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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
b. Hamburg, Feb. 3, 1809, was one of the major German romantic
composers. He was the son of a banker and grandson of the
philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. In 1812 the family moved to
Berlin. Young Felix (along with his sister Fanny, a talented
pianist and composer) received his first piano lessons from
his mother; he subsequently studied with Ludwig Berger and
Carl Friedrich Zelter.
Mendelssohn showed a surprising gift for composition at an
early age. He wrote his famous overture to Shakespeare's A
Midsummer Night's Dream when he was 17; by then he had also
written 12 symphonies for string orchestra. He later composed
additional numbers for the play in 1834. Mendelssohn traveled
extensively, especially to England, and in 1835 he became
conductor of the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig, directing
first performances of symphonies by Franz Schubert and by
his friend Robert Schumann. In 1837 he married Cecile Jeanrenaud,
the daughter of a French Huguenot clergyman (Mendelssohn,
though of Jewish descent, was baptized a Protestant in 1824).
In 1842-43, Mendelssohn organized the Leipzig Conservatory
and made it known worldwide as a model music school. Meanwhile
he maintained an intensive schedule of touring as pianist
and conductor, especially in England, where he was the favorite
composer of Queen Victoria and the music-loving Prince Albert.
Shocked by the death of his sister Fanny on May 14, 1847,
and exhausted from overwork, Mendelssohn died in Leipzig on
Nov. 4, 1847.
Mendelssohn excelled in all musical genres except opera. His
most important symphonies are the Reformation (composed 1829-30,
revised 1832), the sparkling Italian (1832-33), and the elegiac
Scotch (sketched 1829-32, finished 1842). His programmatic
overtures, of which the Hebrides or Fingal's Cave (1830, revised
1832) is best known, point the way to the symphonic poem,
and his violin concerto (1844) is one of the most popular
works for the instrument. His chamber music is best represented
by an octet for strings (written at age 16), 6 numbered string
quartets, 2 piano trios, and 2 sonatas for cello and piano.
His piano music has been generally neglected. The Songs Without
Words were once popular as teaching pieces, but his Variations
serieuses (1841) ranks as one of the finest sets of variations
between Beethoven and Brahms. Also deserving mention are his
six organ sonatas, the first major organ works since those
of Johann Sebastian Bach. Mendelssohn's choral music shows
the strong influence of Bach's works, especially of the St.
Matthew Passion, which Mendelssohn conducted in 1829, the
first performance of the work since Bach's time a century
earlier. Chief among his choral works are the two oratorios,
St. Paul (1832-36), which reflects Bach's treatment of Lutheran
chorales, and Elijah (1845-46, revised 1847), a freer work
distinguished by its effective choruses.
Impeccable craftsmanship and a thorough knowledge and understanding
of the media for which he wrote are distinguishing traits
of Mendelssohn's music. His occasional lapses into sentimentality
are offset by his elfin scherzos, elegiac moods, and musical
seascapes. His music is thought to reflect the middle-class
culture of Germany before the revolution of 1848 and of early
Victorian England. It was later assailed by leftists for its
"bourgeois complacency" and by the Wagnerians and
Nazis for its composer's Jewish origin; scholars today, however,
are better able to place his considerable musical achievements
in their proper perspective.
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