1 Botstein, Leon, ed. Felix Mendelssohn—Mitwelt und Nachwelt: Bericht zum 1. Leipziger Mendelssohn-Kolloquium am 8. und 9. 1993. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1996. 134 pp. ISBN 3765103063.
A report from a symposium, focusing on disparities between FMB’s contemporary and posthumous reception histories.
2 Choral Journal 49 (9) (March 2009) and 49 (10) (April 2009).
Two-issue commemoration of FMB’s 200th birthday, with articles focusing on choral works. In 49 (9): Psalm 42 (Jeffrey Sposato, item 588); Psalm 95 (Siegwart Reichwald, item 585); and free chorales across instrumental and choral genres, including Elijah (R. Larry Todd and Angela R. Mace, item 653). In 49 (10): articles on Athalia (Marian Wilson Kimber, item 339), Elijah (Douglass Seaton, item 564), and the Drei Motetten Op. 69 (J. Michael Cooper, item 537). The Choral Journal is the journal of the American Choral Directors Association.
3 Cooper, John Michael, and Julie D. Prandi, eds. The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 382 pp. ISBN 0198167237.
Topically organized into five main groups: I. Sources and Source Problems; II. Individual Works; III. Repertoires; IV. Felix and Fanny; and V. Reception History. Includes discussions of the Organ Preludes Op. 37, the “Reformation” Symphony Op. 107, Die erste Walpurgisnacht, stage works, Lieder, piano music, string quartets, and issues of class, race, and gender.
4 Dahlhaus, Carl, ed. Das Problem Mendelssohn. Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Bd. 41. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1974. 212 pp. ISBN 3764920939.
A collection of papers from a symposium of the same name held in Berlin in 1972.
5 Elvers, Rudolf, and Hans-Günter Klein, eds. Die Mendelssohns in Berlin: Eine Familie und ihre Stadt. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ausstellungskataloge 20. Berlin: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1983. 266 pp. ISBN 3882261854.
A collection of essays on various biographical aspects of the Mendelssohn family, accompanying a catalog of an exhibit by the Mendelssohn-Archiv of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The exhibit was first shown in Bonn-Bad Godesberg on 14 October–27 November 1983, and subsequently in Düsseldorf and Berlin.
6 Finson, Jon W. and R. Larry Todd, eds. Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1984. 189 pp. ISBN 0822305690.
Papers from a conference hosted jointly by Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982.
7 Gerhartz, Leo Karl, ed. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – Repräsentant und/oder Außenseiter? Fünf Vorträge zu den “Kasseler Musiktagen 1991”. Kassel: Kasseler Musiktage, 1993. 102 pp.
The volume (like the festival from which it was derived) takes as its starting points: (1) most of the institutions central to modern musical life were established during Mendelssohn’s career, many of them under his leadership; and (2) one crucial change involved in the establishment of these institutions concerned the relationship between public and private art and life. The essays are all attempts to identify the issues and questions that have made Mendelssohn’s contemporary and posthumous reception histories so complex (e.g., “Mendelssohn and Berlin: Also a Question of Religion”). The volume, however, provides little documentation.
8 Hartinger, Anselm, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny. “Zu groß, zu unerreichbar”: Bach-Rezeption im Zeitalter Mendelssohns und Schumanns. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2007. 487 pp. ISBN 9783765103865.
A significant array of studies by leading scholars on Bach, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, exploring the close-knit relationship between Leipzig’s Bachian heritage and two resident composers Mendelssohn and Schumann. Review: J. H. Kuznik in The American Organist 42 (4) (Feb. 2008): 90–91. S. Hiemke in Musik und Kirche 77 (6) (Nov.–Dec. 2007): 429.
9 Heyder, Bernd, and Christoph Spering, eds. Blickpunkt Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Programmbuch Drei Tage für Felix vom 30.10 bis 1.11.1994. Cologne: Dohr, 1994. 149 pp. ISBN 3925366369.
Based on a symposium held in Cologne, 30 October–1 November 1994.
10 Leggewie, Veronika, ed. Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik- und Bühnenverlag, 2002. 176 pp. ISBN 9783980751513.
The women in Mendelssohn’s life were influential in many ways. This collection of essays explores his relationships with several women, including his sister Fanny, his wife Cécile, Clara Schumann, Delphine von Schauroth, and Jenny Lind.
11 Leonardy, Robert, ed. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Leben und Werk—Musikfestspiele Saar 1989. Edition Karlsberg, Bd. 6. Lebach: Joachim Hempel, 1989. 97 pp. ISBN 3925192417.
A volume of essays originally presented as papers in the context of the Musikfestspiele Saar.
12 Mendelssohn-Studien: Beiträge zur neueren deutschen Kultur- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1972–present.
With Vol. 15 (2007), the title changes to Mendelssohn Studien: Beiträge zur neueren deutschen Kulturgeschichte. An invaluable venue for scholarship pertaining to all aspects of the lives and works of the many distinguished members of all generations of the Mendelssohn family. A supplemental volume (issued between Vols. 10 and 11) indexes volumes one through ten. A publication of the Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft (see Appendix, item 1221, for more information).
13 Mercer-Taylor, Peter, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 315 pp. ISBN 0521826039.
Divided into four parts: (1) Issues in biography; (2) Situating the compositions; (3) Profiles of the music; and (4) Reception and performance.
14 Metzger, Heinz-Klaus, and Rainer Riehn, eds. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Musik-Konzepte, Bd. 14/15. Munich: edition text + kritik, 1980. 176 pp. ISBN 3883770558.
15 The Musical Quarterly 77 (4) (December 1993).
The bulk of this issue is devoted to the Mendelssohns, in a section entitled “Culture, Gender, and Music: A Forum on the Mendelssohn Family.”
Four articles devoted to Mendelssohn fill this volume. Authors are Stefan Keym (“Mendelssohn und der langsame Schluss in der Instrumentalmusik des 19. Jahrhunderts”), Sebastian Schmideler (“Von ‘göttlichen’ Stücken und ‘Lumpenkerls’: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys literarische Welt”), Regina Back (“‘A. Historisches. B. Geschäftliches, und C. Sonstiges’ Publicationsgeschichte und kritische Würdigung von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Breifwechsel mit Karl Klingemann (1909)”), and Wilhelm Seidel (“Warum die Leipziger Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy zu ihrem Kapellmeister bestellt haben”). Edited by Wilhelm Seidel and Matthias Schmidt.
17 Reichwald, Siegwart, ed. Mendelssohn in Performance. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008. 260 pp. ISBN 9780253351999.
Foreword by Christopher Hogwood. Contributors are Clive Brown, violin (item 798); John Michael Cooper, editions (item 799) and translation (item 800); Kenneth Hamilton, piano (item 805); Monika Hennemann, stage works (item 806); Peter Ward Jones, organ (item 818), David Milsom, orchestra (item 809), Siegwart Reichwald, conducting (item 812) and tempo (item 813), Douglass Seaton, audience (item 815), and Ralf Wehner, music of the past/Handel (item 819). Review: A. R. Mace in Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 7(1) (July 2010).
18 Schmidt, Christian Martin. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: KongreßBericht Berlin 1994. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1997. 351 pp. ISBN 3765103047.
Based on a conference held in Berlin on 12–15 May 1994 and edited by the editor-in-chief of the new Mendelssohn Gesamtausgabe, this is in many ways a successor to Dahlhaus’s Das Problem Mendelssohn (item 4). The essays are in the respective languages of the contributors (mostly in German, with four essays in English). For a review of the conference, see Wolfgang Hanke, “Internationaler Mendelssohn-Kongreß,” Musik und Kirche 65 (1995): 233–34; further, Thomas Christian Schmidt, “Berlin, 12. bis 15. Mai 1994: Internationaler Mendelssohn-Kongreß,” Die Musikforschung 48 (1995): 54–55.
19 Schuhmacher, Gerhard. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Wege der Forschung, Bd. 494. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982. 448 pp. ISBN 3534071093. A collection of original and reprinted essays, some presented in German translation for the first time.
20 Seaton, Douglass, ed. The Mendelssohn Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001. 799 pp. ISBN 0313284458.
Each contribution except the work-list is followed by a selection of “Historical Views and Documents” that complement the observations in the essay and provide valuable information for studies of reception history. Each author writes broadly on a specific aspect of Mendelssohn’s works, such as organ music, piano music, orchestral music, etc. Review: S. Reichwald in Notes 58 (4) (2002): 825–28.
21 Seidel, Wilhelm, ed. Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004. 297 pp. ISBN 3369002752.
Papers from the First Mendelssohn Festival, Ninth International Gewandhaus-Symposium, 1997, on the 150th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s death, organized by Kurt Masur. Organized into four sections: (1) Ethik und Ästhetik bürgerlicher Musik; (2) Mendelssohn und Leipzig; (3) Mendelssohns Musik in und für Leipzig I; (4) Mendelssohns Musik in und für Leipzig II.
22 Todd, R. Larry, ed. Mendelssohn and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. 401 pp. ISBN 0691091439.
Inspired by the Bard College Mendelssohn Music Festival in 1991. Divided into four parts: essays, memoirs, letters, and criticism and reception. Parts II–IV make accessible a number of important documents that had been generally obscure. Review: D. Seaton in Current Musicology 52 (1993): 108–10; R. Wehner in Die Musikforschung 45 (1992): 421–22.
23 —— ed. Mendelssohn Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 261 pp. ISBN 0521417767.
A significant collection of English-language Mendelssohn studies. Coverage ranges from biographical and reception history issues to studies of FMB’s aesthetics and of individual works.
24 ——Mendelssohn Essays. New York: Routledge, 2008. 340 pp. ISBN 9780415978149.
Ten essays are collected and reprinted in this volume; five previously unpublished essays augment the collection. Chapters: 1 “Mendelssohn the Prodigy”; 2 “Constructions of Mendelssohn and British-ness”; 3 “Mendelssohn’s Ossianic Manner”; 4 “On the Visual in Mendelssohn’s Music”; 5 “On Mendelssohn’s Sacred Music, Real and Imaginary”; 6 “Echoes of the St. Matthew Passion in the Music of Mendelssohn”; 7 “The Chamber Music of Mendelssohn”; 8 “Familiar and Unfamiliar Aspects of Mendelssohn’s Octet”; 9 “Me voilà perruqué: Mendelssohn’s Six Preludes and Fugues Op. 35, Reconsidered”; 10 “Fanny Hensel and Musical Style”; 11 “On Stylistic Affinities between the Music of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”; 12 “Issues of Stylistic Identity in Fanny Hensel’s Das Jahr”; 13 “The Unfinished Mendelssohn”; 14 “An Unfinished Piano Concerto by Mendelssohn”; and 15 “An Unfinished Symphony by Mendelssohn.”
25 Wollny, Peter. Ein Denkstein für den alten Prachtkerl: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und das alte Bach-Denkmal in Leipzig. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2004. 125 pp. ISBN 3374022529.
Essays examining Mendelssohn’s efforts to establish the Bach monument in Leipzig.
26 Barbedette, Hippolyte. Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy): Sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris: Huegel, 1868. 167 pp.
A French biography that drew upon otherwise neglected writings in order to paint a picture of a cosmopolitan, multidisciplinary FMB that would resonate with the contemporary Parisian reading public. The centrality of religious music in FMB’s oeuvre is recognized, and works like Antigone and Oedipus are seen to form a transition between the sacred and the secular. Addresses the contemporary music-historical conundrum by referring to Wilhelm von Lenz’s suggestion that FMB seemed destined to be “Beethoven’s successor,” but then concludes: “It must be said that the hope was not realized.” [DM/JMC]
27 Bartels, Bernhard. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Mensch und Werk. Bremen: Walter Dorn, 1947. 302 pp.
Standard—perhaps deliberately cautious—in many ways, but important as one of the first FMB biographies after World War II, just 100 years after Mendelssohn’s death. Very little here is new, but the author does shy away from the pre-war anti-Semitic ideologies adopted by the Nazis.
28 Bastianelli, Jérôme. Félix Mendelssohn. Paris: Actes Sud/Classica, 2008. 149 pp. ISBN 9782742775347.
Reconsiders the composer fêted as prodigy, exploring themes in Mendelssohn’s life and works, such as stylistic tensions and his place among his contemporaries.
29 Bellaigue, Camille. Mendelssohn. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1907. 4th edn., 1920. 227 pp.
A life-and-works study with some insights concerning the musicopoetic alliance implied by the generic designation of the Songs without Words and FMB’s thematic and developmental techniques.
30 Benedict, Julius (Jules). Sketch of the Life and Works of the Late Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Being the Substance of a Lecture Delivered at the Camberwell Literary Institution, in December, 1849. London: J. Murray, 1850. 61 pp. 2nd edn. (rev. and enl.), 1853. 66 pp.
Though Benedict had known FMB since 1821, the book is in the form of a narrative Leben und Werke, with only occasional personal references of the sort that characterize most contemporary memoirs. The book is significant because it was written during a crucial stage in FMB reception history, when a number of important works were receiving their first publication. Thus, there is no mention of the “Reformation” Symphony (which remained unpublished until 1868), and the A-major (“Italian”) Symphony (first published in 1851) is absent from the 1850 version but described and associated with Italy in the book’s 1853 revision.
31 Blaze de Bury, Henri. Musiciens contemporains. Paris: Michel Lévy frères, 1856. Reprinted Paris: Éditions d’Aujourd’hui, 1982. 289 pp. ISBN 2730702792.
Mendelssohn, Niels W. Gade, Jenny Lind, and Chopin on pp. 89–120. Another early biography significant for the ways in which it differs from views that were standard in writings about FMB after ca. 1870. De Bury’s classifications are clearly derived from art-historical (rather than musicological or music-theoretical) literature. Thus, Mozart, Haydn, and Weber are “naturalists,” while Bach, Beethoven, and Cherubini, are “idealists.” Against this backdrop, FMB is not classified according to the now-conventional dichotomy between “classic” and “romantic”; instead, he represents the link between the naturalists and the idealists: a realist.
32 Blunt, Wilfrid. On Wings of Song. New York: Scribner, 1974. 288 pp. ISBN 0684136333. Translated into Polish (Warsaw: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1979). ISBN 8306001796.
A popular life-and-works study, richly illustrated but otherwise derivative in the material used to paint its portrait. Nevertheless illuminating because of its commitment to producing a reasonably realistic picture of FMB rather than the enduring “happy Felix” view. [DM] Review: E. Sams in The Musical Times 115 (1974): 849; E. Werner in Notes 32 (1975): 39–41.
33 Bölliger, Max. “Das Wunderkind: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 1809–1847.” In Was soll nur aus dir werden? Sechs Lebensbilder. Stuttgart: Hubert Frauenfeld, 1977, pp. 36–59. ISBN 3719305589.
A conventional but usefully focused review of FMB’s prodigious youth, combining biographical information with references to works.
34 Brown, Clive. A Portrait of Mendelssohn. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. 551 pp. ISBN 03000095392.
This thematic account of FMB’s life and music is a refreshing alternative to chronology, albeit not as useful for a coherent overview. To fill this need, however, Brown includes a brief chronology of important events in FMB’s life. Themes: (1) The Man; (2) Multiplicity of Talent; (3) Family Background, Childhood Education; (4) Religion and Race; (5) Professional Career; (6) The Practical Musician; (7) The Teacher; (8) The Composer; (9) Critical Reception; (10) Posthumous Reputation. Review: M. Wilson Kimber in Notes 60 (3) (2004): 680–82.
35 Buenzod, Emmanuel. Musiciens. Musiciens et leurs oeuvres, 6. Lausanne: F. Rouge, 1945. 220 pp.
FMB is discussed in Vol. 1, pp. 139–149, in a section entitled “Mendelssohn ou le bonheur.” The section title says it all: because of the family life of privilege, FMB’s music suffers from “softness” and “is deprived of the vigor that comes from struggle.” Only his talent kept him from staying too long in “the no man’s land between art and academicism.” [DM]
36 Colson, Percy. Victorian Portraits. London: Rich & Cowan, 1932. Reprinted Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. 256 pp.
“Mendelssohn, a Fallen Idol” on pp. 227–253. The title seems to promise a bit of reception history, but the essay is thoroughly typical in its bland admixture of anti-Semitic assumptions and stereotypes with post-Shaw anti-Victorianism. Instructive as an example of the decline Mendelssohn scholarship had experienced by the 1930s. [DM/JMC]
37 Comettant, Oscar. Les compositeurs illustres de notre siècle: Rossini, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Halévy, Gounod, Félicien David. Paris: Ch. Delagrave, 1883. 173 pp.
Comettant presents FMB in company that seems unlikely to today’s readers, but provides useful insight because of his emphasis on the (perceived) qualities of Mendelssohn’s music that both appealed to late nineteenth-century French partisans (whose anti-Germanic sentiments were understandable after the Franco-Prussian War) and offended Wagnerians and German nationalists.
38 Crowest, Frederick James. The Great Tone Poets: Being Short Memoirs of the Greater Musical Composers. London: Bentley, 1874. 7th edn., 1891. 373 pp. Reprinted Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1972. ISBN 0836926412.
A classic example of the standard late-nineteenth-century view that Jews were like children in the evolutionary hierarchy of races: “Mendelssohn’s was a noble nature; spurning all that was base, mean, and insincere; full of fiery energy, yet as simple and lovable as a child’s.” [DM] See the essay by Marian Wilson Kimber on “Gender and Race in the Biography of Felix Mendelssohn” (item 996).
39 Dahms, Walter. Mendelssohn. Berlin: 1st–5th installments: Berlin: Schuster & Loeffler, 1919; reprint 1976. 6th–9th installments, 1922. 202 pp.
A life-and-works study, written at a time when people sympathetic to FMB’s music felt defensive against the New German School and anti-Semitic views: FMB is referred to as a “Romantic tone poet,” and the issue of his German nationality and his Jewishness is raised almost immediately (“Mendelssohn is … the only great and serious master whose work will endure for all time whom the Jews have given to music. His music has German character” [p. 14]). This study also evokes the “naturalist realist idealist” stylistic classifications employed by some other FMB biographies (e.g., item 31), while adopting the by-then-standard view of Beethoven’s three creative periods and applying it to FMB’s works.
40 Donner, Eka. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Aus der Partitur eines Musikerlebens. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1992. 160 pp. ISBN 3770009894.
An eminently readable and well-illustrated popular life-and-works study, written in the present tense.
41 Eichhorn, Andreas. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2008. 127 pp. ISBN 9783406562495.
A compact and readable biography of FMB. Review: T. Gebauer in Das Orchester 57 (2) (Feb. 2009): 61.
42 Elvers, Rudolf. “Frühe Quellen zur Biographie Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys.” In Christian Martin Schmidt, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Kongreß-Bericht Berlin 1994. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1997, pp. 17–22. 351 pp. ISBN 3765103047.
This article inventories and describes the earliest known familial and official references to FMB, as well as the initiation of the family’s contact with Zelter and Goethe; their trip to Paris in 1816; and the beginnings of Felix’s and Fanny’s private education. It also includes the earliest known portrait of FMB, from 1813 (three years earlier than the one usually considered earliest).
43 Ernouf, Alfred August. L’Art musical au XIXè siècle, Compositeurs célèbres: Beethoven—Rossini—Meyerbeer—Mendelssohn—Schumann. Paris: Perrin, 1888. 351 pp.
FMB is discussed on pp. 193–261. This study is generally sympathetic and utterly free of the stereotype of FMB’s supposedly typically Jewish artistic decline, but there is also some suggestion that his character and his attitudes toward art were more important than his works. The book’s chronological focus makes it possible to beg the aesthetic and historical questions of whether “importance” resides primarily in the quality of one’s work or the extent of one’s posthumous influence.
44 Fétis, F. J. Biographie Universelle des Musiciens. 8 vols. Brussels: Meline, Cans & Cie, 1840.
An article on FMB in Vol. 6, pp. 366–69. Straightforward biography with integrated references to works. Provides useful insights concerning FMB reception at the early heights of his international fame: “this young artist … is incontestably at this point the musician who offers the most hope to Germany, and he represents the future schools of that country” (p. 369).
45 Foss, Hubert J. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809–1847).” In Hubert J. Foss, The Heritage of Music, 2: 151–74. London: Humphrey Milford, 1927. ISBN 0836912926.
According to Foss: “Even if it is allowed that in romanticism Mendelssohn falls behind and that in originality he is a small figure, he may be called not only a product but also a type of his age. There is a conspicuous lack of originality about Mendelssohn’s technique. One can of course point to small virtues. Otherwise we can find only efficiency displayed in the very earliest of his compositions, but not surprising in so clever a Jew.”
46 François-Sappey, Brigitte. Félix Mendelssohn: La lumière de son temps. Paris: Fayard, 2008. 300 pp. ISBN 9782213637808.
François-Sappey places FMB with the “generation of 1810,” reevaluating his controversial reception history, and the extremes of his musical style. Considers especially the influence of Bach and Beethoven throughout his songs with and without words, his work with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and his travels.
47 García Pérez, Jesús. Los Románticos Alemanes. Barcelona: Monsalvat, 1973. 122 pp. ISBN 8485243005.
FMB appears in the chapter on “Romantismo del Concierto” (pp. 73–92). A standard biography, largely derived from the 1963 version of Eric Werner’s life-and-works study (item 118). One of relatively few studies of FMB in Spanish.
48 Geck, Martin. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 2009. 160 pp. ISBN 9783499507090.
A pocket-sized biography of Mendelssohn, lavishly illustrated in full color.
49 Gleich, Ferdinand. Charakterbilder aus der neueren Geschichte der Tonkunst. 2 vols. in 1. Leipzig: Merseburger, 1863.
Clearly an early representative of the “happy Felix” myth: claims that “an artistic nature so tenderly strung and of such fine feeling as Mendelssohn’s could flourish only in sunshine.” Stresses the modernity of the sacred works. [DM/JMC]
50 Grove, George. “Mendelssohn.” In George Grove, ed., Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 2. London: Macmillan, 1880, pp. 253–310.
Although obviously dated in some of its particulars, this article still stands as one of the finest achievements of early Mendelssohn scholarship. The quantity of Grove’s publications on FMB clearly bespeaks a measure of sympathy for the composer, but the method and tone of his writings remains objective, with an emphasis on philological analysis and biographical documentation. The length of the essay in the nineteenth century’s first major English lexicon of music—it runs to some 76 pages—also illustrates the esteem with which FMB was regarded in England at the time, especially in comparison with the articles on other major composers (such as J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, and Robert Schumann). Draws extensively on contemporary reports (e.g., on FMB’s abilities as a pianist). Another valuable aspect is the annotations to the bibliography: the problems in the editions of the FMB letters are noted and the glaring inadequacies of Lady Wallace’s widely circulated English translation of the Reisebriefe are pointed out in the commentaries on the published correspondence.
51 ——Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn. London: Macmillan, 1951. 394 pp.
FMB is treated on pp. 253–394. A reprint—in a more reader-friendly font—of the Mendelssohn article from Grove’s Dictionary (item 50).
52 Gumprecht, Otto. Musikalische Charakterbilder: Schubert, Mendelssohn, Weber, Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer. Leipzig: Adolf Gumprecht, 1869. 341 pp. Partially reprinted, revised, in Otto Gumprecht, Musikalische Lebens-und Charakterbilder, [v. 3–4]: Neuere Meister, Vol. 1. Leipzig: H. Haessel, 1886.
FMB is discussed on pp. 84–181. FMB best reflects the “silver age” of German music (whereas Wagner represents the “golden age”). Similar to many contemporary writings in its emphasis on the composer’s fine character; different, however, in that it sees St. Paul not as seeking refuge in an older, less dramatic genre than opera, but as turning away from the oratorio style of Graun and toward that of Bach and Handel—thus setting the path for the proper development of the genre. [DM/JMC]
53 Hadden, J[ames] C[uthbert]. Life of Mendelssohn. London: Keliher, 1882. 2nd edn., 1904. 174 pp.
The “Classical Romantic” FMB is emphasized in this late-nineteenth-century biography through the apollonian imagery used to describe his life: “Mendelssohn’s way through life lay, as it were, among pleasant meads, and by the side of pure, sparkling rivers.” Despite that consilience with the views of Mendelssohn’s more overt detractors, however, the author makes few gestures to suggest a compositional decline after ca. 1836; in fact, Elijah quite clearly ranks as a more masterly oratorio than St. Paul. [DM/JMC]
54 Horton, John. Some Nineteenth Century Composers. London: Oxford University Press, 1950. 106 pp. Reprinted Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. ISBN 0836980689.
FMB is treated on pp. 1–11. A sensible, though relatively traditional, appreciation. [DM]
55 Hurd, Michael. Mendelssohn. London: Faber, 1970. 87 pp. ISBN 0571086403. Reprinted New York: T. Y. Crowell, 1971. ISBN 0690531052. Translated into Japanese by Reiko Fujiwara (Tokyo: Zenon-gakuhu-shuppan-sya, 1974).
A straightforward popular account, lavishly illustrated.
56 Jacob, Heinrich Eduard. Felix Mendelssohn und seine Zeit: Bildnis und Schicksal eines Meisters. Stuttgart: Deutscher Bücherbund, 1959. Reprinted Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1981. 432 pp. ISBN 3596250234. Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston as Felix Mendelssohn and His Times. London: Barrie, 1959; and Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1973. ISBN 0837168236.
A life-and-works study, reiterating and reexamining standard sources without recourse to unpublished materials. A good example of how spin-off biographies continued to proliferate concurrently with the revival of credible biographical and stylistic scholarship after World War II. Review: Rassegna musicale 31 (1961): 76–77.
57 Jacobs, Rémi. Mendelssohn. Paris: Éditions de Seuil, 1977. 191 pp. ISBN 2020046849.
In contrast to nineteenth-century French FMB biographies, which generally viewed the composer and his significance with enthusiasm, this book suggests stereotypical Gallic restraint. The post-1910 pseudo-truisms are almost all present. Most of the credit is reserved for FMB’s revival of earlier composers’ works and for his youthful compositions; his life was too simple and happy to foster spiritual growth and artistic greatness; and so on. Review: C. Chamfray, in Courier musical de France 66 (1977): 158.
58 Kaufman, Schima. Mendelssohn: A Second Elijah. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1934, and New York: Tudor, 1936. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1971. 353 pp. ISBN 0837132290.
The Greenwood edition is a reprint of the 1934 edition. This book claims to be “the first full-length biography of a great composer, one whose shielded existence was not the life of unsullied happiness gossip would have us believe.” While it does avoid the pitfalls of the “happy Felix” myth, it can hardly be called the “first full-length biography” of FMB, or even the first to surmount that myth. There are also numerous errors (e.g., “L[ass] e[s] g[elingen] G[ott]” is misread as “L. v. g. G”) and the book is full of made-up dialogue. [DM/JMC] FMB typically inscribed “L.e.g.G.” (“Lass es gelingen, Gott”/”Let it succeed, God”) or “H.D.m.” (“Hilf Du mir (or mit)”/”Help me, [Lord]”) at the beginning of a manuscript for a new composition. “L.e.g.G.” is more common in the earlier manuscripts (to ca. 1832).
59 Köhler, Karl-Heinz. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, Bd. 301. Leipzig, Reclam, 1966. 285 pp. 2nd edn., 1972. 275 pp. Translated into Polish (Kraków: PWM, 1980).
A general life-and-works book written by a scholar intimately connected with the Mendelssohn revival, with substantial recourse to primary sources. Contains a fine section on the changes in orchestral performance practice that took place under Wagner and how inimical these were to Mendelssohn, both as conductor and composer. There is a good summary of Mendelssohn’s relations with Wagner and of Wagner’s anti-Mendelssohn and anti-Semitic writings after Mendelssohn’s death. [DM/JMC]
60 ——“Mendelsssohn(-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix.” In Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 12. London: Macmillan, 1980, pp. 134–59. Work-list and bibliography by Eveline Bartlitz. Revised and reprinted with more reader-friendly font, index, and revised work-list by Eveline Bartlitz and R. Larry Todd in The New Grove Early Romantic Masters 2 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1985), pp. 197–301. ISBN 0393016927. See item 111 for the New Grove 2001 article by R. Larry Todd.
By virtue of its venue of publication and Köhler’s command of Mendelssohn sources—for years he was head librarian of the most important depository of Mendelssohn family manuscripts, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz—this volume was one of the central resources for Mendelssohn scholars after 1980. The article is divided into three sections: (1) a periodic overview of FMB’s life (including references to major compositions); (2) a generic overview of the works; and (3) “heritage” (conspicuously brief in comparison to the other parts of the essay). The work-list and bibliography by Eveline Bartlitz in the original New Grove are seriously lacking in several regards (see Elvers, item 1108); their revised versions are decidedly more accurate, useful, and complete.
61 Konold, Wulf. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und seine Zeit. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1984. 375 pp. ISBN 3921518822. Reprinted 1996 and 2008.
Despite some bibliographic error, this is a semi-popular biography— not so much a Leben und Werke in the sense of Eric Werner’s (item 118), but rather a topically organized set of style-and-influence studies. Includes a non-thematic work list and a “Chronik” stretching from 1729 (the year of the birth of Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn and the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion) to 1963 (the publication year of the English version of Werner’s book about Mendelssohn). The liturgical and religious music is dealt with in a chapter called “The Renewal of Church Music.” A final chapter focuses on “Mendelssohn and Posterity,” and consists of separate sections devoted to a general discussion of Mendelssohn reception, Mendelssohn reception in the press, “Mendelssohn in the Third Reich,” “The Mendelssohn Reception Today,” and “Mendelssohn’s Work in German Musical Life.” Review: S. Großmann-Vendrey, in Musica 39 (1985): 489–90; G. Schuhmacher in Musik und Kirche 62 (1992): 281–82.
62 Krinitz, Elise. La Musique en Allemagne: Mendelssohn. Paris: G. Baillière, 1867. 156 pp.
A book that, like many other early French FMB biographies, paints a more favorable picture of him than do contemporaneous German biographies.
63 Kupferberg, Herbert. The Mendelssohns: Three Generations of Genius. London: W. H. Allen, 1972. 272 pp. ISBN 0491007329. Also published as Felix Mendelssohn: His Life, His Family, His Music. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1972. 176 pp. ISBN 0684129523. Translated into German by Klaus Leonhardt as Die Mendelssohns. Tübingen: Rainer Wunderlich, 1972. 2nd edn., 1977. 302 pp. ISBN 3805202911. Translated into Japanese by Ryohichi Yokomizo, Tokyo: Sohgen-sha, 1986.
A widely circulated and largely derivative popular biography with extensive information about the family, particularly Moses Mendelssohn. Except for this familial aspect (which is largely based on an uncritical reading of Sebastian Hensel’s family memoir, item 860), the book’s authority rests on its readability. Does not, however, deal with the immense amount of primary source-material neglected by most earlier FMB biographers. Review: S. Großmann-Vendrey in Die Musikforschung 28 (1975): 125–26.
64 Lampadius, Wilhelm Adolf. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Ein Denkmal für seine Freunde. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1848. 218 pp. Translated into English by William Leonard Gage as Life of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. New York: F. Leypoldt, 1865. 2nd edn., with supplementary sketch of Mendelssohn’s character by Ignaz Moscheles, Boston: O. Ditson, 1872. 2nd edn. also published as Memoirs of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Boston: Ditson, 1865; includes supplementary sketches by Julius Benedict, Henry F. Chorley, Ludwig Rellstab, Bayard Taylor, R. S. Willis, and J. S. Dwight. 2nd edn. with additional notes by C. L. Gruneisen, London: W. H. Reeves, 1877.
The most extensive version of this popular book is the second (1877) edition of the Memoirs (first published Boston, 1865). Emphasizes the influence of Goethe and offers extensive discussions of St. Paul and the Lobgesang as well as of other works that were celebrated in the late nineteenth century but are less so today (e.g., Die erste Walpurgisnacht and the incidental music to Antigone). Like most contemporary FMB biographies, devotes considerable attention (the entire penultimate chapter) to his appearance and his outstanding personality. The final chapter is a panegyrical summary of his artistic greatness. See also Lampadius’s Gesammtbild (item 65).
65 ——Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Ein Gesammtbild seines Lebens und Wirkens. Leipzig: Leuckart, 1886. Reprinted Walluf: Martin Sändig, 1978. 379 pp. ISBN 3500306608.
An expansion of the author’s Ein Denkmal (item 64). Makes use of the extensive published material—all of it accessible to the modern reader without recourse to this volume—that had appeared since that book was written. The book is generally useful but contains many errors and inconsistencies.
66 Lewinski, Wolf-Eberhard von. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Hinweise auf Leben und Werk.” In Robert Leonardy, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Leben und Werk—Musikfestspiele Saar 1989. Edition Karlsberg, Bd. 6. Lebach: Joachim Hempel, 1989, pp. 31–47.
A general life-and-works study that, like Müller-Blattau’s essay in the same volume (item 82) views FMB as caught between his own “spirited and by no means emotionally deprived” style and the pathos of Beethoven’s late style. General references to many well-known works, with more detail in comments on the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21, and Elijah. Also discusses FMB’s activities as conductor.
67 Lipsius, Maria [La Mara]. Musikalische Studienköpfe, Band II. Leipzig: H. Schmidt, 1868. 10th edn., Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1911.
FMB is discussed on pp. 159–212. As the publication history suggests, the Musikalische Studienköpfe were popular books, intended primarily to offer compact life-and-works studies to musical amateurs; there was little to encourage real research or serious scholarly and musical contemplation. Given that, the character of the Mendelssohn chapter is predictable: the “happy Felix” approach raised to unimaginable heights of bombast. [DM/JMC]
68 Lobe, Johann Christian. Musikalische Briefe: Wahrheit über Tonkunst und Tonkünstler. 2 vols. Leipzig: Baumgärtner, 1852. 2nd edn., 1860.
FMB appears in Vol. 2, pp. 105–16. A very early Leben und Werke best understood as a complement to Lobe’s memoir of FMB (item 1016), and a testament to the importance of the 1848 revolutions in the composer’s reception history: Mendelssohn lived during an artistically calm period “when art rests and gathers its strength for a further climb”; he “stood at the height of his time but could not exceed it.” The works singled out as most influential are the concert overtures (which of course anticipated the symphonic poems of Liszt, though Lobe does not make this connection explicit), while FMB’s music generally is criticized for its “flacidity” (Weichheit). Many works— especially the sacred ones—are criticized as being unduly influenced by Zelter.
69 Loeper, G. von. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, Vol. 21: 3245. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1885. Reprinted Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1967–71.
A careful overview, the first part of which is drawn largely from the essay in Grove’s Dictionary (item 50). Loeper credits FMB with having been the person who successfully initiated the German Nationalbildung intended with the Prussian state’s founding of the Berlin Akademie der Künste in 1809, as well as discussing his activities as conductor (including durations for certain works under his baton). [DM]
70 Lyser, Johann Peter. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung 154 (24 December 1842). Reprinted in Max F. Schneider, ed., Ein unbekanntes Mendelssohn-Bildnis von Johann Peter Lyser. Basel: Internationale Felix-Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft, 1958, pp. 37–43.
Johann Peter Lyser—a member of Schumann’s Davidsbündler who is likely familiar to many readers for his posthumous pen-and-ink drawing of Beethoven on a stroll—produced a portrait of FMB in 1835, followed by a glowing assessment of his artistic greatness in 1842. Both are useful as documents of contemporary reception history. See also his “Zur Biographie Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys” (item 71).
71 ——“Zur Biographie Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys.” Sonntagsblätter [Vienna] (1847): 592–97.
One of the earliest biographical memoirs for FMB.
72 Mackerness, E. D. “Mendelssohn und Charles Auchester.” In Gerald Abraham, Suzanne Clercx-LeJeune, Hellmut Federhofer, and Wilhelm Pfannkuch, eds., Bericht über den siebenten internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Kongreß Köln 1958. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1959, p. 188.
One indication of the excesses of the English Mendelssohn cult was the enormous popularity of Elizabeth Sheppard’s fictional biography Charles Auchester (London, 1853), in which the main character, Seraphael, is overtly (but not explicitly) based on FMB. This study surveys the parallels between (what was then known about) FMB’s life and Sheppard’s hero, and discusses the significance.
73 Marek, George. Gentle Genius: The Story of Felix Mendelssohn. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1972. 365 pp.
A general and popular book by an author well-versed in the literature. There are good sections on Moses and Abraham Mendelssohn. [DM]
74 Mariotti, Giovanni. Mendelssohn. Roma: Edizioni latine, 1937. 227 pp.
An important book because of its origin in fascist Italy in the most troubled years of FMB reception history. See also Mariotti’s study on FMB’s Italy (item 223).
75 [Marx, Adolph Bernhard]. “Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Dr. Felix.” In Gustav Schilling, ed., Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften, oder Universal-Lexikon der Tonkunst, Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Franz Heinrich Köhler, 1837, pp. 654–55.
An unusually personal contribution to the lexicographic literature on FMB, almost certainly by A. B. Marx, who is credited among the contributors to the encyclopedia, whose prose style resembles that of the article, and whose lifelong friendship with FMB came to an end in the late 1830s. The author visited with FMB in Frankfurt am Main in the summer of 1836, and speaks in considerable detail about the composer’s education and background as a musician.
76 Mascheroni, Anna Maria. Classic Composers. Wigston, Leicester: Magna Books, 1991. 194 pp. ISBN 1854222465.
Material on FMB is derived primarily from Werner’s biography (items 118 and 119) and Köhler’s New Grove essay (item 60). The volume also includes Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Schumann, Verdi, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Gershwin.
77 Meloncelli, Raoul. “Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix.” In Alberto Basso, ed., Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti, Vol. 5. Torino: UTET, 1985, pp. 20–39.
An overview of FMB’s life and his orchestral, keyboard, and chamber works, in Italian. There is no mention of the organ works, sacred works, or other vocal music. The bibliography is useful and more comprehensive than one might expect on the basis of the article itself. Includes a catalog of works.
78 Mendel, Hermann, and August Reissmann. “Mendelssohn, Felix.” In Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon: Eine Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften für Gebildeten aller Stände.Vol.7. Berlin: L. Heimann, 1877. pp. 119–26.
A carefully balanced but generally sympathetic assessment, written at a troubled juncture in FMB’s reception history. The anonymous author portrays FMB as a composer who synthesized the Romantic era’s historicist aspects (especially its interest in the music of Handel and J. S. Bach, as cultivated in FMB by Zelter) with its more modern proclivities, especially the contributions to drama made by Weber. Nevertheless, the sacred works are criticized as “long [having] counted as true expressions of Protestant piety precisely because they lack even a trace of religious coloration.” [DM/JMC]
79 Mercer-Taylor, Peter. The Life of Mendelssohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 238 pp. ISBN 0521630258.
The most important general biography of FMB after Eric Werner’s 1963/1980 study (items 118 and 119) and Karl-Heinz Köhler’s article in the New Grove (item 60) and before R. Larry Todd’s book (item 112). There is extensive discussion situating the family in the cultural context of the Restoration (especially with regard to Jewish issues), and references to the works are primarily for biographical purposes.
80 Morin-Labrecque, Albertine. Félix Mendelssohn, 1809–1847. Montréal: Éditions de l’Étoile, 1943. 30 pp.
A short popular biography seemingly derived largely from the family memoir by Sebastian Hensel (although no reference to any source is provided). Fanny Hensel figures somewhat more prominently than one might expect, but otherwise the book is thoroughly traditional in its portrayal of FMB as a composer whose importance resides primarily in his role in the Bach revival.
81 Moshansky, Mozelle. Mendelssohn: His Life and Times. Neptune City, NJ: Paganiniana Publications, 1981; and Tunbridge Wells: Midas, 1982. 144 pp.
A richly illustrated and sympathetic popular biography. Among such books, it also contains perhaps the best material on the situation of Jews in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Germany. Review: R. Anderson in The Musical Times 124 (1983): 35–36.
82 Müller-Blattau, Wendelin. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy im Spannungsfeld europäischer Musik.” In Robert Leonardy, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Leben und Werk—Musikfestspiele Saar 1989. Edition Karlsberg, Bd. 6. Lebach: Joachim Hempel, 1989, pp. 9–29.
A general overview contesting the oft-repeated notion that “there seemingly is no happier fate for a musician than that of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” (p. 9). Includes familiar background information about the Mendelssohn family before FMB, and surveys FMB’s activities as conductor and pianist as well as composer. Pays special attention to his relationship—musical and personal—with Berlioz, especially by comparing the Walpurgisnacht with the Symphonie fantastique.
83 Neumayr, Anton. Musik und Medizin, II: Am Beispiel der deutschen Romantik. Vienna: J & V Edition, 1988. 2nd edn., 1991. ISBN 3850580075. 2nd edn. translated into English by Bruce Cooper Clarke as Music and Medicine, II: Hummel, Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner—Notes on Their Lives, Works, and Medical Histories. Bloomington, IN: Medi-Ed, 1994. 600 pp. ISBN 0936741074.
This book is dated, but useful. (See also items 164 and 165.)
84 Neunzig, Hans A. Lebensläufe der deutschen Romantik: Komponisten. Munich: Kindler, 1984. 336 pp. ISBN 3463008793.
A useful biography, derived almost exclusively from Eric Werner’s FMB book (items 118 and 119) and Sebastian Hensel’s family memoir (item 860).
85 Olivier, Philippe. Félix Mendelssohn: Un intercesseur multiculturel? Essai. Paris: Hermann, 2009. 134 pp. ISBN 978270566804.
A unique look at Mendelssohn, focuses mostly on the intended trilogy, St. Paul, Elijah, and Christus. Uses footnotes rather than a bibliography, but this should not pose a serious inconvenience for readers of this short book.
86 Petitpierre, Jacques. Le Mariage de Mendelssohn, 1837–1937. Lausanne: Payot, 1937. 209 pp. Translated by G. Micholet-Coté as The Romance of the Mendelssohns. New York: Roy, 1937. Reprinted 1950, and London: D. Dobson, [1947]. 251 pp.
A very sympathetic popular biography, nicely illustrated and with extensive recourse to little-known primary sources. A book about Mendelssohn via a biography of Cécile. The book contains some errors (many of which are corrected in Peter Ward Jones’s edition of the couple’s honeymoon diary, item 285), but is laudable for the scope and integrity of its contribution to the biographical literature.
87 Pitrou, Robert. Musiciens romantiques: Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner. Paris: A. Michel, 1946. 195 pp. Translated into German by Lolo Kraus, with revisions by H. Halm, as Musiker der Romantik. Lindau im Bodensee: Frisch & Perneder, 1946. 254 pp.
FMB appears on pp. 97–107 of the French edition, on pp. 113–31 of the German one.
88 Polko, Elise. Meister der Tonkunst: Ein Stück Musikgeschichte in Biographien. Wiesbaden: Lützenkirchen & Bröcking, 1897.
See also the author’s memoir (item 1025). A largely fanciful biography, representative of the late-Victorian version of the Mendelssohn cult.
89 Popp, Johannes. Reisen zu Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Stationen seines Lebens und Wirkens. Berlin/Bonn: Westkreuz-Verlag, 2008. 172 pp. ISBN 9783939721017.
Focuses on FMB, but begins with two chapters on Moses and Abraham. Popp then studies FMB’s itinerant adult years, dividing his journeys in the typical fashion (Grand Tour, years in Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Berlin, etc.).
90 Prod’homme, Jacques Gabriel. Félix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809– 1847): Avec une notice biographique et une introduction historique. Brussels: Editions Dereume, 1950.
Includes a brief biographical sketch, but lists the date of Fanny’s birth as November 15, instead of November 14, and cites the date of the conversion of the Mendelssohn children to Lutheranism as 1821 instead of 1816. Proceeds with approximately two pages each about the “Reformation” symphony, the “Italian” symphony, Lobgesang, the “Scottish” symphony, the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Hebrides overture. Discusses each movement, giving keys and noting important formal aspects and musical features.
91 Radcliffe, Philip. Mendelssohn. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1954; Reprinted 1957. 208 pp. New York: Collier, 1963. 224 pp. 2nd edn., New York: J. M. Dent, 1967. 210 pp. 2nd edn., reissued, London: Dent, 1976. 214 pp. ISBN 0460031236. 3rd edn., revised Peter Ward Jones, London: Dent, 1990. 188 pp. ISBN 0460860291.
A life-and-works study with more musical insights than most works of that variety. The 1990 revision by Peter Ward Jones offers useful annotations and corrections of factual errors, as well as a revised work-list.
92 Ranft, Peter. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Eine Lebenskronik. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, [1972].
As the title says, an event-by-event sketch of the principal events in and around FMB’s life. Includes numerous quotations from letters. Review: E. Sams in The Musical Times 114 (1973): 265–66; S. Großmann-Vendrey in Die Musikforschung 28 (1975): 123–24.
93 Reich, Willi. Felix Mendelssohn im Spiegel eigener Aussagen und zeitgenössicher Dokumente. Zürich: Manesse, 1970. 443 pp. 2nd edn., 1987. 447 pp. ISBN 3717512803.
A documentary biography comprising carefully edited documents from FMB and his circle. An introductory chronological table is followed by a chapter on FMB’s “early youth” (through Spring 1829); one on his Wanderjahre (mid-1829 through August 1835); and a surprisingly short one on his Meisterjahre (late 1835 until his death). See also the documentary biographies by Max Schneider (item 101) and Hans Christoph Worbs (items 122 and 123). Review: H. C. Worbs in Musica 24 (1970): 492–93.
94 Reinecke, Carl. Meister der Tonkunst: Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Weber, Schumann, Mendelssohn. Berlin: W. Spemann, 1903.
FMB appears on pp. 441–80. The most credible of the life-and-works studies that assert that, for modern times, FMB was too close to the classics who overshadow him. Also suggests that his reputation had suffered because he has been imitated so much.
95 Reissmann, August. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Sein Leben und seine Werke. Berlin: J. Gutentag, 1867. 317 pp. 2nd edn., rev. and enl., 1872. 320 pp. 3rd edn., rev. and enl., Leipzig: List und Francke, 1893.
Evidently an attempt—largely successful—to do better what Lampadius had attempted with his Denkmal (item 64), but still a life-and-works overview that is easily susceptible to charges of facile superficiality.
96 Rellstab, Ludwig. Biographien berühmter Männer. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, [1850]. Reprinted in Ludwig Rellstab, Gesammelte Schriften: Neue Ausgabe, Bd. 24, T. 4. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, [1861].
A careful biographical sketch, one of the earliest of its type. Like the other life-and-works studies of FMB that appeared prior to the 1870s, this one is interesting because its evaluation is based only on the works that FMB himself chose to release – not the posthumously published ones that he had suppressed or left unpublished.
97 Riehl, W. H. “Bach und Mendelssohn aus dem socialen Gesichtspunkte.” Musikalischen Charakterköpfe 1 (1853): 65–107.
A look at two of Leipzig’s greatest musical personalities, important because of its early date. Although FMB’s greatness was not as universally accepted as Bach’s was, his prestige, based on his versatility and his character, is exemplary.
98 Rockstro, William S. Mendelssohn. The Great Musicians. London: Sampson Low, Marston Searle, and Rivington, 1884. 147 pp. 3rd edn., 1890.
A popular biography, valuable (like Benedict’s, item 30) as a biographical testimony by a man old enough to have had a brief contact with FMB. Like other early biographies, the book makes much of FMB’s private character and of his exemplary devotion to good public works. His assessments of FMB’s music, on the other hand, differ from most other contemporary biographies in that they cohere with Robert Schumann’s assessments in recognizing FMB’s importance in maintaining and re-defining high compositional standards.
99 ——“Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.” In Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edn. and earlier. Vol. 18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, pp. 121–24.
This article overlaps considerably, not surprisingly, with the author’s book on FMB. The article in the eleventh edition is the same as that in the earlier ones, but contains a telling note appended by Donald Francis Tovey, explaining that Mendelssohn “was a man whom even his contemporaries knew to be greater than his works … [a man whose] reputation, except as the composer of a few inexplicably beautiful and original orchestral pieces, has vanished.” See Donald M. Mintz, “1848, Anti-Semitism, and the Mendelssohn Reception” (item 971).
100 Saint-Saëns, Camille. Les grands maîtres de la musique: Jusqu’à Berlioz. Paris: Lafitte, [1907]. 347 pp.
Mendelssohn is treated on pp. 247–54. Suggests that FMB is widely disdained because his music is simple and candid—qualities consistent with stereotypically Gallic attitudes at the turn of the century, and definitely at odds with the overwhelmingly Wagnerian cultural mores of the day. The essay’s main interest lies in its turn-of-the-century view—part defense, part not—and the name of its author.
101 Schneider, Max F. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Denkmal in Wort und Bild, mit einer biographischen Einführhung von Willi Reich. Basel: Internationale Felix Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft, 1947. 150 pp.
Published at the centennial of FMB’s death, this book is an affectionate but scholarly counterpart to the books by Willi Reich (item 93) and Hans Christoph Worbs (items 122 and 123). Cited in item 1172.
102 Schuhmacher, Gerhard. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Bedeutung aus sozialgeschichtlicher Sicht: Ein Versuch.” In Gerhard Schuhmacher, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Wege der Forschung, Bd. 494. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982, pp. 138–73.
103 Schwingenstein, Christoph. “Mendelssohn.” Article in Neue Deutsche Biographie, ed. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vol. 17: Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1994, pp. 53–58.
A complete and straightforward biography, based on a good knowledge of FMB research.
104 [Stierlin, Leonhard]. Biographie von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Zürich: Orell, Fässli & Co. [1849]. 26 pp.
The author, a pastor in the Canton of Zurich, offered this little biography as “a New Year’s gift for the youth of Zurich”—an indication of the approach of the volume, which holds FMB up as an exemplary musician, citizen, educator, and student. Stierlin also authored short biographies of several other important composers (including Palestrina, Hasse, Gluck, Graun, Cherubini, and Spohr).
105 Stratton, Stephen S. Mendelssohn. London: J. M. Dent, 1901. 306 pp. 2nd edn., 1921. 3rd edn., rev. Eric Blom, 1934. 233 pp.
Although FMB’s reception in England had become a problem by the early 1930s, this book reveals the substance (rather than just the ebullience, as was usual) of the English reverence for FMB. As in Lampadius’s biography (items 64 and 65), the penultimate chapter is devoted to “Mendelssohn: The Man” and the final chapter to “Mendelssohn: The Musician.”
106 Stresemann, Wolfgang. Eine Lanze für Felix Mendelssohn. Berlin: Stapp, 1984. 231 pp. ISBN 3877762751.
Review: F. Krummacher in Musica 39 (1985): 197–98.
107 Stückenschmidt, H. H. “Mendelssohn.” In Die großen Deutschen, Vol. 3. Berlin: Propyläen, 1956, pp. 152–62.
108 Subirá, José. Músicos románticos: Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn. Biblioteca de artistas celebres, II. Madrid: [A. Marzo], 1925. 219 pp.
109 Tiénot, Yvonne. Mendelssohn: Musicien complet. Paris: H. Lemoine, [1972]. 246 pp.
Review: C. Chamfray in Le Courier musical de France 41 (1973): 30; R. Viollier in Schweizerische Musikzeitung 113 (1973): 180.
110 Todd, R. Larry. “Mendelssohn.” In Michael Raeburn and Alan Kendall, eds., The Heritage of Music, Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 182–93.
An optimal combination of compactness, authority, and illustrations (including full color portraits, etc). Discussion tends to favor the instrumental works, but includes references to vocal (especially choral/ orchestral) compositions as well.
111 ——“Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy), (Jacob Ludwig) Felix.” In Stanley Sadie, ed., New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 16, 2nd edn. London: Macmillan, 2001, pp. 389–424.
Includes a revised and updated catalog of works. Also available online at: www.oxfordmusiconline.com.
112 ——Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 683 pp. ISBN 0195110439. Reprinted in paperback, 2005. ISBN 0195179889. Translated into German, 2008 (see item 113).
Reviewed as the definitive biography of Mendelssohn, this impressive volume presents a full and sympathetic picture of one of the most misunderstood musical figures of the nineteenth century. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written. Arranged chronologically, discussing FMB’s works within the context of his life. Examines the strongest influences on his musical style, including Bach and Beethoven, as well as FMB’s own influence on his contemporaries and followers. Places FMB within his cultural and social context, with an emphasis on his wide, varied, elite, and international network of friends and colleagues. The biography is also an excellent source of information on Fanny Hensel (For Todd’s biography of Hensel, see item 892.) Awarded “Best Biography of 2003” from the Association of American Publishers. Review: C. Rosen, “Prodigy without Peer,” in Times Literary Supplement (19 March 2004); R. Wehner in Die Musikforschung 57 (2) (April–June 2004): 193–95; J. M. Cooper in 19th-Century Music 28 (1) (Summer 2004): 77–85; L. Lockwood in The New York Review of Books 51 (17) (4 Nov. 2004): 44; M. Hennemann in Nineteenth-Century Music Review 2 (2) (2005): 190–93; P. Zappalà (in Italian) in Ad Parnassum 4 (7) (April 2006): 121–27.
113 ——Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Sein Leben – Seine Musik. Trans. Helga Beste and Thomas Schmidt-Beste. Stuttgart: Carus Verlag/ Reclam, 2008. 798 pp. ISBN 9783899480986 (Carus), 9783150106778 (Reclam).
An excellent German translation. Footnotes and bibliographic references were edited and updated, additional images augment the text throughout, and eight full-color plates adorn the center of the volume. A new catalog of Mendelssohn’s works (Verzeichnis der Werke Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys, co-authored with Angela R. Mace, see item 1109) is a useful addition in Anhang II, pp. 719–46. Awarded 2009 “Deutscher Musikeditionspreis,” in Category 8 (Musikbücher, Sachbücher). Review: P. Sühring in Forum Musikbibliothek 30 (1) (2009): 50–52. Numerous reviews in newspapers and journals, including Die Zeit, Deutsche Welle, Die Welt, Musik & Kirche, and Das Orchester.
114 Wehner, Ralf. “Mendelssohn, Felix (Jacob Ludwig).” In Ludwig Finscher, ed., Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edn., Personenteil 11. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1994, pp. 1542–642.
A well-organized and thorough entry on the life and works. About half of the article (pp. 1563–615) consists of a catalog of works from Mendelssohn’s foremost cataloger. Wehner is the author of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke (MWV), see item 1116.
115 Wenborn, Neil. Felix Mendelssohn: His Life and Music. Naxos Audio Books, 2009. ISBN 9781843792321.
This compact and useful volume is geared towards an introductory audience. Features two CDs of FMB’s music, a glossary of terms, and brief biographies of important people in FMB’s life. Readers can access a website with additional material: www.naxos.com/naxosbooks/mendelssohnlifeandmusic.
116 Werner, Eric. “Mendelssohn.” In Friedrich Blume, ed. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Vol. 9. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1961, pp. 59–98.
An important article that anticipates much of the material in the author’s biography (items 118 and 119). The work-list was the most complete and accurate up to that point. Extensive bibliography. Black and white plates of the death mask, etc. are on pp. 32 and 33.
117 ——“Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix Jacob Ludwig.” In Rizzoli Ricordi: Enciclopedia della musica.,Vol. 4. Milan: Rizzoli Editione, 1972, pp. 172–77.
An abbreviated and updated version of the MGG article (item 116).
118 ——, trans. Dika Newlin. Mendelssohn: A New Image of the Composer and His Age. London: Free Press of Glencoe, 1963. 545 pp. Reprinted Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1978. ISBN 0313203024.
A seminal, but deeply problematical, contribution to the biographical literature on FMB. Among the volume’s many strengths are its use of archival sources (particularly previously unpublished documents from the Mendelssohns’ family correspondence) and its sympathetic and detailed exploration of the importance of Jewish issues in FMB’s life and works. Unfortunately, its integrity on both fronts has been seriously questioned. Several authors (most prominently, Marian Wilson Kimber, item 301; Wolfgang Dinglinger, item 580; Jeffrey S. Sposato, items 926 and 927; and Peter Ward Jones, item 286) have demonstrated that Werner fabricated or otherwise misrepresented some of the unpublished documents he cites, and numerous otherwise unpublished documents can be neither traced nor checked for accuracy. In addition, the volume may be considered to place too much emphasis on Jewish issues—perhaps overcompensation for the failure of previous biographies to explore those issues sufficiently. See the substantial discussion over the existence or extent of this problem in the Musical Quarterly articles mentioned as well as the responses by Leon Botstein (items 902 and 903) and Michael P. Steinberg (item 890).
English-language readers should also be aware of the idiosyncrasies of the book’s publication history. Although the book was originally written in German, only the English translation by Dika Newlin was published in 1963; publication of the German text—in an extensively revised and enlarged version, which is still plagued by problems of the sort described above—occurred only in 1980 (item 119). That revised version, unfortunately, has never been released in English translation. Readers are therefore advised to use the German text, and whenever possible to verify the information provided in it through other, more reliable sources. Review: H. Eppstein in Svensk Tidskrift für Musikforskning 48 (1966): 255–59; A. L. Ringer in The Musical Quarterly 51 (1965): 419–25; M. Camer in Music and Letters 45 (1964): 395–97.
119 ——Mendelssohn: Leben und Werk in neuer Sicht. Zurich: Atlantis, 1980. 635 pp. ISBN 3761105711.
The significantly revised and expanded German version of item 118. Despite extensive revisions (at least some of them in response to reviews of the 1963 edition), the volume includes numerous substantial errors and remains liable to criticisms of scholarly accuracy and authorial prejudice (see the articles by Wilson, Sposato, and Botstein listed in the annotation to item 118). Review: M. Hansen in Musik und Gesellschaft 33 (1983): 625–26.
120 Wolff, Ernst. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Berlin: Harmonie, 1906. 2nd edn., enl., 1909.
Still among the finest biographies of FMB, especially in its 1909 revision. The approach is strictly biographical (i.e., chronological) and documentary, with only brief descriptive references to the compositions; there are few gestures of critical evaluation. Accurately adduces considerable evidence from otherwise unpublished letters, and includes several fascimiles and rare drawings. Drawing substantially on Sir George Grove’s outstanding FMB article (item 50), Wolff conscientiously endeavors to avoid the pitfalls to which the principal German-language biographies then available had succumbed. (See the studies by Lampadius, items 64 and 65, and Reissmann, item 95.) The result is a biographical overview of singular thoroughness, clarity, and objectivity.
121 Worbs, Hans Christoph. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Musikbücherei für Jedermann, 10. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1956. 72 pp. 2nd edn., 1957. 71 pp.
A short, mostly accurate (if also somewhat dated), and objective life-and-works study.
122 ——Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Wesen und Wirken im Spiegel von Selbstzeugnissen und Berichten der Zeitgenossen. Leipzig: Köhler und Amelang, 1958. 255 pp.
A predecessor to the author’s contribution to the Rowohlt’s Monographien series (item 123). See also Reich (item 93), and Schneider (item 101).
123 ——Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Rowohlt’s Monographien, 215. Rheinbek: Rowohlt, 1974. 151 pp. ISBN 3499502151. 10th edn., 1994. 152 pp. ISBN 3499502151.
An invaluable resource, and for most English speakers the most easily accessible of the triumvirate of documentary biographies. See also Reich (item 93) and Schneider (item 101).
Covers Mendelssohn’s relationships with specific persons, places, and contemporary topics. See also “The Mendelssohn Family,” “Studies of Jewish Issues,” and “Reception History,” in Chapter 4.
124 Alexander, Boyd. “Felix Mendelssohn and the Alexanders.” Mendelssohn-Studien 1 (1972): 81–105.
In English with German abstract. Among FMB’s many London friends was the Alexander family, whose three daughters (Mary, Joanna, and Margaret) found the composer personally fascinating, and who promoted his music in the British capital. Article includes on pp. 102–05 the first publication of a detailed English report of FMB’s death (probably an English translation of a letter from Charlotte Moscheles to Karl Klingemann), as well as two facsimiles.
125 ——“Felix Mendelssohn and Young Women.” Mendelssohn Studien 2 (1975): 71–102.
In English with German abstract. A sequel to the author’s contribution in the previous issue of the Mendelssohn-Studien, this study focuses on FMB’s relationship with Mary Alexander (1806–67), the youngest of the three sisters in the Alexander family in London. The two were of similar political tendencies, and (on the basis of the documents examined here, some of which were previously unpublished) it appears that Mary Alexander felt an abiding love for FMB, while his own feelings for her vacillated between strong affection and cool restraint. Like the previous article, this one documents Felix’s appreciation for the company of young women.
126 Alf, Julius. Geschichte und Bedeutung der Niederrheinischen Musikfeste in der ersten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Niederrheins, 42. Düsseldorf: Ed. Lintz, 1940.
As a document of the vagaries of FMB reception history in Germany ca. 1940, an outstanding document; as a chronicle of FMB’s numerous important contributions to that festival, more bizarre than accurate. Omits, seemingly systematically, most references to FMB by name while referring clearly and accurately to the works he programmed and/or conducted.
127 Bailbé, Joseph-Marc. “Mendelssohn à Paris en 1831–32.” In Peter A. Bloom, ed., Music in Paris in the Eighteen-Thirties: Conference Smith College, 1982. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1987, pp. 23–39.
FMB’s third Parisian sojourn has been poorly represented in most of the biographical literature: it was not only the sojourn in which his feelings about Parisian musical life and musical style were solidified, but also the locus of some important compositional work (e.g., the overture to Die erste Walpurgisnacht and the “Intermezzo” that replaced the Minuet originally composed for the String Quintet in A major, Op. 18). This article offers a tidy overview of these activities.
128 Bennett, R. Sterndale. “The Death of Mendelssohn.” Music and Letters 36 (1955): 374–76.
This article draws on a previously unpublished letter (in English translation) from Ferdinand David and cites the judgment of Dr. Evan Bedford of the Middlesex Hospital that the cause of FMB’s death was likely subarachnoid hemorrhage from a congenital condition.
129 Biba, Otto. “Mendelssohn in Wien.” Musikblätter der Wiener Philharmoniker 35 (1981): 232–34.
A study of reception history: in a city virtually synonymous with the musical styles of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, how does FMB (who is often explicitly associated with “the” Classical style) fare?
130 Bischoff, Bodo. Monument für Beethoven: Die Entwicklung der Beethoven-Rezeption Robert Schumanns. Cologne-Rheinkassel: Dohr, 1994. 564 pp. ISBN 3925366261.
Adapted from the author’s dissertation (Freie Universität Berlin, [1992]). FMB appears on pp. 171–84, in a section entitled “Zur Beethoven-Pflege in Schumanns Freundeskreis: Mendelssohn.” Relates to the Variations sérieuses, Op. 54.
131 Bledsoe, Robert Terrell. Henry Fothergill Chorley: Victorian Journalist. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. 365 pp. ISBN 184014257X.
See “Elizabeth Barrett and Mendelssohn” on pp. 73–117. The respected composer/critic Chorley was one of Mendelssohn’s most influential advocates in England during the critical period that witnessed the institutionalization of the English Mendelssohn cult. Study draws upon letters from FMB to Chorley and reminiscences provided in the latter’s memoirs (items 1004–06) to chronicle their relationship and its aesthetic foundations.
132 Blozan, Claudio. “‘Il paese celestiale’: Sul soggiorno veneziano e sul viaggio in Italia di Mendelssohn.” Rassegna veneta di study musicali 2–3 (1986–87): 207–16.
The most thorough study yet of FMB’s time in Italy. See also Norbert Miller’s essay on the subject (item 1075).
133 Blumner, Martin. Geschichte der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. Berlin: Horn und Raasch, 1891. 256 pp.
FMB is discussed on pp. 71–79. An important survey of the history of the institution that dealt FMB his single most embarrassing professional defeat. States that FMB’s version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was still in use at the time (i.e., the early 1890s), and includes a list of FMB works performed in 1827–29. Discusses the choice of a successor to Zelter as director of the Singakademie and Mendelssohn’s unsuccessful candidacy for the post. Blumner’s take on the Singakademie affair differs somewhat from the standard (but now questioned) account by Eduard Devrient: whereas Devrient attributes the defeat largely to the composer’s Jewishness, Blumner suggests that the election of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen was simply an act of “Respect for age [and] gratitude for loyal, well-intentioned work.” [DM/JMC]
134 Borchard, Beatrix. “Mehr als eine Künstlerfreundschaft: Clara Schumann und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Veronika Leggewie, ed., Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik-und Bühnenverlag, 2002, pp. 37–59.
Compares Felix Mendelssohn’s encouragement of Clara Wieck Schumann’s career to his discouragement of a more public profile for his sister Fanny.
135 Bowles, Edmund A. “Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Ernst Pfundt: A Pivotal Relationship Between Two Composers and a Timpanist.” Journal of the American Instrument Society 24 (1998): 5–26.
The Leipzig timpanist Ernst Pfundt (1806–71), praised by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berlioz, and other contemporary greats, is credited with having been the agent of change that led to the frequent use of three rapid-tuning “machine” timpani in German orchestras after ca. 1836.
136 Brodbeck, David L. “A Winter of Discontent: Mendelssohn and the Berliner Domchor.” In R. Larry Todd, ed., Mendelssohn Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 1–32.
A thoughtful and carefully documented study of one of the most problematical areas of FMB’s life and works: his appointment in 1842 as Generalmusikdirektor to the court of the new King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, an appointment that revolved not least of all around the reform of music in the German Protestant churches. Examines a number of unpublished and otherwise obscure primary sources and other archival documents. See also the studies by Wolfgang Dinglinger (items 143 and 583).
137 Büchter-Römer, Ute. “Fanny Hensel.” In Veronika Leggewie, ed., Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik-und Bühnenverlag, 2002, pp. 60–97.
Discusses Fanny’s life and music and her close relationship with her brother.
138 Cherington, Michael, Richard Smith, and Peter J. Nielson. “The Life, Legacy and Premature Death of Felix Mendelssohn.” Seminars in Neurology 19 (1999): 47–52.
This essay examines the probable causes of FMB’s death.
139 David, Ernest. Les Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, et Robert Schumann. Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1886. 359 pp.
Written in an age of fervent Mendelssohnism in a France deeply riven over the case of Mendelssohn’s nemesis Wagner, this book is an important document of reception history. Draws liberally on the French translation of Sebastian Hensel’s family memoir (item 860).
140 Dempsey, Sinéad. “Hero or Has Been? Mendelssohn Reception in England and Germany in the 1840s.” British Postgraduate Musicology 6 (2004). Available at: www.bpmonline.org.uk/bpm6-hero.html.
Dempsey reconsiders the commonly-held notion that Mendelssohn’s reception see-sawed from contemporary adulation to posthumous denigration, arguing that seeds of dissent were sown already during his lifetime. Contrasts especially English and German opinions.
141 ——“Aesthetic and Ideological Trends in the Reception of Mendelssohn’s Music in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” Ph.D. diss., University of Manchester, 2008. 200 pp.
Focuses on Mendelssohn reception in German reviews, 1824–1869, including (among many others) the writings of Adolf Bernhard Marx, Eduard Hanslick, Heinrich Heine, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, and Franz Liszt. Dempsey reconsiders the role anti-Semitism played in Mendelssohn reception in the 1850s and during the Third Reich.
142 Dießner, Petra and Anselm Hartinger. Bach, Mendelssohn und Schumann: Spaziergänge durch das musikalische Leipzig. Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 2005. 2nd edn. 2009. 128 pp. ISBN 3361005973.
This is a wonderful resource for the musical sites in Leipzig—whether the reader intends to take a walking tour or not—to understand the layout and learn something of the atmosphere of the city. Includes numerous full-color pictures, maps with suggested routes, and other illustrations, along with scholarly commentary on the sites and how they are relevant to Bach, Mendelssohn, and/or Schumann. The updated edition for 2009 reflects the newest developments in the city and in scholarship—most importantly for Mendelssohn, the reconstruction of the Werner Stein Mendelssohn Denkmal, and the German translation of Larry Todd’s biography (item 113).
143 Dinglinger, Wolfgang. “Mendelssohn: General-Musik-Direktor für kirchliche und geistliche Musik.” In Christian Martin Schmidt, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Kongreß-Bericht Berlin 1994. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1997, pp. 23–37.
An important complement to David L. Brodbeck’s similar study (item 136). Proceeds from the paradoxical observation that while the greater share of biographical significance in FMB’s return to Berlin in the early 1840s resided in his activities on behalf of liturgical music, the works that have claimed the greatest musical significance are the dramatic ones (e.g., the incidental music to Antigone and A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Draws extensively on unpublished archival documents.
144 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Berliner Intermezzo: Juni 1832 bis April 1833.” Mendelssohn-Studien 13 (2003): 101–23.
A detailed look at FMB’s activities in Berlin after the death of Zelter.
145 ——“‘Acta betreffend: Die Berufung des Componisten Dr. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdi nach Berlin’: Briefe von und an Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Mendelssohn-Studien 14 (2005): 189–219.
Letters (1841–44), with commentary, from the negotiations surrounding FMB’s appointment as the Royal Kapellmeister in Berlin.
146 Dörffel, Alfred. Geschichte der Gewandhausconcerte zu Leipzig vom 25. November 1781 bis 25. November 1881. Leipzig: Im Auftrag der Concert-Direction, 1884. Reprinted Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1980.
FMB is treated in “Die Concerte unter Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Ferdinand Hiller, Niels W. Gade 1835–1848” (pp. 83–137). Like Foster’s History of the Philharmonic Society of London (item 163), an invaluable documentary resource. Includes descriptions of individual programs and season overviews, as well as transcriptions of documents, programs, and reviews. Part II (not reproduced in all available exemplars) is a “Chronik” that gives a program-by-program overview.
147 Droysen, G[ustav]. “Johann Gustav Droysen und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Deutsche Rundschau 111 (1902): 107–26, 193–215, 386–408.
Essay that chronicles the relationship between the poet and the composer, with extensive quotations from family documents. The author had figured already in Sebastian Hensel’s family history (item 860), but the extent and nature of artistic productivity involved in the friendship become fully evident here. He provides important (and seemingly accurate) information to supplement, correct, and complement the memoirs of Marx (item 1018) and Devrient (item 1008), as well as corroboration for some points in Hiller’s recollections (item 1061). In addition to providing the texts for many of FMB’s Lieder (e.g., “Frage,” Op. 9 No. 1 and “Ferne,” Op. 9 No. 9), Droysen also collaborated with FMB on the incidental music for Antigone.
148 Eatock, Colin Timothy. Mendelssohn and Victorian England. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. 190 pp. ISBN 9780754666523.
A study of FMB’s relationship with Victorian England, detailing his ten visits to the country. Eatock draws together the scattered and copious narratives from the many people FMB met and events he attended to form a cohesive and convenient whole, filling a long-standing gap in FMB scholarship. Includes a careful study of the social, cultural, and religious climate FMB found in England, and a thought-provoking discussion of FMB’s changing image and reception after his death.
149 Elvers, Rudolf. “‘Über das ‘Berlinische Zwitterwesen’: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Briefen Über Berlin.” In Rudolf Elvers and HansGünter Klein, eds., Die Mendelssohns in Berlin: Eine Familie und ihre Stadt. Berlin: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1983, pp. 31–42.
Though it was the residence of many friends and family, Berlin consistently elicited an emotional response from the composer that was at best ambivalent, at worst hostile. This essay culls passages from Mendelssohn’s personal correspondence that document his enduring ambivalence toward the Prussian capital, dispelling the widely held assumption that the composer’s negative feelings stemmed largely from his unsuccessful bid for the directorship of the Singakademie after Zelter’s death in 1832. See also Wm. A. Little’s related essay on the subject (item 217).
150 ——“Eine Schwede besucht die Mendelssohns: Aus den Reisebriefen des Hendrik Munktell 1829/30.” In Josef Kuckertz, Helga de la MotteHaber, Christian Martin Schmidt, and Wilhelm Seidel, eds., Neue Musik und Tradition: Festschrift Rudolf Stephan zum 65. Geburtstag. Laaber: Laaber, 1990, pp. 233–37.
German translation of excerpts from a Swedish letter describing life in the Berlin Mendelssohn household ca. 1830. A valuable and vivid portrayal of the family at a critical point in its history.
151 ——“Auch kleinste Dinge … : Die Mendelssohn Bartholdys im Album der Sophia Horsley.” In Paul Mai, ed., Im Dienst der Quellen zur Musik: Festschrift Gertraut Haberkamp zum 65. Geburtstag. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2002, pp. 571–73.
Details of the friendship between Felix Mendelssohn and Sophia Horsley.
152 Esser, Joseph. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und die Rheinlande.” Ph.D. diss., Universität Bonn, 1923. 106 pp.
Perhaps the most thorough and extensive summary of FMB’s relationship to Düsseldorf, Cologne, and other parts of the Rhineland. Draws upon a variety of published sources (including early nineteenth-century newspaper clippings) and some archival documents, and includes an examination of FMB’s first incidental music (for Karl Immermann’s adaptation of Caldéron de la Barca’s The Steadfast Prince), composed and performed in the spring of 1833.
153 Feuchte, Andreas. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy als Lehrer und Freund von Eduard Franck.” Mendelssohn-Studien 10 (1997): 57–76.
Eduard Franck, whose older brother Hermann was a friend and pupil of FMB from ca. 1830 and was a reasonably well-known and respected composer in nineteenth-century Germany, studied with FMB after mid-1833. This essay chronicles the early stages of the professional relationship between FMB and the younger Franck. Derived from the author’s dissertation (item 154). Draws extensively on unpublished documents and letters of FMB and others.
154 Feuchte, Paul, and Andreas Feuchte. Die Komponisten Eduard Franck und Richard Franck: Leben und Werk, Dokumente, Quellen. Stuttgart: n.p., 1993. 310 pp.
An important examination of Mendelssohn’s pedagogical, personal, and professional relationship with and influences on two of his students. Extensive recourse to unpublished primary sources.
155 Fischer, Wilhelm Hubert. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, sein Leben und Wirken in Düsseldorf.” In Wilhelm Hubert Fischer, 95. Niederrheinisches Musikfest, Düsseldorf 1926: Festschrift mit Angaben der Konzerte des Städt. Musikvereins und seiner Geschichte … nebst einer Schilderung der Düsseldorfer Musikfeste 1833 und 1836 unter Leitung von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, sein Leben und Schaffen in Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf: F. Dietz, 1926.
Though dated in some specific information, this remains a valuable resource for persons interested in FMB’s activities in the Rhineland (see also Fischer’s other study, item 156, as well as Joseph Esser’s 1923 dissertation on the subject, item 152). Includes reproductions and transcriptions of little-known archival documents, including some FMB correspondence held in the Stadtarchiv Düsseldorf. Traces the composer’s relationship with Düsseldorf from its commencement in the early 1830s to the end of his life.
156 ——“Der Musikverein unter Leitung von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy von 1833 bis 1835.” In Festschrift zur hundertjährigen Jubelfeier des Städtischen Musikvereins Düsseldorf und zum hundertjährigen Bestehen der Niederrheinischen Musikfeste … Düsseldorf: F. Dietz, 1918.
The most important and detailed published chronicle of FMB’s first independent professional engagement (as Municipal Music Director in Düsseldorf from 1833–1835). Draws on archival as well as published sources to trace FMB’s association with Düsseldorf, and presents transcriptions and facsimiles of little-known documents. Includes a Rhinelander’s appreciation of FMB. See also Joseph Esser’s dissertation (item 152).
157 Fiske, Roger. Scotland in Music: A European Enthusiasm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 234 pp. ISBN 0521247721.
An indispensable starting point for those interested in FMB’s role in the nineteenth-century obsession with Scotland and things Scottish. FMB and Chopin are treated separately in the chapter entitled “Scotland as a Reality” (pp. 116–55). Discussion of FMB focuses on biographical connections, but there are references to the “Sonate Écossaise” (Op. 28), the Hebrides Overture, the “Scottish” Symphony, and Heimkehr aus der Fremde as well. Includes facsimiles of several drawings made by FMB while in Scotland. See also Goldhan and Kaubisch (item 169), Jenkins and Visocchi (item 185), and Todd (item 429).
158 Flashar, Hellmut. “August Böckh und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In W. Schmidt-Biggemann, ed., Disiecta membra: Studien, Karlfried Gründer zum 60. Geburtstag. Basel: Schwabe, 1989, pp. 66–81. Reprinted in Hellmut Flaschar, Eidola: Ausgewählte kleine Schriften, ed. Manfred Kraus. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1989, pp. 581–96.
159 Forchert, Arno. “Adolf Bernhard Marx und seine ‘Berliner Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.’” In Carl Dahlhaus, ed., Studien zur Musikgeschichte Berlins im frühen 19. Jahrhundert, Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Bd. 56. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1980, pp. 381–404.
The author discusses the ways in which Marx’s critical and aesthetic agenda was influenced by Hegel’s concept of the “idea” of an artwork, and the ways in which this understanding shaped Marx’s responses to various composers, including Beethoven and FMB.
160 Forner, Johannes, ed. Die Gewandhauskonzerte zu Leipzig 1781–1981: Mit einem zusammenfassenden Rückblick von den Anfängen bis 1781. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1981. 560 pp.
An expanded and richly illustrated version of Dörffel’s history of the Gewandhaus concerts (item 146). Includes floor plans, a survey of Mendelssohn’s accomplishments and programs, and a section on the founding of the conservatory. There are also details about the destruction of the Mendelssohn monument by the Nazis. [DM]
161 ——“Mendelssohns Mitstreiter am Leipziger Konservatorium.” Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 14 (1972): 185–204. Reprinted in Gerhard Schuhmacher, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Wege der Forschung, Bd. 494. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982, pp. 64–99.
As founder and director of the Leipzig Conservatory for Music (today the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik), FMB exerted considerable influence on the pedagogy of applied music, music history, and music theory in the mid- and late nineteenth century. This important article examines his relationship with six of the professional colleagues who helped to establish the Conservatory as a leading institution of music: Moritz Hauptmann, Robert Schumann, Ignaz Moscheles, Niels W. Gade, Julius Rietz, and Ferdinand David. Includes overviews of the student body and the programs of the concerts and recitals. See also Newman (item 231) and Phillips (item 233).
162 ——“Mendelssohn und Leipzig. Impressionen und Aspekte.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 79–93.
Discusses FMB’s arrival in Leipzig, the conditions he found there, and his three great initiatives—the Gewandhaus, the Bach projects, and the conservatory.
163 Foster, Myles Birket. History of the Philharmonic Society of London, 1813–1912: A Record of a Hundred Years’ Work in the Cause of Music. London: John Lane, 1913. 610 pp.
Like Dörffel’s study of the Gewandhaus (item 146), this is an invaluable documentary resource concerning an orchestra that played a central role in Mendelssohn’s professional prestige from 1829 on. The chapters include a description of the highlights of each season, followed by the programs of the individual concerts. The index includes not only individual works and composers, but also inventories of how often they were represented over given periods of time.
164 Franken, Franz Herman. Das Leben großer Meister im Spiegel der Medizin: Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn. Stuttgart: Entre, 1959. 99 pp.
This is the predecessor to his Krankheit und Tod (item 165).
165 ——Krankheit und Tod großer Komponisten. Baden-Baden: Sitzstrock, 1979. 280 pp. ISBN 387921123X.
Mendelssohn is discussed on pp. 159–179. Subarachnoid hemorrhage from the basal artery is the diagnosis. The judgment was corroborated by Dr. E. Bedord in Franken’s earlier book (item 164) (Bedford is quoted in Bennett’s article, item 128). It is also possible that Mendelssohn had high blood pressure and possibly a brain tumor and that he may have suffered an unreported head trauma in the accident that caused his well-known knee injury (in London, in 1829). [DM/JMC]
166 ——Die Krankheiten großer Komponisten, Band I: Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Vincenzo Bellini, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann. Taschenbucher zur Musikwissenschaft No. 104. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen, 1986. 2nd edn., revised, 1991. 303 pp. ISBN 3795904196. Translated by Kabel B. Absolon as Diseases of Famous Composers: Twenty-two Pathographies from Bach to Bartók. Rockville, MD: Kabel, 1996. 361 pp. ISBN 1575290103
An examination of the probable causes of FMB’s demise. The book is an expanded revision of item 165, but the overall discussion of FMB is similar.
167 Galley, Ursula. “Bilder aus Düsseldorfs musikalischer Vergangenheit.” Niederrheinisches Musikfest, Düsseldorf 110 (1956): 330.
A simple but essentially accurate account of FMB’s stay in Düsseldorf, focusing on his relationship with Immermann.
168 Ghislanzoni, Antonio. “I rapporti fra Spontini e Mendelssohn.” In Congresso Internationale di Studi Spontiniani 1951: Atti, 94–103. Fabriano: Arti grafiche “Gentile,” 1954. 142 pp.
FMB biographers have made much of the intrigues Spontini instigated against the public reception of the last of FMB’s early operas, Die Hochzeit des Camacho, Op. 10, and one can easily envision how the politics of Berlin musical life might have made the Italian Berliner uneasy at the thought of an FMB success. This is an examination that is more sympathetic to Spontini, based largely on Devrient (item 1008).
169 Goldhan, Wolfgang, and Peter Kaubisch. Schottische Skizzen: Eine Reise nach Aufzeichnungen von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Berlin: Edition Q, 1992. 100 pp. ISBN 3928024949.
This book contains valuable reproductions of the sketches and drawings FMB made during his tour of Scotland in 1829. See also Fiske (item 157) and Jenkins and Visocchi (item 185).
170 Goltschnigg, Dietmar. “Heines Auseinandersetzung mit musikalischen Zeitgenossen: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Giacomo Meyerbeer und Richard Wagner.” Musicologica austriaca 25 (2006): 55–67.
171 Gooley, Dana. “The War of the Romantics: Weimar and Leipzig.” The Journal of the American Liszt Society 57 (2006): 77–81.
Notes for the Bard Music Festival, October 2006.
172 Gresham, Carolyn Denton. “Ignaz Moscheles: An Illustrious Musician in the Nineteenth Century.” Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 1980. 378 pp.
FMB especially on pp. 118–23.
173 Grotjahn, Rebecca. “Musik als Wissenschaft und Kunst: Das Leipziger Konservatorium als Modell einer höheren musikalischen Bildung.” In Arnfried Edler and Sabine Meine, eds., Musik, Wissenschaft und ihre Vermittlung: Bericht über die internationale musikwissenschaftliche Tagung der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. Augsburg: Wißner, 2002, pp. 351–54.
Considers the influence of Wilhelm von Humboldt on Mendelssohn’s pedagogical approach at the Leipzig Conservatory, among other issues.
174 Gülke, Peter. “Mendelssohn und Leipzig: Vielleicht vor allem eine Frage der Musik.” In Leo Karl Gerhartz, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Repräsentant oder Außenseiter? Fünf Vorträge zu den “Kasseler Musiktagen 1991.” Kassel: Kasseler Musiktage, 1993, pp. 55–63.
Gülke explores the importance of public life in Leipzig for FMB’s sense of professional and personal identity.
175 Häfner, Klaus. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in seinen Beziehungen zu König Friedrich August II. von Sachsen: Ein Beitrag zur Biographie Mendelssohns.” Mendelssohn-Studien 7 (1990): 219–68.
This essay supplements the frequent biographical studies on FMB’s ties to monarchs Friedrich Wilhelm III and IV of Prussia with a look at his “own” king (i.e., the king in Saxony, where Mendelssohn was employed for the last thirteen years of his life).
176 Hartinger, Anselm. “‘Es gilt dem edelsten und erhabensten Theil der Musik’: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, die Thomaner, die Thomaskirche und die Leipziger Stadtkirchenmusik. Neue Dokumente und Überlegungen zu einer unterschätzen Arbeitsbeziehung.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 139–86.
Studies FMB’s engagement with the Thomanerchor through the Saturday Motette at the Thomaskirche (a tradition still in place today), his administrative relationship with the several institutions around the Thomaskirche, and explores the works of FMB performed by the Thomanerchor. Includes a list of these works.
177 Harwell [Celenza], Anna H. “‘Unsre Kunst heisst Poesie’: Niels W. Gade’s Early Compositions and Their Programmatic Origins.” Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1996. 478 pp.
The Danish composer Gade (1817–90) studied with FMB at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1843 and stood in for him as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1844, before becoming second director of the ensemble. Harwell’s dissertation draws upon otherwise unpublished correspondence to examine the personal and musical relationship between the two composers. See also Spitta (item 269).
178 Hellmundt, Christoph. “Anton Christanell und seine Beziehungen zu Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Mendelssohn-Studien 11 (1999): 77–102.
Christanell (1801–82) was a well-to-do amateur musician who lived in Schwyz (in the Tyrol, near Innsbruck, Austria), and for whom FMB composed a Festgesang that was discovered and published only in 1997. Article describes the relationship between the composer and the commissioner, drawing on archival materials and otherwise unpublished correspondence. See also Hellmundt’s essay on the Festgesang “Möge das Siegeszeichen” (item 410).
179 Henneberg, Fritz. “Mendelssohn in Leipzig.” In Robert Leonardy, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Leben und Werk—Musikfestspiele Saar 1989. Lebach: Joachim Hempel, 1989, pp. 49–71.
A straightforward and largely traditional overview of FMB’s activities in Leipzig and the significance of his contribution to the city’s musical life. Begins with a pre-history of the Leipzig appointment (from 1833, when FMB competed to succeed Zelter for the directorship of the Berlin Singakademie); then includes substantial sections devoted to the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig Conservatory, and the programming of the Leipzig concerts.
180 Herklotz, Renate. “Mendelssohns Wirken in Leipzig im Spiegel der Leipziger Musikzeitschriften.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 107–18.
Focuses on reviews of FMB’s works in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung and the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.
181 Hermann, Marcelle. “J.-J. B. Laurens’ Beziehungen zu deutschen Musikern.” Schweizerische Musikzeitung 105 (1965): 257–66.
The article contains a little-known letter from FMB to Laurens (a friend and colleague who was a composer as well as a painter and writer).
182 Hexelschneider, Erhard. “Wilhelm Küchelbecker: Ein frühes ausländisches Urteil über Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” Mendelssohn-Studien 8 (1993): 131–39.
A discussion and reproduction of an 1820 diary entry by Wilhelm Karowitsch Küchelbecker, a Russian poet who encountered the young FMB in Berlin.
183 Holtzmann, Sigrid, ed. Carl Friedrich Zelter im Spiegel seines Briefwechsels mit Goethe. Weimar: Kiepenheuer, 1957. 285 pp.
An overview and analysis of Zelter’s and Goethe’s views of the young FMB, including the troubling implicit Semitic stereotypes in some of the letters.
184 Hueffer, Francis. Half a Century of Music in England, 1837–87. London: Chapman and Hall, 1889. 240 pp. Reprinted Boston: Long-wood, 1977. ISBN 089341025X.
The first chapter (“Introduction: General Music during the Queen’s Reign in England”) leads to the main essays about Wagner, Liszt, and Berlioz in England. It looks back on the “limited efforts of our grandfathers”—meaning the events of the first quarter of the century— and is interesting mainly because of its patronizing tone. There is, however, good material about FMB and Victoria and Albert. [DM/JMC]
185 Jenkins, David, and Mark Visocchi. Mendelssohn in Scotland. London: Chappell, 1978. 116 pp. ISBN 090344318X.
A coffee-table book, but well illustrated and generally reliable. For a more scholarly approach to the same subject, see the books by Fiske (item 157) and Goldhan (item 169).
186 Jullien, Adolphe. “Mendelssohn à Paris.” In Airs variés: Histoire, critique, biographies musicales et dramatiques. Paris: G. Charpentier, 1877, pp. 65–156.
An overview of FMB’s activities and relationships during his Parisian sojourns, including discussions of his relationships with Cherubini and Heine. Most of the material is digested from the Reisebriefe (items 1072 and 1073) and Hensel’s family memoir (item 860), but a focused study is convenient.
187 Kast, Patrick. “‘Die Musikanschauung Friedrich Rochlitz’: Basis für Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Erfolge in Leipzig.” Mendelssohn-Studien 12 (2001): 187–204.
Explores FMB’s relationship with Rochlitz, how Rochlitz influenced musical taste in a city rooted in tradition, and how he created an atmosphere congenial to FMB’s success with especially his historical concerts.
188 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Hector Berlioz: Ein schwieriges Verhältnis.” Mendelssohn-Studien 15 (2007): 225–45.
A closer look at Mendelssohn’s ambivalent relationship with the eccentric Frenchman.
189 Keller, Hans. “The Classical Romantics: Mendelssohn and Schumann.” In Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, ed., Of German Music: A Symposium. London: Oswald Wolff, 1976, pp. 179–218. ISBN 0854964010.
As the title indicates, a study unquestioningly founded on the view that the composers who lived and worked after 1850 were the “true” Romantics, while FMB and Schumann represented an earlier, more classical approach to Romanticism (in which FMB, of course, was the more classical and therefore less historically advanced).
190 Kemp, Friedhelm. “Mendelssohns Berliner Umwelt.” In Carl Dahlhaus, ed., Das Problem Mendelssohn. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1974, pp. 11–21.
An important, if now somewhat dated, study of the personages and institutions with which FMB interacted during his stays in Berlin.
191 Kerner, Dieter. Krankheiten grosser Musiker. 2 vols. Stuttgart: R K. Schattauer, 1963. 2nd edn., 1967. 3rd edn., rev., 1973. ISBN 3794503597.
FMB appears in Vol. 2. The book includes extended citations from letters spanning the composer’s life. Concludes that the cause(s) of his death “can hardly be satisfactorily explained” (p. 45 of the 1st and 2nd edns.).
192 Kestner-Boche, Ruth. “Zum Profil der Streitherausbildung an der Leipziger Musikhochschule seit 1843 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kinngeiger.” In Johannes Forner, ed., Festschrift 150 Jahre Musikhochschule 1843–1993. Leipzig: Kunst und Touristik, 1993, pp. 190–228.
193 Kirchmeyer, Helmut. “Richard Wagner und Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.” Bayreuther Festspiele 1981, Programmheft 3: “Der fliegende Holländer,” (1981): 26–33, 56–66, 71, 88–92.
A detailed and careful, but (given its venue) somewhat biased assessment of the Mendelssohn–Wagner relationship.
194 Klassen, Janina. “Von Vor- und Übervätern: Familiäre und musikalische Genealogien im Selbstkonzept der Mendelssohns, Schumanns, und Wiecks.” In Anselm Hartinger, Christoph Wolff, and Peter Wollny, eds., “Zu groß, zu unerreichbar”: Bach-Rezeption im Zeitalter Mendelssohns und Schumanns. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2007, pp. 51–58.
Considers paternal and musical traditions in the careers of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Clara Wieck.
195 Klein, Hans-Günter. “‘Wir erleben einige Freude an diesem jungen Mann’: Die Briefe von Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy vom Niederrheinischen Musikfest 1833 nach Berlin.” Mendelssohn-Studien 11 (1999): 49–76.
An important study providing new evidence concerning FMB’s impact at the Lower Rhine Music Festival in 1833—the event that secured his first professional appointment and enhanced his prominence as a conductor, interpreter of Handel, and performer around the German-speaking world. Includes generously annotated critical transcriptions of six letters from Abraham to the family, reporting on the events surrounding the festival and FMB’s role in them.
196 ——“Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy in England: Die Briefe aus London im Sommer 1833 nach Berlin.” Mendelssohn-Studien 12 (2001): 67–127.
A brief introduction to and complete transcription of twenty-two letters Abraham Mendelssohn wrote from London to his family in Berlin, during his summer there with FMB, with annotations.
197 ——“Theodor Hildebrandt und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Italien: Aus den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Malers 1830/31.” Mendelssohn-Studien 13 (2003): 81–100.
Includes a color plate of a watercolor by FMB, “In der Casa di Don Tommaso,” 12 March 1835.
198 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy als Student an der Berliner Universität.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 101–24.
Explores FMB’s experiences as a student at the University of Berlin in several sections: FMB’s professors, the lectures he attended, and his departure from the university. Includes selected transcriptions of FMB’s lecture notes.
199 Kneschke, Emil. Zur Geschichte des Theaters und der Musik in Leipzig. Leipzig: Fr. Fleisher, 1864. 330 pp.
200 ——Das Conservatorium der Musik in Leipzig: Seine Geschichte, seine Lehrer und Zöglinge. Festgabe zum 25 jährigen Jubiläum am 2. April 1868. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1868. 70 pp.
This book contains FMB’s famous letter of 8 April 1840 stating his reasons for suggesting the establishment of the conservatory, the most important being to deepen artists’ interest in their art. Details about the founders and the first faculty of six; extensive quotations from the first prospectus and details about the early curriculum. Contains a list of all students up to 1868 including a breakdown of their geographical origins. (There were 68 males and 17 females from “North America” and one male and one female from “South America and California.”) [DM] See also Wasserloos, item 291.
201 ——Die Hundertfünfzigjahrige Geschichte der Leipziger Gewandhausconzerte, 1743–1893. Leipzig: Internationale Verlags-und Kunstanstalt, [1893]. 160 pp.
This study includes a review of Mendelssohn’s seasons with the orchestra with an emphasis on his programs.
202 ——Das Königliche Conservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig 1843–1893. Leipzig: Internationale Verlags-und Kunstanstalt, [1893]. 86 pp.
The author quotes the letters about the founding of the conservatory contained in the 1918 Festschrift and gives further details about the founding. Contains a useful review of the older literature about the institution, much of it quite rare. There is a survey of the history of the conservatory to date, useful not only in itself, but also because of the inferences about artistic and intellectual orientation that can be drawn from its straightforward prose. Yet another source of Mendelssohn’s letter of 8 April 1840 advocating the founding of the conservatory.
203 Kobbé, Gustav. The Loves of Great Composers. New York: Crowell, 1905. 175 pp.
“Mendelssohn and His Cécile” on pp. 47–70. Conventional account of FMB’s relationship with Cécile, evidently derived mostly from Eduard Devrient’s late and problematical FMB memoir (item 1008); what little is substantiated is conjecture based on the numerous late-Victorian effusions about FMB’s exemplary character combined with anti-Mendelssohnian complaints about his ostensible lack of passion. See Marian Wilson Kimber’s article on “Mendelssohn’s Wife” (item 301).
204 Köhler, Karl-Heinz. Der unbekannte junge Mendelssohn. Basel: Internationale Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft, 1960. 25 pp.
Though dated in some particulars, this is one of the most substantial explorations of FMB’s early life and works. Observes that while FMB evidently began composing at an appreciably later age than the child prodigy Mozart, his growth as a composer was much more rapid. Chronicles the persons, compositions, and activities that made up the world in which this prodigious development occurred. See also R. Larry Todd’s Mendelssohn’s Musical Education (item 278).
205 ——“ ‘Diese Stunden werden mir unvergesslich bleiben …’: Felix Mendelssohn und Ignaz Moscheles—Eine Lebensfreundschaft als Trabant künstlerischen Schaffens und Wirkens (Eine Skizze).” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 95–105.
Traces the friendship between Ignaz Moscheles and FMB from the early days in Berlin to their work at the Leipzig Conservatory.
206 Konold, Wulf. “Mendelssohn und London: Nicht zuletzt eine Frage der Identität.” In Leo Karl Gerhartz, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Repräsentant und/oder Außenseiter? Fünf Vorträge zu den “Kasseler Musiktagen 1991.” Kassel: Kasseler Musiktage, 1993, pp. 11–18.
Konold provides thoughtful observations about the significance of the difference between public and private life for FMB, proceeding from Schumann’s characterization of FMB as “the person who was able to resolve the contradictions of [their time].” Ironically (given the title), the essay devotes little discussion specifically to London or to FMB’s activities there.
207 Koops, Tillman. “Rahel Varnhagen.” In Veronika Leggewie, ed., Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik-und Bühnenverlag, 2002, pp. 7–36.
Explores Rahel Varnhagen’s life, salon, and relationship with the Mendelssohn family.
208 Kopitz, Klaus. Der Düsseldorfer Komponist Norbert Burgmüller: Ein Leben zwischen Beethoven, Spohr, Mendelssohn. Kleve: B.o.s.s., 1998. 384 pp. ISBN 3980593169.
Burgmüller, a promising composer who died prematurely in 1836, was an acquaintance of Mendelssohn from 1833; he won the praises of Robert Schumann, among many other contemporary critics. Kopitz chronicles the relationship between Mendelssohn and Burgmüller and correlates the two composers’ works chronologically and generically.
209 Krauskopf, Gunther. “‘Mit Notenpapier und Zeichenbuch’: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 1844 u. 1845 in Bad Soden.” Soden (Taunus): Jahreschronik (1984): 63–70.
Krauskopf includes facsimiles of ten FMB drawings of Bad Soden and Neuhain (both located near Frankfurt am Main).
210 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy 1844 und 1845 in Bad Soden.” Hessische Heimat [Marburg] 40 (1990): 60–65.
This article contains remarks on FMB’s trips to Bad Soden (near Frankfurt am Main, where his in-laws lived). Includes facsimiles of several of the composer’s characteristically elegant drawings of the area.
211 Krellmann, Hanspeter. “Felix Mendelssohns Wirken im Rheinland.” Musica 30 (1977): 511–15.
A brief but thorough and (on the basis of the documents then available) accurate survey of FMB’s contributions to the musical life of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Aachen from 1833 onward.
212 ——“Junges Genie am Rhein: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Düsseldorfer Jahre.” Düsseldorfer Hefte 17 (1972): 5–7, 10–12, 14–16.
A less scholarly, but still surprisingly substantive, version of item 211. Examines FMB’s relationship with the city from his earliest contacts with its artists through the end of his stay there in 1835. Suggests that Düsseldorf essentially missed its opportunity to gain fame through FMB because it was incapable of being decisive at the right moment.
213 Kretschman, L. von. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Weimar: Aus dem Nachlass der Baronin Jenny von Gustedt, geb. von Pappenheim.” Deutsche Rundschau 69 (1891): 304.
214 Kruse, Joseph A. “Mendelssohn und Düsseldorf: Nebenbei eine Frage der Literatur.” In Leo Karl Gerhartz, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Repräsentant und/oder Außenseiter? Fünf Vorträge zu den “Kasseler Musiktagen 1991.” Kassel: Kasseler Musiktage, 1993, pp. 41–54.
Kruse proceeds from the observation that because of Düsseldorf’s cultural history and its position in FMB’s biography, FMB’s experience there can serve as a lens through which to view his ideas on literature, artistic creativity, and the role of the artist in public life. Useful insights concerning his relationships with Immermann, Heine, and (to a lesser extent) Goethe in life and in reception history.
215 Leisinger, Ulrich. “Mendelssohns Gedankenaustausch mit Heinrich Conrad Schleinitz—Eine wenig beachtete Quelle zur Geschichte der Gewandhauskonzerte.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 119–31.
A short biographical sketch of Schleinitz followed by an appendix providing letters regarding selection of concert programs at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
216 Lester, Joel. “Substance and Illusion in Schumann’s ‘Erinnerung,’ Op. 68: A Structural Analysis and Pictorial (Geistliche) Description.” In Theory Only 4 (1978): 9–17.
A Schenkerian and quasi-hermeneutic analysis of a piece from Schumann’s Album für die Jugend. Suggests that the structure of the piece reflects the date of FMB’s death.
217 Little, Wm. A. “Mendelssohn and the Berlin Singakademie.” In R. Larry Todd, ed., Mendelssohn and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 65–85.
The author proposes that the conventional wisdom (first reported in Devrient’s memoirs, item 1008, and repeated in countless subsequent sources, including Werner’s biography, items 118 and 119) concerning FMB’s failed candidacy for the directorship of the Singakademie is misguided. Instead, FMB seems to have approached the candidacy halfheartedly, with the realization that it was doomed—not because of his Jewishness, but because of his youth and his principal opponent’s established position and respect.
218 ——“Mendelssohn and Liszt.” In R. Larry Todd, ed., Mendelssohn Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 106–25.
A complicated amicability characterized this not-quite-friendship, which has largely eluded scholarly investigation because of the politics of Liszt’s writings on FMB after the latter’s death (see item 915) and the difficulty of access to primary sources for Liszt. Draws upon numerous unpublished letters and carefully examines the correspondence and several biographical/artistic episodes.
219 Locke, Ralph P. “Mendelssohn’s Collision with the Saint-Simonians.” In Jon W. Finson and R. Larry Todd, eds., Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1984, pp. 109–22.
Adapted from the author’s dissertation/book (item 220).
220 ——Music, Musicians, and the Saint-Simonians. Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1986. 399 pp. ISBN 0226489019. Translated into French by Malou Haine and Philippe Haine as Les Saint-Simoniens et la musique. [Liège]: Mardaga, 1992. 493 pp.
An adaptation of Locke’s Ph.D. dissertation (“Music and the Saint-Simonians: The Involvement of Félicien David and Other Musicians in an Utopian Socialist Movement,” 2 vols. [Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980]). FMB is treated on pp. 107–14 of the University of Chicago book.
221 Lowenthal-Hensel, Cécile. “Der vergessene Felix: Nachtrag zu einem Beitrag.” Mendelssohn-Studien 11 (1999): 103–04.
This article corrects the author’s assertion in an earlier issue of the journal that a certain portrait of FMB could not be found.
222 Maegaard, Kirsten. “Hans Christian Andersen’s Travel Album.” Fontes artis musicae 42 (1995): 82–84.
A brief article that includes an interesting document of FMB’s acquaintance with the Danish writer: a two-part canon in C minor dated 11 November 1840.
223 Mariotti, Giovanni. L’Italia di Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Rome: Edizioni latine, 1937. 227 pp.
Mariotti explores how Mendelssohn saw Italy through his life and music, in three main sections: (1) From Leipzigerstrasse to travels in Italy; (2) From travels in Italy to the direction of the Gewandhaus; and (3) From the direction of the Gewandhaus to his death. Includes an epilogue, after his death. Has neither footnotes, nor a bibliography. See also the author’s general FMB biography (item 74).
224 Matthews, B. “Mendelssohn and the Crosby Hall Organ.” The Musical Times 114 (1973): 6413.
Matthews discusses and provides specifications for the organ used in the first performance of the anthem Hear My Prayer.
225 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Karl. Goethe und Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1871. 51 pp. Translated into English by M. E. von Glehn as Goethe and Mendelssohn, 1821–1831. London: Macmillan, 1872. 2nd edn., with additional letters, 1874. 198 pp. Reprinted New York: Haskell House, 1970. ISBN 083830902X. Reprint of original edition, Düsseldorf: Staccato Verlag, 2008. ISBN 9783932976377.
The “Vorwort” provides an important clue to the perspective of the book’s author (the younger son of FMB): it is a written version of a presentation commissioned by the “Gesellschaft für Geschichtskunde” of Freiburg on the eve of German unification. Consequently FMB and his cultural godfather are presented as persons who collectively shaped and articulated a German cultural identity in an age well before any such political identity existed. Chronicles the relationship in edited letters and reveals the artists’ views on several issues that had become quite significant for Germany at the turn of the 1870s (most importantly, Schiller and his politics).
226 Mercer-Taylor, Peter. “Mendelssohn and the Institution(s) of German Art Music.” In Peter Mercer-Taylor, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 11–25.
Discusses Mendelssohn’s achievements at the Berlin Singakademie, the Lower Rhine Music Festival, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Berlin Academy of Arts.
227 Middell, Elke. “Der ‘schöne Zwischenfall’ oder ‘Wie ein Walzer zur Predigt’: Das Problem Mendelssohn aus literaturhistorischer Sicht.” In Felix Mendelssohn—Mitwelt und Nachwelt: Bericht zum 1. Leipziger Mendelssohn-Kolloquium am 8. und 9. Juni 1993, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1996, pp. 117–22.
The author views the contradictions and complexities of the “Mendelssohn Problem” through the eyes of literary writers’ reflections on FMB. See also Kruse (item 214).
228 Mintz, Donald. “Mendelssohn as Performer and Teacher.” In Douglass Seaton, ed., The Mendelssohn Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001, pp. 87–142.
Discusses Mendelssohn as a pianist, conductor, organist, and string player. Mendelssohn as a teacher is represented by the prospectus issued for the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843; a full translation is included (trans. Leonard M. Phillips).
229 Müller, Carl Heinrich. Felix Mendelssohn, Frankfurt am Main und der Cäcilien-Verein. Darmstadt: Volk und Scholle, 1925. 17 pp.
Despite its modest length, an impressive biographical achievement. FMB’s association with the Frankfurt Cäcilien-Verein and its director, Johann Nepomuk Schelble, dates from 1822. The connection had some significant results (including the original invitation to write the oratorio that became St. Paul).
230 Musch, Hans. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Freiburg und im Schwarzwald: Aus dem Tagebuch der Hochzeitsreise.” In Hans Musch, ed., Musik am Oberrhein. Hochschuldokumentation zu Musikwissenschaft und Musikpädagogik, Musikhochschule Freiburg, No. 3. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1993, pp. 181–213.
See also Peter Ward Jones’s edition of the Mendelssohns’ honeymoon diary (item 285).
231 Newman, William S. “Three Intimates of Mendelssohn and Schumann in Leipzig: Hauptmann, Moscheles, and David.” In Jon W. Finson and R. Larry Todd, eds., Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1984, pp. 87–98.
Newman examines the ways in which FMB and his colleagues in the Leipzig Conservatory constructed their curricula and relates these to the composers’ philosophies and musical styles. See also Forner (item 161) and Phillips (item 233).
232 Niemöller, Klaus Wolfgang. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und das Niederrheinische Musikfest 1835 in Köln.” Studien zur Musikgeschichte des Rheinlandes 3 (1965): 46–64.
This article examines the program and execution of the 1835 Lower Rhine Music Festival in Cologne—an important event in FMB’s biography because it signaled the end of his stay in Düsseldorf and the beginning of his transition to Leipzig.
233 Phillips, Leonard M. “The Leipzig Conservatory: 1843–1881.” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1979. 373 pp.
An examination of the founding personnel, programs, student rosters, and curriculum of the Leipzig Conservatory to 1881. See also Forner (item 161) and Newman (item 231).
234 Pieper, Antje. Music and the Making of Middle-Class Culture: A Comparative History of Nineteenth-Century Leipzig and Birmingham. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 214 pp. ISBN 0230545130.
Based on the author’s Ph.D. thesis at the University of Birmingham, 2005. Pieper focuses on two cities of great importance to Mendelssohn, and traces the cultural institutions of the Birmingham Music Festival and the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
235 Plantinga, Leon. “Schumann’s Critical Reaction to Mendelssohn.” In Jon W. Finson and R. Larry Todd, eds., Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1984, pp. 11–19.
Because of their chronological proximity and their stylistic similarities and differences, as well as Schumann’s activities as a published music critic, FMB’s and Schumann’s critical opinions of each other’s works are of obvious interest. Earlier studies—such as those of Brendel (item 614) and Wasielewski (item 290)—had already taken on this issue, but considerable damage was done by the publication in 1941 of Wolfgang Boetticher’s Schumann biography, which (despite its apparent thoroughness and scholarly rigor) consistently falsified documents in order to present a view of the relationship that was consistent with Nazi ideology. Plantinga’s essay, although brief and focused on Schumann’s side of the picture, represents a much-needed step towards revision and clarification of the relationship.
236 Plesske, Hans-Martin. “Das Leipziger Musikverlagswesen und seine Beziehungen zu einigen namhaften Komponisten: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Musikalienhandels im 19. und zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts.” Ph.D. diss., University of Leipzig, 1974.
FMB is treated on p. 14–18. Examines the composer’s publishing relationships with several Leipzig firms, most notably Breitkopf & Härtel, Hofmeister, and Kistner. Overlooks the 1842 publication of Lord Have Mercy upon Us (1833) by Bösenberg, and the information concerning the publication of some works released independently and in musical albums is sometimes confused. Still, a useful and generally accurate overview.
237 Porter, Cecelia Hopkins. “The Reign of the Dilettanti: Düsseldorf from Mendelssohn to Schumann.” The Musical Quarterly 73 (1989): 476–512.
FMB especially on pp. 482–90. Asserts that music in Düsseldorf was undergoing several profound transitions reflecting fundamental historical processes: the shift from dilettantism to professionalism and virtuosity; from music within a court establishment to its incorporation as an urban institution; and from music as a somewhat elitist pursuit to a broadened role as a function of Volkstümlichkeit. Attributes FMB’s growing dissatisfaction with his position there in the years 1833–35 largely to the prominence of dilettantism in cultural life.
238 Redern, Friedrich Wilhelm von, Georg Horn and Sabine Giesbrecht. Unter drei Königen: Lebenserinnerungen eines preußischen Oberstkämmerers und Generalintendanten. Cologne: Böhlau, 2003. 401 pp. ISBN 3412174025.
Memoirs by the highly influential Redern, copied by Georg Horn, and adapted for modern publication by Sabine Giesbrecht.
239 Reich, Nancy B. “The Correspondence between Clara Wieck Schumann and Felix and Paul Mendelssohn.” In R. Larry Todd, ed., Schumann and His World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 205–32.
An important study of FMB’s warm artistic collaborations with Clara Schumann. Includes a little-known letter from Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (younger brother to the composer) written shortly after FMB’s death, as well as programs, reviews, and information regarding the pianos used for the performances.
240 Reininghaus, Frieder. “Mendelssohn und Berlin: Auch eine Frage der Religion.” In Leo Karl Gerhartz, ed. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Repräsentant und/oder Außenseiter? Fünf Vorträge zu den “Kasseler Musiktagen 1991.” Kassel: Kasseler Musiktage, 1993, pp. 19–39.
An examination of the role of FMB’s Jewish heritage in his difficulties with the Singakademie and his reappointments by Friedrich Wilhelm IV to reform the music of the Protestant Church.
241 ——“Zwei Emanzipationswege aus Berlin: Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis Meyerbeers und Mendelssohns.” In Sieghart Döhring and Jürgen Schläder, eds., Giacomo Meyerbeer—Musik als Welterfahrung: Heinz Becker zum 70. Geburtstag. Munich: Ricordi, 1995, pp. 223–35.
The author compares and contrasts the ways in which the two composers dealt with the realities of Jewish assimilation.
242 Reissner, H. G. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und Eduard Gans: Gans’ Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der französischen Revolution, nach der Niederschrift von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.” Publications of the Leo Baeck Institute 4 (1959): 92–110.
One of few studies providing substantive insight into FMB’s political views, important also as a document of an unfortunately overlooked acquaintance of the composer. A frequent visitor in the Mendelssohn household in Berlin, Eduard Gans (1797–1839) was a professor of history at the University of Berlin in 1828/29, when FMB was a student there; because of his political views and his popularity as an academic orator, Gans was forced to suspend his political lectures after the July Revolution of 1830. The content of his inflammatory lecture series on “The History of the French Revolution” remained unknown until this article, which discusses FMB’s notes from the lectures and contextualizes the relationship within the backgrounds and careers of the composer and the professor.
243 Rettinghaus, Klaus. “Ein ‘Lieblingsinstitut’ Mendelssohns: Neue Quellen zu Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Wirken für den Königlichen Hof-und Domchor zu Berlin.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 125–37.
Two documents in the papers of Eduard Grell, detailing his work as organist with the Königlichen Hof- und Domchor, throw new light on FMB’s activites with that institution. The first document is Grell’s rehearsal diary from 1843, the second is a record of works sung on Sundays and liturgical holidays, 1844–47.
244 Richter, Arnd. “‘Mendelssohn der Ausländer, durchaus undeutsch’: Das Verhältnis Mendelssohn—Wagner.” In Bernd Heyder and Christoph Spering, eds., Blickpunkt FELIX Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Programmbuch Drei Tage für Felix vom 30.10 bis 1.11.1994. Cologne: Dohr, 1994, pp. 45–51.
Was FMB German (as he believed he was) or was he, as a Jew, a foreigner (as Wagner asserted)? An overview of the arguments, with an examination of FMB’s own statements about Germanness and Nationalmusik.
245 ——Mendelssohn: Leben, Werke, Dokumente. Serie Musik Piper No. 8202. Mainz: Schott, 1994. 425 pp. ISBN 3795782023. 2nd edn., Mainz: Antlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, 2000. 449 pp. ISBN 3254002431.
A largely conventional popular biography that draws upon some lesser-known documents and strives for a considerable measure of objectivity.
246 Richter, Brigitte. Frauen um Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: In Texten und Bildern vorgestellt. With a Foreword by Johannes Forner. Insel-Bücherei, No. 1178. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1997. 141 pp. ISBN 345819178X.
A useful book that complements Boyd Alexander’s studies on FMB and young women (items 124 and 125) and Marian Wilson Kimber’s study of FMB and Cécile (item 301). Contains short chapters describing the female figures in FMB’s life and his relationship to them: Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel, Rebecka Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Henriette Voigt, Ottilie von Goethe, Adele Schopenhauer, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, Pauline von Schätzel, Charlotte Moscheles, Maria Malibran, Delphine von Schauroth, Josephine Lang, Dorothea von Ertmann, Clara Schumann, Clara Novello, Henriette Grabau, Livia Frege, Sophie Schloß, Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Elisa Meerti, Queen Victoria, Jenny Lind, and Elise Polko. Review: Rebecca Grotjahn, Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 7 (2004): 27–45. Part of a larger review of Fanny Hensel scholarship, see esp. 43–45. Available at: www.fzmw.de.
247 Rieschel, Hans-Peter. Komponisten und ihre Frauen. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1994. 234 pp. ISBN 3770010280.
A conventional account of FMB’s relationship with Cécile, generally consistent with those of Kobbé, Marek, Kupferberg, and Werner. This view has been challenged in Marian Wilson Kimber’s essay (item 301).
248 Riethmüller, Albrecht. “Gade, Mendelssohn und Schumann empfehlen Robert Franz der Alma mater Halensis.” In Peter Ackermann, Ulrike Kienzle, and Adolf Nowak, eds., Festschrift fur Winfried Kirsch zum 65. Geburtstag. Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 24. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1996, pp. 303–10.
The FMB portion of this essay focuses on a letter of recommendation he wrote for Robert Franz in 1845. The recommendation was something of a dilemma: the references (who also included Gade and Schumann) were familiar with Franz as a composer, but they were to recommend him for a professorship in music theory.
249 Rudolph, Eberhard “Der junge Felix Mendelssohn: Ein Beitrag zur Musikgeschichte der Stadt Berlin.” Diss., Humboldt-Universität Berlin, 1964.
250 ——“Mendelssohns Beziehungen zu Berlin.” Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 14 (1972): 205–14.
Rudolph comments on how FMB’s progressive and liberal (but not radical) political sympathies were shaped by Moses Mendelssohn, Karl Ritter, Eduard Gans, and Zelter, and examines how they relate to his theater music of the early 1840s (the Incidental Music to A Mid-summer Night’s Dream, Antigone, Athalie, and Oedipus).
251 Rychnovsky, E. “Aus Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys letzen Lebenstagen.” Die Musik 8 (1908–09): 1416.
A review of the events of the last days of FMB’s life—less thorough than that in Wolff’s biography (item 120) but useful nevertheless.
252 Schmidt, Christian Martin. “Zwei große Komponisten aus Berlin.” In Dieter Götze and Frank Schneider, eds., Konzerthaus Berlin, Schauspielhaus am Gendarmenmarkt: Das Buch über Gestern und Heute. Berlin: Museums- und Galerie-Verlag, 1994, pp. 71–81.
On FMB and Meyerbeer.
253 Schmidt-Beste, Thomas. “Lehrer wider Willen? – Felix Mendelssohn als Pädagoge.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 149–61.
Explores FMB’s attitude towards teaching, quoting from his own letters on the subject, as well as the letters and memoirs of selected students at the Leipzig Conservatory, including Charles Edward Horsley, Emil Naumann, and Wilhelm Joseph Wasielewski.
254 Schneider, Max F. “Mendelssohn und Schiller in Luzern.” Ernte 51 (1960): 125–33.
An exploration of Mendelssohn’s thoughts about Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell while in and near Engelberg, citing his letter of 23 August 1831, and his experience seeing the play in Lucerne a few days later, citing his letter to Goethe. Available as an off-print from the Schweizerischen Jahrbuch, “Die Ernte” (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Sig. 168611).
255 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Herkommen und Jugendzeit in Berlin.” Jahrbuch der Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz 1963. Berlin: Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 1963, pp. 157–68.
One of several studies dealing with FMB’s early years in the Prussian capital.
256 Schönfelder, Gerd. “Mendelssohn einerseits, Wagner andererseits: Mendelssohn und Wagner zusammen.” In Felix Mendelssohn Mitwelt und Nachwelt: Bericht zum 1. Leipziger Mendelssohn-Kolloquium am 8. und 9. Juni 1993. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1996, pp. 89–96.
A thoughtful examination of the personal and professional relationship between FMB and his eventual detractor, focusing on the development of Wagner’s negative views.
257 Schottländer, Johann-Wolfgang. “Zelters Beziehungen zu den Komponisten seiner Zeit.” Jahrbuch der Sammlung Kippenberg 8 (1930): 134–248.
258 Schünemann, Georg. Carl Friedrich Zelter, der Begründer der preussischen Musikpflege. Berlin: Hesse, 1932. 52 pp. Enlarged as Carl Friedrich Zelter: Der Mensch und sein Werk. Berlin: Bibliophillenabend, 1937. 100 pp.
A source of undeniable importance that, unfortunately, suffers from serious ideological bias because of its chronological and geographic points of origin.
259 Schwarz-Danuser, Monika. “Delphine von Schauroth versus Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy geb. Jeanrenaud: Femme fatale versus Madonna?” In Veronika Leggewie, ed., Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik-und Bühnenverlag, 2002, pp. 121–71.
Felix’s wife is given the last word in this four-chapter volume. Schwarz-Danuser explores Felix’s very different relationships with the woman who nearly became his wife, Delphine von Schauroth, and with the woman who did, Cécile Jeanrenaud.
260 Seidel, Wilhelm. “Über Ethik und Ästhetik bürgerlicher Musik— ‘Musikalische Wissenschaft’ und musikalische Urbanität.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 9–23.
Discusses the role of the papers and reviews—primarily the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung—in the formation of musical taste in Leipzig.
261 Siebenkäs, Dieter. Ludwig Berger: Sein Leben und seine Werke unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seines Liedschaffens. Berliner Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, Bd. 4. Berlin: Merseburger, 1963. 316 pp.
FMB studied piano with Berger beginning around 1817, and Berger, as a leading composer of the Second Berlin School approach to text-music relationships in Lieder, naturally assumes a position of importance in understanding FMB’s own song aesthetic. The book (adapted from the author’s dissertation, Berlin, 1962) focuses on the relationship between the two composers.
262 Sieblist, Kerstin. “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges: Sängerinnen um Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Veronika Leggewie, ed., Frauen um Felix: Vortragsreihe Frühjahr 2002. Bell: TOP Music, Musik-und Bühnenverlag, 2002, pp. 98–120.
Explores Mendelssohn’s friendships with female singers, including Jenny Lind.
263 Siegfried, Christina. “‘Der interessanteste und problematischste seiner Freunde’: Adolf Bernhard Marx.” In Bernd Heyder and Christoph Spering, eds., Blickpunkt FELIX Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Programmbuch Drei Tage für Felix vom 30.10 bis 1.11.1994. Cologne: Dohr, 1994, pp. 35–44.
A theorist of considerable importance but far less respected as a composer, Marx occupies an especially problematic position in FMB’s biography and reception history. The two were inseparable friends; FMB recommended Marx for the chair in music at the University of Berlin when he himself declined it, and Marx was an important early advocate of FMB’s music in early reviews. Sometime in the later 1830s, however, the two suffered a serious falling-out, and after the friendship ended, Marx’s remarks on FMB became increasingly more condescending and less sympathetic. Marx published his memoirs of the relationship in 1865 (item 1018), and complaints of bias and distortion prompted his widow to publish her own defense of her husband (item 1019).
264 Sietz, Reinhold. “Mendelssohn ging nicht nach Weimar.” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 120 (1959): 72–74.
This article concerns the process by which FMB was invited to succeed Hummel as Kapellmeister in the prestigious musical establishment of Weimar in 1837 and his reasons for declining the invitation. Useful as a document of the regard in which he was held by contemporaries and the reasons for his professional prestige.
265 ——“Das Stammbuch von Julius Rietz.” Studien zur Musikgeschichte des Rheinlandes 52 (1962): 219–34.
An important documentary study of the friend and colleague of FMB who became editor-in-chief of the Sämtliche Werke.
266 ——“Beiträge zur Rheinischen Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts: Felix Mendelssohn und Ferdinand Hiller.” Jahrbuch des Kölnischen Geschichtsvereins 41 (1967): 96–117; 43 (1971): 101–30.
A study of the personal friendship and professional interactions between FMB and Hiller, one of his most important lesser-known contemporaries, and the author of one of the finest memoirs of FMB (item 1061). Includes reliable, thoroughly annotated editions of otherwise unpublished correspondence to supplement the generally good letters printed in Hiller’s other writings.
267 Sittard, Josef. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Paul Graf Walder-see: Sammlung musikalischer Vorträge, dritte Reihe. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1881, pp. 255–88.
A thoughtful and generally sympathetic, but somewhat biased overview. Initially appears to rank Mendelssohn with Schubert and Schumann as a Lieder composer, but then says that the three are equal only in popularity though the latter two are far more important as song composers. He maintains that the Songs without Words are not novel creations but rather extensions of Field’s nocturnes. [DM/JMC]
268 Smidak, Emil F. Isaak-Ignaz Moscheles: Das Leben des Komponisten und seine Begegnungen mit Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn. Vienna: Edition Wien, 1988. 213 pp. ISBN 3850580229. Translated as Isaak-Ignaz Moscheles: The Life of the Composer and His Encounters with Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. Aldershot, Hampshire: Scolar Press, 1989. 237 pp. ISBN 0859678210.
A student of Beethoven and respected composer/performer in England, France, and Germany, Moscheles was one of FMB’s most important friends and musical mentors. Drawing on a variety of published resources, this book presents a clear portrait of the composer’s personal and professional relationships. Review: N. Temperley in Music and Letters 72 (1991): 303; D. Seaton in Notes 48 (1991): 62–64.
269 Spitta, Philip. “Niels W. Gade.” In Zur Musik: Sechszehn Aufsätze, [355]-83. Berlin: Gebrüder Paetel, 1892.
An early overview of the recently deceased Gade’s work which discusses FMB’s influences on the Danish composer. See also Harwell (item 177).
270 Staehelin, Martin. “Der frühreife Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Bemerkung zu seinem ‘Konfirmationsbekenntnis.’” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 11–49.
An examination of Mendelssohn’s preparations for confirmation in the Lutheran faith, in correspondence with Friedrich Philipp Wilmsen. Includes the “Answers to questions as preparation for confirmation” penned by the 16-year-old Mendelssohn in 1825, with notes by Wilmsen.
271 Sternfeld, Frederick W. Goethe and Music: A List of Parodies and Goethe’s Relations to Music, with a List of References. New York: New York Public Library, 1954.
Elementary and incomplete, but useful as a starting point in preparing an inventory of FMB’s musical settings of Goethe’s poems. See also Lawrence Kramer’s studies on the relationship between the two (items 632 and 633).
272 Stevens, Denis. “Mendelssohn in Switzerland.” The Musical Times 132 (1991): 413–16.
This article is informal but informative. Surveys FMB’s encounters with Switzerland and draws on a detailed description in a letter of 24 August 1831 in order to reconstruct an organ improvisation FMB gave at the Benedictine Abbey at Engelberg.
273 Straeten, Erich van der. “Mendelssohns und Schumanns Beziehungen zu J. H. Lübeck und Johann J. H. Verhulst: Aus meist unveröffentlichten Briefen.” Die Musik 3 (1903–04): 8–20.
A useful study of FMB’s professional relationship with two respected contemporary composer/conductors. Includes little-known letters discussing his own works and critiquing theirs.
274 ——“Streiflichter auf Mendelssohns und Schumanns Beziehungen zu zeitgenössischen Musikern.” Die Musik 4 (1904–05): 25, 105.
An insightful study, culled from a careful reading of the composers’ letters and other documents.
275 Tappolet, Willy. Begegnungen mit der Musik in Goethes Leben und Werk. Bern: Bentelli, 1975. 136 pp. ISBN 3716500461.
A useful and thorough overview.
276 Thiele, Siegfried. “Mendelssohn und das Leipziger Konservatorium.” In Leon Botstein, ed., Felix Mendelssohn Mitwelt und Nachwelt: Bericht zum 1. Leipziger Mendelssohn-Kolloquium am 8. und 9. Juni 1993. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1996, pp. 127–30.
277 Thomä, Hellmut. “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und der Taunus.” Wiesbadener Leben 32 (2) (1983): 22–24.
Thomä discusses FMB’s stays in Eppstein and Bad Soden, 1839–47.
278 Todd, R. Larry. Mendelssohn’s Musical Education: A Study and Edition of His Exercises in Composition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 260 pp. ISBN 0521246555. Reprinted in paperback, 2009. ISBN 0521106338.
Adapted from Part I of the author’s dissertation (item 840), this is one of the most important studies of FMB’s early life and works, focused on a manuscript held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The Introduction includes a study of the Berlin Bach tradition and an overview of how it influenced FMB’s study of composition; Part I includes a description and analysis of various aspects of this composition course along with a section on “Some Unknown Juvenilia”; and Part II is an inventory and critical transcription of the Oxford manuscript. See also Köhler’s Der unbekannte junge Mendelssohn (item 204).
279 ——“‘Ein wenig still und scheu’: Clara Wieck / Schumann as Colleague of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Bernhard R. Appel, Ute Bär, and Matthias Wendt, eds. Schumanniana nova: Festschrift Gerd Nauhaus zum 60. Geburtstag. Sinzig: Studio-Verlag, 2002, pp. 767–84.
Traces the professional friendship between FMB and Clara Wieck Schumann, from their first meeting in 1834. Explores the context for the works FMB wrote for Clara, the compositional influence FMB may have had on her, and her activities as a performer under FMB’s baton at the Gewandhaus.
280 Vetter, Walther. Res severa verum gaudem: Die Tradition des Gewandhauses. Festschrift zum 175jährigen Bestehens der Gewandhauskonzerte, 1781–1956. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1956.
FMB is treated on pp. 25–35. Discussion focuses on his humanistic orientation and its influence on the Gewandhaus concerts. [DM]
281 Vitercik, Greg. “Mendelssohn as Progressive.” In Peter Mercer-Taylor, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 71–88.
Vitercik strives to understand how Mendelssohn was “new,” especially in sonata form, pointing out that Mendelssohn’s “most striking achievements tend to elude detection, duping us into a satisfied assumption of condescending comprehension.” Works discussed include the Piano Quartet in F minor, Op. 2, the String Quintet in A major, Op. 18, and the Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 25.
282 Vogt, Franz-Josef. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und die Orgel der Düsseldorfer St. Lambertuskirche.” Der Niederrhein 49 (2) (1982): 50–55.
283 Wanner, Gustaf Adolf. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Basel. Basel: Edition Bartholdy, 1974. 31 pp.
An in-depth study of FMB’s Swiss connections.
284 Ward Jones, Peter. “Mendelssohn and His English Publishers.” In R. Larry Todd, ed., Mendelssohn Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 240–55.
A detailed and extremely useful chronicle of FMB’s complicated relationships with the English publishing houses of Clementi, Collard & Collard; Cramer, Addison & Beale; Mori & Lavenue; Novello; and Ewer. Examines the correspondence (much of it previously unpublished) between the composer and these firms, as well as the most important publications involved in the relationships, including the Op. 19[b] Original Melodies for the Pianoforte, the Capriccio brillant, the G-minor Piano Concerto, and especially the Lobgesang and the Op. 65 Organ Sonatas.
285 —— ed. and trans. The Mendelssohns on Honeymoon: The 1837 Diary of Felix and Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Together with Letters to Their Families. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997. 225 pp. ISBN 0198165978. Translated into German by Thomas Schmidt-Beste as Felix und Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Das Tagebuch der Hochzeitsreise, nebst Briefen an die Familien. Zurich: Atlantis, 1997. ISBN 3254002245.
Important not only as a scholarly and lavishly illustrated compendium of primary sources, but also as a rich and authoritative source of documentation for the most controversial period in FMB’s career as a composer (the year of his ostensible compositional decline). In addition to a carefully translated and copiously annotated text of the couple’s honeymoon diary, the volume includes a sizable appendix of family letters from the period, likewise well-annotated and critically reproduced.
286 ——“Letter to the Editor.” The Musical Quarterly 83 (1999): 27–30.
A response to Leon Botstein’s defense (item 902) of Eric Werner’s FMB biography (items 118 and 119) after Jeffrey S. Sposato’s critique (item 926). See also Michael P. Steinberg’s “intervention” (item 890) and Botstein’s “final word” (item 903). Points out several examples of Werner’s fabricated or otherwise inaccurate reproductions of key documents.
287 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Tod: Der Bericht seiner Frau.” Mendelssohn-Studien 12 (2001): 205–25.
Cécile Jenrenaud Mendelssohn’s account of the events leading to her husband’s death, October 9–November 4, 1847.
288 ——“‘Mein liebster Freund’: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Carl Klingemann.” Mendelssohn-Studien 15 (2007): 207–23.
A closer look at the man Mendelssohn addressed as his “dearest friend.” Klingemann was close to all members of the immediate family, served an invaluable role introducing Mendelssohn into English society in 1829, and remained close to FMB throughout the remainder of his life.
289 ——“Carl Klingemann’s Report on the Niederrheinisches Musikfest of 1836.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 273–83.
An edition and commentary on Carl Klingemann’s report on the music festival in Düsseldorf where Mendelssohn’s Paulus was premiered. In English.
290 Wasielewski, Wilh[elm] Jos[eph] von. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und Robert Schumann: Eine künstlerische Parallele mit Einflechtung persönlicher Erinnerungen.” Deutsche Revue 13 (1894): 329–41.
A critical early comparison because of the author’s personal acquaintance with his subjects and because it articulates the philosophical basis for the pairing of Mendelssohn and Schumann (and other composers)—a pairing that many subsequent studies have assumed is necessary and valid, without any clear philosophical basis for the pairing. For Wasielewski (and many nineteenth-century thinkers), Mendelssohn and Schumann (like Bach and Handel, Mozart and Beethoven, Goethe and Schiller) formed a dialectic of personalities, each taking its own direction (one in the direction of the Ideal and the other in the direction of the Real) and complementing the other in such a fashion that ultimately the artistically beautiful was produced through synthesis. As the title states, the essay is “inflected” with memoir-like elements because Wasielewski draws upon his personal recollections; on the whole, however, it was intended to situate the two composers in what nineteenth-century historians and aestheticians considered to be the ongoing historical dialectic of artistic progress.
291 Wasserloos, Yvonne. Das Leipziger Konservatorium der Musik im 19. Jahrhundert: Anziehungs-und Ausstrahlungskraft eines musikpädagogischen Modells auf das internationale Musikleben. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2004. 224 pp. ISBN 3487125986.
Studies the founding of the Leipzig Conservatory and its influence on the international music scene throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Includes a list of students at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1843 to 1880. See also Kneschke, item 200.
292 ——“Damnatio memoriae: Die städtische Kulturpolitik und die Demontage des Mendelssohn-Denkmals in Leipzig.” In Sabine Mecking and Andreas Wirsching, eds., Stadtverwaltung im Nationalsozialismus: Systemstabilisierende Dimensionen kommunaler Herrschaft. Paderborn: Schöningh, 2005, pp. 139–79.
Deals with the 1936 destruction of the Mendelssohn monument in Leipzig, as well as FMB’s larger cultural legacy in the city.
293 Wauer, Wilhelm. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und Dr. Eduard Krüger.” Neue Berliner Musik-Zeitung 4 (23 January 1850): 25–27.
A study concerning the treatment of FMB in the writings of one of his most important early critics.
294 Wehner, Ralf. “Neues aus Leipziger Archiven?” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 133–48.
Describes sources that enhance our understanding of FMB as a resident of Leipzig. See the “Anhang” pp. 146–48 for the list of letters, canons, watercolor paintings, etc. discussed in the text. Includes a print of the manuscript for a short Lied Mendelssohn inscribed to Carl Gottlob Reich in 1835.
295 Wehnert, Martin. “Das Leipziger Konservatorium und die nordischen ‘nationalen’ Schulen.” Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 17 (1975): 317–22.
The early student population of the Leipzig Conservatory (an institution founded with FMB as director) reveals a conspicuously high number of Scandinavian students, including Gade. This article discusses the situation and examines the ways in which some distinctive features of the Conservatory’s curriculum and philosophy influenced Scandinavian musical life and institutions via those students.
296 ——“Zu Goethes Verhalten gegenüber Mendelssohn.” In Wilhelm Seidel, ed., Dem Stolz und der Zierde unserer Stadt: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Leipzig. Leipzig: Musik und Stadt—Studien und Dokumente 1. Leipzig: C. F. Peters, 2004, pp. 205–19.
An essay focusing on how the special relationship developed between the old Goethe and the young FMB.
297 Weiss, Hermann F. “Neue Zeugnisse zu Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Johann Paul von Falkenstein.” Mendelssohn-Studien 9 (1995): 53– 88.
Closely related to Häfner’s study (item 175) of FMB’s relationship to King Friedrich August II of Saxony, this study draws upon little-known correspondence: twenty-six letters from Falkenstein to FMB, FMB’s drafts for answers to four of them, and two previously unpublished letters from FMB. Like Häfner, Weiss asserts that the Saxon monarch’s warm reception of FMB was decisive in the composer’s decision to resume his full-time work there rather than in Prussia in the early 1840s, and also suggests that Falkenstein and FMB shared a similar agenda for cultural politics.
298 Werner, Eric. “Mendelssohn—Wagner: Eine alte Kontroverse in neuer Sicht.” In Heinrich Häschen, ed., Musica Scientiae Collectanea: Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer zum 70. Geburtstag. Cologne: Arno Volk, 1973, pp. 640–58.
A detailed exploration—with some little-known documents—of the development of the relationship between the two composers. Proposes that the principal difference between the two was not religious or racial per se, but national—that while Wagner was in theory (if not always in practice) fixated on the musical articulation of a specifically German national past, drawing on specifically German Volkstümlichkeit, FMB disdained the concepts of nationalism and made recourse to German folk music only in his chorale treatments.
299 Whistling, Karl. Die Statistik des Königlichen Conservatoriums der Musik zu Leipzig, 1843–1893. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1893. 82 pp.
Brief but useful documentation concerning the conservatory FMB founded in 1843.
300 Wiley, Christopher. “Re-writing Composers’ Lives: Critical Historiography and Musical Biography.” Ph.D diss., Royal Holloway, University of London, 2008. 2 vols. 599 pp.
301 Wilson Kimber, Marian. “Mendelssohn’s Wife: Love, Art and Romantic Biography.” Nineteenth Century Studies 6 (1992): 1–18.
An important survey of biographical treatments and study of how they reflect fallacies and skewed methodologies in FMB research generally. Points out a seemingly deliberate fabrication concerning Cécile and the Op. 40 Piano concerto in Eric Werner’s biography (item 118).
302 ——“‘For Art Has the Same Place in Your Heart as in Mine’: Friendship, Family, and Community in the Life of Felix Mendelssohn.” In Douglass Seaton, ed., The Mendelssohn Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001, pp. 29–85.
Includes several letters translated by Michael Kimber.
303 Wolschke, Martin. Von der Stadtpfeiferei zu Lehrlingskapelle und Sinfonieorchester: Wandlungen im 19. Jahrhundert. Studien zur Musikgeschichte im 19. Jahrhundert, 59. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1981. ISBN 3764922206.
Although the Leipzig Conservatory was founded under FMB’s directorship in 1843, it did not begin to train orchestral musicians until 1881. Consequently, traditional methods of producing these musicians necessarily continued until nearly the end of the nineteenth century. Wolschke supplies the background essential to understanding all of Mendelssohn’s dealings with his orchestras in Düsseldorf and Leipzig. [DM/JMC]
304 Zappalà, Pietro. “Dalla Spree al Tevere: Il diario del viaggio di Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy verso l’Italia (1830–1831)—Edizione e commento.” In Giacomo Fornari, ed., Album amicorum Albert Dunning: In occasione del suo LXV compleanno. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002, pp. 713–88.
An annoted transcription of Mendelssohn’s travel diaries while in Italy. Includes index.
305 ——“Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Beziehungen zu italienischen Verlegern.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 187–210.
A significant contribution to the under-explored area of Mendelssohn’s music in Italy. Explores Mendelssohn’s relationships with the Milanese publisher Francesco Lucca, through the agency of the French publisher Benacci & Peschier, Ricordi, and Martelli/Marchese Capricana (edition of St. Paul).
306 Ziegler, Frank. “Felix Mendelssohn und Carl Maria von Weber.” Mendelssohn-Studien 16 (2009): 51–100.
Recounts the little surviving information about Mendelssohn’s personal contact with Weber, explores the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream as an homage to Weber, and studies in detail an undated parody of Der Freischütz entitled “Max Tell.” The libretto, included here in its entirety, is by Johann Ludwig Casper.