The mention of a prodigious child composer usually brings Mozart to mind, but Mendelssohn was amazingly gifted in his own right, perhaps even surpassing the legendary "Amadeus" in some respects. Born to a rather wealthy family in Hamburg, Mendelssohn received abundant early opportunities to develop his talent. His family hosted regular gatherings of local musicians to perform new or unfamiliar music, and the young composer was able to hear each of his efforts performed almost as soon as it was completed. By the age of fourteen he had composed twelve symphonies for string orchestra, many of them demonstrating a compelling mastery of counterpoint in the style of J. S. Bach. His Symphony No. 1 for full orchestra received its first public performance when he was fifteen and was well received, not as the charming early attempt by a child but as the legitimate announcement of a mature artist's impending arrival. The Octet for strings, which Mendelssohn composed at the age of sixteen, is considered a masterpiece.
Mendelssohn's family owned copies of several of Shakespeare's plays, translated into German. The young composer was particularly taken with A Midsummer Night's Dream, and decided at the age of seventeen to compose an overture that could serve as a prelude to performances of the play. The overture, one of the most popular in the repertoire to this day, is exceptional for its ability to evoke elements of the play through purely musical means, whether by using lightly dancing notes in the violins to suggest fairies or by imitating the braying of a donkey. Much later, Mendelssohn returned to the project and composed complete incidental music to the play, including several orchestral interludes for scene changes or between acts, simple accompaniments for some of the play's more dramatic moments, and two songs for the elves and fairies on stage to sing (realized in performance by women or children). Remarkably, even after a sixteen year interval, Mendelssohn was able to base the final song on his original overture, making it sound like the he had composed the overture with the final song in mind all along.
Although Mendelssohn set his German translation of the play, performances in English-speaking countries usually return to Shakespeare's original text. The Song with Chorus comes from the beginning of Act II, scene 2. Titania, Queen of the Fairies, prepares for sleep, while her jealous husband Oberon has plotted to administer a love potion while she slumbers. The "spotted snakes," "thorny hedgehogs," and other unpleasant creatures of the text are represented by the swarming line in the violins and flutes that runs through much of the song, contrasting with the innocent "lullaby" music sung by the chorus. The Intermezzo follows Act II, where Hermia, in pursuit of Lysander, becomes lost in forest. The tremolo in the middle strings creates an agitated mood, while the breathless melody split between the violins and woodwinds suggests the search for the way back out.
The Nocturne is played between Acts III and IV, as Puck has used more of the magic juice to restore the love between Lysander and Hermia. A beautiful melody in the solo horn, supported by two bassoons, is contrasted by a more agitated central section, but all ends peacefully. The Wedding March, which follows Act IV, is well known, although perhaps not all music-lovers realize that Mendelssohn is indeed the composer of this famous tune. At the end of the play, after the young lovers have been properly married and the play-within-the-play has been presented, Oberon calls for a celebration, and Mendelssohn's Finale explicitly follows his suggestion, "Sing and dance it trippingly."