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MOS Composer of the Month: Previous Page, Next Page, Index |
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Composer of the Month - March, 2005 Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847
Like many of the composers in this series, Mendelssohn began his music studies early, learning piano from his mother beginning at age six, and writing his first published composition at age thirteen, a piano quartet. However, unlike most composers, his life was marked by a continuous progression from one success to another. He was a financial and artistic success throughout his brief life. Because of his talent and the social standing of his family, he was on familiar terms with some of the shining lights in the German arts circle. For example, at one point the poet Goethe wrote to him about the salutary effect Mendelssohn's piano playing had on Goethe in his times of depression. He was prolific from the outset. He had composed twelve symphonies for private orchestral performance before his first symphony for full orchestra at age 15. His reputation as a composer was firmly set at age 17 with his overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Even people who have never heard the name Mendelssohn have probably been exposed to his talents as a result of hearing the Wedding March from Midsummer played as the recessional in someone's wedding. His magnificent oratorio Elijah, to be performed by the MOS in March, was one of his last efforts, written the year before his death. His critics sometimes deride Mendelssohn for his lack of creativity. Indeed, he borrowed from Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven, but in doing so he added his own gift of relating the music to some significant literary, geographical, or emotional root. For instance, the St. Paul oratorio is best understood in light of his own family history and Elijah to his own period of dissension in Berlin. Besides his own career as a conductor, Mendelssohn used his artistry as a conductor to promote the music of J.S. Bach. In the 80 years since Bach's death, his work had languished in obscurity. Mendelssohn saw this as a great mistake of the times, and in 1829 he conducted the Berlin Singakademie in a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, reviving interest in the music of the great German composer. In 1835 he was named conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and founded the famous Leipzig Conservatory in 1847. Mendelssohn's work ethic produced a great strain on him, and the last several years of his life were marked by deteriorating health. Upon hearing the news of his adored sister's death, he seemed to lose his own will to live, and died in 1847 after a series of strokes. He left behind a lovely wife and four children, as well as a library of musical creativity that will nourish the musical world as long as classical music is played. For further reading on Felix Mendelssohn: Click here for more information about the MOS Composer of the Month feature. |
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MOS Composer of the Month: Previous Page, Next Page, Index
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