Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy[n 1] (3 February 1809 – 4 November

1847 (38 years old)), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn,[n 2] was a
German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.
Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and chamber
music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A
Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the
overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, his String Octet, and the melody
for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", as adapted by William
Hayman Cummings. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano
compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical
tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative
originality has been re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of
the Romantic era.
A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born

into a prominent Jewish family. He was brought up without religion until the age of Portrait of Mendelssohn by the
seven, when he was baptised as a Reformed Christian. Felix was recognised early as English miniaturist James Warren
a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his Childe, 1839
talent.
Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, and revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, notably with his
performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. He became well received in his travels throughout Europe as a composer, conductor
and soloist; his ten visits to Britain – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult
career. His essentially conservative musical tastes set him apart from more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt,
Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatory,[n 3] which he founded, became a bastion of
this anti-radical outlook.
Contents
Life
Childhood
Surname
Career
Musical education
Early maturity
Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach
Düsseldorf
Leipzig and Berlin
Mendelssohn in Britain
Death
Personal life
Personality
Religion
Mendelssohn and his contemporaries
Marriage and children
Jenny Lind
Music
Composer
Style
Early works
Symphonies
Other orchestral music
Concertos
Chamber music
Piano music
Organ music
Opera
Choral works
Songs
Performer
Conductor
Editor
Teacher
Reputation and legacy
The first century
Modern opinions
Notes and references
Sources
Further reading
External links
Texts
Recordings
Music scores
Life
Childhood
Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent
city-state,[n 4] in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his
Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, would be born.[4] Mendelssohn's father, the banker
Abraham Mendelssohn, was the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn,
whose family was prominent in the German Jewish community.[5] Until his baptism at age
seven, Mendelssohn was brought up largely without religion.[6] His mother, Lea Salomon,
was a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy.[7] Mendelssohn
was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and
precocious musical talent.[8]
The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise in fear of French reprisal
for the Mendelssohn bank's role in breaking Napoleon's Continental System blockade.[9]
Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Felix Mendelssohn aged 12
Rebecka – the best education possible. Fanny became a pianist well known in Berlin musical (1821) by Carl Joseph
circles as a composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be Begas
the more musical. But it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman
to pursue a career in music, so she remained an active but non-professional musician.[10]
[11]
Abraham was initially disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he was seriously dedicated.
Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at their home in Berlin
included artists, musicians and scientists, among them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Peter Gustav
Lejeune Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry).[12] The musician Sarah Rothenburg has written of the
[13]
household that "Europe came to their living room".
Surname
Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion prior to Felix's birth; he and his wife decided not to have Felix circumcised, in
contravention of the Jewish tradition.[14] Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, and were baptised
by a Reformed Church minister in 1816,[15] at which time Felix was given the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his
wife Lea were baptised in 1822, and formally adopted the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for
themselves and for their children.[6] The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy,
who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname.[16] In an 1829 letter to Felix, Abraham
explained that adopting the Bartholdy name was meant to demonstrate a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: "There
can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a JewishConfucius". (Letter to Felix of 8 July 1829).[17] On embarking on
his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham had requested, but in deference to his father signed
his letters and had his visiting cards printed using the form 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'.[18] In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of
"Bartholdy [...] this name that we all dislike".[19]
Career
Musical education
Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris.[20]
Later in Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, who was himself a former student of Muzio
Clementi.[21] From at least May 1819 Mendelssohn (initially with his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl
Friedrich Zelter in Berlin.[22] This was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as
a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil ofW. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach. Sarah Levy displayed some talent
as a keyboard player, and often played with Zelter's orchestra at the Berliner Singakademie; she and the Mendelssohn family were
among its leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts which she bequeathed to the
Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition.[23] This undoubtedly
played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn's musical tastes, as his works reflect this study of Baroque and early classical
music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose
music influenced him deeply.[24]
Early maturity
Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert
accompanying a horn duo.[25] He was a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at
home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin.[26] Between the ages
[27] His first work, a piano
of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12string symphonies for such concerts, and a number of chamber works.
quartet, was published when he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of this quartet by the
house of Schlesinger.[28] In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11).[29]
At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, a work which has been regarded as "mark[ing] the beginning of his
maturity as a composer."[30] This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which he wrote a year later
in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (Later, in 1843, he also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous
"Wedding March".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture—that is, a piece not written deliberately to
accompany a staged performance but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became
a popular form in musical Romanticism.[31]
In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles,
who confessed in his diaries[32] that he had little to teach him. Moscheles and
Mendelssohn became close colleagues and lifelong friends. The year 1827 saw the
premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn's opera Die Hochzeit
des Camacho. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the
genre again.[33]
Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and

philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature[34] and translated Terence's
Andria for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826
as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original
text)].[35][n 5] This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the Humboldt
University of Berlin, where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, on history by Eduard Gans, and on geography by Carl
First page of the manuscript of
Ritter.[37] Mendelssohn's Octet (1825) (now
in the US Library of Congress)
Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach

In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (then in his seventies), who
was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation
between Goethe and Zelter:
"Musical prodigies ... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at
sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart
in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, "... but what your pupil already accomplishes,
bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a
child."[38]
Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions,[39] and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other
compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantata Die erste
Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60, 1832).[40]
In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of the actor Eduard Devrient, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a
performance in Berlin of Bach'sSt Matthew Passion. Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon, had given him a copy of
the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece.[41] The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the
Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance, one of the very few since Bach's death and the first ever outside of
Leipzig,[n 6] was the central event in the revival of Bach's music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe.[43] It earned
Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few explicit references which Mendelssohn made to his
world!"[44][45]
origins: "To think that it took an actor and a Jew's son to revive the greatest Christian music for the
Over the next few years Mendelssohn travelled widely. His first visit to England was in 1829; other places visited during the 1830s
included Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years
proved to be the germination for some of his most famous works, including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish and Italian
symphonies.[46]
Düsseldorf
On Zelter's death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Singakademie; but at a vote in January
1833 he was defeated for the post by Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen. This may have been because of Mendelssohn's youth, and fear of
possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry.[47] Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn
divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf, where he was appointed musical
director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833.[48]
In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of
George Frideric Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt prepared from the original score, which he had found in London. This precipitated a
Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of the St. Matthew
Passion.[49] Mendelssohn worked with the dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first
appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage
at the audience's protests about the cost of tickets. His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city's provincialism,
led him to resign his position at the end of 1834. He had offers from both Munich and Leipzig for important musical posts, namely,
direction of the Munich Opera, the editorship of the prestigious Leipzig music journal the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and
direction of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; he accepted the latter in 1835.[50][51]
Leipzig and Berlin

In Leipzig, Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the town's musical life by working with
the orchestra, the opera house, theThomanerchor (of which Bach had been a director), and the
city's other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn's concerts included, in addition to
many of his own works, three series of "historical concerts" featuring music of the eighteenth
century, and a number of works by his contemporaries.[52] He was deluged by offers of music
from rising and would-be composers; among these was Richard Wagner, who submitted his
early Symphony, the score of which, to Wagner's disgust, Mendelssohn lost or mislaid.[53]
Mendelssohn also revived interest in the music of Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann
discovered the manuscript of Schubert's Ninth Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who
promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert's
death.[54]
Mendelssohn's study in
A landmark event during Mendelssohn's Leipzig years was the premiere of his oratorio
Leipzig
Paulus, (the English version of this is known asSt. Paul), given at the Lower Rhenish Festival
in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer's father, which affected him
greatly; Felix wrote that he would "never cease to endeavour to gain his approval [...] although I can no longer enjoy it".[55] St. Paul
[56]
seemed to many of Mendelssohn's contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation.
When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to the Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the
establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He
was reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig.[57] Mendelssohn nonetheless
spent some time in Berlin, writing some church music, and, at the King's request, music for productions of Sophocles's Antigone
(1841 – an overture and seven pieces) and Oedipus at Colonus (1845), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1843) and Racine's Athalie
(1845).[n 7] But the funds for the school never materialised, and many of the court's promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances,
[59]
title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have the excuse to return to Leipzig.
In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy".[n 8] where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians,
including the string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and the music theorist Moritz Hauptmann, also became staff
members.[60] After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, his musically conservative tradition was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him
as head of the Conservatory.[61]
Mendelssohn in Britain
Mendelssohn first visited Britain in 1829, where Moscheles, who had already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical
circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh, where he met among others the composer John Thomson, whom he later recommended
for the post of Professor of Music at Edinburgh University.[62] He made ten visits to Britain, lasting about 20 months; he won a
strong following, which enabled him to make a good impression on British musical life. [63] He composed and performed, and also
edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J. S. Bach. Scotland inspired
two of his most famous works: the overture The Hebrides (also known as Fingal's Cave); and the Scottish Symphony (Symphony No.
3).[64] An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Mendelssohn's residence in London was placed at 4 Hobart Place in
Belgravia, London, in 2013.[65]
His protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett, worked closely with Mendelssohn during this period, both
in London and Leipzig. He first heard Bennett perform in London in 1833 aged 17.[66][n 9] Bennett appeared with Mendelssohn in
[68]
concerts in Leipzig throughout the 1836/1837 season.
On Mendelssohn's eighth British visit in the summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote: "
[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with
engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year." (Letter to Rebecka
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Soden, 22 July 1844).[69] On subsequent visits Mendelssohn met Queen Victoria and her husband Prince
Albert, himself a composer, who both greatly admired his music.[70][71]
Mendelssohn's oratorioElijah was commissioned by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival and premiered on 26 August 1846, at
the Town Hall, Birmingham. It was composed to a German text translated into English by William Bartholomew, who authored and
[72][73]
translated many of Mendelssohn's works during his time in England.
On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4
and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and
Prince Albert.[74]
Death
Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous
problems and overwork. A final tour of England left him exhausted and ill, and the death of his sister,
Fanny, on 14 May 1847, caused him further distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, aged
38, Mendelssohn died in Leipzig after a series of strokes.[75] His grandfather Moses, Fanny, and both
his parents had all died from similar apoplexies.[76][n 10] Felix's funeral was held at the
Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The
pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade.[78] Mendelssohn had once described
death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more Mendelssohn's
gravestone at the
sorrow or partings."[79]
Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof
Personal life
Personality
While Mendelssohn was often presented as equable, happy, and placid in temperament, particularly in the detailed family memoirs
published by his nephew Sebastian Hensel after the composer's death,[80] this was misleading. The music historian R. Larry Todd
notes "the remarkable process of idealization" of Mendelssohn's character "that crystallized in the memoirs of the composer's circle",
including Hensel's.[81] The nickname "discontented Polish count" was given to Mendelssohn on account of his aloofness, and he
referred to the epithet in his letters.[82] He was frequently given to fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. Devrient
mentions that on one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, "his excitement was increased so fearfully ... that
when the family was assembled ... he began to talk incoherently in English. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild
torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state".[83] Such fits may be
related to his early death.[76]
Mendelssohn was an enthusiastic visual artist who worked in pencil and
watercolour, a skill which he enjoyed throughout his life.[84][85] His
correspondences indicate that he could write with considerable wit in German and
English – these letters are sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and
cartoons.[86]
Religion
On 21 March 1816, at the age of seven years, Mendelssohn was baptised with his
brother and sisters in a home ceremony by Johann Jakob Stegemann, minister of the
View of Lucerne – watercolour by
Evangelical congregation of Berlin's Jerusalem Church and New Church.[6]
Mendelssohn, 1847
Although Mendelssohn was a conforming Christian as a member of the Reformed
Church,[n 11] he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of
his connection with his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus
a complete edition of Moses's works, which continued with the support of his uncle, Joseph Mendelssohn.[88] Felix was notably
reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep
convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only
in the slightest and most humorous allusions".[89] Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her
complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke [...] It is
really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?"[90] Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to
demonstrate either that Mendelssohn was deeply sympathetic to his ancestors' Jewish beliefs, or that he was hostile to this and sincere
in his Christian beliefs.[n 12]
Mendelssohn and his contemporaries

Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by
some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with
Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but in his letters expresses his frank
disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were "inferior to his
playing, and […] only calculated for virtuosos";[92] of Berlioz's overture Les francs-juges "[T]he
orchestration is such a frightful muddle [...] that one ought to wash one's hands after handling one of
his scores";[93] and of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable "I consider it ignoble", calling its villain
Bertram "a poor devil".[94] When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation
to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both
descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserles – Mendelssohn was so upset that he immediately went to get a
haircut to differentiate himself.[95] Giacomo Meyerbeer
by Josef Kriehuber,
In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion 1847
and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-
Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes.[96] It is significant that the only musician with whom
Mendelssohn remained a close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook.
[61]
Moscheles preserved this conservative attitude at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870.
Marriage and children

Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French
Reformed Church clergyman, on 28 March 1837.[97] The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lili and Felix. The second
youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with impaired health; he died in 1851.[98] The eldest, Carl
Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a historian, and Professor of History at Heidelberg and
Freiburg universities; he died in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg aged 59.[99] Paul Mendelssohn
Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie
married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolph Wach, later Professor of Law at
Leipzig University.[100]
The family papers inherited by Marie and Lili's children form the basis of the extensive collection of
Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called "Green Books" of his correspondence, now in the
Bodleian Library at Oxford University.[101] Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years
after her husband, on 25 September 1853.[102]
Mendelssohn's wife
Jenny Lind Cécile (1846) by
Eduard Magnus
Mendelssohn became close to the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom
he met in October 1844. Papers confirming their relationship had not
been made public.[103][n 13] In 2013 George Biddlecombe confirmed in the Journal of the Royal
Musical Association that "The Committee of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation possesses
material indicating that Mendelssohn wrote passionate love letters to Jenny Lind entreating her to join
him in an adulterous relationship and threatening suicide as a means of exerting pressure upon her,
[106]
and that these letters were destroyed on being discovered after her death."
Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, Lorelei, for her, based on
the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have
Jenny Lind
tailored the aria "Hear Ye Israel" in his oratorio Elijah to Lind's voice, although she did not sing this
part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848.[107] In 1847 Mendelssohn attended a
London performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable – an opera that musically he despised – in order to hear Lind's British debut, in
the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley, who was with him, wrote "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn,
whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his
[108]
mind. His attachment to Mdlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success."
Upon Mendelssohn's death Lind wrote, "[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found
him I lost him again." In 1849 she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a British resident
young composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory. The first winner of the scholarship was Arthur Sullivan, then aged 14, in
g.[103][109]
1856. In 1869 Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hambur
Music
Composer
Style
Something of Mendelssohn's intense attachment to his personal vision of music is conveyed in his comments to a correspondent who
suggested converting some of the Songs Without Words into lieder by adding texts: "What [the] music I love expresses to me, are not
, too definite."[110][111]
thoughts that are too indefinite for me to put into words, but on the contrary
Schumann wrote of Mendelssohn that he was "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most
clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them."[112] This appreciation brings to the fore two
features that characterized Mendelssohn's compositions and his compositional process. First, that his inspiration for musical style was
rooted in his technical mastery and his interpretation of the style of previous masters,[113] although he certainly recognized and
developed the strains of early Romanticism in the music of Beethoven and Weber.[114] The historian James Garratt writes that from
his early career, "the view emerged that Mendelssohn's engagement with early music was a defining aspect of his creativity."[115]
This approach was recognized by Mendelssohn himself, who wrote that, in his
meetings with Goethe, he gave the poet "historical exhibitions" at the keyboard;
"every morning, for about an hour, I have to play a variety of works by great
composers in chronological order, and must explain to him how they contributed to
the advance of music."[116] Secondly, it highlights that Mendelssohn was more
concerned to reinvigorate the musical legacy which he inherited, rather than to
replace it with new forms and styles, or with the use of more exotic
orchestration.[117] In these ways he differed significantly from many of his
contemporaries in the early Romantic period, such as Wagner, Berlioz and Franz
Liszt.[118] Whilst Mendelssohn admired Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard, he found
his music jejune. Berlioz said of Mendelssohn that he had "perhaps studied the
music of the dead too closely."[114]
The musicologist Greg Vitercik considers that, while "Mendelssohn's music only
rarely aspires to provoke", the stylistic innovations evident from his earliest works
solve some of the contradictions between classical forms and the sentiments of
Mendelssohn plays to Goethe, 1830,
Romanticism. The expressiveness of Romantic music presented a problem in
by Moritz Oppenheim, 1864
adherence to sonata form; the final (recapitulation) section of a movement could
seem, in the context of Romantic style, a bland element without passion or soul.
Furthermore, it could be seen as a pedantic delay before reaching the emotional climax of a movement, which in the classical
tradition had tended to be at the transition from the development section of the movement to the recapitulation; whereas Berlioz and
other "modernists" sought to have the emotional climax at the end of a movement, if necessary by adding an extended coda to follow
the recapitulation proper. Mendelssohn's solution to this problem was less sensational than Berlioz's approach, but was rooted in
changing the structural balance of the formal components of the movement. Thus typically in a Mendelssohnian movement, the
development-recapitulation transition might not be strongly marked, and the recapitulation section would be harmonically or
melodically varied so as not to be a direct copy of the opening, exposition, section; this allowed a logical movement towards a final
climax. Vitercik summarizes the effect as "to assimilate the dynamic trajectory of 'external form' to the 'logical' unfolding of the story
of the theme".[119]
Richard Taruskin writes that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age,
he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to
attract attention with a display of "revolutionary" novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably
faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His
version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical "pictorialism" of a fairly
[120]
conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought).
Early works
The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of both J. S. Bach and C. P. E. Bach, and of
Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Mozart; traces of these composers can be seen in the 12 early string symphonies. These were written
from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14, principally for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not
[121][122]
published or publicly performed until long after his death.
His first published works were his three piano quartets (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor);[123]
but his capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity: the String Octet (1825), the Overture A
Midsummer Night's Dream (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx, at the time a
close friend of Mendelssohn, and the two early string quartets: Op. 12 (1829) and Op. 13 (1827), which both show a remarkable
grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven's last quartets that Mendelssohn had been closely studying.[124] These four works
show an intuitive command of form, harmony, counterpoint, colour, and compositional technique, which in the opinion of R. Larry
its intellectual grasp.[125]
Todd justify claims frequently made that Mendelssohn's precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in
Symphonies
Mendelssohn's mature symphonies are numbered approximately in the order of
publication, rather than the order in which they were composed. The order of
composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3.[126] The placement of No. 3 in this sequence is
problematic because he worked on it for over a decade, starting the sketches soon
[127]
after he began work on No. 5 but completing it after both Nos. 5 and 4.
The Symphony No. 1 in C minor for full orchestra was written in 1824, when
Mendelssohn was aged 15. This work is experimental, showing the influences of
Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber.[128] Mendelssohn conducted the symphony
on his first visit to London in 1829, with the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society.
For the third movement he substituted an orchestration of the Scherzo from his
Octet. In this form the piece was a success, and laid the foundations of his British
reputation.[129]
During 1829 and 1830 Mendelssohn wrote his Symphony No. 5, known as the Portrait of Mendelssohn byWilhelm
Hensel, 1847
Reformation. It celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the work and did not allow publication of
the score.[130] The Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in A minor) was written
and revised intermittently between 1829 (when Mendelssohn noted down the opening theme during a visit to Holyrood Palace)[131]
and 1842, when it was given its premiere in Leipzig, the last of his symphonies to be premiered in public. This piece evokes
[132]
Scotland's atmosphere in the ethos of Romanticism, but does not employ any identified Scottish folk melodies.
Mendelssohn's travels in Italy inspired him to compose the Symphony No. 4 in A major, known as the Italian Symphony. He
conducted the premiere in 1833, but did not allow the score to be published during his lifetime, as he continually sought to rewrite
it.[133] He wrote the symphony-cantata Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) in B-flat major, posthumously named Symphony No. 2, to mark
the celebrations in Leipzig of the supposed 400th anniversary of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg; the first performance took
place on 25 June 1840.[134]
Other orchestral music

Mendelssohn wrote the concert overture The
Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) in 1830, inspired by
visits to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. He
visited Fingal's Cave, on the Hebridean isle of
Staffa, as part of his Grand Tour of Europe, and
Trumpet part, including main theme, of the Wedding March from
was so impressed that he scribbled the opening
Mendelssohn's Op. 61
theme of the overture on the spot, including it in a
letter he wrote home the same evening.[135] He
wrote other concert overtures, notablyCalm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, 1828), inspired by a pair
of poems by Goethe[136] and The Fair Melusine (Die schöne Melusine) (1830).[137] A contemporary writer considered these works
, we Germans possess".[138]
as "perhaps the most beautiful overtures that, so far
Mendelssohn also wrote in 1839 an overture toRuy Blas, commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo's drama (which the
composer hated)[139] His incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Op. 61), including the well-known Wedding March, was
[140]
written in 1843, seventeen years after the Overture.
Concertos
The Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844),
was written for Ferdinand David. David, who had
worked closely with Mendelssohn during the
piece's preparation, gave the premiere of the
concerto on his Guarneri violin.[141] Joseph
Joachim called it one of the four great violin
concertos along with those ofBeethoven, Brahms, Violin Concerto Op. 64, main theme of second movement
and Bruch.[142]
Mendelssohn also wrote a lesser-known, early concerto for violin and strings in D minor (1822); four piano concertos ("no. 0" in A
minor, 1822; 1 in G minor, 1831; 2 in D minor, 1837; and 3 in E minor, a posthumously published fragment from 1844); two
concertos for two pianos and orchestra (E major, which he wrote at 15, and A-flat major, at 17); and another double concerto, for
violin and piano (1823). In addition, there are several single-movement works for soloist and orchestra. Those for piano are the
Rondo Brillante of 1834, the Capriccio Brillante of 1832, and the Serenade and Allegro Giocoso of 1838.[126] He also wrote two
concertinos (Konzertstücke), Op. 113 and 114, originally for clarinet, basset horn and piano; Op. 113 was orchestrated by the
composer.[143]
Chamber music
Mendelssohn's mature output contains numerous chamber works, many of which display an emotional intensity lacking in some of
his larger works. In particular, his String Quartet No. 6, the last of his string quartets and his last major work – written following the
death of his sister Fanny – is, in the opinion of the historian Peter Mercer-Taylor, exceptionally powerful and eloquent.[144] Other
mature works include two string quintets; sonatas for the clarinet, cello, viola and violin; and two piano trios.[126] For the Piano Trio
No. 1 in D minor, Mendelssohn uncharacteristically took the advice of his fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and rewrote the piano
part in a more Romantic, "Schumannesque" style, considerably heightening its effect.[145]
Piano music
The musicologist Glenn Stanley observes that "[u]nlike Brahms, unlike his
contemporaries Schumann, Chopin and Liszt, and unlike [his] revered past
masters....Mendelssohn did not regard the piano as a preferred medium for his most
significant artistic statements".[146] Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (Lieder
ohne Worte), eight cycles each containing six lyric pieces (two published
posthumously), remain his most famous solo piano compositions. They became
standard parlour recital items even during the composer's lifetime,[147] and their
overwhelming popularity, according to Todd, has itself caused many critics to
underrate their musical value.[148] As example, Charles Rosen equivocally
commented, despite noting "how much beautiful music they contain", that "[i]t is not
true that they are insipid, but they might as well be."[149] During the 19th century,
composers who were inspired to produce similar pieces of their own included Advertisement for the Organ Sonatas
Charles-Valentin Alkan (his five sets of Chants, each ending with a barcarole) and in the Musical World, 24 July 1845
Anton Rubinstein.[150]
Other notable piano works by Mendelssohn include his Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 (1841), the Rondo Capriccioso, the set of six
Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35 (written between 1832 and 1837), and theSeven Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 (1827).[126]
Organ music
Mendelssohn played and composed for organ from the age of 11 until his death. His primary organ works are the Three Preludes and
Fugues, Op. 37 (1837), and the Six Sonatas, Op. 65 (1845), of which Eric Werner wrote "next to Bach's works, Mendelssohn's Organ
ganists".[151]
Sonatas belong to the required repertory of all or
Opera
Mendelssohn wrote some Singspiele for family performance in his youth. His opera Die beiden Neffen (The Two Nephews) was
rehearsed for him on his 15th birthday.[152] 1829 saw Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Son and Stranger or Return of the Roamer), a
comedy of mistaken identity written in honour of his parents' silver anniversary and unpublished during his lifetime. In 1825 he wrote
a more sophisticated work, Die Hochzeit des Camacho (Camacho's Wedding), based on an episode in Don Quixote, for public
consumption. It was produced in Berlin in 1827, but coolly received. Mendelssohn left the theatre before the conclusion of the first
[153]
performance, and subsequent performances were cancelled.
Although he never abandoned the idea of composing a full opera, and considered many subjects – including that of the Nibelung saga
later adapted by Wagner, about which he corresponded with his sister Fanny[154] – he never wrote more than a few pages of sketches
for any project. In Mendelssohn's last years the opera manager Benjamin Lumley tried to contract him to write an opera from
Shakespeare's The Tempest on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and even announced it as forthcoming in 1847, the year of Mendelssohn's
death. The libretto was eventually set by Fromental Halévy.[155] At his death Mendelssohn left some sketches for an opera on the
story of the Lorelei.[156]
Choral works
Mendelssohn's two large biblical oratorios, St Paul in 1836 and Elijah in
1846, are greatly influenced by J. S. Bach. The surviving fragments of an
unfinished oratorio, Christus, consist of a recitative, a chorus "There Shall a
Star Come out of Jacob", and a male voice trio.[157]
Strikingly different is the more overtly Romantic Die erste Walpurgisnacht

(The First Walpurgis Night), a setting for chorus and orchestra of a ballad by
Goethe describing pagan rituals of the Druids in the Harz mountains in the
early days of Christianity. This score has been seen by the scholar Heinz-
Klaus Metzger as a "Jewish protest against the domination of
Christianity".[158] Part of the overture to Elijah arranged by
Mendelssohn for piano duet (manuscript in
Mendelssohn wrote five settings from "The Book of Psalms" for chorus and
the Library of Congress)
orchestra. Schumann opined in 1837 that his version of Psalm 42 was the
"highest point that he [Mendelssohn] reached as a composer for the church.
[159]
Indeed the highest point recent church music has reached at all."
Mendelssohn also wrote many smaller-scale sacred works for unaccompanied choir and for choir with organ. Most are written in or
translated into English. Among the most famous is Hear My Prayer, whose second half contains "O for the Wings of a Dove", which
became often performed as a separate item. The piece is written for full choir, organ, and a treble or soprano soloist. Mendelssohn's
biographer Todd comments, "The very popularity of the anthem in England [...] later exposed it to charges of superficiality from
those contemptuous of Victorian mores."[160]
A hymn tune Mendelssohn – an adaptation by William Hayman Cummings of a melody from Mendelssohn's cantata Festgesang
(Festive Hymn), a secular 1840s composition, which Mendelssohn felt unsuited to sacred music – has become the standard tune for
Charles Wesley's popular Christmas hymn "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".[134]
Songs
Mendelssohn wrote many songs, both for solo voice and for duet, with piano. It has been asserted that from 1819 (when he was 10)
until his death there was "scarcely a single month in which he was not occupied with song composition".[161] Many of these songs
are simple, or slightly modified, strophic settings.[162] Some, such as his best-known song "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges" ("On Wings
of Song"), became popular.[163] The scholar Susan Youens comments "If [Mendelssohn]'s emotional range in lied was narrower than
Schubert's, that is hardly surprising: Schubert composed many more songs than Mendelssohn across a wider spectrum", and whilst
, "[t]his was not Mendelssohn's mission."[164]
Schubert had a declared intent to modernize the song style of his day
A number of songs written by Mendelssohn's sister Fanny originally appeared under her brother's name; this may have been partly
due to the prejudice of the family, and partly to her own retiring nature.[165]
Performer
During his lifetime, Mendelssohn became renowned as a keyboard performer, both on the piano and organ. One of his obituarists
noted: "First and chiefest we esteem his pianoforte-playing, with its amazing elasticity of touch, rapidity, and power; next his
scientific and vigorous organ playing [...] his triumphs on these instruments are fresh in public recollection.[166] In his concerts and
recitals Mendelssohn performed works by some of his German predecessors, notably Carl Maria von Weber, Beethoven and J.S.
Bach,[167] whose organ music he brought back into the repertoire "virtually alone".[168]
In private and public performances, Mendelssohn was celebrated for his improvisations. On one occasion in London, when asked by
the soprano Maria Malibran after a recital to extemporise, he improvised a piece which included the melodies of all the songs she had
sung. The music publisher Victor Novello, who was present, remarked "He has done some things that seem to me impossible, even
after I have heard them done."[169] At another recital in 1837, where Mendelssohn played the piano for a singer, Robert Schumann
[170]
ignored the soprano and wrote "Mendelssohn accompanied like a God."
Conductor
Mendelssohn was a noted conductor, both of his own works and of those by other composers. At his London debut in 1829, he was
noted for his innovatory use of a baton (then a great novelty).[171] But his novelty also extended to taking great care over tempo,
dynamics and the orchestral players themselves – both rebuking them when they were recalcitrant and praising them when they
satisfied him.[172] It was his success while conducting at the Lower Rhine music festival of 1836 that led to him taking his first paid
professional position as director at Düsseldorf. Among those appreciating Mendelssohn's conducting was Hector Berlioz, who in
1843, invited to Leipzig, exchanged batons with Mendelssohn, writing "When the Great Spirit sends us to hunt in the land of souls,
may our warriors hang our tomahawks side by side at the door of the council chamber".[173] At Leipzig, Mendelssohn led the
Gewandhaus Orchestra to great heights; although concentrating on the great composers of the past (already becoming canonised as
the "classics") he also included new music by Schumann, Berlioz, Gade and many others, as well as his own music.[174] One critic
who was not impressed was Richard Wagner; he accused Mendelssohn of using tempos in his performances of Beethoven
symphonies that were far too fast.[175]
Editor
Mendelssohn's interest in baroque music was not limited to the Bach St Matthew Passion which he had revived in 1829. He was
concerned in preparing and editing such music, whether for performance or for publication, to be as close as possible to the original
intentions of the composers, including wherever possible a close study of early editions and manuscripts. This could lead him into
conflict with publishers; for instance, his edition of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt for the London Handel Society (1845) evoked
an often contentious correspondence, with Mendelssohn refusing for example to add dynamics where not given by Handel, or to add
parts for trombones. Mendelssohn also edited a number of Bach's works for organ, and apparently discussed with Robert Schumann
[176]
the possibility of producing a complete Bach edition.
Teacher
Although Mendelssohn attributed great importance to musical education, and made a substantial commitment to the Conservatoire he
founded in Leipzig, he did not greatly enjoy teaching and took only a very few private pupils who he believed had notable
qualities.[177] Such students included the composer William Sterndale Bennett, the pianist Camille-Marie Stamaty, the violinist and
composer Julius Eichberg, and Walther von Goethe (grandson of the poet).[178] At the Leipzig Conservatoire Mendelssohn taught
classes in composition and ensemble playing.[179]
Reputation and legacy
The first century

In the immediate wake of Mendelssohn's death, he was mourned both in Germany and
England. However, the conservative strain in Mendelssohn, which set him apart from some
of his more flamboyant contemporaries, bred a corollary condescension amongst some of
them toward his music. Mendelssohn's relations with Berlioz, Liszt and others had been
uneasy and equivocal. Listeners who had raised questions about Mendelssohn's talent
included Heinrich Heine, who wrote in 1836 after hearing the oratorio St. Paul that his work
was
characterized by a great, strict, very serious seriousness, a determined,

almost importunate tendency to follow classical models, the finest, cleverest
calculation, sharp intelligence and, finally, complete lack of naïveté. But is
[181][182]
there in art any originality of genius without naïveté?
Such criticism of Mendelssohn for his very ability – which could be characterised The reconstructed
negatively as facility – was taken to further lengths by Richard Wagner. Mendelssohn's Mendelssohn monument near
Leipzig's St. Thomas Church,
success, his popularity and his Jewish origins irked Wagner sufficiently to damn
dedicated in 2008[180]
Mendelssohn with faint praise, three years after his death, in an anti-Jewish pamphlet Das
Judenthum in der Musik:[183]
[Mendelssohn] has shown us that a Jew may have the amplest store of specific talents, may own the finest and most
varied culture, the highest and tenderest sense of honour – yet without all these pre-eminences helping him, were it
but one single time, to call forth in us that deep, that heart-searching effect which we await from art [...] The
washiness and the whimsicality of our present musical style has been [...] pushed to its utmost pitch by Mendelssohn's
[184][n 14]
endeavour to speak out a vague, an almost nugatory Content as interestingly and spiritedly as possible.
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed consistent admiration for Mendelssohn's music, in contrast to his general scorn for
"Teutonic" Romanticism:
At any rate, the whole music of romanticism [e.g. Schumann and Wagner] ... was second-rate music from the very
start, and real musicians took little notice of it. Things were different with Felix Mendelssohn, that halcyon master
who, thanks to his easier, purer, happier soul, was quickly honoured and just as quickly forgotten, as a lovely incident
in German music.[185]
Some readers, however, have interpreted Nietzsche's characterization of Mendelssohn as a 'lovelyncident'

i as condescending.[186]
In the 20th century the Nazi regime and its Reichsmusikkammer cited Mendelssohn's Jewish origin in banning performance and
publication of his works, even asking Nazi-approved composers to rewrite incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (Carl
Orff obliged).[187] Under the Nazis, "Mendelssohn was presented as a dangerous 'accident' of music history, who played a decisive
role in rendering German music in the 19th century 'degenerate'."[188] The German Mendelssohn Scholarship for students at the
Leipzig Conservatoire was discontinued in 1934 (and not revived until 1963). The monument dedicated to Mendelssohn erected in
Leipzig in 1892 was removed by the Nazis in 1936. A replacement was erected in 2008.[180] The bronze statue of Mendelssohn by
Clemens Buscher (1855–1916) outside the Düsseldorf Opera House was also removed and destroyed by the Nazis in 1936. A
[189][190]
replacement was erected in 2012. Mendelssohn's grave remained unmolested during the National Socialist years.
Mendelssohn's reputation in Britain remained high throughout the 19th century. Prince Albert inscribed (in German) a libretto for the
oratorio Elijah in 1847: "To the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of false art, has been able, like a second Elijah,
through genius and study, to remain true to the service of true art."[191] In 1851 an adulatory novel by the teenaged Elizabeth Sara
Sheppard was published, Charles Auchester.[192] The book features as its leading character the "Chevalier Seraphel," an idealized
portrait of Mendelssohn, and remained in print for nearly 80 years.[193] In 1854 Queen Victoria requested that the Crystal Palace
include a statue of Mendelssohn when it was rebuilt.[n 15] Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" from A Midsummer Night's Dream was
played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia in
1858, and it remains popular at marriage ceremonies.[195] Mendelssohn's pupil Sterndale Bennett was a major force in British
musical education until his death in 1875, and a great upholder of his master's traditions; he numbered among his pupils many of the
next generation of English composers, including Sullivan,Hubert Parry and Francis Edward Bache.[196]
By the early twentieth century, many critics, including Bernard Shaw, began to condemn Mendelssohn's music for its association
with Victorian cultural insularity; Shaw in particular complained of the composer's "kid-glove gentility, his conventional
sentimentality, and his despicable oratorio-mongering".[197] In the 1950s the scholar Wilfrid Mellers complained of Mendelssohn's
"spurious religiosity which reflected the element of unconscious humbug in our morality".[198] A contrasting opinion came from the
pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni, who considered Mendelssohn "a master of undisputed greatness" and "an heir of
Mozart".[199] Busoni, like earlier virtuosi such as Anton Rubinstein[200] and Charles-Valentin Alkan,[201] regularly included
Mendelssohn's piano works in his recitals.
Modern opinions
Appreciation of Mendelssohn's work has developed over the last 50 years, together
with the publication of a number of biographies placing his achievements in
context.[202] Mercer-Taylor comments on the irony that "this broad-based
reevaluation of Mendelssohn's music is made possible, in part, by a general
disintegration of the idea of a musical canon", an idea which Mendelssohn "as a
conductor, pianist and scholar" had done so much to establish.[203] The critic H. L.
Mencken concluded that, if Mendelssohn indeed missed true greatness, he missed it
"by a hair".[204]
Charles Rosen, in a chapter on Mendelssohn in his 1995 book The Romantic

Generation, both praises and criticizes the composer. He calls him "the greatest child
prodigy the history of Western music has ever known", whose command at age 16
surpassed that of Mozart or Chopin at 19, the possessor at an early age of a "control
of large-scale structure unsurpassed by any composer of his generation", and a
Felix Mendelssohn by Friedrich "genius" with a "profound" comprehension of Beethoven. Rosen believes that in the
Wilhelm Schadow, 1834
composer's later years, without losing his craft or genius, he "renounced ... his
daring"; but he calls Mendelssohn's relatively late Violin Concerto in E minor "the
most successful synthesis of the Classical concerto tradition and the Romantic virtuoso form". Rosen considers the "Fugue in E
minor" (later included in Mendelssohn's Op. 35 for piano) a "masterpiece"; but in the same paragraph calls Mendelssohn "the
inventor of religious kitsch in music". Nevertheless, he points out how the dramatic power of "the juncture of religion and music" in
Mendelssohn's oratorios is reflected throughout the music of the next fifty years in the operas of Meyerbeer and Giuseppe Verdi and
in Wagner's Parsifal.[205]
A large portion of Mendelssohn's 750 works still remained unpublished in the 1960s, but most of them have now been made
available.[206] A scholarly edition of Mendelssohn's complete works and correspondence is in preparation but is expected to take
many years to complete, and will be in excess of 150 volumes. This includes a modern and fully researched catalogue of his works,
the Mendelssohn-Werkverzeichnis (MWV).[207] Mendelssohn's oeuvre has been explored more deeply.[n 16] Recordings of virtually
all of Mendelssohn's published works are now available, and his works are frequently heard in the concert hall and on
broadcasts.[208] R. Larry Todd noted in 2007, in the context of the impending bicentenary of Mendelssohn's birth, "the intensifying
revival of the composer's music over the past few decades", and that "his image has been largely rehabilitated, as musicians and
scholars have returned to this paradoxically familiar but unfamiliar European classical composer, and have begun viewing him from
new perspectives."[209]
Notes and references

Notes
1. German: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]

2. The overwhelming majority of printed sources in English (e.g. see sources in references, and listings of recordings at
Amazon.com and elsewhere), use the form "Mendelssohn" and not "Mendelssohn Bartholdy". The Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musiciansgives "(Jakob Ludwig) Felix Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy)" (note the parentheses) as the entry
title, with "Mendelssohn" used in the body text. In German and some other languages the surname "Mendelssohn
Bartholdy" (sometimes hyphenated) is generally used.
3. When founded in 1843 this institution was of
ficially known as the "Leipziger Konservatorium der Musik".[1] English-
language Mendelssohn authorities, for example R. Larry oddT and Erich Werner, refer to it as the Leipzig
Conservatory.[2][3]
4. Since 1806 Hamburg had been an independent city
, the Free Imperial City of Hamburg; it was annexed to theFirst
French Empire by Napoleon in 1810.
5. The translation was reprintedby Giovanni Mardersteig at the Officina Bodoni in 1971.[36]
6. After Bach's death in 1750, the Passion had been performed a few times until about 1800 by Bach's successors as
Thomaskantor in Leipzig.[42]
7. In 1842 Mendelssohn was awarded by the King the honourPour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.[58]
8. In its own English self-designation, the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre"
HMT
( website
(http://www.hmt-leipzig.de/en/home/hochschule/profil), accessed 6 November 2017.)
9. On this occasion, when Bennett was 17 and Mendelssohn 24, Mendelssohn immediately invited Bennett to visit him
in Germany. " 'If I come', said Bennett, 'may Icome to be your pupil?' 'No, no', was the reply 'you must come to be
my friend.' “[67]
10. One assessment of the type of stroke from which the Mendelssohn family suf
fered is subarachnoidal
haemorrhage.[77]
11. His friend the cleric Julius Schubring noted that although Mendelssohn "entertained a feeling offectionate
af
reverence" for his spiritual adviser, the pastor Friedrich Philipp Wilmsen (1770–1831) at theReformed Parochial
[87]
Church, "it is true that he did not go very often to hear him perform Divine Service".
12. The debate became heated when it was discovered that the Mendelssohn scholar , Eric Werner, had been over-
enthusiastic in his interpretation of some documentation in an attempt to establish Felix's Jewish sympathies. See
The Musical Quarterly, vols. 82–83 (1998), with articles by J. Sposato,Leon Botstein and others, for expressions of
both points of view; and see Conway (2012)[91] for a tertium quid.
13. Mercer-Taylor wrote that although there wasno currently available hard evidence of a physical af fair between the
two, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". [104] Clive Brown wrote that "it has been rumoured that [...]
papers tend to substantiate the notion of an af fair between Mendelssohn and Lind, though with what degree of
reliability must remain highly questionable".[105]
14. Echoes of such views survive today in critiques of Mendelssohn's alleged mediocrity
. For a modern example see
Damian Thompson, "Why did Mendelssohn lose his mojo?"(https://web.archive.org/web/20101113061710/http://blo
gs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/damianthompson/100048736/why-did-mendelssohn-lose-his-mojo/) , Daily Telegraph 11
November 2010, retrieved 25 September 2017).
15. It was the only statue in the Palace made of bronze and the only one to survive the 1936 fire that destroyed the
Palace. The statue is now situated inEltham College, London.[194]
16. See, for example, the conference "Viewing Mendelssohn, Viewing Elijah" (https://jewishstudies.clas.asu.edu/sites/def
ault/files/mendelssohn-program.pdf)held at Arizona State Universityin 2009 to mark the composer's bicentenary .
Retrieved 12 December 2017.
References
1. "Geschichte der Hochschule"(https://www.hmt-leipzig.de/de/home/hochschule/geschichte_hmt), (in German),

website of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
, Leipzig, retrieved 26 January 2019.
2. Todd 2003, p. 450–451.
3. Werner 1963, p. 385–389.
4. Conway 2012, p. 194.
5. Conway 2012, p. 147–148.
6. Todd 2003, p. 33.
7. Todd 2003, pp. 27–29.
8. Moscheles 1873, p. 98 (vol. I).
9. Mercer-Taylor 2000, p. 1.
10. Conway 2012, pp. 27–28.
11. Brown 2003, p. 115.
12. Todd 2003, pp. 92, 165.
14. Conway 2012, p. 151.
15. Todd 2003, p. 34.
16. Todd 2003, pp. 14–15.
17. Werner 1963, pp. 36–38.
18. Todd 2003, p. 139.
20. Todd 2003, pp. 35–36.
21. Todd 2003, pp. 37–38.
22. Todd 2003, p. 44.
23. Werner 1963, pp. 8–9.
24. Werner 1963, p. 18.
25. Todd 2003, p. 36.
27. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 35–36.
28. Conway 2012, p. 242.
29. Brown 2003, p. 80.
30. "Kennedy Center notes"(https://web.archive.org/web/20130616065112/http://www .kennedy-center.org/calendar/inde
x.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=3182) . Kennedy-center.org. 17 February 2011. Archived from the
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31. Grove Music Online, “Overture” §3
32. Moscheles 1873, p. 65.
33. Todd 2003, pp. 167–168.
34. Todd 2003, pp. 70–71.
35. Todd 2003, p. 154.
36. Barr 1978, p. 84.
37. Todd 2003, pp. 171–172.
38. Todd 2003, p. 89.
39. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 41–2, 93.
40. Todd 2003, pp. 188–190, 269–270.
41. Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix”, §2
42. Spitta 1972, p. 568 (vol. 2).
44. Todd 2003, pp. 193–98.
45. Devrient 1869, p. 57.
46. Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix”,§3
47. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 112–114.
48. Todd 2003, pp. 285–286.
51. Todd 2003, p. 303.
52. Todd 2003, pp. 444–446.
54. Grove Music Online, “Schumann, Robert”, §7
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58. Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste (1975).Die Mitglieder des Ordens. 1 1842–1881(http://www.or
den-pourlemerite.de/plm/mgvita/mendelssohnbartholdy1809_vita.pdf)(PDF). Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag. p. 66.
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61. Conway 2012, pp. 193–194.
62. Todd 2003, p. 214.
63. Conway 2009, pp. xvi–xvii.
64. See "The Journey North" (http://www.mendelssohninscotland.com/journey-north) in Mendelssohn in Scotland(http://
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71. Todd 2003, p. 439.
72. Todd 2003, pp. 514–515.
73. Duggan 1998, pp. 11–35.
74. Conway 2009, p. xviii.
75. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 198–203.
76. Sterndale Bennett 1955, p. 376.
77. S. Schmidler et al., "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847): the mystery of his early death"
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78. Todd 2003, p. 567.
80. Hensel 1884.
81. Todd 2003, p. xxii.
82. Devrient 1869, p. 182n.
83. Devrient 1869, p. 91.
84. Brown 2003, pp. 47–53.
85. "Visual Artwork by Felix Mendelssohn"(http://www.themendelssohnproject.org/about_tmp/activities/artworks_2.htm),
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86. Mendelssohn 1986, pp. x–xiii.
87. Todd 1991, p. 227.
88. Brown 2003, p. 84.
89. Devrient 1869, pp. 9–10.
90. Werner 1963, pp. 42–43.
91. Conway 2012, pp. 173–184.
94. Todd 2003, p. 252.
95. Hiller 1874, pp. 23–24.
96. Locke 1986, pp. 107–114.
97. Todd 2003, pp. 102, 347.
98. Todd 2003, pp. 485–486.
99. Schoeps 2009, pp. 211–214.
100. Schoeps 2009, p. 163.
101. The Mendelssohn Papers(http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/mendelssohn/mendels
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102. Schoeps 2009, p. 193.
103. Duchen, Jessica. "Conspiracy of Silence: Could the Release of Secret Documents Shatter Felix Mendelssohn's
Reputation?" (http://jessicaduchen.co.uk/pdfs/indi_2009/mendelssohn_jan12.pdf)
, The Independent, 12 January
2009. Retrieved 4 August 2014
105. Brown 2003, p. 33.
106. Biddlecombe 2013, p. 85.
107. Sanders 1956, p. 466.
108. Chorley 1972, p. 194.
109. Sanders 1956, p. 467.
110. "Das, was mir eine Musik ausspricht, die ich liebe, sind mir nicht zuunbestimmte Gedanken, um sie in Worte zu
fassen, sondern zu bestimmte." From a letter to Marc-André Souchay of 15 October 1842; Mendelssohn's own
emphases).p. 298 (https://books.google.fi/books?id=fJ2N80aCpwAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
111. Youens 2004, p. 190.
112. Vitercik 2004, p. 71.
113. Brown 2003, p. 312.
115. Garratt 2004, p. 55.
116. Garratt 2004, p. 64.
117. Brown 2003, pp. 311, 314.
118. Brown 2003, pp. 311, 317–318.
119. Vitercik 2004, pp. 71–82.
120. Taruskin 2010, pp. 180–83.
122. Todd 2003, pp. 61–62.
123. Todd 2003, pp. 109, 139.
124. Todd 2003, pp. 179–80.
125. Todd 2003, pp. 102–107.
126. Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix”, §15 (W
orks)
127. Todd 2003, pp. 214, 430.
128. Todd 2003, pp. 130–131.
129. Todd 2003, pp. 206–207.
131. Eatock 2009, p. 39.
132. Todd 2003, p. 430.
133. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 116–117.
138. Brown 2003, p. 359.
140. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 180–181.
141. Todd 2003, pp. 479–81.
142. Steinberg 1998, p. 265.
143. Todd 2003, p. 266.
145. Todd 2003, pp. 377–378.
146. Stanley 2004, p. 149.
147. Brown 2003, p. 360.
148. Todd 2003, p. xxvii.
149. Rosen 1995, p. 589.
150. Conway 2012, pp. 196, 228.
151. Werner 1963, p. 424.
152. Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix” §2
154. Hensel 1884, p. 159 (vol. II).
155. Conway 2012, p. 118.
156. Todd 2003, pp. 560–561.
157. Todd 2003, pp. 555–556.
158. Todd 2003, pp. 269–270.
159. Psalm 42 (https://www.carus-verlag.com/en/choir/sacred-choral-music/felix-mendelssohn-bartholdy-wie-der-hirsch-s
chreit-oxid-1.html) on Carus Verlag website. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
160. Todd 2003, p. 468.
161. Youens 2004, p. 189.
162. Youens 2004, p. 198.
163. Youens 2004, p. 192.
164. Youens 2004, p. 205.
165. Todd 2003, pp. 175–176.
166. Brown 2003, p. 202.
167. Brown 2003, pp. 206, 222, 211–216.
168. Stanley 2004, p. 148.
169. Todd 2003, pp. 282–83.
170. Brown 2003, p. 217.
171. Todd 2003, p. 206.
172. Brown 2003, pp. 245–247, 241–243.
173. Todd 2003, p. 448.
174. Mercer-Taylor 2000, pp. 143–45.
175. Wagner 1992, p. 272.
176. Brown 2003, pp. 40–46.
177. Brown 2003, p. 261.
178. Todd 2003, p. 325.
179. Brown 2003, p. 280.
180. "Mendelssohn kehrt zurück Rekonstruiertes Denkmal am Dittrichring"(https://www.leipzig.de/news/news/mendelsso
hn-kehrt-zurck-rekonstruiertes-denkmal-am-dittrichring/)(in German). City of Leipzig. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
181. Todd 1991, p. 360.
182. Todd 2003, pp. 448–449.
183. Conway 2012, p. 263.
184. Wagner 1995, pp. 93–95.
185. Nietzsche 2002, p. 138.
186. Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix”', §14
187. "Music and the Holocaust: Carl Orff" (http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/orf
f-carl/).
World ORT. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
188. Hansen & Vogt (2009), cited on web page ofMartin Luther Memorial Church, Eisenach(http://www.mlgk.de/veransta
ltungen/bloodandspirit.html)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120402183805/http://www
.mlgk.de/veranstaltu
ngen/bloodandspirit.html)2 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
189. "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – The Jewish Question"(http://www.classicfm.com/composers/mendelssohn/guides/fe
lix-mendelssohn-bartholdy-jewish-question). Classic FM. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
190. "Mendelssohn's statue returns to Düsseldorf"(http://www.classical-music.com/news/mendelssohn%E2%80%99s-sta
tue-returns-d%C3%BCsseldorf). Classical-music.com (BBC Music Magazine). Retrieved 20 December 2017.
192. Sheppard, Elizabeth (1891).Charles Auchester (https://books.google.com/?id=mnS0A8cNjJEC)
. Chicago: A.C.
McClurg and Co. OCLC 2327181 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2327181).
193. Conway 2012, p. 257.
194. Eatock 2009, p. 120.
195. Emmett 1996, p. 755.
196. Firman 2004.
197. Todd 2003, p. 6.
198. Mellers 1957, p. 31.
199. Andrew Porter, Liner notes to Walter Gieseking's recording of Mendelssohn'sSongs without Words, Angel 35428.
200. See Rubinstein's concert programmes inBarenboim (1962), passim
201. Smith 2000, pp. 97, 99.
202. e.g. Werner (1963), Mercer-Taylor (2000), Brown (2003), Todd (2003)
204. quoted in Grove Music Online, “Mendelssohn, Felix”, §14
205. Rosen 1995, pp. 569–598.
206. Mendelssohn Foundation website, 'List of Mendelssohn's W orks (https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/en/felix-mend
elssohn-bartholdy/werkverzeichnis/), (in German). Retrieved 17 December 2017.
207. Official site (http://www.saw-leipzig.de/forschung/projekte/leipziger-ausgabe-der-werke-von-felix-mendelssohn-barth
oldy) of the Leipzig Edition of Mendelssohn(in German). Retrieved 16 December 2017.
208. For example, five of his works feature in the British radio stationClassic FM's 2017 top 300 (http://www.halloffame.cl
assicfm.co.uk/composers?page=16). Retrieved 16 December 2017.
209. Todd 2007, p. xi.
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Bennett, J. R. Sterndale (1907).The Life of Sterndale Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
OCLC 59807054.
Biddlecombe, George (2013). "Secret Letters and a Missing Memorandum: New Light on the Personal Relationship
between Felix Mendelssohn and Jenny Lind".Journal of the Royal Musical Association. 138 (1): 47–83.
Brown, Clive (2003). A Portrait of Mendelssohn. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-
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required.)
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Todd, R. Larry (2001). "Mendelssohn, Felix".In Deane Root. Grove Music Online. 1. Oxford University Press.
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Temperley, Nicholas (2008). "Overture".In Deane Root. Grove Music Online. 1. Oxford University Press.
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Hansen, Jörg; Vogt, Gerald (2009). "Blut und Geist": Bach, Mendelssohn und ihre Musik im Dritten Reich
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Bachhaus Eisenach. ISBN 978-3932257063.
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OCLC 655604542. 2 volumes. Edited by Felix's nephew, an important collection of letters and documents about the
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Further reading
There are numerous published editions and selections of Mendelssohn's letters.
The main collections of Mendelssohn's original musical autographs and letters are to be found in the Bodleian Library, Oxford
University, the New York Public Library, and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The autographs of his letters to Moscheles are in Special
Collections at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
External links
Texts
Works by Felix Mendelssohnat Project Gutenberg, Works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdyat Project Gutenberg
(Both these relate to Felix Mendelssohn, but the Gutenberg system lists him under both names).
Works by or about Felix Mendelssohnat Internet Archive
Felix Mendelssohn at the Musopen project
Leipzig Edition of the Works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdyedited by the Sächsische Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Leipzig(in German) Information about the ongoing complete edition.
Texts and translations of vocal music by Mendelssohn at The LiederNet Archive
Complete Edition: Leipzig Edition of the Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(in German) Information about the
ongoing complete edition.
The Mendelssohn ProjectA project with the objective of "recording of the complete published and unpublished works
of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn"
A Renaissance Man Among the Romantics: Felix Mendelssohn at 200A virtual exhibit of Mendelssohn manuscripts
and early editions held at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library
, Yale University
"Discovering Mendelssohn". BBC Radio 3.
Mendelssohn in Scotland
Full text of Charles Auchester by Elizabeth Sheppard (1891 edition)(her novel with a hero based on Mendelssohn)
Archival material at Leeds University Library
Recordings
See articles on individual works for links to ercordings
Music scores
Free scores by Felix Mendelssohnat the International Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)
The Mutopia Project has compositions by Felix Mendelssohn
Free scores by Felix Mendelssohnin the Choral Public Domain Library(ChoralWiki)
Mendelssohn Bartholdy
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Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy[n 1] (3 February 1809 – 4 November

A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born

Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and

Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach

Leipzig and Berlin

Mendelssohn and his contemporaries

Marriage and children

Other orchestral music

Strikingly different is the more overtly Romantic Die erste Walpurgisnacht

Reputation and legacy

The first century

characterized by a great, strict, very serious seriousness, a determined,

Some readers, however, have interpreted Nietzsche's characterization of Mendelssohn as a 'lovelyncident'

Charles Rosen, in a chapter on Mendelssohn in his 1995 book The Romantic

Notes and references

1. German: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]

1. "Geschichte der Hochschule"(https://www.hmt-leipzig.de/de/home/hochschule/geschichte_hmt), (in German),

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Felix_Mendelssohn&oldid=881576029

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