Song without words
A song-like piano piece without text (Mendelssohn).
What it means
A song without words is a short piano piece that reproduces the layout of an art song without any sung text: a lyrical, often top-voice melody unfolds over an accompanying piano texture, just as a singer's line unfolds over piano accompaniment in a song.
The name goes back to Felix Mendelssohn, who between 1829 and 1845 published eight books of six such pieces each under the title Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), establishing the genre.
Musical use
Mendelssohn's pieces are usually in three-part form and often carry nicknames such as Venetian Gondola Song or Spring Song, hinting at a mood without setting out a concrete program. The genre quickly found imitators, for instance Charles-Valentin Alkan, and comparable character-piece-style piano miniatures by other nineteenth-century composers.
A song without words should be distinguished from a genuine art song, where text and music are inseparably linked, and from the broader character piece, which need not presuppose a song-like melody-and-accompaniment structure.
Performance practice
When practising, treat the top voice deliberately as a vocal line: phrase it with breath-like shape and a clear climax, and keep the accompanying voices noticeably quieter and more even in the background. This produces the song-like character that gives the piece its name.