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Hark! Felix Mendelssohn Compose

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

In Lutheran and musical circles, Johann Sebastian Bach is revered as a gifted musician. He is known as the "theologian of music" for the pieces he wrote for the church. Yet Bach for many years was forgotten as a musician. Bach was a composer of the Baroque style when Baroque was waning in popularity. It is likely Bach was seen as "old fashioned" by his contemporaries.

It would be after his death that Bach would gain renown for his music and become a giant among composers. And for this renewed popularity Bach owes a debt of gratitude to another Lutheran composer, the German composer Felix Jakob Ludwig Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, commonly known as Felix Mendelssohn.

On 11 March 1829, Mendelssohn conducted the "St. Matthew Passion," stimulating a revival of interest in the music of J. S. Bach. This was 79 years after Bach had died! The public reception of this piece was so overwhelming that Bach's music was once again popular in the mainstream. Mendelssohn led the revival of the music of Bach.

Mendelssohn was by birth Jewish and the grandson of the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Felix's father, Abraham, converted to Christianity in 1816 and changed his surname to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg on 3 February 1809. His family were bankers in Berlin and thus Mendelssohn grew up privileged. Mendelssohn studied the piano with Ludwig Berger and theory and composition with Karl Friedich Zelter. He produced his first piece in 1820 at the age of 11. Mendelssohn's early influences included the poetry of Goethe (whom he knew from 1821) and the Schlegel translations of Shakespeare. These influences are traceable in Mendelssohn's best music of the period, including the exuberant "String Octet op.20" and the vivid, poetic overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

A period of travel and concert-giving introduced Mendelssohn to England, Scotland (1829) and Italy (1830-31). Mendelssohn made return visits to Paris (1831) and London (1832, 1833) before he took up a conducting post at Düsseldorf (1833-5). In Düsseldorf Mendelssohn concentrated on Handel's oratorios. Among the chief products of this time were The Hebrides (first performed in London in 1832), the "g Minor Piano Concerto," Die erste Walpurgisnacht, the Italian Symphony (1833, London) and St. Paul (1836, Düsseldorf).

Mendelssohn became a conductor and music organizer in Leipzig in 1835, where he served until 1847. Here to great acclaim he conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra, championing both historical and modern works of Bach, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann, Berlioz. Mendelssohn also founded and directed the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843.