A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sketch
SKETCH (Ital. Schizzo; Germ. Skizze, Fr. Esquisse). A short Movement, usually written for the Pianoforte, and deriving its name, in some cases, from its vividly descriptive character, in others, from the slightness of its construction.
Among Sketches of the purely descriptive class, the most perfect examples we possess are Sterndale Bennett's three well-known Movements, entitled, 'The Lake,' 'The Mill-stream,' and 'The Fountain' (op. 10). In freshness of conception, and finished delicacy of treatment, these delicious little inspirations stand absolutely alone, in their own peculiar sphere. Their truthfulness to Nature is as remarkable as their loyal submission to the laws of Art. Though rightly called Sketches, because each one presents a single feature, only, selected from the infinite variety of detail comprised within the limits of a beautiful landscape, they are, in reality, elaborately finished pictures, reminding us of three little water-colour drawings by Turner, or three bright flashes from the pencil of Girtin. And, like the works of the last-named Painter, they are so thoroughly English, that we should seek in vain for the realisation of their poetical imagery in he scenery of any other country than our own. As surely as Schubert's 'Forelle' lived in a German trout-stream—and, who can hear the Song, and doubt it?—so surely does the rush of Bennett's flashing wavelets turn an English mill-wheel.
Mendelssohn's three little Capriccios, written, in Wales, for the cousins of Professor Taylor, and now known as op. 16, have also been published under the title of Sketches, and may fairly lay claim to it, though it was not given to them by the Composer himself. The first of these, in A minor, was suggested by the perfume of a carnation; the second, in E minor, by the fairy trumpets of the Ecremocarpus, a spray of which the Composer drew upon the margin of the original autograph; and the third, in E major, by a little Welsh Rivulet—a 'real actual Rivulet'—at Coed-du, near Mold, in Flintshire, which particularly struck Mendelssohn's fancy, and the tiny waterfalls, smooth reaches, and other details of which he painted, so carefully, from Nature, that, years afterwards, his manner of performing the Music suggested to Schirmer the idea of a charming little water-colour drawing.[1]
Schumann's four 'Skizzen' for the Pedal Pianoforte (op. 58), are of an altogether different class, and derive their name from the Composer's modest appreciation of their calibre; as does, also, Stephen Heller's pretty, but certainly not unfinished little Study, entitled 'Esquisse.'
- ↑ See vol. ii. pp. 261–265. The Autograph is headed 'Am Bach.'