Felix mendelssohn composer biography project
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Nearly as gifted a child prodigy as Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn wrote one of his most brilliant pieces when he was only seventeen years old. The overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inspired by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, was successful enough that Mendelssohn revisited it several years later. In 1843, he wrote incidental music (songs, dances, and choruses) for the same play, including a processional to accompany the wedding of the Athenian ruler Theseus and the Amazon queen Hippolyta. This piece is, of course, Mendelssohn’s famous – and ubiquitous – Wedding March.
The Young Prodigy
Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany on February 3, 1809. His father Abraham, a successful banker, was the son of the eminent Jewish scholar and philosopher of the Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn. Soon after Felix’s birth, Napoleon’s occupation of Hamburg (due to its strategic importance as a harbor) had rendered it an insecure place to live, thus in 1811 the Mendelssohn family moved to Berlin. After this move, in 1816, the parents decided to have their four children baptized as Christian Protestants, so that they would not suffer from the discrimination faced by Jews at the time.
Of the four children, both Felix and his older sister Fanny (born in 1805) showed an extraordinary aptitude for music at an early age. At the age of thirteen, Fanny gave a performance of the twenty-four preludes of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which she had entirely memorized. Felix started to perform publicly as a pianist when he was only nine, and also learned the violin. Both children enjoyed sitting in at the weekly rehearsals of the Berlin Sing-Akademie, the conductor of which, Carl Friedrich Zelter, was a friend of the family and the two children’s music theory tutor. Zelter was a Bach enthusiast who used the st
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Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
The comprehensive catalogue of the composer's works was published on the occasion of the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
Ralf Wehner's Mendelssohn-Werkverzeichnis (MWV) catalogue of works was presented at Mendelssohn House in Leipzig on 26 August 2009 as part of the international “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy - Kompositorisches Werk und künstlerisches Wirken” (Compositional Work and Artistic Activities) congress and the Mendelssohn Festival Days that year.
Dr. Ralf Wehner is project director of the Leipzig Mendelssohn Complete Edition at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Until today, we could only guess at the extent of Mendelssohn's oeuvre. The traditionally known works bear opus numbers (authentic up to op. 72, assigned by posterity up to op. 121). However, most of the approximately 750 compositions were still unpublished in the 1960s. Since then, musical practice has gratefully accepted the publication of numerous early works as part of the Complete Edition.
A comprehensive overview of his work, however, has been a long time coming. In the Mendelssohn Year 2009, this gap was closed in the context of the Complete Edition. The MWV catalogues the composer's oeuvre in 26 groups of works. In addition, descriptions of all known omnibus manuscripts and prints have been included. The appendix contains information on works of doubtful authenticity and on Mendelssohn's arrangements and editions of other works.
Wehner's work is based on years of research, during which material and information from more than 1,500 libraries worldwide, approximately 15,000 auction catalogues, and approximately 12,000 correspondence documents could be evaluated. 2,500 sources are listed for unknown works and different versions of works alone. Thus, the catalogue will be a treasure trove for scholars, musicians and music connoisseurs. The way the composer is perceived will change permanently
Felix Mendelssohn
German composer (1809–1847)
"Mendelssohn" redirects here. For other uses, see Mendelssohn (surname) and Mendelssohn (disambiguation).
Felix Mendelssohn | |
|---|---|
Portrait from 1846 | |
| Born | (1809-02-03)3 February 1809 Hamburg |
| Died | 4 November 1847(1847-11-04) (aged 38) Leipzig |
| Occupations |
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| Works | List of compositions |
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (which includes his "Wedding March"), the Italian and Scottish Symphonies, the oratoriosSt. Paul and Elijah, the Hebrides Overture, the mature Violin Concerto, the String Octet, and the melody used in the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.
Mendelssohn's grandfather was the Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, but Felix was initially raised without religion until he was baptised aged seven into the Reformed Christian church. He was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn received a similar musical education and was a talented composer and pianist in her own right; some of her early songs were published under her brother's name and her Easter Sonata was for a time mistakenly attributed to him after being lost and rediscovered in the 1970s.
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 be