 27-50 51-108 109-116 117-125 126-134 135-142 143-164
The Allegretto con moto, or the first section of the Intermezzo, has a ternary A-B-A
structure with two contrasting themes in a traditional tonic-dominant relation (Ex. 1). Carried by
the first violin, the first theme is built on a two-bar motif: an E-F semitone which descends to a C
through a dotted eighth note and two thirty-second note rhythm after which it moves up stepwise
to E via two eighth notes. This semitone is also heard in the furious trill, transitioning the
introduction into the first movement of the quartet. This E-F interval is also of particular
[comma]
relevance in Beethoven’s Op. 132. In his 1974 article moreover, Godwin parallels the harmonic
structure of the first eight bars to Beethoven’s Op. 130.29
The same rhythmic gesture is repeated but starts with an A-D ascending fourth instead of
the earlier semitone, and the final note is reached with a downward fifth jump. The opening
phrase ends in a half cadence, all the time accompanied by plucked (pizzicato) chords on every
beat – similar to plucked guitar chords. The thus formed four-bar phrase is repeated and now
ends on a perfect authentic cadence. Its final phrase ends with a remarkable octave jump in the
first violin while voice-crossing with the second violin. This creates the illusion that the G#-A
gesture of the second violin is the ending of the main melody.
29
Joscelyn Godwin, “Early Mendelssohn and Late Beethoven”, Music & Letters Vol 55, No. 3,
(Jun. 1974), p. 283

The secondary theme (measures 9-18) starts with a one-bar motif, which consists of a
descending scale figure, spanning a fourth from B to F#, all the while using the dotted eighth,
double thirty-second note rhythm and two eighth notes from middle of the opening motif’s
rhythmic structure.
Example 1 The opening theme of the Intermezzo (mm. 1-26), and part of the Allegro di molto
The phrase structure is similar to the first theme but is extended with two measures where
the opening motif of the secondary theme gets passed through each instrument in a stretto-like
gesture. In measure 19, the primary melody returns but opens on the dominant and the bass line
drops an octave and ends in measure 26.
The second section (mm. 27-116), the Allegro di molto, is set in A major and opens with
a fugato (mm. 27-50, Ex. 1). Its subject is first presented in the viola: from there it travels
outwards, first it is played by the second violin and finally by the first violin with the subject’s
answer simultaneously played by the cello.
Spanning three bars, the subject is presented in a continuous eighth note rhythm with a
written out staccato (sixteenth notes intercepted by sixteenth rests). The subject opens with a
broken descending A major chord, followed by E major and B minor in a reverse dominant
relationship. This idea ends on the first beat of the fourth measure where three ascending notes
extend the subject while connecting it with the answer.
The answer is set in exactly the same rhythmic pattern (mm. 31-34). It also presents
descending triads: E# diminished and B in the second and third measure. The answer comes to a
close with a scale in counter movement against the ascending scale at the end of the subject.
After a full exposition of the subject and its answer in the dominant, the subject returns to the
tonic in the first violin while, without having presented the subject, the cello is now playing the
answer. Two striking characteristics of the subject and its answer are the written out staccato in
sixteenth notes and rests, as well as the placement of a three-note motif (the broken triads)
against a binary rhythm.
In the twelfth bar of the Allegro di molto (m. 38), all four voices are playing six sixteenth
notes in rhythmic unison on repeated pitches G# and B#, announcing a key change to C# minor.
The sixteenth figures pass through the different voices (Ex. 4), in a similar vein as what occurred
in bars 16-18 with the material of the first theme of the Intermezzo. Meanwhile the harmony
confirms C# minor in a tonic-dominant exchange before modulating back to E in bar 46. In the
final four bars of the fugato’s first section, the subject is heard once: in unison between second
violin and viola, while the first violin plays repeated sixteenths on the note B.
The second part of the Allegro di molto starts after the repeat (m. 51) and opens with a
similar idea as the original fugato theme, but now the broken chord is an A# diminished seventh
chord. The cello accompanies in slow moving broken chords. The resolution of this diminished
chord into a B minor triad happens in the first violin in bar 55. All the while the rhythm doesn’t
change. The altered fugato subject is continually shortened. After four transitional bars (mm. 81-
84) with octaves of C# in a simple eighth note rhythm, the subject return for three bars and is
played with accompaniment in full unison before a chromatic section with parallel sixths in the
cello (Ex. 2) follows. A remarkable feature of this section is the change in notation: from a
written staccato rhythm, using rests, now to eighth notes with staccato indicated with a dot above
the notes as well as indicated with “staccato”.
Example 2 Mendelssohn, Intermezzo, Allegro di molto, measures 62-65, note the highly chromatic melodic line as
well as the changed notation for the staccato
Example 3 Mendelssohn, Intermezzo, Allegro di molto, mm 82-90, repeated sixteenth notes in the first violin, with
an extended ritardando
Example 4 The Coda of the Intermezzo, with the ideas of both main sections interlaced
A similar chromatic section develops in bars 96-103, before the original fugue subject
returns in bar 105 while accompanied by a furiously repeated E in the first violin. An A-minor
confirmation follows after the repeat while the first violin continues to repeat the E, now with
octave displacements while a simple pizzicato melody in parallel thirds declares the return of the
Allegro di molto material at the key change (Ex. 3).
After the first theme is presented again, the Intermezzo is concluded with a coda where
Mendelssohn combines the thematic material of both subsections (Ex. 4). The second violin and
viola play the opening motif of the Allegro di molto to outline an A dominant 7th chord together
with the accompanying cello. This resolves in a D-minor, which is held throughout two bars
(mm 145-146) while the first violin plays the fugato theme. An exact repeat of this material
follows and the opening theme is heard twice in the viola and cello, where it is set to C (mm.
151-154). Snippets of the rhythmic gesture from the fugato theme concludes the coda and
through an ascending A minor triad, lead to a perfect authentic cadence in the final two bars.
Some of the defining elements of the Intermezzo are its ternary nature, the fugato middle
section with its chromatic motif at its center, the concluding coda with its combination of the two
main ideas, and the parallel key relation of A minor against A major. Also, the dotted rhythm
with its thirty-second notes, the key signature contrasts as well as the opening E-F semitone.
Formal elements of the Intermezzo can be found throughout the quartet, including the fugue of
the last movement, and as such carries considerable weight for its overall character.
The existence of each of these aspects can be found in Music of Memory. The relevance
in the similarities of formal aspects is emphasized by the fact they are mentioned in the program
notes. Later I will continue to point out less obvious links between both works.
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, analysis 18
3. Music of Memory, overall formal analysis
Framed by an introduction and a coda, Music of Memory consists of 10 variations, which
are grouped into three larger sections (Table 2). Each section opens with a partial quote from
measures 1-26 of Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo after which a group of three, two, or five variations
are added, respectively. In the preface to the score, Maw describes the multiple appearances of
the Mendelssohn theme as a reminder of “its haunting presence.”30 For now we will have to put
an interpretation of that quote to rest, as its meaning will become apparent throughout my
analysis of the Music of Memory.
Table 2 Formal structure of Music of Memory
Introduction Section I Section II Section III Coda

Anticipating Theme (mm. 1-8) Theme (mm. 9-18) Theme (mm. 19-26) Recalling
materials of Var. 1. Tranquillo Var. 4. L’istesso tempo Var. 6. Senza rigore materials of
sections I-III
Var. 2. Poco vivace Var. 5. Impetuoso Var. 7. Poco presto sections I-III
Var. 3. Andante Var. 8. Moderato e risoluto
Var. 9. Allegro energico
Var. 10. Tempo giusto
The variations are distinguished from each other by tempo markings and character
indications, not with the common consecutive numbering. As Maw comments: “[Music of
Memory] is a somewhat freely-organized set of variations – though ‘meditations’ would be a
more apt description…”31 Many variations show little or no direct motivic or formal resemblance
to the thematic material of the Intermezzo, unlike what would be expected from a traditional
30
Maw, Music of Memory, program notes to the score
31
Ibid. 1
theme-and-variations work. Instead, Maw is building a network of allusions and cross-references
by allowing elements of Mendelssohn’s themes and ideas to randomly appear and spark off new
ideas.
Overall, for the construction of the Music of Memory Maw uses pitch class sets,
chromatic completion, reference to tonal elements such as apparent diatonic scale figures and
triadic arpeggios, while using formal elements to construct the piece as a whole: the cyclic form,
the presence of a fugato, the a-minor tonality, and the triparte organization of the work.
3.1 The Introduction Declamando
The work opens with a virtuosic four-note chromatic gesture in thirty-second notes. This
collection of notes forms pc-set 4-1 (0123). While the semitone is its basic ingredient, its
chromatic element is not what is immediately perceived. The motif opens with the whole tone of
G#-A# and obscures the following semitone to G with an octave displacement (Ex. 5). Maw also
creates a pitch centricity around A, the tonality of the String Quartet, through arriving on it as
well as by repeating it. As I will later show, this four-note motif is used to construct much of the
material for Music of Memory.
Example 5 Maw, Music of Memory, the opening motif: p.2, 1st line
The introduction’s two main sections are separated by the opening motif, which reappears
at the end of the first system of page 3, marking the middle of the introduction, and the start of
the last system of page 3. Here Maw uses the motif to indicate the conclusion of the introduction
as well as to segue into the quoted Intermezzo theme.
Three sets of highly chromatic virtuosic passages each having an overall singular upward
or downward gesture form the first half of the introduction. The first virtuosic passage is
chromatically completed by its final two notes B and C on a quarter note with fermata. Similarly,
the second phrase is chromatically completed through its final note C, which is also notated as a
quarter note with fermata. The third phrase is chromatically complete within itself and is
followed by two short and directionally opposing parallel melodic gestures. This is immediately
followed by a virtuosic arpeggio gesture. Three sets of rasgeados, where all six strings of the
guitar are struck, mark the middle of the introduction. Now the introductory four-note motif is
heard twice. The second motif ends on the note B instead of A and the phrase that follows is
another upward-moving, highly chromatic gesture which is also chromatically complete. The
gesture under Agitato represent rapidly upward-moving triadic arpeggios in repeated notes. The
next gesture is moving downwards again, this time in a triplet rhythm.
Example 6 The transitional bars of the introduction, Maw, page 3, line 5 & 6
A furioso repetition of three notes bring multiple repeats of the opening motif which, as
earlier noted, help transition the introduction into the first eight bars of the Intermezzo theme
(Ex. 6). The persistent return of the opening motif helps remind us of its relevance. Later I will
discuss the connection this gesture makes to the Mendelssohn Quartet.
3.2 The first variation, Tranquillo, ma con movimento
The first variation presents itself with an introduction (p. 4, mm. 1-4) and a coda (p. 5, mm.
16-21). The overall idea of this variation is the fast repetition of seemingly random pitches. The
gist of this idea was already presented in the introduction (agitato, p. 3, m. l3), creating a sense
of tremolo as a contrasting musical idea for what emerges in the fifth bar: accented octaves of
non-repeated notes. These notes accumulate to F, E, D, C, B, G# to A, a reference to the
descending element in the Intermezzo’s first theme (mm. 1-8) or otherwise at least an immediate
reference to the A minor scale. A play with major and minor thirds follows (Bb- B-D, E-G-G#,
(014)
and E-Eb-C), or pc-set 3-3 (014/034) and its inversion (Ex. 7 & 7a). The same material returns
with its melodic gestures under L’istesso tempo now underlined with harmonies that sometimes
resemble traditional triads or quart chords, often with semitones added. (Ex. 7b).
Example 7 Tranquillo, ma con movimento, p. 4, mm. 5-6. The material set in contrasting rhythm within the
repeated tremolo environment
1 0
Db
3 1 0
Example 7a The same collection of notes separated from their environment. The first part presents the A minor
scale, the second part consists of both inversions of pc-set 3-3, each of them presented twice
4
A minor 1 0 3 4 0 0
2 4 3 0 0
4 3 0 4 1 0
Example 7b Maw, Music of Memory, p. 5, mm.12-18, the collection of notes, underlined with chords, shown here
with omitted rhythm
3.3 The second variation, Poco vivace
Similar to the first variation, Poco vivace is also constructed in two sections which are
divided at the fermata. After the second fermata it is followed by a coda. Both sections consist of
two contrasting themes (Poco vivace, Poco meno mosso) that appear in strict alternations,
although the second section arises seamlessly from the first section on the third beat of bar 5 and
bar 10 and thus sharing these bars (Table 3).
Table 3: Maw, Poco vivace, pp. 6-7. The numbers represent the measures of each of the sections
A B Coda
Poco vivace 1-5 7-10 11-13 14
Poco meno mosso 5-6 10-13 15-17

The two contrasting themes are a representation of diatonic scale figures in sixteenth runs
in Poco vivace, against a haunting melody atop a pedal tone, the Poco meno mosso. This melody
is built from pc-set 3-5 (016), also known as the Viennese Trichord, and its inversion, set to a
pedal tone. The pedal tone under the first appearance (mm. 5 & 6) is the note D and at its return
(mm. 11-13) it is an A (Ex. 8). Although the scale figures represent diatonic elements with their
collection of whole tones and semitones, it is not possible to point to one particular key or
number of keys, neither is it possible to point to exact points of transitions between tonal centers.
This characteristic has been observed by Whitall in his publication on the matter of tonality in
Maw’s music: “In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of Maw’s mature style has been the
wellnigh indefinable relationship between ‘tonal’ and ‘atonal’ factors, defining tonal as the
perceptible centrality of a single note (for however brief a period) and ‘atonal’ as the absence of
such centrality.”32
Example 8 Two appearances of the Viennese Trichord in the top voice at the Poco Meno Mosso in the second
variation. p. 6, mm. 5-6
0 1 6 6 0 1
3.4 The third variation, Andante placido
Instead of presenting two contrasting ideas consecutively, in this variation Maw chooses
to juxtapose them: the accompaniment is in triplets against a melodic line in duple rhythm and is
32
Arnold Whitall, “The Instrumental Music of Nicholas Maw: Questions of Tonality,” Tempo
106 (Sep 1973): p. 27.
overall diatonic in character. At the very start, the triplets meander between G-G#-A (p. 8 m. 1 &
2), but Maw quickly distorts that material by allowing other pitches to appear; in the second bar
at first an F#; and then cascading into the third bar with a B, an A#, a D and F and E (Ex. 9). The
variation as a whole is binary in form, through the intersection of an accelerated rhythmic
moment (bar 11-12). It also closes with a coda at Poco meno mosso, senza rigore (p. 9, mm. 22-
24). The melody itself, which starts in the lower register, regularly crosses with the
accompaniment as a reminder of the voice crossing at the end of the Allegretto con moto (Ex. 1,
m. 8).
Example 9 Andante Placido, pp. 8-9. Expansion of intervals as they appear throughout mm. 1-3
3.5 The presentation of the Intermezzo, bar 9-18, Tempo del tema
Similar to the presence of the first eight bars of the Intermezzo theme, bars 9-15 are
presented as authentic as possible. The transcription follows the harmonic layout as well as the
octave displacement of the initial motif in bars 8-10. In the original setting for string quartet this
is accomplished with the motif moving from first violin, to second violin, to viola and then cello.
3.6 The fourth variation, L’istesso tempo; deliberato ed appassionato
The tempo/character indication is purposeful as Maw uses the Intermezzo motif (marked
in boxes in Ex. 10) and lets it spark off new ideas and gestures. Initially the motif is used in its
original form, but Maw gradually distorts its appearance and the harmonic context in which the
theme emerges by changing of pitches, shortening its total length, and inverting direction.
Example 10 L’istesso tempo, p. 10, line 3-4, the immediate use of the Intermezzo material
Maw focused on the dotted eighth and two thirty-second notes of the theme from bar 7
onwards and lets the motif start on a G flat, A flat, B flat, and once more on A flat. There is a
binary element to the form of this variation, because from this point forward the motif is used in
inversion and starting on E flat, F sharp, C sharp, E, A, and B. In the Poco meno mosso, Maw
extends the motif over two beats while the music itself slows down at largamente. The variation
then presents a succession of the opening motif, or four-note pc-set 4-1 in combination with the
rhythmic Mendelssohn motif and set in the same 2/4 time. The use of artificial harmonics helps
the music calm down and die away as if fleeing from our memory (Ex. 11).
Example 11 Maw, Music of Memory, the finale of the fourth variation, p. 11, lines 4-6. Use of the rhythmic motif
of the Intermezzo theme
3.7 The fifth variation, Impetuoso
At the start of this variation the A major triad is presented melodically as E-C#-A in the
top voice (Ex. 12). Throughout this variation, Maw explores triadic concepts which he lays out in
short phrases but also presents them vertically. Sections of this material are connected with fast
sixteenth runs, sometimes consisting of scale-like figures and sometimes representing triads as
well. In bars 16-17, a long descending scale indicates a change of plans. The repeated notes of B
with octave displacements of m. 19 lead into an altered version of the opening triads, this time
presenting pc-set 3-7 (025) vertically, which descend along the G major scale (C-B-A-G). The
complete movement is broken into two segments marked by the Fantastico section (bars 27
onwards) where Maw displays the four-note pc-set 4-1 on the note D as a drone. Continuing
there is some reflecting back on the first variation, with its repeated pitches while the pc-set 4-1
remains part of the musical idea. At the Quasi al tempo we reach a transitional phrase with an
emphasis of the E-F interval (Ex. 13), which leads to a brief quote of the first 6 bars of the
Intermezzo theme.
Example 12 Maw, Music of Memory, Impetuoso, p. 12, mm. 1-6, the A major triad as the opening element
Example 13 The emphasis on the semitone e-f at the end of Maw’s fifth variation, p.14, mm. 1-3, before the
return of the Mendelssohn theme
3.8 The sixth variation Senza rigore; non troppo lento –The Antithesis
This variation is referred to as the “heart of the piece” by Eliot Fisk.33 The motif at the
core of its first half consists of a jump up and down of a minor third, followed by a whole step
downward, or pc-set 3-7. The appearances of this motif are intersected by incomplete
presentations of the opening pc-set 4-1 motif which untimately reaches its completion on the
third appearance (Ex. 14). When the opening motif is heard once more, Maw presents the
antithesis of the opening motif of the Music of Memory: four descending major seconds, or pc-set
4-21 (0246) (Ex. 14a, the boxed notes of the melody). It is remarkable that, although Fisk wasn’t
able to explain in detail what he had meant with his indication, his instinct took him where
exactly this whole-tone scale fragment appears. After the exposition of this contrasting set, more
33
Eliot Fisk mentioned this during a lesson I had with him in the spring semester of 2015. He
also wrote it in pencil at the top of the page and reconfirmed this notion in an email after I asked
him to clarify on Nov.18, 2017.

virtuosic passage work follows, along with more of the pc-set 3-7 (025). After the final virtuosic
passage at Più lento, the opening pc-set 4-1 (0123) is presented again, this time without any
octave displacements. The variation comes to a close with two sections of repeated chords,
played with a tambora on all six strings.34 The following variation is linked through a gradual
accelerando of the repeated G in a sextuplet figure.
Example 14 Senza rigore; non troppo lento, p. 14, 3rd line
Example 14a p. 15, lines 1-2, shown in the boxes is the whole tone PC4-21
3.9 The seventh variation, Poco presto
After picking up speed through its first five bars, the triplet figures represent elements of
diatonic scales, with repeated notes and the occasional octave displacement (Ex. 15). Meanwhile
the open strings of the guitar are set against the triplet figures in a calm eighth note rhythm. From
34
A guitar-technique where the right-hand thumb hammers on the strings, making them vibrate.
bar 9 the triplet scale figure moves to the bass where it meanders around in the pc-set 4-1 (0123)
and is alternating with arpeggio-like virtuosic passages. The disappearance of the open string
counter-voice indicates the arrival of a new idea with the original idea returning in bar 28, which
makes this variation a ternary A-B-A (table 4). At the end the movement slows down while
presenting pc-set 4-1 (0123), which seamlessly connects it to the next variation.
Table 4 Poco presto, pp. 16-17. Shown here is its ternary structure
Introduction A B A
1-5 6-15 16-33 34-43
Example 15 The seventh variation, Poco presto pp. 16-17, the triplets with quasi octave jumps
3.10 The Fugue, Moderato e risoluto
The eighth variation is set in A-B-A’ (Table 5) and its fugue’s subject starts on a D#
pickup after which it descends chromatically from E to A. The theme then ends with three eighth
notes: C, D and E flat (Ex. 17). It is interesting to observe that the chromatically completed fifth
of the theme is equal to two stacked pc-set 4-1 (0123), the same set of the opening motif of
Music of Memory.
The fugue’s answer comes in on an A#, or the same dominant relationship common in
traditional fugue form. The following entry of the subject comes in one beat earlier, on a G# and
thus forms a stretto. The following entrances and their associated notes accumulate to D#, G#, D,
G, A#, G#, and again D, thus losing the dominant relationship. From bar 7 onwards, the stretto
intensifies as each new entry of the several incomplete themes is set only one beat apart. Each
consecutive entrance of these shortened themes starts on B, A#, B, and E#. While cascading into
another stretto, Maw shortens the subject and alters its inner structure to a minor third down,
followed by a major and a minor second up, while keeping the 16th pickup followed by two
sixteenths and an eighth note, tied to a dotted eighth (Ex. 16).
Example 16 Moderato e risoluto, p. 18, 1st line, the Maw Fugue subject and its answer
Table 5 Moderato e risoluto, pp. 18-19. The ternary structure of the fugue is presented
Moder ato e r isoluto Più animato Tempo pr imo
1-8 9-17 18-24
Beneath the last measure of the first exposition (p. 18, m. 8) is a descending bass, which
leads into a transitional measure towards a new idea under Più animato. Consisting of ascending
and descending scale figures of sixteenth notes set against dotted rhythmic figures, it is
constructed again with pc-set 4-1 and through octave displacements, spanning ninths and
sevenths. This section is also eight bars long. The fugue returns but the subject is altered as its
final three notes are alternating: descending down in a stepwise gesture at the first appearance;
descending down a whole tone, followed by an upward semitone; and the original final of the
subject. The following presentations of the subject continue to show minor alterations. The
responses to the subject shifts continually: the first answer comes in only one beat after the
subject, the second answer comes two beats later than its subject, with its answer coming one
beat later, and so forth (Ex. 17.) Similar to the last two bars of the first exposition A, the last two
bars are once again presenting the dotted figures, also seen in the first presentation. This time the
motif is inverted as well as the order of entrances and underneath it all is an E bass. With this
variation, Maw refers immediately to the fugue as it occurs in the Intermezzo.
Example 16a Moderato e risoluto, p. 18, 3rd line, the stretto of the fugue theme
3.11 The ninth variation, Allegro energico
The Allegro energico has a continuous bass line, representing something of a “walking
bass” as known in the jazz idiom (Ex. 18). The accompanying chordal gestures are rhythmically
randomly distributed, similar to how a pianist would rhythmically insert chords in a jazz trio.
The gesture of a moving melodic line has resemblances to major and minor triads. For example,
right from the beginning an Eb minor triad is followed by a G minor triad. The accompanying
chords are made up of four barred strings and the top notes initially line out in short scale
patterns although never representing a particular key. The chords consist of the first four strings
barred and as such they create minor seventh chords in third inversion. This variation is singular
in form and transitions into the next variation through an extended rasgeado of the final chord.
Example 17 Allegro energico, p.20-21. The first three bars, showing the “walking bass”
3.12 The tenth variation, Tempo giusto
Maw continues with full six-string rasgeados in sextuplets until the climax is reached on
the fermata on the final chord, furiously played with rasgeados, in a pressing Sforzandissimo and
crescendo molto, eventually cumulating into the Intermezzo theme. Meanwhile the chords move
downwards in groups of three, usually spanning a minor third (Ex. 18a). Before the Intermezzo
theme returns for its final appearance, it is played with forte markings and is the climax of the
whole work as well as the conclusion of the set of variations.
Example 18 Tempo giusto, p. 21, 4th line, bar 2, the rasgeado chords at the opening of the tenth variation
3.13 The Coda
The coda recalls from earlier variations, although Maw doesn’t exactly quote himself but
rather alludes to the overall gestures of the individual variations through the use of their rhythm
or melodic shapes. Below is the formal outline of the coda with its references to the different
variations (bar numbering starts counting at Tempo del tema):

1. Tempo del tema, theme, section A, with opening motif intercepting in the middle
2. Andante placido, one bar (variation three) (m.10)
3. Tempo del tema, theme, section B, four bars (mm. 11-14)
4. Senza misura, two bars, set in 32nd notes (variation two) (mm.15-16)
5. Tempo del tema, theme, section B, extension –varied, 5 bars, (mm. 17-20)
6. Poco presto, 7 bars (variation 8) (mm. 21-27)
7. Molto sostenuto, (variation 4) (mm. 28-36)
8. Quasi tempo del tema, sempre sost. (mm. 37-43)
The last four bars of the Intermezzo theme (Quasi tempo del tema, sempre sost.) start on
A major as the secondary dominant to D minor and leads to a prolonged and slow final A minor
arpeggio in the final three bars, thus concluding the work in the tonality of its inspiration.
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, section 5, Memory and related techniques 34
4. Memory and related techniques
Memory is a topic that clearly fascinated Maw; it comes up in many of his interviews as
well as in the titles of two of his works.35 In the program notes for Music of Memory, he explains
the notion of memory as follows: “The work’s title refers to (1) the long-term memory of a
golden age … represented by the Mendelssohn, (2) the short-term ‘memory’ of an original that
lies behind the variation form, and (3) the use of different kinds of memory-related techniques
and material during the work….” It seems self-explanatory what Maw intended with the first
reference to memory. The short-term memory as variations on a theme in the light of this work is
maybe not so clear, and even more mysterious are the different “memory-related techniques”.
Neurologist Israel Rosenfield observes that memory is not, as Sigmund Freud understood
it, a collection of fixed information, but rather a constant recreation of contexts, generating a
network of cross-references, where a smell, for example, can evoke a seemingly unrelated
recollection.36 As such, the appearances of the Mendelssohn theme in Music of Memory may be
described as a framework of expanding recollections rather than a traditional variation process.
Another possible reference Maw makes when he speaks of “memory-related techniques”
could be the system of memorization which the ancient Greeks and Romans used to recall
speeches and which is known as the Method of Loci, Memory Palace Technique or Journey
35
Besides Music of Memory, Maw wrote Variations for Orchestra, also known as Voices of
Memory. It is based on a theme from Maw’s own Life Studies and written for, and commissioned
by the BBC.
36
Israel Rosenfield, The Invention of Memory, New York: Basic Books, 1988, p. 84.
Method. It consists of pinpointing key elements of a speech onto objects that are known to be
seen during a walk or in a specific location such as the interior of a house. When imagining
taking that walk or inspecting a room, these elements would be easily recalled as they appear on
the trajectory and with them the items that are now associated with it. It is not hard to consider
“memory palace”, in which
the variations of Music of Memory as the environment, or rooms of a memory castle, in which
characteristic elements of Mendelssohn are placed to help the listener remember their original context.
Maw then places the different characteristic elements of Mendelssohn to help remember it.
This approach leads to the following categorization:
1. Literal quotation of thematic passages from Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo as well as
immediate variations of such material. Maw thinks of these quotes as direct
references to the past, comparable to Freud’s conception of memory where
memories are stored in our brain as literal representations but the process of
recalling them is often incomplete.
2. Immediate associative memory. Motifs and gestures from the other movements of
the String Quartet outside the Intermezzo are being used. Similar to how a single
memory has many associated parts that will almost immediately come to mind
along with it.
3. Indirect associative memory or Proust’s involuntary memory: Unconscious
collecting of memory, or the resurgence of the past through the repetition of a
sensation.37 Larger scale recollections and more distant associations such as
formal elements of the Mendelssohn theme such as its cyclic design are reflected
37
Harold March, The Two Worlds of Marcel Proust, Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press,
1948: pp. 241-47

in Music of Memory (Table 7). These elements, along with the presence of the
fugue and the final A minor chord, are recalling organizational strategies rather
than actual content. It is like the involuntary recalling context around a memory:
when thinking of a table, its use, its appearance in particular environments and
possibly even its fabrication are all levels of memory associated with it.
Following this set of memory categorizations, I will now continue to outline the
references as Maw makes them and explain the procedures he uses. I will also cross-reference to
where the material can be found in the Mendelssohn work.
4.1 References of memory
The most immediate references to Mendelssohn in Music of Memory are the direct quotes
of the first theme of the Intermezzo. Similar to Freud’s idea of memories and the flawed process
of recall, the theme is incompletely quoted: the A-minor and E-minor sections of the theme are
separated. Maw does arrange the material for guitar as accurately as possible although small
alterations can be found in the later quotations of the theme. (Ex. 19 & 20).
Example 19 Maw, Music of Memory, p. 4, lines 1-2, mm. 1-8 of the Intermezzo, set for guitar
Example 20 Maw, Music of Memory, p. 10, line 1-2, the secondary theme of the Intermezzo, mm. 9-18, set for
guitar
The material of the Intermezzo’s main motif is used on two other instances: In variation 4
and to a less immediate degree in variation 1. In L’istesso Tempo, the fourth variation, Maw
takes the opening gesture of the Intermezzo theme, alters the accompaniment which has an
overall A major association, and allows for entirely new melodic gestures to follow (Ex. 21).
This can be seen as the idea of an incomplete recollection of an otherwise perfect memory
(Freud). It also functions as associative memory, where the recall of one memory triggers
entirely different associations.
Example 21 Maw, L’istesso tempo, p. 10, line 3-4, the use of motivic material
The reference on a deeper level to the first Intermezzo theme happens in Tranquillo, ma
con movimento, or the first variation. Maw starts by sketching the overall gesture of the melody
but places it within fast moving scale figures and detaches it from its original rhythm. The
following play with major and minor thirds can be considered a reference to the major/minor
oppositions of the introduction and coda versus the main body of Mendelssohn’s quartet. The
basic material is shown in Example 22, where it is shown without the underpinned chords at its
return and without its rhythm entirely.
Example 22 The collection of notes that are separated by rhythm and phrasing. The first part presents the A
minor scale, the second part consists of both inversions of pc-set 3-3 (014), a combination of major
and minor thirds
4
A minor 1 0 3 4 0 0
2 4 3 0 0
4 3 0 4 1 0
The transitional figure of Maw’s introduction, indicated with Furioso (Ex. 23), references
the transition of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet into the first movement. In both works they
appear after the introduction, are placed in the same octave, and with a similar rhythm in thirty-
second notes representing a tremolo between repeated notes. They are equal in length (although
in the Maw at two-thirds in, there is a tied eighth note replacing five thirty-second notes) and in
both cases it introduces the first movement. At the same time it conveys the key change of the
original work at the end of the introduction: where the Mendelssohn quartet transcends from A
indication A tempo.
Tempo.
major into A minor, Maw brings out the B-D vs. B-Eb, or enharmonic B-D# under the A tempo.
The difference is in the detail of the used pitches: where Mendelssohn has a written-out tremolo
between the notes E and F for the viola, which has been recognized as a reference to Beethoven
by many scholars, Maw alternates between E and D, with a pedal on B and finishes on an E-flat
(enharmonic D#) (Ex. 23a). This minor to major contrast was pointed out earlier and again hints
at the key change from A major to A minor in the Mendelssohn albeit in reversed order.
Example 23 Maw’s Furioso at the end of the introduction, p. 3, line 5
Example 23a Mendelssohn, String Quartet Opus 13, the transition from the opening theme to the Allegro vivace.
Both song motif (“Ist es Wahr?”) and tremolo are present here
Since the presentation of this material has such striking similarities to its original it can
be considered a close but imperfect recall of an accurate memory, which makes it another
representation of the first category of memory.
Set in an environment of ascending and descending scale figures, the twice inserted Poco
meno mosso of the second variation is in stark contrast with its slow moving eighth notes. The
top notes of these two slow-moving sections form multiple pc-sets 3-5 (016), also known as the
Viennese Trichord (V.T.),38 which I presented earlier in Example 8. Maw sets it against a major
38
Max Paddison and Irène Deliège, Contemporary Music: Theoretical and Philosophical
Perspectives, London; New York: Routledge, 2016: p. 62

seventh drone of D-C#. This recalls an element of the first movement, or the Allegro Vivace of
Mendelssohn’s String Quartet. In bar 166, a Viennese Trichord: E via Bb to A, is played by the
first violin, while placed on a static minor third A-C accompaniment in the other voices (Ex. 24)
and its final note A is without accompaniment. In the case of Mendelssohn, there is of course no
concept of such collection as a Viennese Trichord because it originates no earlier than the
beginning of the twentieth century with the Second Viennese School. It is merely an alteration of
an earlier presentation of the A-minor triad where the first violin plays E-C-A in a dotted eighth
and sixteenth rhythm against a moving and continuous accompaniment in eighth notes (m. 164).
Yet, it is the only instance in the quartet where this particular trichord is found. Not only does its
uniqueness make it stand out against to the other voices, its presentation over a not-moving
accompaniment and its distance of two octaves above the other voices beg for attention and as
such seems to have attracted the attention of Maw. The representation of this particular element
of the String Quartet is an instance of immediate associative memory and, although coming from
the quartet, it is found outside of the Intermezzo.
Example 24 Mendelssohn, first movement, Allegro vivace, mm. 163-166, the trichord in the first violin in bar
166, shown in the box. Note that Mendelssohn would not have been familiar with the name of
Viennese Trichord which finds its origins in the Second Viennese School
The sextuplet rasgeados, expressing a violent and passionate climax of the Music of
Memory at the final of its set of variations (Ex. 25) and before going into the coda, refer to the
chords played with six repeated notes in the fugato of the Mendelssohn Intermezzo (Ex. 25a, m.
4). Where Mendelssohn extends the aggravation while at the same time deflating its intensity by
dispersing the gesture over every single voice in the following bars (Ex. 25a, mm. 6-9), Maw
inverts this process and chooses to intensify the gesture which then accumulates through a triple
forte in the final emergence of the original Intermezzo theme. The rhythmical gesture of this six-
note motif is its key element and its recalling in sextuplets instead of sixteenth notes by Maw can
be considered an immediate association. The fact that its harmonic content is different has no
impact on its recall of its origin.

Example 25 Maw, excerpt from the 10th variation, Tempo giusto, p. 21, 4th line. The repeated chord of
Mendelssohn as the base for Maw’s tenth variation
Example 25a Selection from Mendelssohn Intermezzo, Allegro di molto, mm. 9-18, part of the development of the
fugue, showing the repeated chords
The fifth variation, Impetuoso, with its scherzo-like character recalls material from the
Intermezzo’s Fugato. The melodic element that is laid out at the start is the A major triad from its
fifth to its root (Ex. 26). It is the exact opening triad of the first representation of Mendelssohn’s
fugue theme (Ex. 26a). Not only is the A major triad represented, the rhythmic distribution of
eighths in groups of two and three notes has its origin in the irregular distribution of a triple three
eighth-note rhythm over the regularity of the two-four time signature in Mendelssohn’s theme.
The representation of these two main elements in the fifth variation is an immediate
associative recall. Although the rhythmic three-against-two hemiola of the original has been
altered in groupings of two or three eighth notes throughout the variation and has been separated
from the theme’s pitches, the connection between Maw’s treatment of the material and its source
remains perceptible.
Example 26 Maw, Music of Memory, Impetuoso, p. 12, 1st line, the motif of the Mendelssohn fugue theme,
including its articulation
Example 26a Mendelssohn, Intermezzo, Allegro di Molto, mm.1-4, the Fugue theme in the viola
More triads and quarter chords, laced with diatonic scale figures, follow the presentation
of the original idea in this movement. The grouping of three and two continues to be part of the
musical idea.
The last three bars of the string quartet have a short melodic motif, set in a dotted-eighth-
plus-sixteenth and dotted-quarter-plus-eighth rhythm (Ex. 27). It consists of a minor third up,
from C# to E and then down again, followed by a major second down to B. Maw presents it
twice, following the exact melodic outline starting first on a D and with the second presentation
on an F#. He does change the rhythm: the first presentation is then set to sixteenth triplets and
the second presentation effectively at half tempo on eighth-note triplets (Ex.27a).
Example 27 The final 8 bars of the complete Mendelssohn Quartet, in the box the minor third-whole tone motif
Example 27a Opening bars of Senza rigore; non troppo lento, p. 14, line 3-4. Mendelssohn’s final motif is shown
in the boxes. The 32nd figures are incomplete representations of the opening pc-set 4-1, with the
exception of the third and last one
In the Allegro energico, what is referred to as a walking bass in the realms of jazz is
accompanied by chords consisting of barred strings (Ex. 28). There is a strong gestural
resemblance to the answer to Mendelssohn’s fugato theme, Allegro di molto, both in melodic
shape as well as in rhythm and articulation, which is set in staccato eighth notes. Although not
exact in intervallic similarity, the direction and overall shape covers two full bars of the fugue’s
answer in the viola (Ex. 28a). This is another imperfect recall of a memory, while the primary
idea results in a lengthy and continuous string of notes, with no further immediate reference to its
inspiration.
Example 28 Maw, Allegro energico, p. 20, mm. 1-3, the boxed notes show the section with similar gesture to the
answer of the fugue in Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo (Ex. 28a)
Example 28a Mendelssohn, Allegro di molto, mm. 5-8, the fugue subject is heard in the dominant and its answer
in the viola. The boxed notes represent similar gesture with Maw
The presence of a fugato in Music of Memory recalls the fugato within the Intermezzo,
but Maw emphasizes its reference by creating a fugue theme that represents several elements of a
motif that is found in the middle of the Mendelssohn fugato. In the Intermezzo, to be precise in
mm. 89-90, a highly chromatic passage is heard, it connects the final presentation of the fugato’s
theme (mm. 85-88) with the final section of the fugato (mm. 91-107). This passage also sets
itself apart from the rest of the music by its eighth-note staccato rhythm, instead of the written
out staccato in sixteenth notes plus sixteenth rests. When considering the D#, the last eighth note
of the previous bar as the pickup, the chromatic motif starts with a minor third up and a fully
chromatic set of five notes between D# and G follows. This two-bar motif moves gradually
downwards and ends on its beginning note E. After the motif’s total of eight notes are played, the
passage ends with a four times repeated octave on the note A, not written in staccato. The music
then enters a new section that is again in a written out staccato and is more akin to the fugato’s
actual theme (mm. 92-96) (Ex. 29). The fugato theme of Music of Memory has the same pickup
[hyphenate] culminates
D#-E, which is followed by a downwards moving half step D to C# and eventually cumulates in
eight continuous sixteenth notes, spanning two consecutive chromatic pc-sets 4-1 (0123), the
same set as is used for the opening motif. The two sets are stacked and thus form a total of eight
chromatic pitches (Ex. 29a). The opening D# pickup is also the final note of the fugato theme.
Although the differences between the two examples are still quite large, the similarities
are multiple: the total of eight notes for the central sections of both themes, the D#-E pick up,
their downwards gestures, and the chromatic element. Where Mendelssohn transitions through
the repeated octaves, Maw changes to three non-staccato eighth notes and eventually ends on the
same note as the pickup. These similarities make for convincing evidence that this is indeed an
immediate associative memory, however recalled with imperfections.
Example 29 The chromatic passage towards the end of the fugato theme in the Intermezzo, p 148, mm. 88- 96
Example 29a The fugato theme of Music of Memory, p. 18, 1st line, with its D#-E pick up and two stacked PC-
sets 4-1 (0123), freely resembling bars 89-90 from the Intermezzo
The transitional bars which lead from the fugato back to the first theme of the Intermezzo
in Mendelssohn’s work have a repeated pitch E on sixteenth notes in the first violin and singular
seventh
octave displacements on the second beats (Ex. 30). Maw freely represent this idea in the 7th
variation: Poco presto (Ex. 30a). The octave displacements are found as minor seventh and
minor ninth intervals as well as augmented octaves in the rendition of Maw, and also the rhythm
is set in sixteenth triplets versus the original groups of four sixteenth notes. Of course, he also
allows this motif to develop into a completely new unfolding of ideas (Ex. 30b).
Example 30 The final bars, p. 148, mm. 82-90, of Mendelssohn’s fugue, with the octave jumps in the first violin
In this case, the original reference to Mendelssohn also generates its own background and
transitions seamlessly from representations of the original into this background. The triplet
gestures are offset against the open strings of the guitar. In addition, since the guitar is tuned
predominantly in fourths, this freely represents the tonality of A.
Example 30a The idea for the seventh variation, Poco presto p. 16, line 1-2. Displaced notes representing
Mendelssohn’s octave displaced E of the first violin
Example 30b The continuation of the seventh variation, p. 16, 3rd line. The original idea results in free
associations of the material. Also, note the minor 9th displacement in the 4/8 bar
Nicholas Maw, Section 6, Is it True? 49
5. Is it True? The song behind Mendelssohn’s Quartet.

String Quartet Op. 13 perhaps
The song “Ist es Wahr?” is at the very core of Mendelssohn’s string quartet and makes
, especially if it is
for the most iconic and relevant reference in Music of Memory or at least does so when it is
opening three-note motif
considered from a compositional viewpoint (Ex. 31, 31a). The relation of the song’s motif with
Mendelssohn’s string quartet with underneath, the link of the song to Beethoven’s String Quartet
[comma] allusion to – all of these are
no. 6, Op. 135 and even the suggested link with Beethoven’s death are important aspects to
The fact that Maw deliberately quotes the motif from Mendelssohn’s song and not from its
consider. Maw’s deliberate quotations of the motif from the original song and not from its
appearance in the string quartet, however, seems to underline the special significance of this reference.
appearance in the String Quartet reveal his understanding of the importance of the song.
In the third song’s opening motif its characteristic
In the thirdvariation
variation Maw presents the three-note song motif
of Music
of Musicofof Memory,
three-note song motif of D-C#-E in the song’s original dotted rhythm
Memory, of
multiple times against the triplet figures in the Andante placido, or the third variation. He also
performance instruction
underlines its vocal origins with the text la melodia ben cantabile.
As I mentioned earlier, Maw quotes the motif as well as several of the alterations from
the original song: Mendelssohn presents the motif’s rhythm fifteen times with nine different
alterations of its pitches, Maw does so thirteen times with eight different alterations. The
(2-0-3),
authentic motif of the song, C#-B-D or, indicated as a pitch collection :2-0-3, appears three times
within Maw’s quotes as well as in Mendelssohn’s song (dismissing the extra two appearances in
the piano of the original) and the appearances of the different alterations overlap seven times
between both composers.

Example 31 Mendelssohn’s “Frage” Op. 9, No. 1, mm 1-10. The appearances of the rhythmic motif are marked
with numbered pitches for ease of comparison. Visible are the many alterations of the said motif.
2 0 3
2 0 3 1 0 3 0 2
0 0 2 3 1 0 1 5 0 (3)
5 3 0 0 2 3
Example 31a Music of Memory, Andante placido, p. 8, mm. 5-8. The first quote of the “Ist es Wahr?” motif and
two altered quotes following
2 0 3
0 2 3
6 1 0
Example 31b Maw, Andante placido. Marked with numbers and boxed are the disjunct pitches in the middle of the
third variation –at the end of the phrase, p. 5, m. 12
The following table shows the different variations of the “Ist es Wahr?” motif as they
appear in the Mendelssohn and in Maw. For ease of comparison, I have set each individual use
of the original motif where it appears in the voice (again, omitting the three extra appearances in
the piano) with chromatic numbering (Table 6.) This will show a strong overlap of use of the
different variations of the motif, making a case for Maw’s intimate knowledge of Mendelssohn’s
String Quartet, its score, and its historic relevance. The most immediate presentations of the
original C#-B-D (2-0-3), or major second down followed by minor third up, which in the table is
labeled 1a, and related motifs with a similar down-up structure, such as D-C#-E (1-0-3) and E-D-
F# (2-0-4), both originating from the Mendelssohn, as well as Bb-A-D (1-0-5) in Music of
Memory, can be considered to have a strong relationship to the original motif as these alterations
do not mutate the motif beyond recognition. If the order of the pitches changes and what is left is
the rhythmic aspect, the relation with the original motif is weakened, however still relevant.
Table 6 The appearances of the “Ist es Wahr?” motif and its permutations. The number of appearances of
each pc-set (song-motif) within both the original and in Maw’s set of quotes is given, as well as the
measure in which each one occurs.
Motif (chromatic pc- Number of Appearance in “Ist es Number of Appearance in Maw
set) appearances Wahr?”(mm.) appearances (mm.)
1a 2-0-3 (pc-set 3-2) 3 Pick up-1, 2-3, 12-13, 3 6, 12, 22-23
0-2-3 2 6-7, 9-10 2 7, 9-10
3-2-0 2 10-11, 19
1b 1-0-3 1 4-5
3-1-0 1 18-19 2 2, 4
2a 5-3-0 (pc-set 3-7) 1 7-8 1 18
2b 5-2-0 1 21-22
3 0-0-0 (pc-set 1-1) 1 15-16
4 2-0-0 (pc-set 2-2) 1 16-17
5 2-0-4 (pc-set 3-6) 1 17-18
6 6-1-0 (pc-set 3-5) 1 8
7 4-0-3 (pc-set 3-3) 1 15
8 1-0-5 (pc-set 3-4) 1 20-21
One appearance of the “Ist es Wahr?” motif in Music of Memory is a little unusual: at the
end of bar 12, Maw writes the exact relative pitch structure (F#-E-G) of the “Frage” motif but
sets it in a sixteenth rhythm (Ex. 31b). In this manner, detaching it from the original dotted
rhythm and as such hiding it from being an obvious quote. This appearance, however, can still be
heard as it is set without the otherwise obscuring triplet accompaniment and as such strikes the
listener as a witty little insider’s joke.
The previous analysis leaves us with twelve recollected elements from the Opus 13
present in Music of Memory. In the following table, I have placed each of them, indicating their
location in the Mendelssohn as well as where they are placed in the Music of Memory (Table 7).
Table 7 The different motifs from the Mendelssohn String Quartet as they appear in Music of Memory
1 Adagio, m.19, D & E in Introduction, Furioso (D&E,
cello with a B)
2 Allegro, vln 1, Opening motif,
m. 63 Basic building block
3 Opening theme 1st variation, triplet figures,
Intermezzo, m. 1-26 the top notes of the chords
4 Allegro Vivace, m. 165- 2nd variation

166 poco meno mosso
5 Main motif, Intermezzo 4th variation,
L’istesso tempo
6 Fugue subject, Allegro 5th variation

di molto. Impetuoso
7 Adagio come I. 3rd to 6th variation, Senza rigore

last bar of quartet
8 Allegro di molto, bar 7th variation, Poco presto
82-90
9 Allegro di molto, bar 8th variation, Fugue subject
63-64
10 Allegro di molto, the 9th variation, Allegro energico

fugue’s answer, m. 5-6
11 Allegro di molto, bar 12 10th variation, Tempo giusto
12 The Motif of the song 3rd Variation, Andante

‘Frage”: “Ist es Wahr?” placido, exact rhythm, often
exact copy of intervals.
Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, section 6, the background music, 54
6. The background music
The division between the so-called associative memory, a single idea spinning off a wide
texture of new ideas and associations, and the musical ideas that surround it, is a blurry one to
say the least. It is clear that Maw not only takes liberty with the representation of motifs he
places in his own background music, which I have referred to earlier as the House of Loci;
although still linked through key elements such as their overall gesture, their intervallic
construction, or their rhythm, he allows new ideas to spin off from the original material at almost
every occasion. This is not a problem if we continue to remind ourselves of the incentive of the
composer to include Mendelssohn into his own work. To exemplify this I will point out
remarkable uses of material from Mendelssohn, where the idea itself forms the basic ingredient
of the overall material Maw uses for the background of Music of Memory.
Example 32 Maw, Music of Memory, p. 2, 1st line, the opening motif compared with the four-note chromatic
element of the Mendelssohn Intermezzo, p. 148, mm. 88-89. In both cases the four chromatic notes
appear once and note three of each set is repeated at the end (A in Maw vs F# in Mendelssohn.)
The opening motif, arguably derived from bars 89-90 from the Fugato, is one of the most
prominent elements in much of Music of Memory (Ex. 32). The motif is often utilized as is but
also balanced against its extended form when Maw adds a whole tone to the set, creating pc-set
5-2 (01235). This set is often used with a similar set stacked on top while sharing one note
between the two sets, which I will explain later.
The chromatic phrases following the motif can be deconstructed to show how they have
been constructed with the use of the opening motif. The first opening phrase presents eight pc-set
4-1 (0123) with no overlapping notes, although not all collections are complete (Ex. 33). The
next two phrases show a similar presence of the chromatic four-note set and further into the
introduction, under Pesante e liberamente, again the same principle is found, although this time,
the sets seem to be overlapping (Ex. 34)
Example 33 Declamando, p. 1, 1st line, starting immediately after the opening motif. Every complete pc-set is
shown with a bracket. The numbers show each individual pitch of every single pc-set. Note that two
sets are incomplete
2 1 0 3 2 1 2 0 0 3 3 1 3 2 1 1 0 0 3 0 2 0 3 1 2+3
1 2 0
3 0
(OR 243)
Example 34 Maw, Music of Memory, Pesante e liberamente, p. 3, line 3-4. Each bracket shows a new pc-set 4-1
with the numbers showing the consecutive pitches and the letters the root of the pc-set
F C
Eb A
3 2 0 0 2 1
1/3 1 0/3 2 Eb
0/3 1 0 2
3 2 0
1 0 2 3 0 1 4 0/2
G F#
3
Db G# E
1/3 1 0 2 3 2 1 0 3 2 1 0
3 3 2 (?) 3 0
B
0 2 1
E
The phrase under Tempo 1, liberamente resembles an arpeggio. Its collection of notes can
be referred to as a so-called germinal, a term coined by Anthony Paine in his 1964 article on
Maw’s music.39 It can be understood as a combination of an Eb Major 7 chord with a Bb minor
chord, but also it can be understood as being constructed from two pc-set 5-2, in this case mixed
and laid out like an ascending row (Ex. 35). It is followed by a descending germinal, composed
of an Eb Major 7 chord and an A major triad. Immediately following is a scale figure with some
chromatic elements. Within our approach of the music, it is again a combination of pitch class
cell pc-set 5-2 built on G: G, A, Bb, B, C, and D: D, E, F, F#, G. (Ex. 36). In both cases, the
material is laid out in a way that makes it impossible to understand its deeper structure when
merely listening to the music, although clearly many chromatic elements stand out and as a
whole it creates a sense of wild arpeggios, while at the same time spanning two octaves.
Example 35 Maw, Music of Memory, p. 2, 4th line, use of germinals, while extending on initial pitch class set pc-
set 4-1 by adding one whole note which generates pc-set 5-2
39
Anthony Payne, “The Music of Nicholas Maw”, No. 68 (Spring, 1964), p. 20. A germinal is a
combination of a major and a minor chord and, according to Payne, is “a harmony, intrinsic to
the work’s harmonic feel”.

In the first variation, Tranquillo, ma con movimento, pc-set 4-1 is at the start of the
diatonic-like scales whilst not always used in its entirety. The first two occasions are based on G
and with that, the immediate resemblance to the original presentation is striking (Ex. 36).
Example 36 Maw, Music of Memory, Tranquillo, ma con movimento, p. 4 line 3-4. Shown within the brackets are
the numbers of the notes of the opening pitch class cell in relation to their root, with an “x” showing
a displaced note
F# minor triad 2 3 1 0
2 3 1 2 1 0 3
F minor triad x
2 1 1 0
2 x
1 0
3 1 2 1 2 0 1 3
x
First apperarance of C
Similarly, in the second variation, the starting points of the scale figures seem constructed
from pc-set 4-1. Although this is not always the case, the sets are often completed with a note
from the accompanying three note clusters that aligns with the first note marking the beginnings
of the scales (Ex. 37).
Example 37 Maw, Music of Memory, Poco vivace, p. 6-7. The use of pc-set 4-1 at the start of several beginnings
of the scale figures. Sometimes the completing pitch is found in the accompanying notes
One more obvious use is, as I discussed earlier, the chromatic fugue theme in Maw’s
work (the 8th variation), consisting of two stacked pc-set 4-1. Maw did not try to blend the two
and as such, makes it obviously clear that the double motif or pc-set 4-1 is the key element of the
fugue (Ex. 38).
Example 38 Moderato e risoluto, p.18, 1st line, the Fugue theme, formed with two stacked pc-set 4-1
2 3 11 00 1 3 2 1 0
6.1 Formal similarities
themes and motives

Besides borrowing formal similarities from Mendelssohn’s iIntermezzo, Maw also makes
its
references to the ternary structure of the movement, which is reflected on various levels, and to it
cyclic design. The intentional nature of these formal references is confirmed by the following
statement from Maw’s program notes: “The overall shape of the work also takes its cue from the
tripartite nature of the theme.” And on the cyclical aspects of the work he comments: “This leads
straight into the coda, where the theme is interspersed with short fragments recalled from the
preceding variations.” As Carl Dahlhaus explains: “Cyclic form is a term used to describe a
large-scale instrumental work, normally from the nineteenth or early twentieth century, in which
the same or very similar thematic material is used in at least two different movements.”40 The
40
Benedict Taylor, “Cyclic Form, Time, and Memory in Mendelssohn’s A-minor String
Quartet,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Spring 2010), p. 47

feature
inclusion of a fugue in Music of Memory constitutes another formal reference reminiscent of a
more distant past. It reflects the days of Mozart where a strictly imitative polypony was
considered old style and, as such, it was a reference to an earlier period of music history.
to
In addition t formal relationships, there are references to the tonality of Mendelssohn’s
String Quartet. One of them is the striking A minor sonority at the end of Music of Memory,
which unfolds in a slow arpeggio before being repeated as the final chord. As shown in the
language
preceding analysis, Maw’s harmonic anguage often emphasizes the contrast between major and
minor thirds, which can be seen as an extension of the prominent opposition between parallel
[no hyphens]
keys, most notably A-minor and A-major, in Mendelssohn’s Intermezzo.
Maw also plays with the minor/major contrast in several occasions and references to the
A major/minor contrast between the introduction and coda against the body of the Mendelssohn.
One more feature which can be considered a key element with regards to the formal similarities
is the appearance of a fugue.

Nicholas Maw, Music of Memory, section 7, conclusion 60
7. Conclusion
Maw realized that the whole of music history is available to composers of the Twentieth
Century.41 While this notion has a very positive feel to it, it holds the challenge still of
integrating all it encompasses with one’s own music. It also implies the risk of losing being
original or authentic, a criticism often raised against neo-classic composers. And then there are
the perils of annihilating everything through lack of distinction between the particular qualities
from different style periods, which is a flaw often seen in post-modernist thinking.
Through the deliberate inclusion of elements of the Mendelssohn Quartet, from overall
formal aspects to very detailed motivic elements, Maw has made a serious attempt to shape the
idea of inclusion into a new work for the guitar. With its wide range of diverse musical ideas,
dense presentation, and a length of almost 20 minutes, it is of considerable magnitude. It is being
performed on a regular basis by established and upcoming performers (Marcin Dylla, Thomas
Viloteau, Sanel Redzic, to name a few). All this is evidence of its relevance, to say the least.
Maw claimed he intended the work to be a serious effort; as Eliot Fisk has explained: “Its sheer
length and of course the quality and variety of his imagination show that [Maw] took it, as he
promised me [Fisk] at the very beginning, ‘very seriously’.”42
Have all of Maw’s convictions actually led to a successful inclusion of past tradition in
his compositional processes? Did it create relevance for Maw and did he, through his own
41
Griffith, New Sounds, New Personalities, p. 170
42
Eliot Fisk, email to author, November 18, 2017
musical borrowing, honor the continuity of tradition that he hoped to achieve? Does it thus
qualify as ‘New Romanticism’ as Paul Griffiths labels him in his obituary? Or has Maw actually
failed in his efforts for inclusion and could his attempts be considered Post-Modernist43 as he
renders the past irrelevant? Maybe more important, has Maw succeeded in contributing to the
field of musical borrowing by linking the concept to the function of memory?
The first aspect of relevance in this matter is the variation form Maw chooses for Music
of Memory. It is known as one of the oldest musical forms and, with that, rooted deep in
tradition. Maw applies it in a very creative and refreshing way. There is no simple fill-in-the-
blanks of form here: Music of Memory is not only presenting a part of its source material, the
partial quotes of the original are also dispersed throughout the work. Or, to say it differently,
while many of the variations themselves merely allude to key elements of the original, much of
the original material used in these variations was never quoted. As I have demonstrated, each one
“
of the variations, or ”meditations” as Maw likes to call them, reflects or includes elements found
anywhere in – and around – the Mendelssohn Quartet.
This lack of presentation of used material, however, poses a problem for the listener: how
would it be possible to hear and understand the references and allusions when one isn’t familiar
with Mendelssohn’s String Quartet? The solution lies in the function of the representations of the
Intermezzo theme within Music of Memory. They are meant to create a strong reference to music
from outside Maw’s own musical world, a connection to the past if you will. And its accurate
rendition as well as its persistent presence generates a sense of great importance. This sensation
is amplified by the work’s final A minor chord, another element that seems a little displaced
within Music of Memory.
43
In accordance with its description in the Oxford dictionary
The multitude of these efforts take the Mendelssohn theme beyond a simple quote or
casual wink towards a dead composer. It begs the question of Maw’s intention and urges even the
most casual of listeners to pay close attention. In short, the immediate quotations of the
Mendelssohn Intermezzo are a hint for the willing observer to familiarize him or herself with the
source of all this music. The many hidden gems I have presented in my analysis prove there is
indeed much to be discovered.
Can referencing one singular work establish a bridge to the past that Maw seeks to
create? Of course, as Mendelssohn himself revived the music of the past, embodied by his
performances of works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel, any link to Mendelssohn as a
historic figure has particular relevance.44 Maw makes this point even more profound by his
choice of the String Quartet Op. 13 because, as I mentioned in the section on the Quartet, it
connects on multiple levels with the late Beethoven quartets. On an interesting side-note: this
lineage doesn’t stop there because Mendelssohn followed suit in modelling his Quartet on
[dot missing after 5]
Beethoven, who himself had emulated Mozart’s “Haydn Quartet” K.464 in his Op. 18 No. 545
Besides the compositional elements of this connection to Beethoven there is the source
[delete dot]
material of the Quartet: the song “Ist es Wahr?”. With its allusion to Beethoven’s String Quartet
Op. 135, where Beethoven had written the enigmatic words “Muss es Sein?” (must it be?), and
possibly also to the composer’s death, asking if it is true, Maw finds an even deeper, personal
link to one of Mendelssohn’s important predecessors. He exemplifies his point, as I have shown,
44
Jürgen Thym, The Organ, and the Music of the Past, Univ. of Rochester Press, 2014
45
Uri Golomb, “Mendelssohn’s Creative Response to Late Beethoven”. Ad Parnassum: Vol. 4,
Issue 7 (Apr 2006): p. 115
by quoting the song’s motif and its variations multiple times. Although there is little evidence in
the immediate referencing to Beethoven’s String Quartet or his death in the song “Frage”, this
narrative has become a part of the history of the Quartet and this validates its consideration. I
believe that Maw’s deliberate use of the song’s material proves he was aware of its importance
for the quartet. It serves and deepens Maw’s effort to “throw a bridge back to the past”. The
unique construction of Music of Memory begs of the listener to learn something new about the
musical past. It places Maw’s use of musical allusion within the context of a broader historic
framework and hence deepens the concepts of musical borrowing.

64
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Nicholas Maw’s “Music of Memory”

a Framework of Expanding Recollections

Research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

December 16, 2017

List of Examples and Tables

Table 1 The formal structure of the Intermezzo ................................................................ 13

Example 21 Maw, L’istesso il tempo, the use of motivic material .......................................... 39

“Lesser artists borrow,

the Britten-Pears library for access to their collection.

understand how to structure my research and my thinking.

to assist: Richard Vallone, Jason Coleman, and Maria Jane Loizou.

Howell, Cody Forrest, Lautaro Mantilla, and Jacquelyn Stucker Drye.

love throughout the process.

refer to works of others, also known as the field of musical borrowing.5

To understand and evaluate Maws’ memory-related techniques within the context of

and numbered pitch collection in parenthesis, in accordance to the categorization by Forte.6

1.1 Biography of Maw

Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York.

MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2003, p. 121

greatly at an early performance of Birtwistle’s Earth Dances.”12

include it in his own music.

1.2 The background of Music of Memory

the Lichfield Festival in England on July 9, 1989.

1.3 Maw as a composer

of his own personal work: Life Studies (1973)

communicate, and its roots are in song and dance.”18

a certain looseness in the language, that imagination seizes on the looseness.” 19

http://www.bruceduffie.com/maw.html (accessed: Dec. 2, 2017)

his music on a larger scale of historic relevance.

Times, Vol. 152, No. 1915 (Summer 2011), pp 31-57

2. Felix Mendelsssohn’s String Quartet Op. 13

Härtel, 1875, plate M.B. 23

Atterbom,Geijer,Fredrika Bremer, C. W. Böttiger och andra, Stockholm: Albert Bonnier, 1913,

Stephen E. Hefling, Routledge, 2004, pp. 170-207

Routledge, 2008, p. 151.

article on the Quartet, pointing to Mendelssohn’s deliberate response to Beethoven’s late

Arguably, by using the Mendelssohn String Quartet, Maw carries Mendelssohn’s

2.1 The Intermezzo

structure of the first eight bars to Beethoven’s Op. 130.29

gesture of the second violin is the ending of the main melody.

(Jun. 1974), p. 283

drops an octave and ends in measure 26.

answer simultaneously played by the cello.

extend the subject while connecting it with the answer.

against a binary rhythm.

the notes as well as indicated with “staccato”.

Allegro di molto material at the key change (Ex. 3).

3. Music of Memory, overall formal analysis

Framed by an introduction and a coda, Music of Memory consists of 10 variations, which

analysis of the Music of Memory.

Table 2 Formal structure of Music of Memory

Introduction Section I Section II Section III Coda

Memory] is a somewhat freely-organized set of variations – though ‘meditations’ would be a

theme-and-variations work. Instead, Maw is building a network of allusions and cross-references

3.1 The Introduction Declamando

material for Music of Memory.

as well as to segue into the quoted Intermezzo theme.

next gesture is moving downwards again, this time in a triplet rhythm.

discuss the connection this gesture makes to the Mendelssohn Quartet.