Memoirs Of Mendelssohn

780.92 M537L-2 61-28520
Lampadlus

Memoirs of Felix* Mendelssohn

&

780.92 M537L-2 61-28520

Lampadius

Memoirs of Felix Mendelssohn

Bartholdy

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JOHN S. DWIGHT,

OSK ENTHUSIASTIC ADMIRATION FIRST MADE TH'E LETTERS OI

MENDELSSOHN ACCESSIBLE TO AMERICAN HEADERS, AND

WHOSE TASTES ARE SO FULLY IN HARMONY WITH

THE PURITY OF MENDELSSOHN fc>

GENIUS AND LIFE,

fjts translation is

A SLIGHT EXPRESSION OF THANKS FOR JUDICIOUS CODNSML
AND TIMELY ENCOUKAGEMENT.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

THE time predicted by one who wrote the sen-
tence years ago seems to have come, "when
every line and every word from Mendelssohn's
pen would be treasured by the world." Most
great composers make their appeal for recognition
to a comparatively small circle of admirers, and
are rarely quoted beyond the domain of their art.
It is so with Mendelssohn neither in Germany,
in England, nor in America. Chorley little knew
what a weighty sentence he was inditing, when he
penned the words, " There may come a day yet,
when the example of Mendelssohn's life, yet more
than of his works, may be invoked in Germany."
In England there was always a passionate adora-
tion of him as a man ; the fascinating presence,
the stories of his remarkable culture, his unselfish-
ness, his moral purity, his entirely religious and
Christian character, awakening an interest in
every thing pertaining to him, which found hardly
an exaggerated expression in the pages of
1

ii EDITORS PREFACE.

" Charles Auchester," and which has not ceased
yet. And within a few years the people of cul-
ture in America have begun to take as deep an
interest in Mendelssohn as those of Germany and
England : hardly any books have found more
enthusiastic readers among us than Mendelssohn's
Letters. That wonderful romance, the most
wholesome gift by far of Miss Sheppard to the
world, "Charles Auchester," has found thou-
sands of admirers, who have been charmed by its
pages. It was the fashion years ago to fling at
that book as rhapsodical ; but this biography will
convince the reader, if the Letters of Mendelssohn
have not already done so, that that work, with all
its splendid coloring, and all its seeming exagge-
rations, scarcely overrated the glory, the beauty,
the capacity, and the compass of Mendelssohn's
life. A completer transcript of the spirit of
Mendelssohn could hardly have been made. His
wonderful reach of memory was certainly not
over-estimated in the scene where he directs the
"Messiah" from his memory of the score: that
would have been a light task for Mendelssohn.
The death of his sister Fanny, narrated in this
biography, is closely adhered to in the romance :
the characters of Zelter, Joachim the violinist,
Jenny Lind, and Sterndale Bennett, are finely
painted in Aronach, Charles Auchester, Julia
Bennett, and Starwood Burney. But it were

EDITOR'S PREFACE. iii

needless to speak more at length : enough to say,
that, the more we know of Mendelssohn, the more
clearly we see how closely Miss Sheppard adhered
to the facts and coloring of his life in her fascinat-
ing portrait. It is no descent from the Seraphael
of "Charles Auchester" to the writer of Men-
delssohn's Letters. The plane is the same, though
the true Mendelssohn is a shade more joyous and
less pensive than the counterfeit. But we trace
the same exquisite purity in both ; the same un-
sordid spirit ; the same unwillingness to write,
except under the stress of a great inspiration ; the
same freedom from envy ; the same recoil from all
immorality ; the same abhorrence of French and
Italian sensuality ; th^ same devotion to what is
good, noble, and, in the strictest use of speech,
Christ-like.

Not long after the death of Mendelssohn, Lam-
padius, a friend of his, a musical amateur, and
evidently a man of nice tastes and of high-toned
character, wrote a biography of the great com-
poser, which has been made the basis of all the
smaller sketches of his life, but which now appears
in a literal translation from the German for the
first time. It may be said of it, that it is not the
best biography of Mendelssohn that could be
written, but it is the best and indeed the only one
that has been written, or is likely to be for some
time. Doubtless, the time will come when this

Iv EDITORS PREFACE

brief work will be superseded by one more ex-
haustive : till then, it remains without a rival. It
has, too, some qualities of striking and sterling
character ; it was written with all the loving ardor
which followed Mendelssohn's sudden death ; it is
a bouquet of fresh flowers laid on his grave. It
portrays his career as Director at Leipzig, cer-
tainly the best part of his life, with minuteness
and fidelity; and in its whole delineation, while it
shows unmistakable marks of the warmth of
friendship, it yet displays colors vivid, glowing,
and delightful. I have preserved all his details ;
and the record will hardly be judged by musical
readers to be too full : for it is a great advantage
to know what were just the programmes selected
by so consummate a judge as Mendelssohn for
performance at those Leipzig Concerts which
made that city, while he lived, the musical capital
of Europe.

Acting as editor as well as translator, I have
sought to bring together all available materials in
English, French, and German, which could illus-
trate Mendelssohn's character and career, and thus
render the work of Lampadius even more complete
than its author left it. Very much, however, of
what has been written, Neumann's sketch in
"Die neuen Componisten," and "Julie cle Marguer-
ette's," for instance, are only Lampadius repro-
duced in briefer compass. Still, this search has

EDITORS PREFACE. V

not been inadequately rewarded ; and in the mod-
est and admirable account, by Julius Benedict, of
Mendelssohn in England ; in the free, sparkling,
and valuable chapters from Chorley's cc Modern
Music ; " in Eellstab's, Bayard Taylor's, and Kich-
ard Storrs Willis's glimpses of Mendelssohn; in
the descriptive analysis of his oratorio "Elijah"
by Mr. D wight, < the reader will find much that
will throw light on the subject of this biography
as a man and an artist.

Preparing this work as a recreation amid
severer studies, I part with it not as freed from
a heavy burden, but as turning back from a holi-
day's pastime to" labor. Brief and fragmentary
as it is as a biography, it cannot fail to do good
if it shall bring any of our American people to
know and lore the pure spirit of Mendelssohn.

WILLIAM LECXNTTAKD GAGE,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

FAOI

Parentage and Birth. Precocious Talents.
8 todies with Zelter. Zelter's Letters to Goethe regarding
Mendelssohn. He is taken to Paris by his Father to see
Cherubini. Compliments from Goethe. Mendelssohn visits
England. He visits Goethe. Goethe's Influence on the
Musician's whole Career. He becomes Moscheles' Pupil.
"Midsummer Night's Dream" Overture. He studies at
Berlin University. Preparations to travel .18

EL

Mendelssohn visits England. Concerts in London with Sontag.
First Public Performance ever given of the "Midsummer
Night's Dream" Overture. He visits Scotland and the He-
brides. He returns to Germany, visits Munich, and then
sets his Steps towards Italy. His Sojourn in Italy, and its
Fruits. He visits Paris; thence goes to London; afterwards,
Home to Berlin 29

m.

Mendelssohn applies for the Directorship of the Sing-Acad-
emie in Berlin. Is disappointed. Assumes Charge of the
Diisseldorf Musical Festival. A new Epoch, in his Life.
~ Success in DiisseldorC Flying Trip to London, and

fvii]

viii CONTENTS.

IA.GB

Concerts there. The Diisseldorf Festival. He is chosen
Municipal Music Director. Friendship with Immermann.
Their united labors. Estrangement. Cologne Musical
Festival. Efforts to secure Mendelssohn at Leipzig. . . . 3%

TV.

Mendelssohn becomes the Director of the Gewandhaus Concerts
at Leipzig. His Strict Training of the Ofchestra. His
Efforts to educate a Refined Taste for Classical Music.
His First Appearance with the Baton. The Concerts under
his Direction. Ferdinand David comes to Leipzig , ... 42

V.

Mendelssohn finishes his " St. Paul." Its First Performance.
Changes in the Work. He directs a Festival at Frankfort.
Enjoyment in that City. Meets his Future Wife. Trib-
ute to her Memory. Sea-bathing. Returns to his place at
Leipzig. Concerts there. Mendelssohn as a Director.
Pleasant Surprise at one of the Concerts. William Stern-
dale Bennett visits Leipzig. " St. Paul" sung there.
Brilliant Effect of the Work. Analysis of "St. Paul." . 47

VL

Mendelssohn's Marriage. New Works. He directs the " St.
Paul " at Birmingham, England. Leipzig Concerts. Clara
Novello. A Brilliant Winter. Composition of the Forty-
second Psalm. Analysis of the Music. New Music. The
Historical Concerts instituted by him. He directs th,e Co-
logne Festival. Repetition of " St. Paul " at Leipzig. . . 61

VIL

The Leipzig Concerts. Mrs. Alfred Shaw. A memorable
Musical Winter. Mendelssohn conducts the Spring Fes-
tival at Diisseldorf. The Next Winter's Concerts. The
Hundred and Fourteenth Psalm : its Musical Effects.
New Instrumental Music 71

CONTENTS. IX

vm.

PAOI

Ihe " Hymn of Praise." Its Occasion, History, First Perform-
ance, Musical Character, and Remarkable Success. . . 79

IX.

Efforts to erect a Monument to Bach. Concerts given by
Mendelssohn to raise Money for this Object. "Hymn of
Praise " in England. Mendelssohn's Visit to Queen Vic-
toria. He returns to Leipzig. He is specially honored by
the King of Saxony. New Musical Activity. The Leip-
zig Concerts. He plays with Clara Schumann. Directs
Bach's " Passion Music." Careful Training of his Singers. 89

X.

Mendelssohn is made Doctor of Philosophy. The King of
Saxony offers him his Kapellmeistership. The King
of Prussia, Frederick William IV., does the same. The
Post accepted. Composition of the Music for the " Anti-
gone" of Sophocles. Representation of the Tragedy in
the Royal Palace. Episode at Leipzig. Appearance
of the Great Symphony in A Minor. The "Antigone"
at Leipzig. Visit to Diisseldorf. New Honors from the
King of Prussia. Journey to Lausanne. His Stay at
Frankfort. Architectural Improvements at Leipzig.-
Varied Activity. Founding of the Leipzig Conservato-
jium of Music. Loss of his Mother. .

XL

Opening of the Leipzig Conse'rvatorium. Productive Activity.
"First Walpurgis Night" Leipzig Concerts. Active
Interest in the Conservatorium. " Midsummer Night's
Dream" at Leipzig 120

X CONTENTS.

xn.

PAGB

Life at Berlin. Unacceptable Changes. Mendelssohn's Ex-
tiaordinary Activity. Participates in London Concerts.
Directs the Palatinate Musical Festival. The King of
Prussia releases him from his Engagement. " (Edipus in
Colonos." Robert Schumann's "B-flat Symphony."
Jenny Lind in Leipzig. ..* 133

xm.

Che "Elijah." Conducts the Music Festivals at Aix-la-
Chapelle, Liege, and Cologne. Goes to England to
direct the First Performance of "Elijah 1 * at Birmingham.
Brilliant Success of the Oratorio. Instance of Mendels-
sohn's Facility in Composition. Declining Health. His
Sister Fanny's Death. Its Effect upon him. He seeks
Alleviation in Renewed Activity. Retires to Switzerland.

Begins the Oratorio of "Christ," and the Opera "Lo-
reley." Sickness and Sudden Death 143

XIV.

General Grief over his Loss. Imposing Obsequies. His Re-
mains are carried to Berlin. Honors all along the Way.

The Berlin Solemnities. Honors paid to his Mem-
ory in Foreign Lands as well as throughout Germany.
Depth of Sorrow at Leipzig, and its Manifestation. . . 164

XY.

Sketch of Mendelssohn's Personal Appearance. His Christian
Character. His Kindness, Geniality, and Courtesy. His
Restless Activity. His Cordiality to other Great Artists.
Liszt's Visit to Leipzig, and his Reception by Mendels-
sohn. Hector Berlioz at Leipzig. Spohr's Visit. ... 162

XVI.

Wonderful Union of the Highest Gifts in Mendelssohn. His
Power as a Conductor. Incidents. His Skill as a Vir-
tuoso. His Greatness as a Composer. Conclusion. . . 172

CONTENTS. xi

APPENDIX.

fauus BENEDICT'S SKETCH OF THE CAREER OF MEN-
DELSSOHN .................. 188

FIVE SKETCHES BY HENRY F. CHORLEY:

T. Mendelssohn as the Director of a North German Mu-

sical Festival ............ . . 196

II. Mendelssohn's Sister and Mother ........ 210

III. Mendelssohn's Invitation to Berlin ........ 213

IV. Mendelssohn as a Composer ..... ..... 216

V. The Last Days of Mendelssohn ......... 225

HELLSTAB'S ACCOUNT OF MENDELSSOHN'S VISIT, WHILE A
BOY, TO GOETHE .............. , 238

RECOLLECTIONS OF MENDELSSOHN, BY BAYARD TAYLOB . 245
MENDELSSOHN'S "ELIJAH," BY JOHN S. DWIGET . . . S64

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER I.

Mendelssohn's Parentage and Birth. Precocious Talents. Studies with
Zelter. Zelter's Letters to Goethe regarding Mendelssohn. He is taken
*o Paris by his Father to see Cherubini. Compliments from Goethe. -
Mendelssohn visits England. He visits Goethe. Goethe's Influence on
the Musician's whole Career. He becomes Moscheles' Pupil. " Midsum-
mer Night's Dream" Overture. He studies at Berlin University. Pre-
parations to travel.

a citizen dies whose life has been devoted
to the common weal, his city mourns his loss with
a general grief; when a ruler who has been devoted to all
the duties of his office goes to his grave, his countrymen
lament over his death: but, when a king in the domain
of genius is withdrawn from the sphere of his labors,
thousands upon thousands of hearts which beat with
love for what is good and true are filled with sorrow,
thousands upon thousands of eyes are filled with tears.
Such sorrow is that which laments the premature death
of FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDT, who, had he
lived, would now (1864) be but at the age when most
men are in the very prime of their years. For in him
departed the last classic spirit of Germany's great epoch

14 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

of culture. But as Providence blessed him in life, giv-
ing him no harder battle to fight than that which came
from the constantly unsatisfied aspirations struggling
within his own breast ; even so, in his death, the gain is
with him, and not with us. Not because he took his
departure after having attained the highest summit of
his fame, (for who is bold enough to insist, that, if he
had lived, he would have produced something greater
than he ever did ?) but because he, though a classic, is
honored at a time when Germany has ceased to honor
its greatest spirits as it ought ; when a Beethoven, a
Mozart, a Schiller, have to wait, and as yet in vain, for
one to rise, and show the world the wealth of their
genius and the course of their lives.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, son of Abraham Men-
delssohn, a well-known banker, and himself a man of
very refined tastes, and grandson of Moses Mendelssohn,
the eminent philosopher, first saw the light in Ham-
burg the 3d of February, 1809. The house in which he
was born was the large one, still standing, just back of
St. Michael's Church ; and in the same house, by a hap-
py coincidence, his warm friend and fellow-artist, Ferdi-
nand David, was born just a year later. He was the
second of four children, Fanny, the oldest ; then Felix,
Paul, and Rebecca His mother, born a Bartholdy, was
a very gifted woman, and watched over the progress of
the boy with devoted love, which was requited by the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 15

utmost affection. The father, too, was always regarded
with great tenderness by Felix. When the child was
three or four years old, the family removed to Berlin.
Under the favoring star which held him back, from his
birth, from all contact with what was common and vul-
gar, his wonderful talents opened and ripened early.
Even in his eighth year, he played the piano with
remarkable facility ; and at the same early age he dis-
closed that remarkable power of criticism, that lynx-eye
as Zelter termed it, which enabled him to detect six
consecutive fifths in a piece of Sebastian Bach, which
escaped the keen eye of Zelter himself; and also that
almost miraculous fineness of ear, which in the most
powerful orchestra, or in an immense chorus, detected
the least error of a single instrument or of a voice.
He showed, too, an uncommon productivity for his years.
Zelter, the veteran in musical science, and Ludwig Ber-
ger, the master in musical art, were his first teachers
in composition and in piano-forte playing. Zelter called
Mendelssohn his best scholar, even at the age of twelve ;
and his letters to Goethe are evidences of his warm
interest in the lad, although that interest was often
iisguised by a rough address, which doubtless did some
injury to the gentle spirit of young Felix. The best
fruit of this correspondence was the intimate relation io
which afler this he always stood to Goethe. This near-
ness, and ease of approach, to a nature so grand and rich

16 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHX.

as Goethe's, was a very great advantage to Mendelssohn,
and tended to encourage all that was large, generous,
and noble in him, and to repress all that was small, con-
tracted, and sickly. It would be a great treat* to the
reading-world to be permitted to look into the corre-
spondence of Goethe and Mendelssohn : for the present,
it is enough to glean frorn Zelter's and Goethe's letters
the progress of this always-increasing intimacy. Zel-
ter speaks of Felix in expressions like these : " He plays
the clavichord like a young devil ; " or, " Felix is always
the first." And, in the autumn of 1821, he writes to
Goethe regarding a visit which he was about to make
him : u I want my Doris and my best scholar to look
upon your face before I die." In November of that
year, he brought together his aged friend and his loved
pupil. Afterward Goethe wrote to Zelter, in his cool,
measured way, " Say a good word to Felix too, and
his parents. Since he went away, my piano has been
dumb : an effort to waken it again would, I am afraid,
be useless after that." But this casual interest was
destined to be yet deepened. Zelter wrote more fully
regarding his boy's wonderful talents and great indus-
try, and Goethe's friendship grew warmer towards him.
On the 8th of February, 1824, Zelter wrote, "Tester-.
day evening, Felix's fourth opera was brought out here
in a little circle of us, with the dialogue. There are

* Happily granted now (1864).

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 17

three acts, which, with the two ballets, occupied about
two hours and a half. The work was received with
nuch applause. I can hardly master my own wonder
how the boy, who is only about fifteen, has made such
progress. Everywhere you find what is new, beautiful,
and peculiar, wholly peculiar. 'Tis massive, as if
from an experienced hand; the orchestra interesting,
not oppressive, not wearisome, not mere accompani-
ment. The performers like to play it ; yet it is not very
easy. "What is known comes and goes, not as if taken
for granted, but as if welcome, and just in its appropriate
place, life, joy without impatient haste, tenderness,
grace, love, passion, innocence. The overture is a won-
derful thing. You seem to see a painter rubbing a
dingy color with brush and finger on the canvas, till at
last a finished group emerges. You are amazed : you
look to see how it came about, and only see that it must
be so because it is true."

In this rather rough and disjointed yet expressive
style, Zelter shows the gradual emerging of some central
theme, around which a group of musical fancies arrange
themselves ; just as is the case, for example, in the
overture, "The Hebrides." "Certainly," Zelter goes
on to say, u I speak as a grandfather who pardons his
boy. I know what I say, and I have said nothing that I
cannot prove. First the multitude applauded ; then the
orchestra-people and the singers : and that is the way
2

18 LIFE 01 MENDELSSOHN.

by which you can tell whether a piece is received
warmly or coldly; whether the applause is real and
generous, or only affected. This is a thing for you to
notice. When the performer enters with his soul into
what lies before him, and testifies that the composer has
suited him, that is true applause ; that tells the whole."
How this wise word of Zelter's was confirmed after-
wards ! How enthusiastically the singers and players
of Leipzig, for example, attended the rehearsals of
" St. Paul " and the " Hymn of Praise" at a later day !
How unwearied the orchestra was in overcoming all the
technical difficulties which the overture and the music
of the " Midsummer Night's Dream " presented ! 'No
one realized how, by pleasantry and earnestness, by
appropriate praise and rightly directed blame, by hia
quiet glance and undemonstrative yet effective manner^
he was able to help the performers over all the hard

The following year (1825), Mendelssohn's father took
him to Paris to introduce him to Cherubini, and to
inquire of that distinguished musician, with a modesty
creditable to both father and son, whether Felix had
such a decided musical talent as would justify his de-
voting himself exclusively to that department of art.*

Cherubim's answer was, of course, in the affirmative,

\
* Mendelssohn supported the great violinist Baillot, at this

us his quartet in B minor.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 19

On their return, they both visited Goethe. The latter
wrote to Zelter, under date May 21, 1825 : " Felix
produced his new quartet to the amazement of eveiy
one. This personal dedication to me, through the ear,
has pleased me very much/' In June, he sent to the
young Mendelssohn what Zelter called " a pretty love-
letter." Mendelssohn reciprocated the compliment by
sending to Goethe the next year a carefully elaborated
copy of Terence's " Andria." In a letter written Oct.
11, 1826, Goethe bade Zelter thank Felix for "this
very skilful specimen of earnest aesthetic studies: his
work will be a lasting fund of entertainment to the
Weimar scholars these long winter evenings." In April,
1829, Mendelssohn went to England at Moscheles' invi-
tation ; and, while riding out in a gig with a friend, he
was unfortunately thrown out, and severely injured in
the knee. After Goethe had heard of this from Zelter,
he wrote with the most anxious interest : " I wish also
to learn whether good news has come about our excel-
lent Felix. I take the greatest interest in him ; for it
is painful in the extreme to see one, of whom so much is
expected, put in peril by such an occurrence. Tell me
something cheering about him."

But the gifted young composer received his real
dedication to art, during a fortnight's visit to Goethe,
just before his journey to Italy. What a sweet foretaste
of the pleasures he was about to enjoy, what a delight-

20 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

fill promise of what was in store, did the young Men.
delssohn receive from him who sang the song of the
" Land wo die Citronen bliihn"! How much satisfac-
tion Goethe derived from that visit, we learn from his
letter to Zelter, tinder date of June 3 : " Just now, this
early summer morning, under a beautiful sky, Felix
has taken his departure with Ottilie (Madame von
Goethe), Ulrike (Fraulein Poggwisch), and the chil-
dren (among them Walter von Goethe, the present
composer), after spending a fortnight with us, delighting
us with his art, and leaving with us the memory of
delightful hours. His visit will indeed be a cherished
thing. To me his presence was especially valuable,
as I found my relations to music still unchanged. I
listened with satisfaction and delight. The historical
development of music, as Felix portrayed it, was parti-
cularly interesting ; for who can understand a thing who
does not penetrate it far enough to know its history?
The chief excellence in Felix is, that he not only
thoroughly understands the history of musical science,
but his rare memory brings to him the best pieces
of each era, and enables him to play at will what best
illustrates the development of music. From Bach
down, he has called Haydn, Mozart, and Gluck back to
life. Of the great moderns he has given examples
enough ; and, lastly, he has played his own pieces in
such a way as to make me both feel and remember

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 21

uhem. He has gone from here with my heartiest bless-
ings. Remember me very cordially to his parents."
After this time, up to Goethe's death, the two remained
in constant correspondence; and Goethe always ex-
pressed his admiration of his "cheerful, affectionate,
most interesting letters," as well as took the most active
interest in his progress. On the 4th of January, 1831,
he writes to Zelter : " Felix, whose welfare and happy
stay in Rome you announce to me, must be always
taken the best care of: such extraordinary talents
joined to such an amiable nature!" On the 31st of
March, he writes : " First of all, I must tell you that I
have just received a very full and affectionate letter
from Felix, which gives me an excellent picture of his
life. There is now no reason to fear that he will go
through fire and water, only to come out at barbarism
at last." How truly this prophecy was fulfilled ! With
what energy Mendelssohn has persevered in all the
decay of art, and amid the rank growth that covers
the glorious old ruins, keeping close only to what was
classic, and in no one of his creations catering to the
depraved taste of the times !

I speak more fully regarding this connection between
Mendelssohn and Goethe than I should, had not this
important step in his progress been overlooked by
most who have lately written about him. He may be
regarded as the last gift of that great period in which

22 LIFE Of MENDELSSOHN.

Germany's men of genius tempered their gifts ia the
furnace of a glorious antiquity; and to show Mendels
sohn just his place, and leave upon him an impress so
strong that it could never be lost, this connection with
Goethe was needed, who united so finely a Greek nature
and culture with a genuine German spirit. But, in
order to appreciate this connection and its influence,
we must review the events in the life of the young
artist. I will therefore run through the story of the
development of his genius, beginning at the point where
we left the lad under the care of Zelter and Ludwig
Berger.

Ludwig Berger had planted the young tree : Zelter
had tilled the ground around it, and had been a kind of
stormy wind to it, shaking it roughly, but only to cause
it to sink its roots deeper and stronger. There was
wanting, however, even yet, the skilful gardener, com-
bining thoroughness with grace, who should protect
it from the frost, and bring its first-fruits to perfec-
tion. He was found, in 1824, in Moscheles, an artist of
the highest order, whose efforts to bring out the genius
of Mendelssohn were crowned with a success which the
gifted pupil was the first to ascribe to its right source.
I will extract a passage from Moscheles' journal made
at that time, which he has kindly permitted me to use,
and which will clearly show the relation he then bore to
Mendelssohn. " lu the autumn of 1824, I gave my first

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 23

concerts in Berlin. I was acquainted with the Men*
delssohn Family, and was soon on terms of intimacy
with them. In the course of my daily visits at their
house, I became familiar with the musical powers of
young Felix, and was much interested in his charm-
ing character. His youthful efforts were, to my mind,
a sufficient guaranty of the eminence which he was
destined to attain. His parents often urged me to
give him instruction on the piano ; and although his
former instructor, Ludwig Berger, consented to this ar-
rangement willingly, yet I hesitated about putting this
powerful genius under a leading influence which might
have the injurious effect of conflicting with the direction
which his own original nature might suggest to him.
Yet, at their repeated requests, I did give him lessons.
He even then could play any thing that I could, and
grasped the slightest hint with lightning-like rapidity.
My ' E-flat Major Concerto ' he played almost at first
sight; and my ' Sonate melancholique } -he rendered
very finely." Other passages indicate very pleasantly
the intensely musical life of the Mendelssohn household.
On the 14th of November, Moscheles was there: it
was the celebration of the birthday of his oldest sister,
Fanny. A symphony by Mendelssohn was given. He
himself played Mozart's " C-minor Concerto ; " and,
with his sister, a duo-concerto in E major, composed
by himself. Zelter and many members of the

SJ4 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Chapel were present. On the 28th of the same month,
there was another musical entertainment at the same
place, Mendelssohn's father's house. A symphony
in D major hy the young artist was given. He played
his piano-quartet in C minor ; and his sister Fanny,
a concerto by Sebastian Bach. On the 5th of Decem-
ber, Mozart's "Requiem" was given. Mendelssohn
accompanied on the piano. On the 12th of Decem-
ber, at a similar concert, Felix played his "F-minor
Quartet ; " and Moscheles gave for the first time his
piece, afterwards so famous, " Homage to Handel."
Soon after this, if I mistake not, Moscheles went to
England.

The 19th of November, 1826, was a memorable
epoch in Mendelssohn's career ; for then he played, lor
the first time, his overture to the " Midsummer Night's
Dream," his first work which bore the distinct marks
of genius, and which gave him at once a name in the
musical world. He first played it with his sister Fanny
as a duet for the piano.

This is enough to indicate the strong musical direc-
tion of his father's household, and to show that Men-
delssohn himself furnished the most valuable material,
and yet constantly nourished his own genius at the
same feast which was sc delightful to others. So far as
Moscheles' influence on him is concerned, we shall
aardly mistake. I suppose, if we set it down as certain,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 25

that he confined himself to merely giving him a strong
impulse, and hints as to execution ; and yet it is certain
that to those hints may be largely ascribed that ele-
gance and roundness, which, with other prominent
excellences, were always observable in Mendelssohn's
piano-playing, down to the last. Yet Moscheles soon
exchanged the relation of teacher for that of friend,
a bond which was always rich in usefulness and real
joy to Mendelssohn. It was Moscheles who first intro-
duced him to the great world, by persuading him to
come to London ; for it can hardly be denied that the
reputation of Mendelssohn first became appreciable in
Germany after his return from England. In the place
of his youth, in Berlin, his talents did not gain prompt
recognition. During all the denial of his genius by
this city, Moscheles kept up his courage ; and, for this,
Mendelssohn remained grateful to the end of his life.
There was no lack of letters between them ; and from
one of Mendelssohn's I make a brief extract. It seems
to have been written about 1839. " You still keep up
your encouraging words, and show your good-will ; and,
so long as you do, all the dii minorum gentium may
make faces as much as they will." All through Men-
delssohn's life, he was proud to call himself Moscheles'
scholar.

Felix's body and mind were assiduously cared for by
his excellent father ; trained harmoniously, and not sac-

26 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

rificed to the love of music alone. We see him, in hi&
seventeenth year, devoting himself to gymnastics, rid-
ing, and swimming. Having an excellent classical pre-
paration, in 1827 he entered the University of Berlin,
and gave himself earnestly to the cultivation of those
sciences which accorded with his own chosen profession.
Among other professors, he listened to Hegel, who set
great value on music (as Zelter himself tells us) ; and
soon knew how to reproduce all his peculiarities in a
very pleasant and naive way. The abstract nature of
Hegel, his dragging every thing practical, every thing
that lay before him, into his system, and his dry, ab-
sent way, were a great source of merriment to Felix.
About this time, he went to Stettin to help bring out
there his newest works. On the llth of March, he
directed Bach's u Passion," which he had practised with
Zelter : for a director of twenty, certainly an amazing
feat.

As early as 1827, Mendelssohn's father had written
to Moscheles, in London, to inquire whether he would
advise Felix to travel. It is probable that he favored
the plan ; yet the father preferred to postpone his son's
departure till the completion of his studies at the uni-
versity. It was the spring of 1829, when the moment
arrived for the young man to try his pinions in flight
out into the great world. Before we follow him, let us
glance at his productive activity thus far. Mendelssohn

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN*. 27

had composed up to this time, so far as I can learn,
three quartets, in C minor, F minor, and B minor,
for piano, violin, viola, and violoncello ; two sonatas,
one for the piano-forte and violin (F minor), the other
for the piano-forte alone (B-flat major) ; a symphony in
C minor, and another in D major ; a symphony over-
ture ; various operettas, among them, the one now
printed, " Camacho's Wedding ; " two sets of songs,
twelve in each set; and the two great overtures, to
the " Midsummer Night's Dream," and " A Calm at Sea
(Meeresstille) and Prosperous Voyage ; " which last
he seems to have written soon after the " Midsummer
Night's Dream" was finished. If he really composed
that overture before viewing the sea, it was as great an.
effort of the imagination as the picture of Alpine sce-
nery in Schiller's " William Tell." It were not possible
for the depressing calm, the joy over the first puffs of air,
the sailing of the ship into port, to be better painted
"by music. Besides these, he composed a capriccio, and
some smaller piano pieces, and the octet. But this is
enough to show that the young artist displayed a won-
derfully precocious genius, and justified the fond hopeg
which were cherished of his future.

28 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER II.

Mend3lssohn visits England. Concerts in London with Sontag. First pub-
lic Performance ever given of the " Midsummer Night's Dream " Overture.
He visits Scotland and the Hebrides. He returns to Germany, visits
Munich, and then sets his Steps towards Italy. His Sojourn in Italy, and
its Fruits. He visits Paris ; thence goes to London, ; afterwards, Home to
Berlin.

N the 26th of March, 1829, Mendelssohn informed
Moscheles of his bringing oat Bach's " Passion
Music," and announced his speedy departure. On the
20th of April, he arrived at London. Moscheles had
made the directors of the Philharmonic Society ac-
quainted with his extraordinary talents, and prepared
every thing for his favorable reception. Mendelssohn
brought his old teacher, in manuscript, a sacred cantata
on a choral in A minor, a motet for sixteen voices, and
his first stringed quartet in A minor. At the Phil-
harmonic Concert, his overture to the "Midsummer
"Night's Dream" was given publicly for the first time,
and pleased very much. At a concert given by Hen-
rietta Sontag, his concerto in E major for two pianos, and
his Midsummer overture, were given with +he most

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 29

enthusiastic applause. The journey to Scotland, which
he took for his pleasure, suggested to him the over-
ture, " Fingal's Cave " or " The Hebrides." He wrote
this probably after his return to Berlin the same
year. It is said that this was the manner in which
the overture, " The Hebrides," took its rise : Men-
delssohn's sisters asked him to tell them something
about the Hebrides. " It cannot be told, only played/'
he said. No sooner spoken than he seated himself at
the piano, and played the theme which afterwards grew
into the overture.

In May, 1830, he continued his travels. At Weimar,
as has been already said, he tarried a couple of weeks
with Goethe, and thence went to Munich. Here he
heard for the first time the eminent pianist, Delphine
von Schauroth ; who seems to have inspired Mendelssohn
with even more than artistic interest. It is said that
the beautiful Travel Song" from Opus 19, " Bring the
Heart's Truest Greeting," which he composed at Rome, is
to be ascribed to that interest. He journeyed through
Italy in company with several painters, Hildebrand,
Sohn, Hiibner, Bendemann, and others ; and arrived at
Rome the 1st of November, where he tarried till April,
1831, and thence went to Naples. In Rome, he com-
posed the music to Goethe's "First Walpurgis Night;"
as if he wanted to free -himself, by its bracing vigor,
from the untoning influence of the South. It would be

30 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

interesting to know more about Mendelssohn's stay in
Italy*

He wished much to visit Sicily ; but did not, in conse-
quence of his father's wish. On his return from Italy,
he visited Switzerland; and in February, 1832, we find
him in Paris, where he gave in public his overture to
the "Midsummer Night's Dream." It was the third,
and, so far as I know, the last time that he visited Paris
The French nature did not please him. After overcom
ing an attack of cholera in Paris, he went to London.
Here he added to the list of his influential friends Kling-
emann, who was then attached to the Hanoverian em-
bassy, and who wrote the verses to a number of songs
by him. This time he could show Moscheles the manu-
scripts of three new pieces of the highest value, the
music of the " Walpurgis Night," the overture, " Fin-
gal's Cave," and the " G-minor Concerto;" that masterly
composition for the piano-forte and orchestra, which will
always remain as a fine type of the blended grace, imagi-
nation, and fire in Mendelssohn's genius. On the 14th of
May, the overture, " Fingal's Cave," was given for the
first time at the Philharmonic Concert in London. On
the 28th of May, Mendelssohn himself played his " G-
minor Concerto " for the first time. The 1st of June, he
played, with Moscheles, Mozart's duo-concerto, and di-

* This want has been richly supplied in Mendelssohn's Lettew
from Italy and Switzerland. Philadelphia: F. Leypoldt.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN, 31

rected ths " Midsummer Night's Dream " overture. On
the lOtli of June, he played fugue music on the organ
in St. Paul's Church, to the amazement of all the
listeners. He also took part in other entertainments, to
all of which I hardly need refer ; and, on the 23d of
June, he turned his steps towards Berlin,

3U LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER ITL

Mendelssohn applies for the Directorship of the Sing- Academic in Berlin. - Ii
disappointed. Assumes Charge of the DUsseldorf Musical Festival, -A
new Epoch in his Life. Success in Dusseldorf. -Flying Trip to London,
and Concerts there. The Diisseldorf Festival. He is chosen Municipal
Music Director. friendship with Immermann. Their united Labors.
Estrangement. Cologne Musical Festival. Efforts to secure Mendelssohn
at Leipzig.

THE directorship of the Berlin Sing-Academic was
now vacant ; and, at the urgent solicitation of his
friends, Mendelssohn applied for the place, as he now-
wished for some stated field of labor. He was not elect-
ed, however : the choice fell on Rungenhagen.* By a
series of concerts, whose proceeds were to be applied
to benevolent purposes, Mendelssohn tried to educate
the musical taste of the city. In a round of miscella-
neous duties, and without any definite occupation, he
labored on for some time, till, in the spring of 1833,
he was invited to assume the direction of the annual
Musical Festival at Dusseldorf.

With his visit to Diisseldorf begins a new epoch in
the life of Mendelssohn. The first stage in his career

* The opposition seems to have been headed by the more elderly
ladies of the Sing-Academic, though the failure of " Caraacho's Wed-
ding" seems to have left a lasting prejudice against Mendelssohn.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. d3

was his boyhood in his father's house ; the second was
the time devoted to travel ; and this, to. which we now
come, was the third, the one which was to put his
genius, power, and learning to the test.

He entered upon his course with a conqueror's tread ;
gaining an assured success so far as he went, yet in
such a way and against such opposition as showed him
that he must contend for every inch of his progress.
Even among musicians, he found hostile spirits who
stood in his path. Yet it was a glorious piece of good
fortune f that his first invitation earned Mm to Diissel-
dorf ; for here he rejoined that company of painters
with whom he had made the tour of Italy. That whole
circle (William Schadow, the sculptor, being the central
figure) gave him a most cordial welcome, and not only
then, but to the end of Ms life, remained attached to
him in bonds of almost fraternal affection.

But, before we accompany Mendelssohn to tMs new
field of labor, we must follow him to London ; and al-
though the direction of the Musical Festival at Diissel-
dorf falls between a first and second visit to London in
1833, we must enter a little into detail about his recep-
tion at that great metropolis. He arrived in London on
the 25th of April; and, in conjunction with Moscheles,
he composed in two days the four-handed variations on
the Gypsy March from " Preciosa," which the two artists
played at Moscheles* concert on the '1st of May. This

34 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

union of labor went so far, that they sometimes impro-
vised at the same piano, in. four-handed playing; de-
manding a most intimate understanding of each other's
thoughts and feelings in the working-out of the theme.
On the 13th of May, at the Philharmonic Concert, ths
symphony in A major, by Mendelssohn, was given ; on
the 15th, the variations from "Preciosa;" after which
Mendelssohn left London for Diisseldorf. On the 8th of
June, however, he returned to London in company with
his father. On the 10th of June, an overture in C
major, written by him, was given; probably i>he same
which had been played at Diisseldorf. For a number
of weeks, the father was confined to his room by lame-
ness. "While Felix tended him, he wrote for Moscheles
a four-handed arrangement of his septet. During
these weeks of confinement, he also played to Moscheles,
from manuscript, his overture to " Melusina." It grew
out of a picture which he had probably seen at Diissel-
dorf, where Melusina appears hovering on the top of a
tower.* Moscheles produced it at the Philharmonic
Concert of April 7, 1834; where, however, it did not
meet with a hearty recognition. Given again in one of
Moscheles' own concerts, in conjunction* with a rondo by
Mendelssohn in E-flat major (Op. 29), it was well re-
ceived. It would have gone better the first time, I

* Mende^sclm, in his "Letters," gives quite a different account
of it

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 35

think, had it not been for the weight of the orchestra:
the delicate and unusual style demanded a more gentle
manner of instrumentation. A letter of Mendelssohn
to Moscheles now existing is very interesting, written
after he had received from the latter an account of the
first performance. He thanks him in the heartiest man-
ner, and expresses the highest gratification that the
overture pleased him. Mendelssohn needed a good
deal of approbation at this time to give him confidence
enough in himself, which was wanting as yet. He then
jokingly adds, that Moscheles' praise is better than
three orders of nobility; and goes on to give some
excellent hints about the execution of the piece, about
the wind-instrumentation, for example, which he
wanted played pp ; but he is careful to say not ppp
(so strong was his objection to every thing forced and
unnatural). On the 25th of August, 1833, he left Lon
don, and did not see it again for a long time.

We now turn back to Dusseldorf. At the great
Musical Festival there, which he directed, and which was
held about the last of May or first of June, the great
overture in C major, written, I think, in 1823 or 1824,
but never performed in Germany till then, was given to
gether with "Israel in Egypt," the great " Leonora" over-
ture in C, the " Pastoral Symphony," Wolf's " Easter
Cantata," and Winter's " Power of Music." He him-
self played Yon Weber's concert-piece. The festival,

36 LIFE 01 MENDELSSOHN.

honored by the co-operation of the great soloist Madame
Decker, was characterized by so admirable a selection,
and so excellent a performance, that there was a strong
wish to retain the director at Dusseldorf. For this
purpose, the city created the office of Municipal Musical
Director ; assigning him the care of the weekly meetings
of the Vocal Society, the ;are of the Winter Concerts,
and the direction of the music in the Catholic church.
The concerts seem not to have given all the satisfaction
which was hoped ; since in the whole time, from Novem-
ber, 1833, to May, 1834, only three were held. .Yet no
blame can be attached to Mendelssohn, who selected very
fine programmes, and twice played the piano himself.

During this period, he was united by ties of the
closest intimacy to the poet Immermann. They had
known each other before. At Mendelssohn's request,
Immermann had written a libretto, in the spring of
1833, from Shakspeare's " Tempest," for Mendelssohn
to set to music ; but the latter had not found it availa-
ble. It was interesting ; in some passages, highly poetic;
but not suitable for opera, as Immermann had a special
lack of lyrical talent. This rejection of the libretto
had, however, no effect on their friendly relations to each
other. These grew more close and intimate ; and Im-
mermann seems to have clung to Mendelssohn with the
most devoted attachment.

The close friendship of these two distinguished men,

LIFE OF 2ENDELSSOHN. 37

and the low estate to which the German theatre had
fallen, inspired the hope that they would effect an entire
reformation of the drama. Immermann, Mendelssohn,
and Uechtritz, an eminent friend of both, declared them
selves ready to enter upon this much-needed work. In
the spring of 1834, the preliminary trials were made
to test the chances of success. Among them were given
'Don Juan" and the "Water-carrier," the first operas
which Mendelssohn publicly directed; also Goethe's
"Egmont," with Beethoven's music. In the prepara-
tion of Calderon's "Steadfast Prince," Mendelssohn
composed the following music needed for its repre-
sentation, two choruses, a march, a battle-piece, and
the melodramatic part. This very interesting and
characteristic music has not been used since. These
preliminary efforts were so successful, that a company
was formed, a large capital raised, and a new and com-
modious theatre erected, at Diisseldorf. A directory
of eleven persons controlled the whole management.
Immermann and Mendelssohn were conjoined with
them, the one having the chief direction of the
drama ; the other, of the opera. As Mendelssohn
could not and would not devote himself wholly to this
enterprise, he invited to Diisseldorf a friend of his
youth, and one of his most skilful scholars, Julius
Rietz. They had been acquainted in Berlin; were
of about the same age (Rietz a little the younger) ; and

88 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Mendelssohn had given him lessons on the piano. I
use the title of scholar of Mendelssohn, with regard to
Bietz, with no other significance than as denoting one
of the best living representatives of the Mendelssohn
school, of which there is needed no better specimen
than his noble " Festival Overture in A Major." On
the 28th of October, 1834, the theatre was opened with
the " Prince of Hamburg/ 7 and an excellent prologue
written by Inamermann. At the close of the prologue,
Raphael's " Parnassus" was presented as a tableau mvant,
for which Mendelssohn had composed music.

Unhappily the theatre was a source of misunder-
standing between Immermann and Mendelssohn. They
both had the best, the noblest of intentions : they only
lacked the requisite theatrical experience. Mendels-
sohn gave offence by bringing from Berlin some young
and unripe performers. Irnmermann, on the other
hand, wanted to exalt the spoken drama at the expense
of the opera; or, rather, he wanted no opera at all.
This gave rise to reproaches on both sides, an exchange
of sharp words, and, at last, to total estrangement. Men-
delssohn withdrew, after he had studied and twice di-
rected " Oberon," ia the very first weeks of the first
Beason, and despite his own engagement ; and his rela-
tion to Immermann was never again one of friendship,
The theatre sustained itself with great difficulty till the
BE ring of 1837.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 39

But though his tie to a great poet was thus dissolved,
yet his relations to the painters of Diisseldorf grew
closer than ever. He himself cultivated in those years
his remarkable powers in drawing; and under the
direction of Schirmer, the great landscape painter of
Diisseldorf, to whom he afterwards dedicated his CXIV.
Psalm, executed a very beautiful sketch in water-colors.
He exercised this gift in a very attractive manner in
adorning the albums of his friends. To Klingemann
in London, for instance, he sent an album containing
thirty drawings, illustrating Klingemann's own poems.
Prof. Moscheles also possesses a number of sketches
from his hand, pleasant reminiscences of their artist-life
together, with exquisite touches of humor where they
illustrate Moscheles as a musician.

Meantime, in the winter of 1834r~5, the concerts, and
the weekly meetings of the Vocal-music Society, were
in their perfect bloom. There were seven concerts
given, at two of which the "Messiah" and Haydn's
"Seasons" were performed. But the great business of
Mendelssohn at Diisseldorf was the composition of tt St.
Paul." Besides that great and enduring work of genius,
he wrote the three piano capriccios (Op. 33); a number of
songs without words ; among others, those of the second
set, and the three Heine songs in the first set of his
four-part songs (Op. 41). In all sorts of musical
delights, he was not wanting; and Mendelssohn was

40 LIFE OF

not at all chary in playing for the entertainment of hia
friends.

la the spring of 1835, lie was invited to take the
direction of the Cologne Musical Festival ; which he did.
There were given : " Festival Overture," by Beethoven,
in C ; Handel's " Solomon," with new organ part by Men-
delssohn; Beethoven's " Eighth Symphony;" Milton's
" Morning Song," with Reichardt's music ; " Overture to
Euryanthe," and a"Beligious March and Hymn" by
Cherubim, The gratification of the Cologne musical
public was complete. In token of their appreciation,
the committee presented him with the London edition
of HandePs Works, and their thanks beautifully written
on parchment, together with the signatures of the six
hundred performers whom he had directed.

Meantime, Mendelssohn's reputation had reached
Leipzig, and there was a strong wish to secure his ser-
vices in that city. Some of the most eminent fellows
of the university had cherished the hope of accomplish-
ing the abject by founding a professorship of music
for Mendelssohn, whose thorough mastery of musical
science was kno^n to them. He was questioned regard-
ing this. He wrote back, politely thanking them for
the honor, but declining to read lectures, for which, as
we all learned afterwards, he had no talent. Meantime,
the wish to secure him had grown into a determination j
and the very hand which wrote to him about a profea-

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 41

BorsHp was instrumental in procuring for Mm the
direction of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts. This post
he accepted. According to his Diisseldorf contract, he
could be released from his engagement there at the end
of two years. He obtained this release ; and after giv-
ing, on the 2d of July, 1835, a very choice concert,-
in which he played his piano capriccio in B minor,
he left Diisseldorf, to the great grief of a large circle of
friends.

12 LIFE OP MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER IV.

Mendelssohn becomes the Director of the GewanJhaus Concerts at Leipzig
His strict Training of the Orchestra. His Efforts to educate a refined Tost*
for Classical Music. His first Appearance with the Baton. The Concerts
under his Direction. Ferdinand David comes to Leipzig.

A17ITH his coming to Leipzig (which was his home
* * from September, 1835, to 1844, and from 1845
to the end of his life), begins the fourth period of hia
career, an epoch full of the richest, most varied, most
untiring activity for himself, and one of such splendor
iu the musical life of Leipzig as can hardly be expected
to come again. He directed the Gewandhaus concerts
personally from 1835 to 1841 ; producing during this
time a great number of master-pieces of enduring excel-
lence, yet compelled to earn his way into public favor
step by step. He knew how to command the resources
of the place perfectly in orchestra, dilettanti, and chorus
singers ; to bear with them with the greatest patience ;
to stimulate them all into activity ; and thus to obtain
effects almost unequalled until then. For he did not
confine himself to the almost purely classical training
necessary for the Gewandhaus concerts, but improved
every opportunity to influence the public taste ; so that

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 43

it may be truly said, that, in the practice of one art, ha
developed an appreciation of all, and gave to the life of
the cultivated people of Leipzig a higher ideal by the
pure moral and truly aesthetic influence which he exer-
cised over them. He did this not only by an always
admirable selection of the music to be performed at the
concerts, but also by awakening, through his superb di-
rection of the orchestra, a taste on the part of the public
for the works of the later great masters ; as, for ex
ample, the u Ninth Symphony " of Beethoven. He not
only cultivated a relish for the historical development
of music, but he summoned the mighty spirits of the
past to the help and delight of the present age, and
often combined the entire musical resources of Leipzig
in rendering some of their master-pieces. "We leave
this general sketch of his influence in that city, to enter
a little upon some of the details of his life there.

The 4th of October, 1835, was an eventful day for
the musical history of Leipzig ; for, on that day, Men-
delssohn assumed the direction of the Gewandhaus con-
certs. " On his appearance," we find in a record of
the concert, published in a musical journal, u the murmur
of applause which ran through the crowded audience
testified to the welcome which Leipzig gave him. The
universal favorite, Mendelssohn's overture, f A Calm at
Sea and a Happy Voyage/ (Meeresstille, fyc.) was given
as gently and gracefully as the public expected from a

44 LIFE 01 MENDELSSOHN.

director so skilful at the opening of his course with us."
It may be interesting to many readers to know what other
pieces were also given on this occasion. There were a
scena and aria in E major by Weber, Spohr's " Violin
Concerto, No. 11" Introduction to Cherubim's "Ali
Baba ; " and, for the second part, Beethoven's " B-flat
Major Symphony," which was given with a precision till
then unknown in. Leipzig. Mendelssohn had carefully
studied the piece, and directed it in person, an arrange-
ment new to us, but of eminent propriety. There had
been no lack of excellence in former days, when the con-
cert-master and the first violin had the direction of
Beethoven's symphonies ; yet of that nice shading, that
exact adaptation of each instrument, that perfect har-
mony of all instruments, attained under Mendelssohn's
direction, there had been no conception. The perform-
ance of the "B-flat Symphony" that ethereal, soul-
ful music was one of the master effects gained by
Mendelssohn as a director. Every new rendering threw
new light upon it ; so that the listeners were compelled
to say, " So perfectly performed we never heard it be-
fore." It was given the last time under his direction in
the winter of 1846-7.

On the 9th of October, Moscheles, who had come to
Leipzig (perhaps on Mendelssohn's invitation), gave a
concert, which was crowded, in which he played his
'Hommage a Haendel," and at which the overture,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 45

K The Hebrides " was given. At the second subscription
concert, Mozart's " E-flat Major Symphony " was played
more beautifully than ever at Leipzig before. At the
fourth subscription concert, Mendelssohn played his own
noble " G-minor Concerto." He was received at the
very outset with applause ; which strengthened, however,
with every movement, as the admiration increased at
the ease, elegance, and grace of his playing. Men-
delssohn's loyalty towards the great musical classics
appeared in a manner very grateful to the audience,
when, in the fifth concert, he brought out Haydn's
" Symphony, No. 4." The sixth concert was' thoroughly
classic, Gluck's overture to " Iphigenia in Aulis ; " an
aria from Paer, with violin obligato ; chorus and first
finale from "Titus," and Beethoven's "Heroic Sym-
phony." This auspicious opening was sadly interrupted,
towards the end of November, by the death of Men-
delssohn's father. The son mourned deeply over his
loss, which was indeed a very severe one, as those who
now know the father through his letters to his son are
aware.

About this time, Mendelssohn renewed his intimacy
with a friend of his childhood, Ferdinand David,
afterwards so well known, not merely to the Leipzig
public, but to the musical world. Born in the same
house with Mendelssohn, he had early lost his parents ;
and had been taken under the guardianship of the elder

46 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Mendelssohn, and educated mainly in his family. The
talents of the two boys expanded side by side. David
had adopted the violin, and had early manifested won-
derful skill on that instrument. He first tried his for-
tune in Hamburg, his native city ; but soon turned back
to Berlin, and first found a recognition in the Royal
Theatre, where his playing won great regard. An in-
vitation from a gentleman of high position in Dorpat
drew him next to that place. After being separated
from each other many years, the friends met at the
family mansion in Berlin. It was a most happy inci-
dent for Mendelssohn to meet such a friend at such a
time. They joined their fortunes, and turned back to
Leipzig, to be associated till death sundered the bond.
David entered upon a brilliant career as & violinist
there, and always stood shoulder to shoulder <vith his
friend in the furtherance of all his plans.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 47

CHAPTER V.

Mendelssohn finishes his "St. Paul." Its first Performance. Changes in
the Work He directs a Festival at Frankfc rt. Enjoyment in that City.
Meets his future Wife. Tribute to her Memory. Sea-bathing. Ke turns
to his Place at Leipzig. Concerts there. Mendelssohn as a Director.
Pleasant Surprise at one of the Concerts. William Sterndale Bennett
visits Leipzig. St. Paul" sung there. Brilliant Effect of the Work
Analysis of " St. Paul."

INURING all this activity in Mendelssohn's external
-*~^ life, his productive talent was no less eagerly
engaged. His .great oratorio of " St. Paul," begun in
Diisseldorf, was finished at Leipzig during the course of ^
this winter. The author seems to have been bound by
a promise to produce this work at a musical festival of
Lower-Rhine artists, to be held at Diisseldorf. At any
rate, the chorus-parts were engraved at Bonn by Sim-
rock, after the piece was completed, and sent to Diissel-
dorf. Under the direction of Julius Rietz, the rehearsal?
were carried on with great enthusiasm; and when, OK
the 8th of May, 1836, Mendelssohn arrived in person
he found the work all ready for the public performance
On "Whitsunday, the 22d of May, occurred the introduc
tion of the oratorio of " St. Paul" to the world. Th*
solos were Madame Fischer- Achten, Miss Grabau (no\v

48 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN,

Madame Biinau), Messieurs Schmetzer and Wersing,
the latter as St. Paul. As a curious fact, it may
be remarked, that the two false witnesses in the unim-
portant duet at the opening, "We have heard him
utter blasphemies," could not find their voices when
their turn came to sing. The success of the piece was
decidedly brilliant. Mendelssohn's sister, herself only
arid hardly second to her brother In musical genius,
Fanny Hensel, whose tragic death her brother Felix
was soon called to deplore, and the younger brother,
Paul Mendelssohn, had come from Berlin to be present
at the first performance of " St. Paul/' On the second
day of the festival, Beethoven's " Ninth Symphony," and
the first overture to " Leonora," then freshly produced,
Mozart's " Davidde Penitente/' and a great psalm in E
flat, hy Handel. On the third day, Mendelssohn played,
with Ferdinand David, the great " A-minor Sonata " of
Beethoven ; and as the music was not at hand, and this
piece had not been specially indicated for the occasion,
he played from memory. The Committee of Direction
signified their gratification at Mendelssohn's signal suc-
cess by presenting him with a magnificent copy of the
oratorio of " St. Paul," adorned with elegant drawings
of the leading scenes in the sacred drama, executed by
the first artists of Diisseldorf, Scbrotter, Hubner,
Steinbriick, Mucke ; to which one was added by Men dels*
Bohn's brother-in-law, the court-painter Hensel.

LIVE OF MENLEL38Jmt. 49

After the first representation of " St. Paul," Mendels-
sohn made so many and so great changes in the work,
that the great number of voices was unnecessary. Ten
pieces he left entirely out; and the first great aria
in B minor, he reduced to about a third of its original
length. On the other hand, he composed, some days
before the festival } the short soprano solo in F major, in
the second part ; not to speak of innumerable smaller
changes in the body of the work.

After this festival was past, Mendelssohn went to
Frankfort-on-the-Main, in order to direct at the public
celebration of the "Cecilia" (Odcilien-Verein) in the
place of his friend Schelble. who had been very ill, and
was trying the restorative effect of sea-bathing. This
society afforded great delight to Mendelssohn, in con-
sequence of its large number of fine voices, and the
secure mastery which it had acquired of the most diffi-
cult motets of Sebastian Bach. The city and suburbs
of Frankfort, which he had seen and known only as a
child, or when he flitted through it on his journeys,
pleased him exceedingly. He enjoyed himself so well
there, that he has left on record, in a sportive letter, that;
If he should stay much longer in Frankfort, he should
certainly become a devoted gardener. During his cheer-
ful occupations there, he discovered one blossom so fair
that he took it to himself, to adorn the garden of his
whole future life. He was introduced by a friend to the
4

50 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Jeanrenaud Family, and there made tne acquaintance
of the youngest daughter, Cecilia, who afterwards be-
came his wife. When the nuptial band united them,
there was no one who thought that it was so soon to be
sundered. She was worthy of such a husband ; and she
showed it not only through their whole married life, but
most of all by the heroic fortitude with which she bore
her loss.*

On the advice of his physician at Leipzig, Mendels-
sohn took a journey to Scheveningen, after his duties
at Frankfort were concluded, in order to enjoy a course
of sea-bathing. There he remained for some time ; and
with nerves much strengthened, and his general health
improved, he turned back, in the autumn of the same
year (1836), to renew his work at Leipzig. On the
2d of October, we see him re-instated in his old place
as director of the concerts at the Gewandhaus. He
opened them with that overture to " Leonora " which we
have just seen was brought out at the Dusseldorf Festi-
val ; which was soon repeated at an extra concert given
by Lipinski, with the finale from Cherubini's " Water-
carrier," " God ! my eye deceives me not/' and Beetho^
ven's "A-major Symphony." Besides this, Mademoiselle
Grabau sang an aria, with chorus, from Mercadante;
and David played a new concertino of his own composi-
tion. A number of pieces, the chief of which was the

* She died in September, 1853.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 51

* A-major Symphony," were given with great applause.
At the second subscription concert, at repeated request,
Beethoven's " Heroic Symphony " was given. It was, as
we learn from an account written at the time, played in
the most faultless manner, in one spirit from the first
note to the last ; and this master-work of the greatest of
masters left nothing that could be wished. It was ap-
plauded at the end of every movement, and its delicious
tones echoed in the memory long after the piece was
ended. At the third concert, a symphony in B major
was brought out, one of the genial Haydn's ; and at
the fourth was played that royal second overture to
" Leonora" (with the flourish of trumpets), and so finely,
that not only was the applause unusually hearty and
sustained, but the whole piece had to be played from
first to last; an honor not often showed in that hall. In
these concerts there was sometimes given, as is now
often the case, a new symphony, carefully studied, by
some living composer. At the concert of which I write,
it was the "Sinfonia Appassionata " (so successful in
Vienna), by Franz Lachner.

Meanwhile, there was an admirable opportunity in
Leipzig to learn the marvellous power of Mendelssohn
as a leader, and to test at the same time the extent of
musical resources in that art-loving city. "Israel in
Egypt," that master-piece of Handel's, whose great
effects sire in the chorus parts, was studied. Upon thes

52 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

choruses Mendelssohn began to work, having rehearsal
follow rehearsal with great rapidity ; and, as the singers
were promptness and loyalty itself, be soon wove the
most discordant elements into unity, and brought about
a very perfect result. He did a good service in other
respects ; for he wrote out in full notes Handel's figured
organ bass, which is not read with ease by organists
of our day. On Nov. 7, 1836, it was magnificently
brought out in St. Paul's Church, with a chorus of more
than two hundred and fifty voices, assisted by the organ
and a strong orchestra.- The success of the oratorio
well repaid the patient care and skill of preparation.
The great interest in the work was manifested by the
immense audience which filled the spacious church.
Thus Leipzig celebrated its first great Musical Festival,
and with no common splendor.

Of the other musical performances and concerts of
this winter when Mendelssohn was the conductor, and
which were therefore directed with matchless skill, I
will refer to only one. It was the last concert of 1836,
and took place on the 12th of December. It was to
have been on Thursday; but out of love to Mendelssohn,
and out of regard to his yearning after Frankfort, it
was given on the preceding Monday. After Mendels-
sohn had played, with rare skill, Beethoven's " E-flat
Major Concerto " for the first part, and closed in a ktorm
of applause, the second part opened with his own " A

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 53

Calm at Sea, and a Happy Voyage ; " then followed
some solo performances, and then the happily chosen
finale of " Fidelio." The reader will remember that the
great chorus of " Fidelio " has the words,

" Whoe'er a lovely bride has won,
Let him now join our gladsome song."

Mendelssohn, being called to the piano by the repeated
applause which followed this chorus, seated himself, and
began to extemporize on the theme, working it up in
the most brilliant manner. It seemed like a great family
party, to which he had invited the guests to share in
his own private joy. Every one who had a heart re-
joiced with him. All knew what his errand to Frank-
fort was.

It is also worthy of remark, that, this same winter,
<t friend of Mendelssohn, remarkable both for his per-
formances on the piano and also for his own composi-
tions, visited Germany, and awakened much enthusiasm
by his brilliant talents. William Sterndale Bennett
had come from England in order to study musical com-
position under Mendelssohn for a season. He displayed
the value of the instructions he received in a delight-
ful piano-forte concerto in C minor, and also in a very
attractive overture, -written in Mendelssohn's manner,
but still pleasantly remembered. Later, we heard from
the young composer a second overture, "The Wood
Nymph," which was one of the most charming pictures

54 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

of natural scenery ever presented, and captivated all
hearers. And, lastly, it may be remarked, that, at the
last subscription concert of this season, Beethoven's
grand " Ninth Symphony " was given, even more per-
fectly, if possible, than at its first performance.

And now had come the time when the tried and
proved musical resources of Leipzig could be fitly put fo
a fine test of their reach and compass ; and that was on
the occasion of bringing out Mendelssohn's oratorio of.
" St. Paul/ now widely known, and in many countries.
The chorus began their rehearsals in February, 1837;
and every thing that the director's skill, zeal, and thor-
oughness could accomplish was done, and all that the
thorough co-operation of the singers could effect was
conjoined with even greater spirit and willingness than at
the representation of Handel's " Israel in Egypt." The
noble choruses and chorals, although accompanied mere-
ly by a wretched piano, wrought powerfully upon the
choir, and, despite the repeated necessary rehearsals,
raised public expectation to its height. Most impres-
sive of all were the choral, " Awake ! the Voice calls,"
whose imposing effect, with the trombone accompani-
ment, could only be conjectured when sung to the
piano ; the sublime chorus, " Arise ! the light breaks,
thy light comes ; " and the voice from heaven, in the
blended soprano and alto, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me?" But scarcely less effective and moving

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 55

were all those passages which bear the stamp of a
Christian's joy, of pious self-renunciation, and untrou-
bled confidence : as, for example, that first chorus, which
rang out like a pa^an of victory, "Lord, thou art God 7
who hast made heaven and earth;" that choral, full
of inward humility and the love of God, " To thee,
God! will I commit myself;" and those two precious,
sadly joyous choruses, " Behold, we count them happy
that endure," and " The Lord will wipe away all tears
from their eyes, for he hath spoken it;" the first of
which, with its swelling waves of sound and its won-
derful power, moved every heart to its depths. There
was not in the whole oratorio a single chorus which
we did not take delight in singing ; and Mendelssohn
understood, as hardly any other director has equally
done, how to make his singers sing with, their whole
souls. This appeared in the perfect execution of the
pianos, only breathed out; the crescendos and diminuen-
dos, whose possibilities, significance, arid effect lie first
revealed to us.

After such thorough drill, not only in the choruses,
but in the solo and the orchestral parts, the public per-
formance of the work, which took place on the 16th of
March, 1837, could not fail to be successful in the high-
est degree. It was a disappointment that the bass
soloist, who was to take the part of St. Paul, was
obliged to be absent in consequence of illness ; but the

56 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

gentleman who took his place sustained the part well
In the recitative, Mademoiselle Grabau was especially
excellent. I do not remember who the other soloists
were. The choir consisted of over three hundred voices,
with a correspondingly large orchestra. I must let
another speak for me regarding the general effect ; for I
was one of the performers on the occasion. The critic
of the " Musical Gazette " says, " Under the skilful lead-
ing of the composer, the great orchestra did its wort
masterly ; arid the choruses, already thoroughly studied
under Director Dr. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, were given
in noble style, so bright, powerful, full, round, and shaded
to every nicety of expression, that I never saw the
effect in so large a choir equalled, - Whoever was
present at the representation of that brilliant work will
be compelled to confess, that the larger share of the
credit which the choir gained for itself is owing to
the matchless skill of the conductor and the power of the
piece itself. With simple justice has the management
of the subscription concerts offered its public thanks to
the honored leader, the soloists, the orchestra, its
conductor David, and the entire body of singers, for
their unwearied patience in preparation, and their bril-
liant performance on the night of representation."

To enter on a close and critical analysis of a work
which has made the circuit of the civilized world, and
has everywhere received recognition as a great work of

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 57

art, is not in place here : it does not come within my
domain as Mendelssohn's biographer. Only some ex-
planatory remarks are suitable here. From a strictly
sesthetical point of view, the " St. Paul " may have many
defects. Unquestionably, the personal agency of Paul
at the martyrdom of Stephen is kept somewhat in the
background ; and the second part of the oratorio is
inferior to the first in dramatic interest. But the main
thought which runs through the whole work is too high
and broad to be linked by the tie of a personal interest
to any single man : it is the glorification of Christianity,
with its humility, its joy in living and dying for the
Lord, in contrast with the blind self-righteousness of
Judaism, and the mere sensuous morality of the Heathen
schools; it is the contrast, or rather the struggle, of
the last two with the former, and the victory of the
light and love of the gospel, the light eternal, the love
divine. This thought is made incarnate in the persons
of Stephen, Paul, and Barnabas ; and it is concentrated
at that point which is really the central point of inter-
est to the oratorio, the conversion of St. Paul. Men-
delssohn has been reproached because he represented
the voice of the Lord by a choir of women's voices, or
angels perhaps : it would have been better, they say, if
simulated by a powerful blast on the trombone. But
that very golden mean between the sharp distinctness
of a man's voice and the inarticulate sound of a mere

58 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

instrument seems to me a masterly conception of the
composer; for it transcends the common, the expected,
and becomes, to say the least, unique ; if not supernatu-
ral, yet not unreasonable. Nor does this objection hold
good In point of fact ; for no one who ever heard the
oratorio has failed to notice the striking effect of those
female voices on every hearer of susceptibility. Upon
whom has that sound not broken like the very voice of
the presence of God ? And how solemnly deep becomes
the impression at the massive chorus, " Arise ! the light
is breaking!" which cleaves the darkness like a thunder-
bolt from heaven ! What an impressive warning to
change his ways in the statuesque choral which follows,
" Awake ! the voice doth call ! " and what a paean of vic-
tory to come in that majestic passage, the trombone
accompanying every line, which declares the glory of
the ancient Zion, new glorified by the light of the later
dispensation ! How powerful the contrast in the cho-
ruses of the Christian, the Jewish, and the Pagan
faiths ! Compare only the chorus, " Behold, we count
them happy which endure," and " Oh the depth of the
riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! " with
the chorus of Jews, " This man ceases not to utter blas-
phemy ; " and, " Here is the Lord's temple ! ye men
of Israel, help ; " and these again with the choruses,
"The gods have come to us in the likeness of men;" and,
* Be gracious to us, ye god$," and you will not fail ta

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 59

see how sharply delineated and discriminated are these
three faiths. A peculiar, and at the same time a beau-
tiful feature of the oratorio is given by the chorals,
which are always so suitably introduced to add soleai-
nity, and yet a kindly grace, to the work. They giv$ a
truly Christian character to the whole ; yet the effect
of those perfect pieces of harmony is subduing and
soothing. Doubtless there are many to whom dwrch
music is a novelty, so to speak, who hear these chorals,
and wonder that strains so sweet and elevating are
sung all around them, and have remained unknown to
them. It may be that this musical effect iri largely
to be ascribed to the great Bach ; bat does the compo-
ser who a hundred years later restores the Christian
choral, with its depth of feeling and tender spirituality,
with the attractions of modern art, deserve less praise ?
Lastly, it is impossible to overrate the skill with
which the great author has united words, taken only
from the Bible, into a round and full historical painting,
and has thus solved one of the greatest practical diffi-
culties. And although, in my opinion, the chief attrac-
tions of this oratorio lie in the choruses and chorals,
yet there is no lack of merit in the solos. The recita-
tives are beautifully distinct ; and the two arias of Paul,
the passage, "Destroy them, Lord God of Sabaoth,"
and the penitential strain* u God be gracious to me ac-
cording to thy loving-kindness," could not more finely

60 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

combine dramatic effect with strict adherence to the
church style. Again, in the soprano aria, " Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets ; " in the arioso for the alto,
" Yet the Lord is mindful of his own ; " in the aria of
Paul, " I thank thee, O Lord I" no one will fail to see
the union of the truest Christian feeling with the most
artistic musical form. The whole oratorio is, in one word,
edifying, and that in the deepest sense : it strengthens, it
exalts, it ennobles the spirit by its happy combination
of religious sentiment with noble harmony. Where the
eternally true and the eternally beautiful lock hands
together, there is the highest consummation of all possi-
ble excellences that art can furnish, and there must be
/

the happiest results.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 61

CHAPTER VI.

Mendelssohn's Marriage. New Works. He directs the " St. Paul " at Bir-
mingham, England Leipzig Concerts. Clara Novello. A brilliant
Winter. Composition of the Forty-second Psalm. Analysis of the Music.
New Music. The Historical Concerts instituted by him. He directs
the Cologne Festival. Repetition of " St. Paul " at Leipzig.

A DORNED with the fresh laurel-wreath which the
-*--*- production of " St. Paul" in Leipzig had won for
him, and not figuratively merely, but literally, for a
laurel wreath was laid upon his music-stand by admiring
friends, Mendelssohn hurried to Frankfort to blend
the laurel of fame with the myrtle of love. In the
spring of 1837, his union with Cecilia Jeanrenaud,
the second daughter of a deceased clergyman of Dres-
den, was solemnly celebrated. " Ah ! those were pleas-
ant days." In August of the same year, in company
with his bride, whose beauty and amiability made a uni-
versally favorable impression, he visited his old friends
in Diisseldorf, with whom, with the exception of Immer-
mami, he remained on terms of the greatest cordiality.
He was very fond of Dusseldorf. He himself confessed
that his visits to that place were among the happiest
events of his life. He was always on the move, was in
the brightest spirits, and gratified all wishes to hear him

62 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

play, weary as it might make him. Here, to please
and honor him, " St. Paul " was brought out under the
direction of his pupil and friend, RIetz. He himself
could show to liis friends, as the fruit of his recent activ
ity, the forty-second Psalm (Op. 42), a new piano con-
certo with orchestral accompaniment in D minor (Op.
40), and the violin quartet in E minor (Op. 44, No. 2),
all in. manuscript. The bright days after his marriage
had not interfered with his productive power, nor dimin-
ished the affluent gifts of his genius. From Diisseldorf
he sent to Simrock at Bonn, all ready for the press,
the three motets for women's voices, partly composed
at Rome. From Diisseldorf he went, without his wife,
over to England, where he was expected to direct the
hringing-out of u St. Paul " at the great Musical Festival
at Birmingham from the 19th to the 22d of Septem-
ber. The oratorio was given the second day, in the
presence of an immense concourse of hearers, but with
some omissions in the second part. The work was re-
ceived with the greatest favor : the choruses were sung
with unrivalled power, though not always carefully
enough. Mendelssohn's appearance in the orchestra,
towards the end of the piece, was greeted with a storm
of applause. In September of the same year, " St
Paul" was produced for the first time at Berlin.

On his return from England, we see Mendelssohn
take his wonted place as director of the concerts given

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 63

in the Gewandhaus, and received, at his. first appear
ance in public, with a very kindly greeting. The
Jubilee overture by "Weber, a chorus by Haydn, Beet-
hoven's C- minor symphony, the song from "The
Freischiitz," "Wie nahte mir der Schlummer," sung
by Louise Schlegel (a very gifted pupil of Director
Pohlenz), and a new concerto composed and played "by
David, opened the series of winter entertainments in
a most excellent and attractive manner. It would
weary the reader were I to enter into a full specification
of the performances of that winter, any further than as
they were connected with Mendelssohn himself. One
excellent fruit of his visit to England, so far as Ger-
many is concerned, was the visit of an extremely
talented, cultivated, and prepossessing artiste, Miss
Clara ISTovello ; who, however, sang but seven times in
Leipzig, but left us filled with regret at her too-speedy
departure. She was the daughter of a music-publisher
in London, for whom, as early as 1832, Mendelssohn
had composed a " Morning Service." Her bell-like, silver
voice, her perfect training, and her charming appear-
ance, won all hearts. The concerts were more crowded
than ever. She made her first appearance at the fifth
subscription concert, in the arias, " Ecco il punto,
Vitellia ! " from " Titus," and " Casta Diva" from " Nor-
ma ; " and, at her last appearance, she sang Beethoven's
great scena, " Abscheulicher ! wo eilst du hin?" At

64 LIIE OF MENDELSSOHN.

the third subscription concert, Mendelssohn played m*3
new piano-concerto in D minor ("Allegro appassionato,
Adagio, and Scherzo giojoso," as he then called the clos-
ing passage), and, of course, won the most enthusiastic
applause. At the second quartet entertainment, Men-
delssohn produced a new quartet, the one in E minor
(Op. 44) which he had taken to Diisseldorf ; and the
second and last movements were received with special
favor. The second was encored. At the concert in
behalf of poor and sick musicians, the overture to the
" Midsummer Night's Dream " was given, and Mendels-
sohn himself played his " Capriccio brillant " in B minor
(Op. 22). During all this varied round of activities,
he yet found time to bring together the musical resources
of Leipzig for the purpose of producing one of the great
master-pieces of the past. After repeated rehearsals,
Handel's "Messiah" was given at St. Paul's Church.
The number of singers in the choruses was equal to
that on former similar occasions. The solos were
sustained by artists of the highest excellence. This
master-piece was rendered according to Mozart's ar-
rangement ; and in several passages rather choral-like,
and at the closa of certain choruses, the effect was
heightened by the full organ accompaniment. The per-
formance of the choir, soloists, and orchestra, was one
of the finest ever witnessed; and the impression left
by the whole work was wholly satisfactory.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 65

The year 1838 brought to light another product of
Mendelssohn's Muse. The music of the forty-second
Psalm, which he had shown to his Dusseldorf friends,
was sung for the first time in public at the tenth sub-
scription concert, and displayed at once the character
of a wholly unique and artistic work. Never has the
soul's inmost yearning after God been spoken out in
tones more searching and tender. After the chorus
has uttered this passionate longing in those noble words,
so grandly set to music in this piece, "As the hart
pants after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul for
thee, God ! " a delicate soprano solo, " For my soul
thirsteth," takes up a slow strain full of the inmost ten-
derness of longing. Then follows a chorus of women's
voices, justifying, as it were, her who has just sung, and
giving more express utterance to what all feel in the
words, " For I had gone with the multitude ; I went with
them to the house of God," a passage which, by its
march-movement, suggests a light-hearted walk to the
temple of God. Then comes a chorus of men's voices,
uttering words both of admonition and consolation:
" "Why art thou cast down, my soul ? hope thou in
God." But that first plaintive woman's cry, justifying
its very wail by its eager desire to enjoy the presence
of God, is heard in yet sharper and distincter tones :
" my God ! my soul is cast down within me : all thy
waves and thy billows are gone over me." Then striken
5

66 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

in, accompanied by stringed instruments, a noble quar-
tet of men's voices, full of consolation and truthful
faith : " Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness
in the daj-tirne ; and in the night his song shall be with
me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." Yet
with their voices still mingles that plaintive soprano
strain, almost wailing, in its extreme sadness ; till, at
the end, the whole choir of men and women take up the
opening passage again with the full confidence of
belief and hope in God, and close with an ascription
of praise to the Lord God of Israel. The whole makes
a brief but complete religious tone-drama, as it may be
called. Yet those who have not heard Mendelssohn's
music of the forty-second Psalm cannot imagine how
beautiful it is from this imperfect sketch : it is rather
for those who may by its help call back in memory
pleasures which they have enjoyed before in listening
to its wondrous harmony* And these will confess that
not easily can a smoother and more pleasing move-
ment, musical expression better adapted to words, and
nobler melodies, be found, than are combined in this
composition. The first performance, particularly the
choruses and the soprano part, sustained by Miss No-
vello, was admirable.

Later in the course of these concerts, some interesting
new symphonies were given, and another less generally
attractive Psalm of Mendelssohn, written earlier, the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 67

hundred and fifteenth.* Mendelssohn's next great step
was to propose .a series of concerts, indicating the histori-
cal development of music. On the 1 5th of February, they
were opened with a selection from the works of Sebastian
Bach, Handel, Gluck, and Yiotti. After a suite by Bach,
followed Handel's hymn, " Great is the Lord ; " then a
sonata in E major (No. 3) for piano-forte and violin,
played by Mendelssohn and David. The second part was
made up of the overture, introduction, and first scene
of the " Iphigenia in Tauris," by Gluck ; followed by a
concerto for the violin, from Viotti, played exceed-
ingly well by David. The second of these concerts was
from the works of Haydn, Cimarosa, Naumann, and
Righini. The programme of this concert is too inter-
esting to be wholly excluded from these pages : over-
ture to " Tigranes," and aria from " Armida," by Righini ;
overture to Cimarosa's "Matrimonio Segreto;" trio by
Haydn for piano, violin, and violoncello (C major), played
by Mendelssohn, David, and Grenser ; introduction, reci-
tative, and closing scena of the first part of Haydn's
" Creation." The second part was composed of a quintet
and chorus from " I Pellegrini " by Naumann, and the
u Parting " symphony by Haydn. The third of these
concerts was made up of selections from Mozart, Salieri,

* In the concert for the poor, given Feb. 21, 1838, the ninety-fifth
Psalm, with Mendelssohn's music, was given for the first time; an
excellent piece, sung with full chorus.

68 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Mhul, and Andreas Romberg ; among other things, a
hitherto wholly unknown quartet from Mozart's "Zaida,"
and an ensemble from MehuFs "Uthal," an opera, which
the author had composed, at Napoleon's command, from
a subject in " Ossian," and entirely without violins. The
shining feature of this concert was a piano-forte concerto
by Mozart in C minor, played by Mendelssohn. The
overture to the " Magic Flute" was also exceedingly well
given. The programme of the fourth of these concerts
was selected from Vogler, Beethoven, and Von Weber.
The overture to Vogler's " Samori," overture to Weber's
"Freischiitz," and the hunters' chorus from " Euryanthe,"
Beethoven's great " Violin Concerto " and the " Pastoral
Symphony," were the most striking features of this even-
ing's entertainment, which brought this course of his-
torical concerts to a worthy close. That they not only
awakened in the public an interest in the history of
music, but also largely promoted a genuine musical taste
among the Leipzig people, needs hardly be said.

Thus, through Mendelssohn's efforts mainly, the win-
ter was passed in the enjoyment of the richest treasures
which music could afford the people of that art-loving
city which was his home. During the next summer, he
enjoyed no rest He went again to the Ehine, this
time to assume the direction of the Cologne Musical
Festival. The . " Joshua " of Handel was selected as
the chief piece ; and for this, as he had done for the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 69

* Solomon *' before, lie resorted to the organ as a leading
auxiliary. The whole festival was most brilliant. The
separation from his wife seemed to be a great trial to
Mendelssohn. He was somewhat sad ; but yet, on the
third day, he played his " Serenade and Allegro gio-
joso." His true friend and fellow-artist, David, accom-
panied him to the Rhine.

No sooner had he returned to Leipzig, than the
liveliest wish was expressed on all sides that the " St.
Paul " should be repeated. Mendelssohn showed a will-
ingness to comply with the general desire, and conducted
the rehearsals with his accustomed care. But, when the
day of the public performance arrived, the 15th of
September, 1838, Mendelssohn himself was unable to
be present ; being attacked by the measles. David was
compelled to take his place ; and he conducted so much
in the spirit of the great author of the work, that the
effect was even deeper on some hearers than it had been
the first time. It is to be mentioned, that after the
choral, No. 9, " To thee, Lord ! do I commit myself," a
new alto aria had been introduced, " Thou who bring-
3st us to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of
men." The leading soprano solos this time were sus-
tained by a very lovely singer, who, though now occupy-
ing a high position in distinguished society, still continued
to dedicate her remarkable gifts to the art of music, es-
pecially to the Muse of Mendelssohn ; and who remains

70 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

his best interpreter to this day. After this representa-
tion of "Paulus," a number took place in Leipzig, the last
of which was directed by the author, and occurred on
Good Friday, 1847. No other great musical work has
ever gained such speedy recognition as the " St. Paul."
In the history of music, the years 1837 and 1838 might
be called the " St. Paul " years. A computation has been
attempted of the number of places where this oratorio
was sung within a year and a half, and the number of
times it was sung ; and it was found to be not less than
fifty times in forty-one different cities. In Germany,
in Poland, in Russia, in the Tyrol and Switzerland, in
Denmark, in Holland, in England, in America, every-
where, " St. Paul " was given, and in some places two
or three times.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 71

CHAPTER VIL

the Leipzig Concerts. Mrs. Alfred Shaw. A memorable Musical "Winter*
Mendelssohn conducts the Spring Festival at Ddsseldorf. The next
Winter's Concerts The Hundred and Fourteenth Psalm: its Musical
Effects. New Instrumental Music.

rilHE time for the author of a piece held in such esti-
- mation to be taken away had not yet come. Prov-
idence watched over him : he soon recovered from his
sickness. The direction of the first subscription concert
was left to his friend David ; but at the second we find
Mendelssohn in his old place, more a favorite than ever,
and received with the greatest joy. He opened this
concert with his overture to " Fingal's Cave." In the
third concert, after the enthusiastically received and
encored overture to the " Freischiitz," an English singer
appeared, for whose advent in Leipzig we were indebted
to Mendelssohn, Mrs. Alfred Shaw, a lady of imposing
figure, endowed with a remarkably clear and full voice.
The noble simplicity of her style, and her thorough con-
ception of the subject, particularly in songs of deep feel-
ing, made her appearance before a Leipzig audience very
acceptable. She sang first a recitative and an aria by
Rossini, " Amici, in ogni evento m'affido a voi," and the

72 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Addio " of Mozart. Her stay till the 28th of January
gave us a continual round of enjoyments. In the most
tender and touching manner she sang the aria from
Handel's "Messiah," " He was despised and rejected of
men ; " and indeed her selection of subjects was always
the happiest possible. But this circumstance arose 1
primarily from the admirable works chosen by Mendels-
sohn as the basis for the concerts. The reader who
goes over the programme of that winter's entertainments
is astonished at the wealth of classic pieces, and their
tasteful collocation in relation to each other. Handel,
Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, Cherubim, Weber,
Spohr, Rossini, alternate in the list, yet not to the
exclusion of the later and the latest masters in music.
For example, new symphonies by Kalliwoda, Lachner,
Mohring, and Dobrycinski were given, and the newly
discovered symphony by Franz Schubert (C major),
which took the palm from all the rest. As an example
of a genuine classic programme, which yet did not lack
the charm, of the greatest variety, take this one : over
tirre to " Iphigenia," by Gluck; chorus, "The dust's
vain cares," by Haydn ; " salutaris hostia," by Che-
rubini, sung by Mrs. Shaw ; variations for the violin, by
Lipinski, played by Ulrich ; cavatina from " Romeo and
Juliet," by Zingarelli, sung by Mrs. Shaw ; symphony in
A major, by Beethoven. Although the power of select-
ing lay in tHe management, yet it was really Mendels-

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 73

solm's judgment that controlled the decision. As a
special advantage of these concerts, may be mentioned
this, that a great number of fine pieces, from operas
which were unfortunately almost neglected on the stage,
were thus brought into notice ; for instance, the delight-
ful sextet from " Cosi fan Tutte," the trio with chorus
from "Medea," the Polonaise, trio, and chorus from
Cherubini's " Lodoiska." Sometimes they were taken
from well-known, excellent operas; for instance, the
first finale from " Euryanthe," the trio and quartet from
" Oberon," the aria and first finale from the same, and
the second finale from "Leonora."

From Mendelssohn there were given this winter the
overtures, " Fingal's Cave," and " A Cairn at Sea and
Happy Voyage ; " the overture to " St. Paul," with the
recitative and aria from the same oratorio, "And he
drew with the throng towards Damascus " (given at the
New- Year's concert, together with Beethoven's C-minor
Symphony) ; an overture to " Ruy Bias;" and the Forty-
second Psalm, the last two at the twentieth subscrip-
tion concert, when Schubert's symphony in C major, and
the " Spring " from Haydn's " Seasons," were brought
out for the first time.

In the spring of 1839, Mendelssohn, in conjunction
with Julius Rietz, conducted the Diisseldorf Festival. A
combination of distinguished singers, such as Fassmann,
Clara Novello, &c., made this festival one of the most

74 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

brilliant ever known. Handel's "Messiah," and Beet-
hoven's Mass in C, were given as the chief pieces.
Here Mendelssohn first became acquainted with Sophia
Schloss, who so finely sustained the alto solos in the
Messiah 3 ' and the Mass of Beethoven, that he en-
gaged her for the next winter at Leipzig. Of Mendels-
sohn's own works, the Forty-second Psalm was given.
On the third day of the festival, he played his D-minor
Concerto, and accompanied many songs on the piano-
forte.

In the winter of 1839 and 1840, he again directed
the Leipzig concerts, with the same care 'and the same
success which had been so marked in the previous
winter. Besides Sophia Schloss, Eliza Meerti was en-
gaged, a Belgian lady, who united a solid style and an
agreeable voice with French ease and elegance. A
number of new gifts from Mendelssohn's Muse delighted
us that winter, besides the treasures of past time. The
concert in celebration of the great Reformation, given
on Wednesday, the 30th of October, 1839, was opened
with a new adaptation to music, by Mendelssohn, of
Luther's hymn, In mercy grant us peace, Lord ! "
The purest and deepest spirituality which can accom-
pany prayer is the character of this noble piece, as
Mendelssohn gave it to the world. Had this music, as
well as that written to Luther's noble hymn, " In the
midst of life," appeared in Rome, we should have seen

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 75

in it, not a simple fortuitous circumstance, but the rise
of a true Protestant spirit (not indeed in the ordinary
use of language), a spirit of protest against the mere
sensuous coloring which the Catholic Church gives to
all its ideas, as well as to its worship. But, whether on
purpose or accidentally, the authorship of the piece was
not avowed at the concert. If the taste of the musical
public were to be put to the test, it might be said that it
has not yet showed that it was always united on any
point, not thoroughly at one, so to speak, as to any
piece ; and this production of Mendelssohn's was quietly,
not to say coolly, received. Perhaps it was in conse-
quence of the deeply religious character of the piece ;
this kind of music does not usually win much out-
ward demonstration from a Leipzig audience; but so
much is certain, the authorship of the piece was then
unknown, except to the initiated few.

It ought not to be passed by without mention, that on
the 25th of December, in the same year, " St. Paul"
was brought out in Munich for the first time. It made
the same deep impression as everywhere.

The year 1840, one of the most fruitful in its addi-
tions to Mendelssohn's well-merited and always ascend-
ing fame, gave us as the first-fruits of his genius a new
and great production. It was the Hundred and four-
teenth Psalm, "When Israel out of Egypt came/' which
he composed for full chorus and orchestra. It was given

76 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

for the first time at the New -Year's concert; and
although in character and treatment wholly different
from the Forty-second Psalm, yet, in its way, it is
almpst as great. The selection of this Psalm, one of
the finest, if not the very finest, of Old-Testament lyrics,
was a very happy conception of the composer ; and how
skilfully has he brought out in music the praise and the
majesty of God! In one great flood of inspiration,
peaceful, and yet overpowering, the double chorus
strikes in, "What ailed thee, thou sea! that thou
fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? "
"With the greatest sublimity the answer conies back,
" Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord ; " and
the whole widens at the close into the grand fugue,
" Hallelujah ! sing to the Lord," which seems like the
very ocean of eternity. Let the reader imagine to him-
self one of those psalms of the temple, in which the
choir, accompanied by the trombones of the Levites,
announced the glory of the Lord from the holy place,
accompanied by all the helps of contemporaneous art,
and in the most spiritual (i.e., the least sensuous) form,
and he has a conception of the effect of this masterpiece,
in which the musical expression is perfectly adapted to
every word ; and yet the whole stream of sound flows
in a single channel.

In an entirely different domain of his art was the
third great work which the unwearied genius of Men-

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHtf. 77

lelssohn gave us that winter. It was the charming trio
in D minor for piano-forte, violin, and violoncello (Op.
49), first played in public by himself, David, and Witt>
mann, the 1st of February of that year. This piece
expressed in its first strain that ardent feeling, that
almost passionate power, which was more especially the
mark of Mendelssohn's genius than of any modern artist.
The andante con moto tranquillo, which follows, is
filled with that equally inimitable longing and sub-
dued and plaintive joy. The scherzo plays with the
charm of infantile grace ; while the finale, in its allegro
assai appassionato, satisfies and charms the ear with its
strong tones and balanced rhythm. The whole work is
a true mirror of Mendelssohn in his most spiritual-
minded and deepest mood, a product of one of the happi-
est hours of his genius, uttering itself in perfect frank*
ness and the most artistic form. It was received, of
course, with the greatest applause.

It would be easy to recall and to speak with enthu-
siasm of many other musical enjoyments of that winter,
which we owe to Mendelssohn. But I will, out of
regard to the reader, confine myself to the most impor-
tant ; and simply record, that, on the 9th of January,
all the four overtures to Beethoven's "Fidelio" were
given under Mendelssohn's direction. It was a matter
of interest to every friend of art to follow this great*
est of all masters into the secret chambers of his geniu?.

78 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

and to see, as perhaps he had never before done, the
greatness of the work, the majesty of the conception;
and in no better way could he do this than under the
guidance of an artist of kindred genius, and of equal
ambition. And it was a proof of the thorough training
of our Leipzig musical public, that these four overtures
were not received with simple satisfaction, but were
thoroughly enjoyed.

Of the first appearance of Liszt in Leipzig, which
occurred in January of this year, and in which Mendels-
sohn had an honorable part in introducing him to favor-
able notice, I shall speak more fully in another place
Let me only remark here, that during that same month,
Petis, at the first concert of the Conservatoire in
Brussels, brought out, in conjunction with Beethoven's
"Heroic Symphony" and the overture to Cherubim's
"Anacreon," the overture to the "Midsummer Night's'
Dream," which, wrought an immediate and powerful
impression on the audience.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 79

CHAPTER VIII.

The "Hymn of Praise." Its Occasion, History, first Performance Musical
Character, and remarkable Success.

E now arrive at a point in the career of Men-
delssohn which was signalized by the production,
and public performance under his own direction, of
what must be considered, if not his greatest work, at
least his most genial one, and the one which indicated
the meridian splendor of his career. The occasion which
called it forth was the fourth centennial celebration
of the invention of printing, which, though observed
with great demonstrations of respect throughout all the
larger cities of Germany, was especially honored in
Leipzig, the place which had been built up by the new
art, as it were ; at any rate, whose reputation as the
birthplace of books was identified with the history of
printing. It was a theme of general rejoicing, that the
care of the musical part was given into Mendelssohn's
hands ; and no one could fail to see that he entered upon
the execution of this trust with eager hope. The first
task was to procure a hymn which should be the text,
is it were, for Mendelssohn's music, to be sung at the

tfO LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

unveiling of Guttenberg's statue on the public square,
in the presence of the assembled thousands. This was
furnished by Adolphus Prolsz, a teacher in the Gymna-
sium at Freiberg; and was a fine combination of quali-
ties which are popular, and yet have a deep undertone
of religious feeling.

Mendelssohn arranged it with trombone accompani-
ment. When the opening words, " Fatherland ! within
thy confines broke the dawning light," so the opening
ran, if my memory is correct, were heard in the Music
Hall at the first rehearsal, the heartiest applause arose
among the performers as well as the invited guests.
Nothing so simple, powerful, joyous, and unconstrained
had been heard for a long time. During the rehearsal,
I sat near the honored Kochlitz, and saw how the
general enjoyment of the multitude was shared by him,
and wrote itself out in legible lines upon his illumined
face. He rejoiced as if over the dawn of a new day in
art. A merry time it used to be, when the rehearsals
were going on, to see the changing of positions, the
shifting of seats and music-stools backwards and for-
wards, till the correct position was attained. Many
will remember how, on the very day of the public per-
formance, the slight form of Mendelssohn was seen
moving nervously around to find just the right place
for the trombonists, and how nearly he came to a fall
from- the platform. During that performance, the sing

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 81

Br were divided into two choirs, which sat at some dis-
tance from eac,h other ; one of them was conducted by
David, and the other by Mendelssohn. The piece be-
gaii with a choral, " With solemn hymn of praise/'
sung to the tune, " Honor to God alone in the highest." 1
The song in memory of Guttenberg followed ; then an
allegro molto for tenor voices, "And God said, Let
there be light, and there was light;" and, finally, a
choral, sung to the tune, " Now thank God, all." This
piece is not numbered among Mendelssohn's collected
works, but was published among his latest productions
by Breitkopf and Hartel. The same house issued also
the Guttenberg Song, arranged as a solo. Looked at
merely as a genuine German work, and entirely aside
from the occasion which brought it forth, the latter ought
to be known to every German. Yet its first production
was somewhat of a disappointment The number of
singers was not enough to fill the almost cavernous hall
in which the concert was given. To accomplish that,
there were needed at least a thousand voices.

But this piece, excellent as it was, was only the prel-
ude, so to speak, to the great work which was not only
to give eclat to this Centennial Festival, but also to
crown Mendelssohn's name with its highest honors, and
fill the hearts of the thousands who heard it alike with
admiration and profound emotion. The "Hymn of
Praise/' a great Symphony Cantata, written by Mendels-
6

82 LIF% OF MENDELSSOHN.

Bohn solely for this occasion, was publicly produced for
the first time in St. Thomas' Church, Leipzig, the 25th
of June, before a distinguished and highly appreciative
audience. It was preceded by Von Weber's Jubilee
Overture (which concludes with " God save the king")
and the " Dettingen Te Deum " by Handel ; and deep as
was the impression conveyed by each of those master-
pieces, yet that produced by the "Hymn of Praise" sur-
passed it. The reader will ask, What was the main
conception in Mendelssohn's mind ? How did he grasp
his theme, and link it to the occasion which gave it birth ? "
In answer, I say, He undertook to show the triumph, at
the creation, of Light over Darkness. With his pious
and believing heart, he could easily enter into that theme,
and show with matchless power and skill the closing-
in of those ancient foes, and the victory of Light, when
Darkness cowered, and ignobly shrank away. And
nothing could be finer than this, to celebrate the in-
vention of that art which pushed backward into the dim
past the old darkness of ignorance, and welcomed with
warm grasp the approach of the new light of knowledge ;
an art, moreover, which was the very gift of God. And
how grandly he discharged his task ! How piety and
genius shine out in blended glory in it ! I do not share
hi the opinion of some, that the beautiful symphony
which opens the piece was written before the Centen-
nial Festival, and the vocal music alone written ex

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 83

pressly for this occasion : the whole bears to my mind
the unmistakable marks of the freshest spontaneity and
unbroken unity. Nor can I agrt\? with those critics
who find in the u Hymn of Praise " only an imitation
of Beethoven's Symphony in D minor. So far as the
inner character of the two pieces is concerned, they
are almost as unlike as an Alpine landscape in the sun-
light is to chaos after the creation, under the first rays
of the newly streaming light ; as unlike as Michael An-
gelo's Jehovah is to Raphael's Sistine Madonna. Tho
only point which they have in common is, that both
end in song; but in Mendelssohn's the vocal part is
much the larger, and the orchestral Symphony which
opens it is wholly subordinate to the choral portion
which follows, and closes the piece, both parts, instru-
mental and vocal, forming an unbroken whole, mutually
supporting each other, neither of which can be spared
without a grievous mutilation. Beethoven resorted to
the human voice, as the best aid which he could com-
mand, to help him translate into the genial element of
tones the most intense reaching-out of the heart after
joy, a reaching-out almost painful in its intensity.
To do this, he went as far as he could go towards the
realization of angel rather than human voices. But
Mendelssohn uses the passion of joy in an entirely
different way. He wishes to make it the expression
of delight at the victory over darkness ; and he accom*

84 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

piishes his end by instrumental music, rather than bj
the voice, and justifies the name of " Symphony Can-
tata," which has been given to the " Hymn of Praise."
In the very first strain of the instrumental part, the
clear ringing B flat utters the key-note of the piece :
the strain is given out from the brazen throats of trum-
pets and trombones, and immediately repeated by the
whole orchestra ; then the movement becomes more and
more skilfully involved, but with ever-increasing strength
and volume. The glorious passage, " All that hath life
and breath, praise ye the Lord," given allegro maes-
toso e vivace, is thrillingly kindling. An allegretto
agitato then comes in as the necessary shading, (for
who could bear a picture without some shade ?) which
paints the craving of Nature for Light in an antique
style, and reproduces the very characteristics, one
might say, of knighthood, and the atmosphere of the
cloister.

The painful intensity of the longing for the light to
break, soon softens, however, into the hush of an adagio
religioso, which tells, in its sweet, subdued strains, the
story of anxious expectation for divine power to reveal
itself, and for the light to break through the veil of
darkness which encompasses the earth. This forms the
transition to the last passage of the instrumental prel-
ude, and conducts the hearer to the kindling vocal cho-
rus which opens what many regard as the true " Hymn

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 85

of Praise." Through the chorus, however, there subtly
winds a thread of sweet sound, a delicate soprano
solo. Then follows what may be called, in the German
way, a dramatic soul-picture, like that in the Forty-
second Psalm. One voice admonishes the others not to
refrain from exulting in the help of the Lor, " Pro-
claim it, ye who are saved of the Lord ; " and the
chorus strikes grandly in," with the same burden to its
^jng. Then follows a noble duet by two women's
voices, a delightfully spiritual passage, full of feeling,
yjid touching the listener to the heart. This is respon-
sive to the admonition of the last chorus, "I waited
for the Lord, and he heard me ; and he bowed himself
to me, and heard my prayer : blessed is the man who
rests his confidence on God." A tenor, almost in wail-
ing tones, paints the mournful condition of all things
before divine help came : " The bands of death had
compassed me ; the pains of hell had laid hold upon
me." The sharp, piercing question, shouted out in the
shrillest tenor, " Watchman, will not the night soon be
past ? " is thrilling in its effect upon an audience. Then
is heard, all unexpected, a strain, as a message from
heaven, in a woman's voice, liquid, pure, soft, and
breathing the soothing spell of almost an angel's words,
"The night is past ;" and, in eager tones of jubilation,
the full chorus strikes in, " The night is past, the day
is come ; *' to which strain the pious closing words link

86 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

themselves, " Let us, then, lay aside the works of
darkness, and take to ourselves the weapons of light/ 1
This superb chorus alternating the words, " The
night is past, the day is come " (the accent laid upon
day and night, and these words prolonged) is, unde-
niably, the. grandest thing which has been written in
modern times ; and is only to be compared with Men-
delssohn's own chorus in " St. Paul," " Arise, arise i
the light is breaking ! " or with Haydn's " Let there be
light," in the " Creation." In the " Hymn of. Praise,"
there is, however, more power and massiveness than in
the latter. In this chorus, the truly Christian expres-
sion of thanksgiving closes with the choral, " Now
thank God, all !" sung at first, by voices alone, in full
harmony ; and then, the second verse, sung in unison,
with a figurative orchestral accompaniment, is especially
effective. The words are, " Praise God, the Father,
who parts the night and darkness from the day and
morning light : his praise we sing." And, in order to
give the work a noble and worthy ending, there fol-
lows a beautiful duet, "Therefore I sing thy ever-
lasting praise, thou faithful God ; " and yet once again
the grand choral wave of sound lifts itself on high, fill-
ing the soul with the most exalted emotion, as the lofty
fugue rolls out, "Ye nations, ye kings, ye heavens and
earth, proclaim the praise and glory of God." That the
text of the u Hymn of Praise " so appropriate, and

OF MENDELSSOHN. 87

withal so thoroughly biblical in its origin was col-
lated by Mendelssohn himself, need hardly be said.

I would not impose my judgment as supreme ; but,
in my opinion, the " Hymn of Praise " is Mendelssohn's
greatest work, in which his genius, unfettered by any
model (which is not always the case in the 4 ' St. Paul "),
shines out in its truest originality, and most character-
istic as well as most beautiful features. I do not know
which to praise most, the strict adherence to the
main thought, so fitly chosen, the profound piety and
spirituality of the work, or the exquisite combination of
melody and harmony in the music. All three excel-
lences, combined, give glory to this grand effort. The
first production of this piece was very brilliant: the
chorus and orchestra were admirably selected and
trained* Only the substitution, in the soprano solos, of
a lady not resident at Leipzig, in the place of an artist
of great excellence residing there, but who had been set
aside for some reason unknown to me, left any thing
to be wished. Despite this, however, the work called
out the greatest enthusiasm, which could hardly be re-
pressed within bounds even by the fact that the audi-
ence were seated within the walls of a church. After
the first duet, a subdued whisper of applause ran
through the edifice, and betrayed the suppressed delight
of the listeners. On one of the evenings following, a
torch-light procession was made in honor of the grea*

88 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

composer, Mendelssohn, who then lived in Lurgen
stem's Garden, appeared at the window, his face lighted
up with joy. " Gentlemen," he said in his neat, quiet
way, with a sensible trembling of his -voice, " you know
that it is not my manner to make many ^rords ; but
I heartily thank you." A loud " Hoch ! " three times
shouted, was our reply.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 89

CHAPTER IX.

Worts to erect a Monument to Bach. Concerts given by Mendelssohn to raise
Money for this Object. " Hymn of Praise " in England. Mendelssohn's
Visit to Queen Victoria. He returns to Leipzig. He is specially honored
by the King of Saxony. New Musical Activity. The Leipzig Concerts.
He plays with Clara Schumann. Directs Bach's " Passion Music."
Careful Training of his Singers.

SCARCELY had Mendelssohn erected for himself,
^ in the hearts of all true friends of art, a monument
so noble and so enduring as this, when his unwearied
genius resolved on commemorating, in a worthy man-
ner, the advent in the world of music of that one of his
predecessors to whom he felt under the greatest weight
of obligation, and whom he most resembled in the se-
verity of his studies, as well as in the loftiness of his
aims. John Sebastian Bach, who had labored so use-
fully, and with such distinguished honor, as cantor at
the Thomas School at Leipzig, and whose spirit had
appeared again in the person of Mendelssohn, ought to
have, his friends thought, a monument in the streets of
the city in which he had labored so long and well. Men-
delssohn undaitook to erect such a monument out of his
own means ; *Mid resolved, moreover, to make the rising
generation of - uisicians more familiar with the works

90 LIFE OF MENDZIS80HN.

of the immortal master of harmony. He gave a num-
ber of concerts, whose proceeds were devoted to this
statue, and at which only Bach's works were produced.
He himself wrote often, over his own name, in the
Leipzig journals, in behalf of this object. The first was
given at St. Thomas 7 'Church, the 6th of August, at six
o'clock in the evening. It was an organ-concert purely.
He, and he alone, played, giving the finest and most
difficult things from Bach, the noble fugue in B-flat
major; the fantasia on the choral, "Adorn thyself, fair
Soul ! " the prelude and fugue in A minor ; the so-called
" Passacaglia," in C minor, with its twenty-one varia-
tions ; the " Pastorella ; " and the toccata in A minor.
He closed with a free fantasia on the choral, " sa-
cred head, now wounded ! " This performance, so
admirable in every respect, was the more remarkable
from the fact, that Mendelssohn had not, for a long
time, touched an organ.

Seeing the greatness and the exhausting variety of
Mendelssohn's labors during the working season of the
year, no wonder that his delicate body at length began
to fail, and to deny its office. Not long after the great
organ-concert, he fell dangerously sick. Scarcely had he
recovered in some measure, when he began to prepare
himself for his journey to England, to direct the great
September Festival at Birmingham, where his " Hymn
of Praise," among other things, was' to be given, As,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 91

on the Ilth of that month, he had not yet arrived in
London, the first rehearsal of the " Hymn of Praise "
was held at the Hanover-square Eooms, without him.
Mr. Kny vett was the conductor ; Mr. Turle had the organ-
part; and Moscheles helped the choir to keep correct
time. On the 18th of September, Mendelssohn arrived
in London ; on the 20th, he journeyed with Moseheles to
Birmingham ; and, on the 23d, the performance of the
" Hymn of Praise " took place, at which were present,
among others, his relatives, Souchay of Manchester, his
friend Klingemann, and the English musical critic
Chorley. I need not speak in detail of the success of
the work.

I will not say with certainty whether the invitation
of Mendelssohn to the Queen's palace was during this
visit, or whether it was during his next visit to England
in 1842 ; but as he was thus highly complimented on
one of these two visits, and as I shall have occasion
from this time to speak of many favors shown to the
great composer by royalty, I will weave the account of
this visit in now. Her Majesty who, as well as her
husband, was a great friend of art, and herself a skilful
musician received the distinguished German in her
own sitting-room; Prince Albert being the only one
present besides herself. As he entered, she asked his
pardon for the somewhat disorderly appearance of the
apartment ; and began to re-arrange the articles witt

92 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

her own hands, in which Mendelssohn gallantly offered
his assistance. Some parrots, whose cages hung in the
room, she herself carried into the next apartment ; in
which Mendelssohn helped her also. She then re-
quested her guest to play something; and afterwards
she sang some songs of his which she had sung at a
court concert soon after the attack upon her person.
She was not wholly satisfied, however, with her own
performance ; and said pleasantly to Mendelssohn, " I
can do better ; ask Lablache if I cannot : but I am
afraid of you." I may remark, that I do not have this
anecdote from Mendelssohn's English friends, but from
his own lips. He used often to speak afterwards of the
graciousness of the English queen ; and the whole occur-
rence is to her honor, as much as to that of her guest.
- On the 2d of October, Mendelssohn left London, on
his way to Leipzig, in company with Chorley and his
friend Moscheles. The first subscription concert had to
be conducted without him, and by his friend David ;
but, at the second, we see him at his old pos Mos-
cheles passed fourteen very happy days in Menc Issohn's
house, during which the great composer playe to him
a great many new pieces not yet brought t-fore the
public. On the 19th of October, he gave his guest
a soiree in the hall of the Gewandhaus, at which
were performed two of the overtures to " Leonora," and
the Forty-second Psalm. Moscheles played his own

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 93

G-minor Concerto ; then, with Mendelssohn, his " Hom-
age to Handel;" and, with him and Madame Schu-
mann, a concerto for three pianos by Bach.

But the 3d of December was to be a high day for
the musical public of Leipzig. The " Hymn of Praise "
was to be given for the first time in the music hall of
the Gewandhaus. The laurel-crowned director's desk,
the storm of applause with which he was received, in
dicated the gratitude of the music- loving community 'of
that city to the great composer. After the concert had
been finely opened with the Jubilee Overture, an aria
from " Titus " followed, sung by Sophia Schloss ; then
Beethoven's noble fantasia for the piano-forte with cho-
rus. The " Hymn of Praise " formed the second part.
The excellence of the soprano soloist on that occasion
promoted very largely the success of the piece. Never
was the " Praise the Lord, my soul ! " sung with more
tenderness and 'depth of feeling. The alto and tenor
parts were also very finely sustained : so, too, were the
choruses and the orchestral accompaniments. The en-
thusiasm of the audience knew no bounds. It wanted
but little of covering the composer and his desk with
flowers, and bearing him away on the hands of his ad-
mirers to his house.

This well-merited triumph was speedily renewed in
a more subdued yet equally brilliant manner. The
Eang of Saxony, Frederick Augustus, the zealous patron

94 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

of art and science, came to Leipzig on the 15th of De<
cember, and expressed the wish to hear Mendelssohn's
"Hymn of Praise." It was repeated, in his presence,
on the 1 6th ; the parts sustained by the same artists as
before. It was preceded, at the king's command, and
in accordance with his own choice, by the overture to
u Oberon," the cavatina from " Figaro," " Giunse alfin il
momenta," and Beethoven's great sonata (Op. 47) for
piano -forte and violin, played by Mendelssohn and
David. It was interesting to see the two kings one
in the realm of song, the other in territorial possession
brought together on the common domain of feeling.
The audience enjoyed not only the music, but its evident
impression on the beloved prince. At the close of the
concert, the king rose quickly from his seat, and hurried
through the broad aisle to the orchestra, where Men-
delssohn, David, and the other performers, were stand-
ing. He thanked them in few words, but in the kindli-
est manner. Mendelssohn accompanied the king a few
steps towards his seat ; and doubtless, in many a spec-
tator's memory, the words came up,

" The king and the singer walk side by side:
They stand, and survey one kingdom wide."

Of matters of interest connected with Mendelssohn,
during the rest of that year, it may be remarked, that
the Forty-second Psalm was given at the annual Swiss
music festival at Basle, from the 6th to the 9th of

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 95

July, and also at the Palatinate Festival at Spires, in con-
junction with Mendelssohn's "A Calm at Sea and a
Happy Voyage," and all were received with acclamations
of the heartiest applause. " St. Paul " was given under
Mendelssohn's own direction at the North German Fes-
tival, held at Schwerin; on the 20th of September, a.
Reichenberg in Bohemia ; at the beginning of October,
at Dresden ; and on the 26th of October, at Mayence.

The year 1841 introduces us to undiminished activi-
ty in Mendelssohn's management of the Leipzig con
certs. On the 14th of January, he played Beethoven's
piano-forte concerto in G major. The critic of the
" New Gazette of Music " says, with regard to this
performance, "The pearl of the concert to-day was
Beethoven's concerto. It was played by Mendelssohn
himself. Many a production, which in this age of shal-
lowness would be overlooked, has received its resurrec-
tion call from him ; and so too this composition owes its
resuscitation to our great modern composer ; it is, per-
haps, Beethoven's greatest concerto for the piano, in no
one of its three movements inferior to the celebrated
concerto in E-flat major. The cadences introduced by
Mendelssohn were, as always, master-works within a mas-
ter-work ; the returns to the orchestral part surprisingly
delicate and novel The applause was great after the
concerto."

The next four subscription concerts were historical

96 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

and the programme was selected from the works of the
first masters of German art, Bach, Handel, Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven. The arrangement seemed this
time to favor more than before the understanding of
the progress of music ; for each concert was devoted to
one, or, at most, to two masters. In the matter of
selecting, arranging, directing, these concerts were wholly
Mendelssohn's work ; he also took an active part in the
performance. In the first, he played Bach's " Chro-
matic Fantasia," and a theme with variations from Han-
del, written in 1720 ; in the third, the " D-minor Concerto,"
and songs, from Mozart ; in the fourth, he accompanied
Madame Schroder-Devrient in the " Adelaide," and di-
rected the " D-minor Symphony." The last was received
by the public with more enthusiasm than ever. The
performance was, in fact, unusually fine. Mendelssohn's
keen eye had detected where new musical effects could
be had. " We heard," writes the critic of the journal
quoted above, "a tone in the scherzo which we had
never heard in it before : the introduction of a D in a
bass trombone gives new life to the passage." I must,
out of regard to my less musical readers, deny myself
the pleasure of recounting the entire programme of those
four concerts. Only one may be taken as an example,
the one chosen from Haydn. There were given the
introduction, and a recitative, aria, and chorus from the
Creation ; " the " Emperor " quartet j the motet, " Thou

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 97

art He to whom honor and praise belong ; " the Symphony
in B flat, and the " Hunt" and " Vintage " from- the " Sea-
sons." Any one in the least acquainted with Father
Haydn's works will confess that a more judicious, char-
acteristic, and at the same time generally acceptable
programme could not have been made up. But
not the historical concerts alone were remarkable far
their interest : almost every one that followed brought
us something valuable, and that, too, in its special,
personal relation to Mendelssohn. At the seventh, in
consequence of what proved to be the very opportune
hoarseness of Sophia Schloss, we had her place supplied
with Eichendorff s wonderful Huntsman's Song, " Who
hath built thee up, forest ! so fair and so high ? " If
the text is exceedingly beautiful, Mendelssohn's genius
has added new charms to it, and has given the song such
a consecration as will not suffer it ever to be forgotten
by any feeling heart. It has already made the tour of
half the globe. Above all the rest, the fine passage,
K Fare thee well, thou beautiful wood ! " clings to the
memory. When the springtime comes, and the forest-
trees put on their fresh attire, and we think of the beau-
tiful soul that sang of their beauty, we are hardly able
to hear those strains without tears.

At the nineteenth subscription concert, we had the
rare pleasure of hearing Beethoven's "To the distant
loved one," sung by Herr Schmidt, leading tenor at the
7

98 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Leipzig theatre. Mendelssohn accompanied ; and singer
and player were so thoroughly in sympathy, that the
performance of this gem of lyrical feeling was almost
perfect. At the twentieth, Madame Schroder-Devrient
sang a number of songs, and among them the "Zuleika"
of Mendelssohn. Being encored in a storm of applause,
she sang, with a touch of coquetry, yet with real justice,
and with a fine fitness, the air, " In God's high counsels
'tis ordained;" presently she came to the words,

" But this thon soon must understand,
How strong the grasp of each warm hand,
"When thou shalt leave thy dear loved land; "

which the audience applied at once, and with enthusias-
tic applause, to Mendelssohn. His call to Berlin was
then the general theme of conversation. The hour of
his departure was indeed near ; yet he soon returned to
take part-in a concert given by Clara Schumann, in which
he played with her a duet of his own composing, and
wove one of the fairest flowers into the garland of that
gifted woman. At the same concert, he directed a sym-
phony of Robert Schumann's. He also assisted in the
quartet concerts of his friend David.

After all this long list of successes, it would not seem
possible for any new accession to be made to his fame.
Still, his reputation was not yet at its height. The
sevei est test of his ability as a directr r was to come-
In the months of February and March, 1841, he

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 99

studied, with a very large choir of dilettanti, Bach's
" Passion Music," even with the willing and available
resources of the music-loving public of Leipzig, a her-
culean task. The spirit of Hercules did indeed live in
the director, but in conjunction with a very feeble body,
whose endurance during the rehearsals was often the
subject of wonder. What endless patience and pains the
first double chorus cost, with its strangely interspersed,
but very effective questions ! At the first two rehearsals,
when this chorus was attempted, there was a truly comi-
cal falling-apart ; and, despite the very serious nature
of the piece, Mendelssohn himself could not refrain from
hearty laughter. But he did not cease his efforts till
every one of these questions was rightly thrown in, and
till the whole chorus went exactly to his wish. As
with this chorus, so with all ; and, when he was sure of
the notes, he went on to show the character of each
passage, and how each one must be sung. The chorals
he made the subject of the greatest care. They had to
be sung with the utmost delicacy of expression, most of
them very piano. All these rehearsals were exceedingly
interesting and instructive. The chorus-singers were
specially commended for thoir pains. When, in the last
rehearsals, the solos came in, we were all in raptures at
the depth and grandeur of the music. We ventured to-
think that this greatest masterpiece of all time would
now, in some measure, be appreciated. The public per-

100 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN

formance took place on Palm Sunday, the 4th of April,
1841, in St. Thomas's Church, and for the benefit of
the Bach-Monument fund. Since Good Friday of 1728,
when Bach himself directed his " Passion Music " in the
same church, it had never been heard in Leipzig up to
this time. The impression on the large congregation
was certainly powerful. Although the music may not
have been understood by the larger number, yet all
hearts felt its sublimity, its majesty, none the less.

As a proof of the restless activity of Mendelssohn,
it may be remarked, that at urgent request, on the
15th of April, he brought out St. Paul" at Weimar.
The 19th of April, he was invited to Dresden to give
eclat, by his presence, to a dinner in honor of Cor-
nelius, the artist. "Whether he went or not, I do not
know. In the same month, the first proposition was
made, probably at his instigation, of erecting a musical
Conservatorium in Leipzig, It found universal favor.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 101

CHAPTER X.

Mendelssohn is made Doctor of Philosophy. - The King of Saxony offers
him his Kapellmeistership. The King of Prussia, Frederick William
IV., does the same. The Post accepted. Composition of the Music for
the " Antigone " of Sophocles. Representation of the Tragedy in the Royal
Palace. Episode at Leipzig. Appearance of the great Symphony hi A
Minor. The " Antigone " at Leipzig. Visit to DUsseldorf. New Hon-
ors from the King of Prussia. Journey to Lausanne. His Stay at
Frankfort. Architectural Improvements at Leipzig. Varied Activity.
"Founding of the Leipzig Conservatorium of Music. Loss of hia
Mother.

A S in labors, so in honors, was this year rich ; for
Leipzig, only too rich. That city had early be-
stowed its honors on its distinguished son, in giving him,
through its University, as early as 1836, the title of
Doctor of Philosophy ; an honor which he valued highly.
In June or July of 1841, the King of Saxony invited
him to be his kapellmeister. But kind Frederick
William IV., King of Prussia, who, from the day when
be mounted the throne, aimed and attempted to draw
around him all the men of noblest genius in Germany,
had fixed his eye on the former resident of his capital,
and invited him to become his kapellmeister, with a
handsome salary. Mendelssohn could scarcely do other-
wise than listen favorably to this honorable proposal ;
and his relation to the king was always a delightful one.

102 LIPS OF

This gifted prince made it a special study to rightly
employ the genius of his new kapellmeister ; for ex
ample, the idea of setting the "Antigone" of Sophocles
to music was wholly his. But Mendelssohn would not
only devote the efforts of his genius to his royal patron ;
he wanted also to do some service to Prussia in the
exercise of his art He was, in point of fact, put
at the disposal of the bureau of public worship (an
expression which amused us much at Leipzig, when we
thought how much Mendelssohn depended in his best
work on the freest use of his own individuality, and
how little he loved the direction of others) ; but the bu-
reau did not know, at first, how to use his rich gifts in its
service, and gave him no work : for a while, he found
himself in idleness, no congenial condition for him ; and
the old Leipzig field of his activity soon came to
seem more attractive than ever. Yet the wishes of
Frederick William in behalf of Mendelssohn were good ;
and Leipzig is indebted to them for many a rare pleas-
ure. The first work which His Majesty imposed on his
kapellmeister was the composition of an overture, cho-
ruses, and the melodramatic music to the " Antigone "
of Sophocles. Mendelssohn composed this music during
his summer sojourn in Berlin (or perhaps rather in
Potsdam), in the incredibly short space of eleven days.
He very quickly and easily grasped the idea of bringing
that noble work to the comprehension of the moderns,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 103

entered into it with his accustomed ardor, and used hia
own training in the ancient classics (he read the "An-
tigone " in Greek, himself) to the best advantage. Under
the direction of the poet Tieck, the piece was prepared
for the Potsdam court-stage, with a complete revival
of the customs of antiquity; and, with Mendelssohn's
music, it was given on the 15th of October, the king's
birthday, before a select circle. Thus its effect was
limited, and did not reach the larger public for a long
time. It was reserved for Leipzig first to introduce
this new creation of her favorite to the world. Of Men-
delssohn's further activity during the first half of this
winter in Berlin, no word whatever has reached us.
Even in the second half, his efforts were confined to
giving the " St. Paul " twice ; the first time in the con-
cert-room of the theatre, and under his own direction.
It seems to have been remarkably well rendered. The
other performance was in the Sing-Academie, also
under his direction.

Yet that same winter, as still connected with us at
Leipzig, he was exceedingly active; his efforts being
only interfered with by his journeys to Berlin. The
direction of concerts had passed into the hands of his
friend David ; and we were well content, since he con-
tinued to labor in the very spirit of Mendelssohn. At
the first concert was given the splerdid overture "A
Calm at Sea and a Happy Voyage." Yet we did enjoy

104 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

best, of course, the presence of him who wrote that over-
ture. And he came before we expected him ; in
November, he directed three most admirable concerts.
At the first, the overture to "Oberon " and the A-major
Symphony." At the second, David produced a new sym-
phony of his own ; and Mendelssohn played with him
Beethoven's great sonata for piano-forte and violin in
C minor, besides some " Songs without Words." To this
were added the overture to " Leonora " in C and the
Ninety-fifth Psalm, by Mendelssohn. At the third, lie
played Beethoven's " G-major Concerto," with his own
masterly cadences, and directed the performance of the
Hundied and fourteenth Psalrn, and the overture, solos,
and choruses from "St. Paul." So well feasted and
equipped, we could easily -fast a few months. Aw reste,
that was a genuine St. Paul year. At Keichenberg in
Bohemia, at Freiberg in Saxony, at Naumberg, at Aix-
la-Chapelle, even at Eochelle in France, the " St. Paul "
was given* At the last place, the occasion was k Con-
gres musical de V Quest: the text was translated into
French. Paris followed, in 1842.

The last-named year gave us two more noble works
of Mendelssohn, brought out, too, under his own direc-
tion. The first two months, indeed, passed with only
memorable recollections of his great activity in previous
years : at the New- Year's concert, Madame Schumann
was present, the artist who grasped most perfectly the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 105

inner sense of Mendelssohn's productions j this was
made manifest to all in her consummate rendering of
his " G-mlnor Concerto." On the 21st of January,
we had a concert made up wholly of productions of a
scholar of Mendelssohn, the talented young Hollander
Verhulst; and, on the 27th, Mrs. Alfred Shaw delighted
us again with her charming co-operation in the concerts.
She had just returned from a journey to Italy in the
study of her art, where she had gained new proficiency
in the use of her voice. Besides, we had, in those
two months, of Mendelssohn's productions, the over-
tures, "A Calm at Sea and a Happy Voyage," and
the " Hebrides ; " also the piano quartet in B minor, and
the stringed quartet in D major (Op. 44). At the end of
February, he came himself; and, at the very close of this
month, he directed the concert of the celebrated harpist,
Parish Alvars, at which, among other things, the over-
ture to the "Midsummer Night's Dream" was given.
At that time no virtuoso could reckon on having a full
audience, unless he presented in his programme some
one or more of the compositions of Mendelssohn.

On the 13th of March appeared the new work, whicl.
had long been awaited with eager expectation, Men-
delssohn's " Symphony in A minor." It was the third
which he wrote, but the first to challenge -and command
the general attention of the musical world. His first, in
C minor, was a youthful work, to which he himself

106 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

did not attach much value ; the second (in A major),
written for the Philharmonic Society in London, was not
known out of England. It was in the third that he
won a name for complete mastership in this difficult
branch of musical composition. It was asserted that
the first strains of this symphony dated from his stay
in Rome, and that a distinct southern coloring was
to, be found in them. I confess that I see little ground
lor this theory, and I do not think that any one who
was not prepossessed with the idea could trace any
unusual southern glow in it. In this piece Mendels-
sohn remained true to his character as a composer.
It is a fine, thoughtful work, tinged with a slight vein
of sadness, which, aiming not ia the slightest at great
effects, by the use of the simplest means finds its way
to the heart. Among the four movements, which have
the most intimate connection and interdependence possi-
ble, It is the charming and graceful scherzo and the
soulful adagio which have found the greatest favor with
the public. Yet the symphony, as a whole, met with
the greatest favor, and was at once repeated, at the
general request, and was even more intelligible, and
therefore more acceptable, when given the second time
than it was at first.

All the more grateful were we for this gift, that it
caine to us in the midst of the preparations for a second,
if possible, of still more value. * On the 5th of March,

OF MENDELSSOHN. 107

the "Antigone" of Sophocles, translated by Donnei
and set to music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy,
was brought out at the Leipzig theatre, before a full
audience. The composer directed, and was received
with great applause. The music, indeed, was not an-
tique, if to be so it must be played on the ovpiy^ the
<rM,my& and the <f>6p[u-y& or if the composer must confine
himself to that Greek type of melody and harmony of
which all we know is, that it was extremely simple, and,
according to our ideas, meagre ; but it was antique
completely, in its being filled with the fire of the
tragedy, and making its spirit intelligible to us moderns,
strengthening the meaning of the words, and giving a
running musical commentary on them. This the philol-
ogists have confessed, at least the German ones; for
at their convention at Cassel, in the autumn of the
following year, they passed a vote of thanks to Men-
delssohn for giving, by his music to the " Antigone "
of Sophocles, a new life and interest to Greek tragedy.
"With us at Leipzig, as indeed everywhere, the Eros
Chorus with its solemn aw3 in the presence of the
divine omnipotence of Love, and the Bacchus Chorus,
which, swinging the thyrsus, celebrates the praise of
the Theban maiden's son in joyous strains, as well
as the melo-dramatic passages, where Antigone enters,
wailing, the chamber where her dead lover lay, and
whither Creon has borne in his son's corpse, had an

108 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

imposing effect. The impression of the whole piece,
taken by itself, was very powerful. With amazement
our modern world realized the sublimity of the ancient
tragic Muse, and recognized the " great, gigantic Fate,
which exalts man while grinding him to powder." In
breathless silence the audience listened to the melodious
flow of the mighty words, and followed with intense
interest the development of the plot, unbroken by any
untimely subordinate one, breaking up all sequence in
the scenes. The stage itself thanks to the experienced
Nestor of philologists, who unites insight with taste
was conformed in the minutest details to the descriptions
of the ancient stage. The choruses were sung, not mere-
ly passably well, but with eminent propriety and strict
adherence to the subject ; and the parts of Creon and
Antigone left little to be wished in the manner of their
representation. Certainly no one went away without
great satisfaction ; and probably nearly all had appre-
ciated, as never before, the purity and sublimity of the
ancient drama. People of very inferior cultivation I
myself heard praise the " noble language," which may
be a good enough offset to the jealous criticism of some
hostile pen, which called the poetry the " rattle of leaden
rhymes." At any rate, the play was given, on the 5th,
6th, and 8th of March, to houses always crowded, and
amid applause always hearty. At the close of the
first representation, the musical composer and the lead

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 109

ing actors were called out. About a year later, the
tragedy was again brought forward before an immense
audience. That it is not played now is owing, I sup-
pose, to the difficulty of finding actors in the leading
parts.

In Berlin, too, the " Antigone " was played in public.
But the occasion passed more quietly there, if we may
trust the public journals, than at Leipzig. Perhaps
among the Berliners, the tragedy seemed too great for
criticism, and too solemn for applause. A few days
later, on the 25th of April, Mendelssohn brought out,
for the benefit of the poor in Berlin, his " Hymn of
Praise " (whether in the Sing-Academie or in a church,
I do not know). It is to be hoped that it found greater
favor with the lovers of true music than it did with one
class * of Berlin critics.

* I will not deny myself the satisfaction of quoting one sample
of the style of criticism to which I refer, in order to justify the
insinuation contained in the text. The Berlin correspondent of an
eminent musical journal undertook to defend the composer from the
charge of not always adapting the same words, when repeated, to
the same musical expression. Then he continues : " The weakness
of Mendelssohn lies in another direction. In the eye of the world,
he occupies the pious, weakly, soft-hearted Christian stand-point,
which demands that all sorrow be accepted humbly, as a dispensation
and a trial from God's own hand, and which would prompt to break
into songs of praise to Him for all deliverance, and for all light
granted hi darkness. From this idea, that God does all things for
us, and that thanks are due to him for all things, Mendelssohn
never frees himself : it runs through his * St. Paul,' and all his church

110 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

With the approach of the joyous Whitsuntide season^
Mendelssohn visited Diisseldorf, the home of his first
fame, in order to direct the musical festival in company
with his friend Julius Rietz. The occasion was favored
by the most delightful spring weather ; the preparations
were most thoroughly made, and in the hope of a bril-
liant effect. More than five hundred singers and players,
among them the leading soloists of Germany, were pres-
ent, to give excellence -and attraction to the occasion.
On Whitsunday the festival was opened with Beethoven's
" C-minor Symphony," followed by HandePs " Israel
in Egypt." As the organ would have been in the way
in the unavoidably contracted hall, Mendelssohn ar-
ranged that part for wind-instruments, and adapted the
accompaniment of the recitative to two violoncellos- and
a double bass. On the second day, Mendelssohn's
" Hymn of Praise " was given, and welcomed as a bril-
liant and genuine musical work. After this came
the March from Beethoven's " Ruins of Athens ; "
Haydn's motet, " Insanae et vanae curse ; " and Weber's
festival cantata. On the third day, which was devoted
to chamber music, the violinist Ernst was to have taken
part ; but he was detained in Weimar by sickness,

music." Poor Mendelssohn, who could never free himself from this
idea! But perhaps richer than his critic after all ! Every true
Christian soul will acknowledge, that hostile criticism from such a
|uarter is the highest possible praise.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. Ill

Mendelssohn, without any preparation, played Beetho-
ven's "E-flat Concerto." The accomplished musical
reporter of the " Leipzig New Musical Gazette "
says, very justly, about this performance : " His appear-
ance at the piano, and his remarkable performance,
after so many other accomplished artists, reminded us
of the Egyptians with whom Moses had to contend.
In technical skill, rapid execution, and facile fingering,
there was no fresh palm to be won. This was not
what Mendelssohn sought : he aimed to reproduce the
very poem which lay in Beethoven's mind when he
wrote, and in this he perfectly succeeded. Every
one was amazed: music in his hands was so dif-
ferent from nuisic in other hands, the piano to his
touch so different from the piano to another touch,
that many in the audience would have given the palm
to the genius which swayed them, over the highest
mechanical skill." This passage shows, with rare powei
of discrimination, Mendelssohn's gifts as a virtuoso com-
pared with those of other virtuosos. He possessed theii
skill ; but they did not possess his genius. To him skill
was only means to an end, while to almost all virtuosos
it is an end of itself, the highest end.

After the concerto of Beethoven, Mendelssohn de-
lighted the audience with some of his " Songs without
Words," and closed with a free fantasia, in which he ran
through all that was finest in the music of the past two

112 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

days. And, regarding the manner in which Men*
delssohn directed the great and disjointed forces which
were placed at his disposal at this festival, the writer
above quoted very justly says : " Amid the whole mass
the leader towered up like one born to harmonize these
divided forces, to unify them, and give them a single
soul. By his captivating politeness, his cutting wit, and
his thorough knowledge of music, he roused the duUest
and most unambitious to zeal, and the most flagging to
persistency. 3 '

Not only did Mendelssohn receive on this occasion
the heartiest thanks of singers and auditors, but about
this time there came a new token of royal favor. In
June, the journals announced that the King of Prussia
had conferred upon him the order of merit, first given
by Frederick the Great, as a badge of highest honor.
Towards the last of May or the first of June, Men-
delssohn, this time in company with his wife, went
to England, where his old friends, and newer ones,
awaited new triumphs from him. On the 3d of
June, he arrived in London. Musical entertainments in
the 'circle of his acquaintances, and in the house of
Moscheles, and with his co-operation, were intermingled
with public performances. On the 13th of June, Men-
delssohn directed the first production in England of his
* A- minor Symphony;" on the 24th, he played with
Moscheles, for the benefit of the sufferers in the great

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 1 13

fire at Hamburg, the latter*s "Homage to Handel,"
and accompanied Miss Adelaide Kemble, afterwards
Countess Sartorius, and then the first singer in England,
in his own " On the wings of song," and his well-known
"Spring Song;" afterwards he accompanied Miss Hawes
in the alto solo from " St. Paul." On the 28th of
June, Miss Kemble gave him a soiree. On the day
before, he directed the performance, at a Philharmonic
Concert, of his overture, " Fingal's Cave." On the
6th of June, he played at a soiree at Moscheles' house,
and, in conjunction with him, his duet in A major for
four hands ; and after playing the music to " Antigone "
before Moscheles alone, it was given at a soiree beneath
the same hospitable roof, Mendelssohn accompanying on
the piano. The overture to Victor Hugo's " Ruy Bias,"
and variations on an original theme in E-flat major,
formed the last of these entertainments; and, on the
12th of July, Mendelssohn took his departure.

He seems to have journeyed direct to Lausanne,
whither he had been invited, to direct his " Hymn of
Praise." He arrived, however, one day too late, not
even in time to hear Rossini's " Stabat Mater," w'hich
was given on the first day, directly after Mendelssohn's
great work, a very peculiar juxtaposition of pieces
certainly, which would not have specially edified Men-
delssohn, had he been present. He was greeted, how-
ever, with the most cordial welcome ; and a critique

114 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

appeared at the same time on the style of both Men-
delssohn's and Rossini's sacred music, which could not
fail to be grateful to the author of the "Hymn of Praise."
" Mendelssohn," it said, " the profound student of Han-
del and Bach, fills the soul with devotion, while Eossini
merely entertains, and, at the highest, awakens a senti-
mentality which one might almost call sensuous."

The *< Hymn of Praise " was given the same year, on
the 8th of July, at the musical festival at the Hague ;
on the 22d of August, at Reichenberg, in Bohemia ;
and, on the 18th of October, at the city of Glauchau,
in the Schonburg country, at the third centennial
celebration of the rise of the Reformation. At Er-
furt, the Forty-second Psalm was given on the
13th of June ; and at Gorlitz, late in the autumn,
" St. Paul."

Returning from Switzerland, Mendelssohn seems to
have tarried for a 'time at Frankfort, where he was
always so well pleased to stop and rest. At any
rate, it is recorded that he played there, in September,
at one of the matinees given by his friend Hiller. In
the same month, he was expected back at Leipzig. He
spent first, however, a few days at Berlin. In Leipzig,
meanwhile, a change had taken place, not without im-
portance to the music-loving community. The Concert
, Hall, which had for some time been inadequate to meet
th2 wants of the public, was enlarged ; the walls n* wly

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 115

painted ; and the dim oil-lamps, genial and home-like
indeed, but out of date, gave way to the modern splen-
dors of gas. The only thing to be regretted was, that
the ceiling, decorated with valuable and interesting, but
(it must be confessed) rather smoky pictures, had to be
destroyed too. Many feared that, with these alterations,
the old genus loci would disappear, a fear which does
not seem as yet to be justified. The old motto of the
place was allowed to stand, " Ees severa est verum
"gaudium." The remarkable acoustic properties of the
hall, too, suffered little by the change. And, when the
day came for the dedication of the newly decorated
hall, there was the sure pledge given, that there was
no thought of yielding any thing of that lofty striving
after the highest in art, which had always character-
ized the place. Mendelssohn, coming for this express
purpose from Berlin, directed the first concert. The
shouts of welcome which he received rose even above
the joyous notes of the Jubilee Overture, which opened
the evening's feast. Madame Schumann, Sophia Schloss,
and David, all gave solo performances, to do honor to
the distinguished guest. Beethoven's "A-major Sym-
phony " closed the whole, given by the orchestra, inspired
by Mendelssohn's presence, with special enthusiasm and
unfailing accuracy.

After this first concert, he went back to Berlin, and
seems to have directed some symphony soirees ; and I

116 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

notice, that, at the beginning of the next winter, it is
announced by the Berlin press, that Mendelssohn will
direct some symphony soirees this winter also" which
presupposes some already given under his direction.
Yet it must excite wonder to see an event so notable as
Mendelssohn's entrance into the Berlin musical world
passed over with the mere remark, that the symphony
soirees " were still numerously attended." It would be
a really valuable service, if the friends of Mendelssohn
in "Berlin would give the world an account of his ac
tivity in that city, and show the nature and cause of the
obstacles which impeded him there more than else-
where.

From the 1 2th of November, Mendelssohn directed
the Leipzig concerts to the close of the winter season
(1842-3). They only gained in prestige under his man-
agement. He took a great interest, too, in extra con-
certs, which were given in behalf of charitable objects ;
as, for example, in one on the 21st of November, for
the benefit of the orchestral fund, where his overture to
the " Midsummer Night's Dream " was given, and he,
together with Clara Schumann, played a great four
handed sonata of Moscheles; and, on the 26th of
November, in a concert given by the celebrated So-
phie Schroder, in which Madame Schroder-Devrient
and Tichatschek sang, Mendelssohn played his " D-minor
Concerto," and brought forward his overture to " Ruy

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 117

Bias." On the 8th of December, he played the " G-major
Concerto " by Beethoven, and, according to the accounts
in the musical journals, with a perfection of execution
and a thorough grasp of the piece such as we had never
enjoyed before. To this he added some " Songs without
Words," the last of which, in A major, was new and inde-
scribably charming. The last concert of the year was
honored with the presence of the King of Saxony. It
was opened with Rochlitz's double chorus, " Hold music
in lasting honor," in memory of that distinguished and
amiable musician. David played his variations on a Rus-
sian People's Song. Beethoven's " Heroic Symphony,"
the overture to the " Midsummer Night's Dream," and
the Forty-second Psalm, by Mendelssohn, were given.
The king, who selected the larger number of pieces for
the concert (the symphony from Beethoven, and the
pieces from Mendelssohn), expressed his entire gratifi-
cation. But Mendelssohn felt under a still greater bur*
den of gratitude to the king. The latter had for some
time carried in his mind a favorite idea of the compo-
ser's, one which would be greatly for the advantage
of Leipzig and the whole musical world. As early as
November, Mendelssohn had written to Moscheles,
u Now or never must a Conservatorium come into being
in Leipzig," In order to procure the necessary funds,
Mendelssohn applied directly to the king, who had the
control of a large sum of money, left at the decease of a

i.j.8 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

wealthy Leipzig citizen, Bliimner by name. The king
granted this money as a Conservator] um fund, and estab-
lished six free musical scholarships for natives of Sax
ony. And so Mendelssohn could hope and expect to see
this cherished idea of his, which was ardently seconded
on all sides, put itself forth in act. The two kings whose
favor he especially enjoyed, vied with each other in
showing him honor. In the same month, or nearly the
same month, when the King of Saxony made this admi-
rable disposal of the money put into his hands, the King
of Prussia conferred upon Mendelssohn the title of
General Director of Church Music in Prussia, and
especial director of the music at the Berlin cathedral.
Yet Mendelssohn would unquestionably have preferred
to tarry in Leipzig, if a great grief then coming upon
him had not carried him to the city of his parents'
home. Towards the end of December of this year
(1842), he lost the faithful, the accomplished and wise
guide of his childhood and his youth, his devoted
mother. He bore this loss, which struck to his very
heart, with manly composure. Soon after, he turned
back to his old round of labors in Leipzig, where so
much awaited the finishing touch of his hand; knowing
well that the best healing for such wounds is found in
the most strenuous activity.

In the year 1843, a concert of great interest was
given in the neighborhood of Leipzig. It took pla<tf

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 119

early in January, under the direction of Franz, and
for the benefit of the Handel* music school. Its pro-
gramme was thus made up : Mendelssohn's overture, the
" Hebrides," a four-part song by Schubert, Mozart's " D-
minor Concerto," and Mendelssohn's " Hymn of Praise."
The last is said to have made a most profound and last-
ing impression. The tenor solo, " "Watchman, will the
night soon pass ? " seemed to a musical critic present
one of the most thrilling, and the chorus, " The night is
past," one of the most effective passages in all modern
oratorio music.

* Handel was born in Halle; and his statue in bronze adorns tin
market-place of the city.

120 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER XI.

Opening of the Leipzig Conservatorium. Productive Activity. " First WaV
purgis Night." Leipzig Concerts. Active Interest in the Conservato-
rium. " Midsummer Night's Dream 15 at Leipzig.

ON the 16th of January, in the same year, ap-
peared the general programme of the new school
lor music at Leipzig, announcing that instruction would
be given in composition ; in violin, piano-forte, and organ
playing, and in singing ; with scientific lectures on the
history of music, aesthetics, and exercises in combination
playing and chorus singing. The chief professors were
Mendelssohn, Hauptmann, Robert Schumann, David,
Pohlenz, and Becker. Those who wished to enter the
school were requested to give in their names before the
23d of March. The number of applications up to
this time was forty-six ; by July there were sixty-eight ;
forty-two candidates were accepted, among them
two Dutchmen, one Englishman, and one American.
On the 3d of April, the Conservatorium was solemnly
opened by Minister Falkenstein, in the name of his
majesty the King of Saxony. In the middle of this
month, the full programme of instruction was given.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 121

Mendelssohn was to instruct in solo singing, in instru-
mental music and composition ; Hauptmann, in har-
mony and counterpoint ; Schumann, in piano-forte play-
ing and in musical composition. David taught the violin,
and Becker the organ. In the place of Pohlenz, the
accomplished teacher of singing, who died suddenly,
Madame Grabau-Bunau and Herr Bohme undertook
the direction of that department. Other accomplished
subordinate teachers were added ; instruction was given
in Italian, and lectures were delivered on the history of
music. Many munificent gifts were made to the insti-
tution, to establish it on the foundation where it ought
to be: one gentleman gave five hundred rix-dollars;
another, a valuable piano ; another, the free use of his
circulating library, for the use of the students of the
Conservatorium. We are especially interested now, how-
ever, to see the active interest which Mendelssohn took
in this object of his pride. He was not only its founder,
but its lasting benefactor. He not only entered into the
matter with the greatest ardor, but showed a much
greater degree of talent in instruction than his friends
had expected to see in a man of his genius. How rich
in suggestion the merest hint in reviewing musical com-
positions, how valuable the hours spent in the more
difficult departments of piano-forte playing and solo sing-
ing, all his scholars know, and thankfully confess. The
private examinations of special classes, as well as the

122 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

semi-annual public examinations, he conducted, whenever
be was in Leipzig, with the greatest care. Even in the
lower classes, he made every pupil show with what
facility he could modulate from one key to another : his
keen eye, his fine ear, were everywhere; the timid ones,
who wanted to be sheltered by the great crowd, he would
draw out; and at times, when the conduct of a pupil
did not please him, he knew how to be severe. On one
occasion, soon after the founding of the Conservatoriura,
he sat up the half of a night, in order to mark just high
enough the performances of each scholar at the exami-
nation. Of course, his large and varied interests did
not permit him to continue this close supervision of
details ; but, so long as he remained in Leipzig, he gave
himself uninterruptedly to the work of instruction, and
with his whole heart. He always conducted the gen-
eral examinations when it was possible for him to be in
the city; and he was always ready to assist the institution
by deed and word, and to x dis tribute praise and blame
whenever and wherever they were needed. Yet, with
beautiful modesty, he waived the distinction of being the
leader in all things : he always spoke of himself as one
of the six instructors. As it was a darling wish of
Mendelssohn to live and labor by the side of Moscheles,
be pressed upon the latter the plan of leaving England,
transferring his school to the Conservatorium at Leip-
zig, and joining the corps of teachers already gath-

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 123

ered there. Through Mendelssohn's efforts, the direc-
tors came to satisfactory terms with. Moscheles, who did
Indeed transfer the scene of his labors to Leipzig, where
he reaped new honors, and added new strength to the
youthful institution.

We turn now from this glance at the career of Men-
delssohn as a teacher, to his productive activity, and
his career as an artist At the fifteenth subscription
concert, one of the earlier symphonies was given without
producing a remarkable effect. To compensate, however,
the pleasure was granted us of hearing a new master-
piece of Mendelssohn's, which had been composed in its
primitive shape much earlier, but which had only now
grown into the wholeness of a perfect work. It was
" The first Walpurgis Night," a ballad by Goethe, and
set to music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy," which
was given to* the public, for the first time, in Leipzig,
the 2d of February, 1843. The entire concert at
which this piece was performed was a brilliant one in
every respect* The first part consisted of a symphony
by Haydn ; aria from Mozart, " )eh per questo istanto
solo ;" Beethoven's fantasia for the piano-forte, chorus
and orchestra, the piano-forte part sustained by Ma-
dame Schumann, who afterwards played some variations
from. Henselt ; overture to " Euryanthe," and chorus from
the "Lyre and Sword," cf Weber: the "Walpurgis
Night " filled the whole second part. Mendelssohn had

121 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

put himself in good company, I will not deny ; but a
noble modesty lay in this ; it was claiming the appre-
ciation of his audience for all those master-works be-
fore this new production of his own.

Mendelssohn had begun the composition of " The first
Walpurgis Night " at Rome, and probably at the ex-
press wish of Goethe, who may have conversed with
him upon the subject during his stay at Weimar, when he
made his protracted visit with the great poet. On the
9th of September, 1831, the time when the music to the
ballad was almost finished in its first form, Goethe
wrote to Mendelssohn : " This poem is wholly symboli-
cal in its plan and purpose. For it must always be
repeating itself in the world's history, that a thing old,
well established, tried, and satisfying, comes to be hard
pressed, jostled, shoved aside, and, if not utterly de-
stroyed, yet cooped up in the narrowest quarters. The
middle epoch, wher ( e elements declare themselves in
opposition to the tendency to push what is old aside, is
portrayed vividly enough in my poem ; and a joyful
and confident enthusiasm lights the whole up into splen-
dor and clearness." Yet, with all the excellences of
the ballad, the reader can hardly believe that the author
compassed the whole of his intention to make it purely
symbolical. He has not rested there, but has given to
it a massive historical base, so to speak, in which the
"New," which is also Goethe's "Better" (and that

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 125

means Christianity), certainly plays a sad part in the
caricature of superstition. The symbolic conception
grew into a living and realized drama, whose subject
could not kindle the composer, with his deep religious
nature, into his highest fervor. Only the close of the
poem, with its beautiful and earnest thirst for truth, its
confession of imperfect attainment, its longing after
light, could in any measure awaken his genius into life..
I do not know whether I have rightly conjectured Men-
delssohn's views of the poem ; but the composition seems
to chime with Goethe's meaning. The tone-coloring in
the overture, which paints the transition from winter to
spring, with the humors of April in rain, sunshine, storm,
and hail, is very graphic ; and in the tenor solo which
follows, and the chorus of women's voices, the beau-
tiful blue sky and the warm air of May greet us. The
dramatic element is most vividly presented in the
fine chorus of watchmen, and of the people in advance,
" Disperse yourselves, brave men, through all the forest
glades," which makes the whole scene, short as it is,
live before the eye. In the chorus, " Kommt rait Zacken
und mit Gabeln," which has a touch of the grotesque
the composer has, in the youthful flow of his blood,
given way to the freest play of his fancy, yet with a
wonderfully sustained mastery of the needed musical
form, keeping order and harmony even in the wild
chaos of tones. After the first presentation of the

126 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

piece in Leipzig, Mendelssohn made a number of altera-
tions in it, giving the chorus more attractiveness than
ever. Above the almost infernal mass of strange and
savage sounds, there rises, peaceful, and breathing the
very soul of harmony, the song of the Druid :

" " As flames, in brightening, lose their smoke,
So, brightening, may our Faith grow clear:
Man robs us of our hallowed creeds ;
None, of thy light, All-father dear."

Yet, if I mistake not, one would err in trying to find in
this strain the expression of complete religious rest and
the " peace that passeth understanding : " it rather ex-
presses at least so far as the words go the pro-
phetic expectation of fairer *tnd brighter days than those
which are past. The composer has, however, satisfied
every expectation which the poem could justify. And, if
the soul is not so deeply moved by the music as one
might think it would be, the reason lies rather in the
nature and contents of the poem than in the quality
of the music. The manner in which the piece was
given the first time was beyond criticism.

I pass over the connection of Mendelssohn with the
concerts which followed, as there was no special novelty
introduced. It may be mentionedj however, that, on the
9th of March, on the first centennial celebration of
the founding of the subscription concerts in Leipzig,
Mendelssohn was represented by' the One Hundred and

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 127

Fourteenth Psalm, for eight voices. Yet more influen-
tial in its bearings on the musical life of Leipzig was
the concert which Mendelssohn gave at the uncovering
of the Bach monument. In honor of that great master, his
admirer and interpreter made a full and judicious selec-
tion from his best compositions. The programme was :
Suite for the whole orchestra, consisting of overture,
arioso, gavot, trio, and finale (Bourree and Gigue) ; and
the double choir motet a capetta, "I will not leave
thee, except thou bless me." Then followed a concerto for
the piano-forte, with orchestral accompaniment, played
by Mendelssohn ; the aria, with oboe obligato, from the
" Passion Music," " I will awake with my Saviour," sung
by Herr Schmidt ; and a fantasia on a theme of Bach's,
executed by Mendelssohn. The second part of the
concert consisted of the cantata for the Leipzig Elec-
tion in 1723 ; a prelude for the violin, played by David;
and the Sanctus from the B-minor Mass for chorus and
orchestra. Mendelssohn, though not well, went through
all, according to the letter of the programme. Directly
after the concert, the monument was unveiled. A choral
by Bach opened the ceremony. A brief but appro-
priate address was given ; and the services (rendered
more interesting by the presence of a grandson of
Bach, himself kapellmeister in Berlin, and eighty-
three years old) closed with Bach's motet, " Sing to
the Lord a new song," given by the scholars of the

128 'iIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Thomas school. The monument, the joint production
of Bendemann, Hubner, and Knaur, is not indeed a
masterpiece of artistic skill ; but it completely fulfils its
end, of keeping fresh the memory of one of the
greatest of musicians, who lived and labored in this city
for so long a term of years, and commemorates the
affectionate regard of those who admire his genius, and
look up *o him as a master.

After directing the performance of " St. Paul " in
Dresden, Mendelssohn seems to have taken some rest ;
or, to phrase the matter more truly, he seems to have
turned his activity in another channel, for he could not
lie idle : labor was the law of his life. "We find him
leading in no great festivals, either in England or on
the Rhine. The probability is, that he devoted his spare
time to the complete establishment of the Conservato-
rium, and to the composing, at the request of the King of
Prussia, the rest of the music of the " Midsummer Night's
Dream." Only once do we see him appear in ptiblic,
the 19th of August, playing with Clara Schumann an
andante for two pianos, composed by Robert Schumann.
The same month " Antigone," with Mendelssohn's mu-
sic, was given at Mannheim. On the 12th of October,
Shakspeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," with the
music written that summer, was brought out at the new
palace in Potsdam. Tieck had given the benefit of his
judicious taste in making the arrangements. On the

LIFE OF MJENDELSSOHN. 129

19th of October, Mendelssohn directed the music of
"Antigone" at the same place; and on the 15th of
October, the king's birthday, he directed the music
at the cathedral service. The " Midsummer Night's
Dream," with its charming musical commentary, pleased
exceedingly : it was soon after given in public, and was
demanded repeatedly.

The transfer of Mendelssohn to Berlin was to the
great loss of that enthusiasm which characterized him
at Leipzig. His duties were limited to the direction
of the cathedral music, six great concerts in the Sing-
Academie, and the symphony soirees of the royal or-
chestra. Ferdinand Hiller was appointed director of the
Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig, that winter. But, before
Mendelssohn bade farewell to Leipzig, he participated in
a number of what might be called preliminary farewells.
At the first subscription concert, he played his charming
" G-minor Concerto," together with some " Songs without
Words/' and a free fantasia on themes from " Euryanthe,"
and on the great aria of Eezia. In the concert on
the 13th of October, he played, with Hiller and Clara
Schumann, Bach's triple concerto. But the real fare-
well concert, in which all the distinguished musical
talent in Leipzig took part, was given on the 18th
of November. After Mendelssohn had played with
Wittmann a new sonata by himself, in D major (Op.
58), for the piano-forte and the violoncello ; then a trio,

130 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

in D major, from Beethoven, for the piano-forte, violin,
and violoncello, with David and Wittmann, and with the
liveliest applause, the following gentlemen came for
ward to perform Mendelssohn's octet, David, Klengel,
Hauptmann, Each, Mendelssohn, Gade, Grenser, and
Wittmann. As this eminent musical phalanx came for-
ward, It was greeted with the loudest applause, which
was repeated at the end of every movement in the octet.
Shortly after, Mendelssohn went to Berlin; and for
months we did not see him again. Hiller discharged
the doubly arduous duties of director, as successor of
Mendelssohn, with great success. It may be mentioned,
not as having a very close connection with the subject
of this sketch, but as an epoch in the musical life of
Leipzig, that, on the 4th of December in this year, one
of the most delightful productions of our time, Robert
Schumann's "Paradise and the Peri," was produced.
At the close of the year, since we could not have Men-
delssohn in person, we were glad to have him repre-
sented to our hearing in the music of the "Midsummer
Night's Dream," brought upon the Leipzig stage for
the first time. I cannot praise the decorations, nor the
quality of the orchestra ; for Leipzig could not furnish
the appliances which Berlin could offer ; and the music
was presented on too massive a scale, and with too
little delicacy. Still, the impression which it produced
was only a new tribute to its favor. We were com-

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 131

polled to see In it a new proof of the composer's depth
of nature, and were led by his magic power to enjoy
his creation of a world of pure fancy, inhabited by
bright and light-hearted spirits, who confront with their
sunny nothingnesses the yet greater triviality of what
is called practical life, and, with the aids of poesy and
love, win the day. The music was no new creation:
it was merely the unfolding and completing of what
had already been given, in more condensed form, in
the overture there long a favorite. The charming
fairy antics on the leaves, the fascination of moonlight,
the awkward merriment of the rustics, the longing and
pain of disappointed love, the chivalry of the old heroic
days, and the festive pomp of a princely wedding, all
this was so skilfully portrayed in the brilliant coloring
of the overture, that it only needed further enlargement,
and adaptation to the various changes of scene in the
play ; and this is what the composer had done, with
infinite tact and the justest appreciation. The parts en-
tirely new were the charming chorus of the fairies sing-
ing Titania to. sleep ; the beautiful " Night Song " without
words, of true Italian glow, which accompanied Titania's
rest in the grotto; and the wonderfully brilliant and
stirring " Wedding March/' with its fascinating trio.

It would be too much to say, perhaps, that the play
has gained by Mendelssohn's music ; for a creation of
Shakspeare's needs no bettering : but it is certain that

132 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

the comprehension of the piece has been aided; the
music which translated these fantastic dreams of a sum*
mer's night into sound has screened their lovely twi-
light from the glaring sunshine of our over-real age, and
opened the richness of the work to those blunted natures
which are themselves unable to discern the difference
between poetry and prose.

LIFE OF mNDELSSOHN. 133

CHAPTER XH.

life at Berlin. Unacceptable Changes. Mendelssohn's Extraordinary Ac
tivity, Participates in London Concerts. Directs the Palatinate Mnsicai
Festival, The King of Prussia releases him from his Engagement.
"(Edipus in Colonos." Robert Schumann's "B-flat Symphony."
Jenny Lind in Leipzig.

TN Berlin, meantime, Mendelssohn had resumed his
^ executive duties, in taking the direction of the
Symphony Soirees, and had won hearty praise. A nov-
elty which was introduced at these soirees, I know not
whether at Mendelssohn's suggestion, raised the hostile
criticism of those who are blindly attached to the old
order of things, because it is the old. The wish had
been expressed that these concerts should not be devoted
exclusively to overtures and symphonies, but should
include instrumental and vocal solos, taking the custom
at the Leipzig Gewandhaus for a guide. At the first
soiree of the second course, given the 28th of Feb-
ruary, 1844, Miss Birch, whose engagement at Leipzig
was closed, sang an aria; and concert-master Ganz
played a solo on the violoncello. But so much opposition
was raised against this change, that the management was
obliged to revert to the old order. We also know that

134 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

on the 12th of March, Palm Sunday, at the request
of the king, he directed the performance of " Israel in
Egypt." In other Prussian cities he found great accep-
tance. In Dantzig, the "Midsummer Night's Dream "
was given seven times in succession, and the Anti-
gone" twice. In Breslau, "St. Paul" was given at
Easter. On the 12th of April, "Antigone" was pro-
duced a second time in Leipzig ; and not long after, it
was played at its own birthplace, Athens, with Mendels-
sohn's music, though in the Ancient Greek tongue. It
was also produced at Paris in May of the same year ;
and the announcement was made in the journals, that
Mendelssohn would personally direct. Yet it is not
probable that he was there ; for on the 8th of May we
find him in London, whither he went to take direction
of the Philharmonic Concerts. The "Antigone" was
played in London, also, about the beginning of the next
year (1845), at the Co vent- Garden Theatre.

Mendelssohn led an extraordinarily active life this
summer. After giving Leipzig the pleasure of a brief
visit from him in February, where he listened to his
"A-minor Symphony," he turned back, and with great
willingness took a part at the concert of the eminent
violoncellist Servais, playing, with him and David,
Beethoven's trio in B flat. He then went to Lon-
don, where he arrived, as stated above, on the 8th of
May, and where he worked with great zeal. On the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 135

very day of his arrival, he tried over with Moscheles some
four-hand variations in B-flat major. On the 13th of
May, he directed his own symphony in A minor ; on the
14th, he played to Moscheles his music to the " Walpur-
gis Night;" on the 19th, he assisted in rendering Beet-
hoven's four-hand Polonaise. On the 24th, at a meeting
of the Handel Society, a splendid copy of the London
edition of the "Israel in Egypt" was given to him
On the 27th, he directed the music of the " Midsummer
Night's Dream," and very soon again, before the royal
family; not long after, he gave Beethoven's " G-major
Concerto," and, last of all, directed his "St. Paul" at
Exeter Hall. Amid all these great works, he attended
at a large number of concerts and soirees, and always
took a part. With Moscheles and Thalberg, he played
Bach's triple concerto ; at another time, he played with
Moscheles the "Homage to Handel" of the latter;
at still another, he accompanied Miss Dolby in Schu-
bert's " Erlkonig ; " and, lastly, he took a part in the
monster concert given by Mr. Benedict, which shows
the wonderful musical capacity of the English. Not
less than thirty-eight pieces were given. The most
striking artists besides Mendelssohn were Mesdames
Grisi and Shaw ; the tenors Mario and Salvi ; the bassos
Lablache and Staudigl; the pianists Madame Dulken
and Thalberg; the violinists Sivori and Joachim; and
the harpist Par<h Alvars. A " Trio, Nocturne et Valse

136 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Brillante," played by Mendelssohn, Benedict, and
dame Dulken, pleased most of all. On the 8th of July,
at the eighth Philharmonic Concert, the " First Wal-
purgis Night " was given ; and, on the 9th, Mendelssohn
played at a farewell soiree, at the house of his friend
Klingemann, the " Variations Serieuses " (Op. 54) ; and
with Moscheles, those variations on "Preciosa," com-
posed by both ; he also accompanied the Countess Sar-
torius (Adelaide Kemble) in some of his own songs.
The correspondent of the " Leipzig New Musical Times "
thus writes of Mendelssohn's stay in London : " Mendels-
sohn's appearance at the fourth Philharmonic Concert,
as at the rehearsal, occasioned a regular storm of
applause, such as Englishmen alone know how to greet
him with. And who could refrain from joining in the
homage paid to so kindly a nature as well as to so great
a man ? His conducting brought about a great change
for the better. It produced the most powerful impres-
sion on the orchestra; he led them to a stage of
perfection which had never been known before, and
which it was indeed difficult to gain." Another corre-
spondent writes to another German musical journal:
"Mendelssohn is already gained for all the Philhar-
monic Concerts next year. It is true, some old notables
are opposed to the arrangement, for it disturbed them
in their ancient spider-webs. But, since Mendelssohn's
magic wand animated the orchestra to new life, hii

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 137

music is all the rage ; and the old notables are wholly
forgotten."

Mendelssohn left London on the 10th of July, but
only to devote himself to new activities. He had pro-
mised to direct the Palatinate Musical Festival the last
of that month. His " St. Paul," Beethoven's " B-flat
Symphony," the ""Walpurgis Night," and Marschner's
" Bundeslied " were given. His talent for directing,
as well as the form and spirit of his own compositions,
awakened here, as everywhere, the greatest enthu-
siasm. In September, he played with Moscheles the
" Homage to Handel " of the latter. At the Soden
Springs, where his wife and children were spending the
summer, he played to Moscheles (i. e. on the piano) a
new violin-concerto in E miuor. The next winter, he
resided at Frankfort. Yet he had first to visit Berlin
to obtain permission to do so. He just touched
Leipzig, as it were, on the way. The direction of the
Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig was given to the tal-
ented Niels W. Gade, a young Danish composer, whose
name had been some time well known there. At
Berlin, Mendelssohn directed a few symphony soirees.
At the first of these were given Beethoven's B-flat
and Haydn's E-flat major symphonies, also the over-
tures to the " Water Carrier " and the " Magic Flute/'
That same day, Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise 5 '
was given at Leipzig. At the next concert, and the

138 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

last which Mendelssohn directed, he produced Spohi fl
Symphony, No. 2, in D major, the " C-minor Symphony "
by Beethoven, and the overtures to "Coriolanus"
and " Euryanthe." Of Mendelssohn's fine direction of
these soirees, noble recognition was given. The Berlin
correspondent of the " Leipzig Times " writes : " He
handles the orchestra as if it were a single instrument.
And this one giant-instrument he plays with a precision
and a fire which leaves nothing to be desired. From
the strongest tones to the most tender breathing of mel-
ody, every thing comes forth clear, deep, and full of soul."
In the middle of November, he received from the king
his leave of absence. It was couched in the most flat-
tering terms ; and the king refused to discontinue his
salary, though adding the condition, that, at the royal
wish, he should visit Berlin, and bring out whatever the
king might command. The closing act of Mendelssohn
in Berlin that winter was the bringing-out of " St. Paul,"
which he did, at the king's wish, the 28th of November,
at the Sing-Academie. Then he went to Frankfort, to
rest in his fashion ; i.e., in giving up directing, and be-
taking himself to composing. Whoever had followed him
through the incessant and weary round of his duties could
but heartily congratulate him on gaining at last a brief
respite, which he so much needed. Yet, of his activity in
composition that year, it remains to be mentioned, that,
early in the year, when I can not precisely determine, but

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 139

doubtless in the spring, at the request of the King of Prus-
sia, he composed music for Racine's " Athalie." In Sep-
tember of the same year, appeared the fifth collection of
his " Songs without Words ;" and large numbers of four-
part and solo songs are also the gift of this fruitful year
The " St. Paul " was given at Prague ; the " Walpurgis
Night," at Vienna and at Munich ; the Forty-second
Psalm and passages from " St. Paul," at Gottingen.

Of Mendelssohn's labors at Frankfort, up to the spring
of 1845, nothing more is known to me, than that, on the
15th of January^ he brought out his "Walpurgis Night."
Nothing more is indicated by the public journals. Yet
he was hard at work that whole winter long. The
conception and first labors on " Elijah," which had in
fragmentary form occupied his thoughts for years ; the
selection and arrangement of the text, done with the
greatest care ; the composition of the music of " (Edipus
at Colonos ; " the finishing of the violin-concerto already
mentioned, and the " C-minor Trio" (Op. 66); the last
collection of " Songs without Words," and other minor
works, are probably to be ascribed to that restful sea-
son in a city where he always felt himself most at home.

In the summer of 1846, Mendelssohn came again tc
Leipzig; and it was hoped and confidently expected
by many, that he would be induced to remain there.
The concert-season promised to be an exceedingly bril-
liant one. Mendelssohn and Gade were to be connected

140 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

in the direction. Miss Dolby had come from England
as a solo singer, and Jenny Lind had also promised her
assistance. Without going into all the details of that
winter's memorable enjoyments, I will only recount a
few in brief. On the 23d of October, Mendelssohn
directed the performance of Robert Schumann's " B-
flat Symphony," and gave the most satisfactory proof
with what pious loyalty he could and would treat the
works of those who were generally considered his rivals.
Under Schumann's own direction, this product, of bis own
Muse could hardly have been given with such precision
and clearness. At the close of that concert, David
played Mendelssohn's recently written violin-concerto,
a work inferior to no other since Beethoven and Spohr
for that instrument; and which David, inspired by the
presence of his friend, surpassed even himself in playing.
On the 4th of December appeared the queen of song, the
unequalled enchantress who united in her bell-like tones
the purity and tenderness of the north with the glow
and fervor of the south. She sang in the first concert
the " Casta diva" from "Norma ;" and, with Miss Dolby,
the duet from " Romeo ; " the recitative and aria from
" Don Juan," " I cruel ? my love ! " and the two songs
of Mendelssohn, " On the wings of song," and " Gently
stealeth through my soul." The last was never before
sung as it was then ; and perhaps even she who sang it
wiJl never again repeat the excellence of that night. At

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 141

another concert, Jenny Lind sang a scena and aria from
" Figaro," scena and aria from the " Freischiitz," a portion
of the finale of " Euryanthe," and Swedish songs. Men-
delssohn played his " G-minor Concerto," and a " Song
without Words." It was delightful to see in co-operation
the greatest productive genius of the age in music, and
the greatest living vocal interpreter of music ; the poet
who sang without words, and the singer who trans-
lated the song back to poetry. Mendelssohn set great
value, as indeed he could not fail to do, on the genius
and power of Jenny Lind. He rejoiced at the enthu-
siasm of the public as much as or more than any. " Oh,
yes!" he once said dryly, "she is a very 'nice' (brave)
person." If any one could have struck through these
words to all that he meant, to all that was in his mind
at the time, he would have discovered a thorough appre-
ciation of the purity, the sincerity, the earnestness, with
which Jenny Lind approached her art. On seeing a
passage in the " German General Gazette," which some
great admirer of the singer had inserted, and which
some had said was overdone, Mendelssohn said, " Not
one word too much ! "

In October, the " CEdipus at Colonos " was given twice
in succession at Berlin, with music by Mendelssohn;
ani in November or December, Kacine's "Athalie,"
with music also by him, was played in the Palace Theatre
at Charlottenburg. In January, Mendelssohn directed

142 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

in person an admirable performance of the "Midsum-
mer Night's Dream," at Leipzig. Our noble orchestra,
electrified by the presence of the master, surpassed it-
self. The fairy passages, the scherzo particularly, were
given with the delicacy of a hushed breath. At the
farewell concert of Miss Dolby, Mendelssohn played his
rondo in E-flat major. When Jenny Lind took leave of
Leipzig in April, 1846, Mendelssohn played, with David,
Beethoven's " G-major Sonata," then the " C-sharp
Minor Sonata," and a "Song without Words." This
concert is the more memorable, as the last one in which
Mendelssohn played the piano-forte publicly in Leipzig.
As in the grand concerts, so also in the " Quartet Eve-
nings/' he was active, to the joy of all true friends of
music. On these occasions, he applied himself to the
task of bringing to light the rarely heard great piano-
forte works of Beethoven's latter period. Thus he
played the great sonata in C minor (Op. 111). Of his
own compositions, the chief was the performance of his
trio in C minor (No. 2, Op. 66), David and Wittmann
playing with Mendelssohn. It is similar in character
to that in D minor, but is more grave and serious.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 143

CHAPTER

the "BUQah." Conducts the Music Festivals at Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, and
Cologne. Goes to England to direct the First Performance of " Elijah"
at Birmingham. Brilliant Success of the Oratorio. Instance of Men-
delssohn's Facility in Composition. Declining Health. His Sister
Fanny's Death. Its Effect upon him. He seeks Alleviation in renewed
Activity. Retires to Switzerland. Begins the Oratorio of " Christ," and
the Opera " Loreley." Sickness and sudden Death.

~T~\UBING all this outward activity, he was strain-
--^ ing all his productive energies to complete that
work, on which he had heen toiling, in quiet indeed,
but actively and lovingly, for a number of years. It was
his " Elijah/' which he was to direct for the first -time at
the great musical festival at Birmingham in August,
1846. At the beginning of June, the work was so far
advanced that he could send the voice parts. The text,
compiled from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
chapters of the First Book of Kings, was translated
by Mr. Bartholomew, known as a skilful translator of
German into English. The oratorio opens with Elijah's
prophecy of famine, followed by the wails of the suffer-
ers : then the departure of Elijah, the restoring to life
of tte widow's son, the destruction of the priests of Baal,
the opening of heaven ; followed by a noble chorus full
of thanksgiving that now the waters are poured out

M4 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

This closes the first part. The second part includes the
persecution and flight of Elijah, his translation, and the
prophecy of the Messiah. We shall add later a few
words on the musical features of this great work.

What was wanting in Mendelssohn's outward activity
the past year seemed now doubly and trehly made up.
He assumed the direction of not less than three musical
festivals, following each other in rapid succession. First,
at Aix4a-ChapeUe, which was honored with the pres-
ence and co-operation of Jenny Lind. From Aix his
friend, Julius Rietz, invited him to a soiree projected by
him. At this, Mendelssohn played the piano-forte part
of the B-flat trio of Beethoven; his own sonata with
'cello (Eietz) in B flat; and three "Songs without
words." He then went to Liege, to the performance of
his " Lauda Sion," which he had composed for the great
religious festival to be held there. There they played
in the market-place in his honor, with stringed instru-
ments, his "Meeresstille" overture, of which the StilU
must have been listened to in profound silence. From
Liege he went to Cologne to take the direction of a
great musical festival there. For this occasion he had
set Schiller's " Festival Song to Artists " to music, from
the words, " For manhood's crown to you is given : pre-
serve it well:" a noble text, which with Mendelssohn's
music, and sung by more than three thousand voices,
must have produced a profound impression* Besides

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 145

this, lie directed other pieces, bis " Bacchus Chorus,"
from the "Antigone;" a Te Deum by Bernhard Klein;
and the chorus, " Isis and Osiris," from the " Magic
Flute." From this festival he turned his steps back to
Leipzig. I spoke with him about the Cologne Festival.
He seemed, on the whole, well satisfied with it. The
material annoyances of the festival, the monstrous ex-
tortions of the Cologne landlords, &c., could not, of
course, affect him ; the gigantic massing of vocal mate-
rial had amused him; and the patriotic element, the
sympathetic blending of nationalities, Flemish and Ger-
man, had pleased him. Musically, the chorus, " Isis
and Osiris/' had been the most satisfactory to him. On
the whole, he was in the best of humors ; praised the
Diisseldorf Festival, soon to occur ; and promised to let
us know if any thing very remarkable would be produced
there. This request, alas ! he never fulfilled. It was the
last time that he ever visited his favorite Diisseldorf.

About the middle of August, Mendelssohn went to
England, to direct the production of his " Elijah " at the
great Birmingham Festival, which was to take place at
the very close of the month. The programme of this
festival was made up from the master-works of men
like Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and Cherubini. The
new oratorio was awaited with the most eager interest.
It was first produced Wednesday morning, the 26th
of August, in the great Town Hall of Birmingham.
10

146 LIFE OF MENDELBBOB&.

It came between Haydn's " Creation" on Tuesday
and Handel's "Messiah" on Thursday; followed on
Friday by Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" in D. The
London correspondent of the " Signals for the Musical
World " writes concerning the first impression of
" Elijah i" " How shall I describe what to-day has been
in the Music Hall ? After such an intense enjoyment,
it is a hard task to express one's feelings in cold words.
It was a great day for the festival, a great day for the
performers, a great day for Mendelssohn, a great day
for art Four da capos in the first part, four in the
second, making eight encores, and at the close the
calling-out of the composer, are significant facts, when
one considers that it was the rigid injunction of the com-
mittee that the ptiblic should not testify its approval by
applause. But the enthusiasm would be checked by no
rules: when* the heart is full, regulations must stand
aside. It was a noble scene, the hall filled with men,
the galleries gay with ladies, like so many tulip-beds,
added to the princely music, and these thundering
bravos." This was the judgment from England; but
what was said in Germany of the work ? I will not do
what so many critics have done who have passed their
verdict on what they do not understand in the slightest
It has not been in my power to give this oratorio that
fall study which is needed to fully appreciate a greal
part of its claims ; but there is no mistaking the voice of

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 147

full aud cordial approval which has passed judgment oit
it in Germany. So far as I permit myself to speak, I
will say that the choruses are far grander, more ener-
getic, and more dramatic than in "St. Paul;" and there
is not wanting that inimitable warmth of piety, peculiar
to Mendelssohn alone among the later composers. The
wonderful chorus, " Blessed are the men that fear him ; "
the Baal chorus ; the chorus that renders thanks for rain ;
and that which recounts the ascension to heaven, are
truly great and thrillingly effective.

I must here speak of a little occurrence at the Bir-
mingham Festival, which throws a clear light on Men-
delssohn's presence of mind, and on his faculty of
instant concentration. On the last day, among other
things, Handel's Anthem was given. The concert was
already going on, when it was discovered that the short
recitative which precedes the " Coronation Hymn," and
which the public had in the printed text, was lacking
in the voice parts. The directors were perplexed. Men-
delssohn, who was sitting in an ante-room of the hall,
beard of it, and said, " Wait, I will help you." He sat
down directly at a table, and composed the music for the
recitative and the orchestral accompaniment in about
half an hour. It was at once transcribed, and given
without any rehearsal. The inspiration of the moment
worked on the performers as it did on the composer
the passage went very finely.

148 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Can It be wondered at, that, after a lifti so full of labors,
and the incredible excitement and strain of this sum-
mer, on his return to Leipzig, Mendelssohn was taken
sick? Yet he undertook to lead the subscription con-
certs, in connection with Gade, and worked hard to
bring out In the best manner Beethoven's symphonies ;
as, for example, those in B flat, and in F major, which
we had never heard so finely rendered. He also
assisted in bringing before the world a new symphony
in G major by Robert Schumann. But he brought out
nothing new of his own ; nor indeed did he give much
of what he had 'written before. We heard nothing of
his, excepting the scena and aria, the overture " Meeres-
stille," and the "A-minor Symphony." Besides this,
Madame Dulken played bis concerto in D minor, and
Gara Schumann that in G minor. Yet the whole
course of concerts was excellent, and the programmes
selected mostly from classical music. The historical
concerts^ which were continued after the manner of
former seasons, Mendelssohn was not well enough to
attend. Playing in public was forbidden him by his
physician. He often complained much of headache.
He was hardly prevailed upon to undertake to direct
the performance of " St. Paul," which took place in St.
Paul's Church, on Good Friday, 1847. He accounted
for his great reserve as to appearing in public by pleading
that he needed time for composition. He must labor

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 149

till he was forty ; then he would rest, "he said. Yet, in
fulfilment of a promise, he went directly after "St.
Paul " had been given to England, to direct the bring-
ing-out of " Elijah," at Exeter Hall in London, under
the auspices of the Sacred Harmonic Society. To-
wards the close of April, "Elijah" was given three
times in succession and with great applause in Exeter
Hall, under Mendelssohn's direction. During this time
he attended an excellent performance of "Elijah" at
Manchester. On the llth of May, in the presence of
the royal family, he directed his music to the " Mid-
summer Night's Dream;" and played Beethoven's
G-major Concerto with improvised cadences, charming
his hearers, and leaving an impression which could not
be forgotten. On his return he arrived at Frankfort,
where he joined his family; when, like a lightning-
stroke, the news of his sister Fanny's sudden death
reached him. She died a genuine artist's death. In
the midst of a rehearsal of the choruses of the second
part of " Faust," which she had written, stimulated by
her brother's earnest wish that she should compose,
overcome with a nervous attack, she sank dead upon
her chair. Mendelssohn was fearfully shattered by this
stroke. He had been bound to this sister by the
strongest possible ties of sympathy. In earlier days
they had composed together ; so that in the first collection
of songs it is not always plain which are to be attributed

150 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

to the brother, and which to the sister; and, in later
days, they interchanged musical ideas, often betraying
a wonderful intellectual affinity. The first news of
Fanny's death drew a loud shriek from Mendelssohn.
Nor was this all. His physician declared that his own
death, which followed soon, was caused by the rupture
;f a blood-vessel in the head, at the moment of this
sudden shock; the effusion of blood upon the brain led
to increasing headaches, and, finally, to death. The
death of the sister was thus the cause of the death of the
brother. Yet, doubtless, his constitution was undermined
long before by the intensity of his labors ; and, when the
last shock came to him, it found him ready to fall an
easy victim. The extreme sensitiveness of his nervous
system, even before the tidings of Fanny's death, is shown
by the fact that sometimes he could not hear music with-
out weeping. But who could find ii in his heart to blame
him for laboring so long as power in him lay, when such
a labor-loving soul always prompted him to activity?
Let me work a little longer," he used to say to his
wife, when she urged him to spare himself; "the time
for me to rest will soon be here." And to friends who
remonstrated with him he used to say, as if in premoni-
tion of his early death, " I must use the little season
that is at my disposal : I do not know how long it wiD
last."

He sf /ight alleviation for the wound of his soul in

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 151

new activity. At first, indeed, he could not compose.
He writes in a letter, " I can only work mechanically.'*
He tarried for a time in Baden-Baden, to dissipate his
grief. Thence he went to Switzerland ; and, in viewing
the grandeur of that land, and by resolving to create and
finish something worthy of that inspiring scenery, he
soon recovered the old strength of his spirit. He pur-
posed to go on to Yevay, on the Lake of Geneva ; but,
on account of the political disquiet there, he chose
Interlachen, in the Bernese Oberland, as the home of
himself and family for a time. Here he would often
labor whole unbroken days, and then he would ramble for
days among the mountains. Two works occupied him
mainly : a new oratorio, " Christ," and an opera, " Lore-
lei," for which Emanuel Geibel had written the text
The oratorio was laid out on a grand scale. It was to
be in three parts, the career on earth, the descent
into hell, the ascent to heaven. Some fragments of it
were completed. One act of the opera, too, was fin-
ished. He also wrote two quartets, in F minor and
D minor, and some motets and songs. On the 18th of
September, he turned back to Leipzig. His manner
was then, as a friend told me, tolerably quiet and^
cheerful, only he complained of the " oppressive Leipzig
air." A journey to Berlin, and a week's visit there
amid the scenes of his sister's life, opened his wound
afresh. Yet, after this mournful occasion, he retained

152 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

his self-command astonishingly. He had the sopiv^e
part of " Elijah " sung in his presence by the lady already
alluded to, who most thoroughly understood bis works,
and who was in the most perfect sympathy with him
He expressed the satisfaction he took in his new opera,
and in the prospect of directing his "Elijah" at Vienna,
after which he would immediately havu it brought out
at Leipzig, and would conduct the rehearsals himself.
On the 9th of October, he brought his friend a new
collection of his songs, among them the "Night
Song" of Eiehendorff; " Vergangen ist der lichte Tag,"
which he must have composed while thinking of his
departed sister. It was his last composition. While
she was singing some of these songs to Mm, he fell sud-
denly in a swoon, and had to be carried to his bed. Yet
he revived again from this attack. On the 28th o
October, he walked out with his wife, and ate his dinnei
with a good appetite. But the swoon soon recurred
with more violence than before. He lay for a long time
unconscious. "When, at last, he rallied, he complained
of a bitter headache. Yet his condition grew some-
what better, and the physicians did not give up ah 1 hope.
And now the danger in which lay a life so dear to all
was known to the whole city. Interest and anxiety
were depicted on all countenances. Everywhere there
were inquiries after the sick man's welfare. Once
more he came to himself, and answered some questions,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 153

which were put to him ; and he seemed to know the by
Btanders. How many prayers went to Heaven in that
little snatch of respite! But it was otherwise deter-
mined in the councils of the Almighty. On the 3d
of November, he was robbed of all consciousness.
He never revived again. On the 4th of November,
In the evening, he quietly sank to his rest. His noble
features soon assumed an almost glorified expression.
So much he looked like one in sleep, that some of his
friends thought it could not be death ; an illusion which
is often granted to the eye of love. His friends Bende-
mann and Hiibner took a cast of his features as he lay
The sculptor Knaur used this as the model for his bust

154 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER XIV.

General Grief over his Loss. Imposing Obsequies. His Remains are earned
to Berlin. Honors all along the Way. The Berlin Solemnities. Honow
paid to his Memory in Foreign Lands as well as throughout Germany.
Depth of Sorrow at Leipzig, and its Manifestation.

FT1 HE grief over the loss of the beloved composer
-^ was, at the outset, boundless. It seemed as if a
general gloom had fallen on the whole city. Hundreds
of mourners pressed into the house to have one lasi
look at the familiar features; and the family, with a
noble generosity, phced no barrier in the way. Mild
and peaceful, he lay in his narrow bed, like one who
waits, with earnest though joyful look, for the judgment-
day ; decked with palm and laurel, tokens of his well-
won fame, which friends brought to crown his mortal
remains, though they stood in little need of any outward
signs of honor. Not long after, arrangements were
made by his nearest friends to celebrate his obsequies
by a worthy tribute of affection and reverence. They
took place on the 7th of November, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, in St. Paul's Church. Four horses, in black
accoutrements and cloths, drew the carriage containing
the coffin, covered with palm-branches, laurel-wreaths,

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 155

and fkwers. The rich pall was borne by his friends
and fellow-artists, Robert Schumann, David, Gade,
Hauptmann, Rietz, and Moscheles, Before the bier
walked the members of the orchestra and all the choirs
of the city, the teachers and the students of the Con-
servatorium ; directly behind the bier were the nearest
relatives, the brother and the brothers-in-law of the
deceased ; then the clergy, civil officers, professors hi the
University, officers in the army, and an immense throng
of friends and admirers, marching to the church, with
measured tread, to the sound of dirges played by the
combined bands of the city. , Moscheles had arranged
the " Song without Words " in E minor (fifth set), for
wind-instruments, for the occasion. Arrived at the
church, the coffin was placed on a catafalque draped in
black, surrounded by six wax-candles, burning in lofty
candelabra, while the organ pealed forth a prelude from
a Antigone " the passage where Creon bears in the
body of his son Hasrnon. A student from the Conser-
vatorium then laid at the master's feet a silver wreath
wrought in imitation of laurel* The choir struck in
thereupon with the hymn, " Acknowledge me, my guar-
dian," in which the whole congregation joined. Then
followed that royal choral out of the " St Paul," "To
thee, Lord, I give myself away;" after which, the
preacher Howard delivered a plain but appropriate ad-
dress in memory of the departed, and closed with a

156 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

touching prayer. Then rang out grandly that sublime
chorus from " St. Paul/' which follows the burial of
Stephen, "Behold, we count them happy who endure;"
and, after the benediction, the closing chorus from Sebas-
tian Bach's " Passion Music," " We sit down in tears, and
cry unto thee in thy grave, Sweetly rest, sweetly rest ! "
There was not a soul present that wa^ not edified,
consoled, and strengthened by this burial-service.
When the whole great assembly had left the church,
a noble figure entered, clad in deep mourning, kneeled
at the coffin, and prayed. It was she, the wife, who
brought the last offering of love.

The coffin, with its precious enclosure, was carried in
the night, by an extra train, to Berlin. As the car
came into Cothen, at midnight, it was greeted with a
choral from the Singers' Union of that place. At the
station in Dessau, at half-past one in the morning, stood
the Nestor of music, Friedrich Schneider, surrounded
by a choir of singers, the old man's head bare, and
his eyes filled with tears, and they sang a hymn which
he had composed solely to do honor to the departed mas-
ter of song. When the coffin, with its beautiful burden
of flowers and waving palms, had arrived at the Anhalt
station at Berlin, it was transferred to the hearse, while
a choir sang the choral, " Jesus, my trust." The cathe-
dral choir sang the same choral, while the solemn pro-
cession was entering, with the first rays of the rising

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 157

Bun, the cliurchjard before the Halle Gate. Ber-
duscheck, a Clergyman who was on terms of intimacy
with the Mendelssohn Family, pronounced a funeral ora-
tion, so suitable and so affecting, that no eye looked on
that was not filled with tears. After this, the members
of the Sing-Academic, and a number of the Opera
artists, under Rungenhagen's direction, sang the hymn,
" How peaceful do they rest ; " to which the cathedral
choir replied in a strain, composed by Grell for this
occasion, so touchingly sweet, that it seemed like the
song of angels. The body of Mendelssohn was depos-
ited in the family vault, by the side of his sister.

Within human memory, no event has called out such
deep and universal sorrow in the cultivated world as
the death of this great master of song. Only the burial
of Raphael, described for us by Yasari, can be com-
pared with it. Not only through Germany, but Eng-
land, solemn services were held in honor of the de-
parted. In Berlin, an expressive musical tribute waa
arranged by Kapellmeister Taubert. The funeral-march
from Beethoven's " Eroica " was played ; then a Kyrie
was sung; after which the "A-minor Symphony , n and
the "Midsummer Night's Dream" and " Hebrides" over-
tures were given ; finally, a psalm in church-style, and the
air, " It is in God's counsels declared," were sung. This
formed one of the closing symphony soirees. The Sing-
Academie would not be outdone in rendering him honor,

158 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

and appointed, In memory of Mendelssohn, a second per*
formance of his " Elijah," of which the first had taken
place the very day before the author's death. The cele-
bration in Vienna was, however, the most imposing of all
On the 15th of November, the first performance of the
"Elijah" was given, at which it had been expected
that Mendelssohn would himself be present. The large
array of solo singers were clad in complete black ; the
ladies of the chorus, in white, with a stripe of black
satin on the left side. The desk on which the con-
ductor's score would have lain was decked in black
crape. Here Mendelssohn himself would have stood ;
for it had been hoped that he would conduct in person.
On the desk lay a roll of manuscript music, and a
fresh wreath of laurel : at another stand stood the con-
ductor who took Mendelssohn's place, Herr Schmidl.
After the first measures of the piece, Mile. Weissbach
stepped forward, and recited a prologue written for
the occasion by a leading editor of Vienna. In London,
the Sacred Harmonic Society gave, on the 17th day of
November, a performance of " Elijah." All present
Trere clad in black. The concert opened with Handel's
" Dead March " from " Saul," to which the whole con-
gregation listened, standing. This society intend to
erect a monument in memory of Mendelssohn, to which
Prince Albert and the Queen have contributed liberally.
But the musical celebration, in Leipzig, of the great

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 159

composer's death, was one of the most fitly solemn
and affecting. A concert was to have been given the
very day that Mendelssohn died; tut it had to be post-
poned, for no player or singer would consent to per-
form while he was known to be in the agonies of death ;
and hardly any true lover of music would have been
willing to attend a concert at such a time. The pro-
gramme of the first conceit given (Nov. 11) after his
decease bore at the top the words, " In memory of the
departed Mendelssohn Bartholdy." The first part con-
tained the following compositions of his, Luther's
prayer, "In mercy grant us peace; 7 ' the overture to
Melusina ; " "Night Song" by Eichendorff, ft Departed
is the light of day ; " motet, Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace " (written in Switzerland) ;
and the overture to " St. Paul." Beethoven's "Eroica"
formed tfae second part. Thus was pictured, in most
skilful and happy manner, the whole career of Men-
delssohn: his noble aspiration to what is lofty, nay,
divine ; his highest earthly love ; the intense anguish
which threaded his whole life ; his resignation to God's
will, after he had filled up the measure of his lot ; and
the voice which summons him to the resurrection. It
displayed, too, his love for the greatest master of his
own art ; and the place, close by and only second to
Beethoven's, which his works will hold in all coming
time. EichendorfFs song was sung by a lady ? who

160 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

was, perhaps, the nearest to Mendelssohn- s affections,
of all artistes, and came from her very heart ; yet it
was rendered with great power and self-command. In
the quartet of the motet, Mendelssohn's old friend,
Schleinitz, who had not sung in public for a long time,
took a part; and also the two artists who had first
helped, under Mendelssohn, to raise the Leipzig con*
certs to their great eminence, Pogner and Mme. Gra-
bau-Biinau. The hall, hardly large enough to hold the
multitude which poured in, might have been taken that
night for a house of mourning, and the throng for a
great family, weeping for some dear one taken from its
midst. No hand was raised for applause : in mournful
silence the audience listened. It seemed as if Men-
delssohn's spirit were in the room, and were holding
communion with each heart.

Cologne, Bremen, Magdeburg, Frankfort-on-the-Main,
Mayence, Breslau, Altenburg, and other cities, each as
it best could, held solemn musical ceremonies in honor
of the great departed. But kings did not remain behind
their people in rendering to him the tribute of illus-
trious respect. Queen Victoria and the Kings of Prus-
sia and Saxony sent to the mourning widow letters of
hearty sympathy and consolation, and in terms of the
highest regard and homage for the genius of her hus-
band. No prince, save the Elector of Hesse, placed
any hinderance in the way of these deserved tributes of

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 161

affection ; and he has the sole bad eminence of forbid-
ding his Kapellmeister, Spohr, to celebrate the demise
of his illustrious friend. Let the eminent director of
music in Hesse enjoy the consolation of knowing, that
no petty prince's interdict can prevent any heart in all
Germany, that loves what is beautiful and good, fron?
cherishing the memory of the immortal Mendelssohn I

162 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER XV.

S cetch of Mendelssohn's Personal Appearance. His Christian Character.
His Kindness, Geniality, and Courtesy. His restless Activity. His Cor
diality to other great Artists. Liszt's Visit to Leipzig, and his Reception
by Mendelssohn. Hector Berlioz at Leipzig. Spohr's Visit.

rlHE works of Mendelssohn are certain to gain for
-*- him an unceasing interest. It is impossible, there-
fore, to give any adequate sketch of his life, without
touching more or less fully upon his personal appear-
ance, his presence, so to speak. He was a man rather
under the ordinary stature and size, somewhat neglect-
ful of his personal appearance, yet graceful in his walk
and bearing. His head was covered with glossy black
hair, curling in light locks; his forehead, as befitted
the head which teemed with such a burden of thought
and feeling, was high and arched ; his features sharply
cut, but noble. His eyes were unspeakably expres-
sive: when they glowed with indignation, or looked
at you with estrangement, too much to bear; 'but,
in his general friendly mood, indescribably charming;
his nose, noble, and inclined to the Roman type;
his mouth, firm, fine, in his serious moods more than
dignified, authoritative I might say, yet capable of the

LIFE OF AENDELSSOHN. 163

sweetest smile and the most winning expression, la
this graceful, finely moulded form was bidden not only
a royal spirit, but a most kindly heart. To speak out in
a single word what was the most salient feature of his
character, he was a Christian in the fullest sense. He
knew and he loved the Bible as few do in our time : out
of his familiarity with it grew his unshaken faith, and
that profound spiritual-mindedness without which it
would have been impossible for him to produce those
deep-felt sacred compositions ; and, besides this, the other
principle of the genuine Christian life, love, was power-
ful in him. God had blessed him with a large measure
of this world's goods ; but he made a noble use of them.
He carried the biblical injunction into effect, to " visit
the widow and the fatherless in their affliction;" and he
knew that to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked
is a fast acceptable to the Lord. His threshold was
always besieged by the needy of all sorts, but his kind-
ness knew no bounds ; and the delicacy and considera-
tion with which he treated the recipients of his bounty
largely increased the worth of his gifts, valuable as they
were, even in a merely material sense. Since he died,
deed upon deed has come to light, which I am not ax
liberty here to relate, out of courtesy to the receiver,
out of consideration to the giver, which only shows
how literally he fulfilled the Saviour's injunction, not
to let the left hand know what the right hand doeth.

164 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

But what is to be reckoned largely to his credit is,
that, with his worldly advantages, he cherished such a
love of work ; that he was a man of such restless activi-
ty. Many successful wooers of the German Muse have
been the children of poverty, and, without the stimulus
of necessity, would have always been unknown : in
many a man of genius, the sad experience has been
repeated, that, so soon as Fortune smiled, his genius has
been soothed to easy slumbers ; but Mendelssohn, born
in the lap of luxury, never gave himself with easy
resignation to a life of contentment with worldly com-
forts : he only used his wealth as a means of giving his
talents the more exclusively to his art; he did not
compose in order to live, but he lived in order to com-
pose. I must grant that this impulse to labor was the
law of his nature. To be idle was for him to die*
Sometimes, while his pupils in the Conservatorium were
engaged on their tasks, he would execute charming
little landscapes with his pen, which he used to gather
up, and carry home. No little thing was able to disturb
him when he composed. The place was indifferent.
Sometimes, on his journeys, he would seat himself at a
table as soon as he had reached an inn, and had estab-
lished himself for a tarry, long or short, for dinner or
for the night, u to write his notes," as he used to say.
"What he was to his wife and his children, despite this
ceaseless activity, I need not try to tell. Enough to

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 165

Bay, that he was the most devoted of husbands, the most
affectionate of fathers. Whoever did not know him
intimately, and perceive how careful he was to shield
himself from over-excitement, and every kind of in-
fluence which should jar upon him, would hardly suspect
that his heart was framed for friendship, and that he
was a very approachable man. But the large number
of his intimate correspondents ; the openness with which
he revealed himself to them ; the hearty interest in their
work and welfare ; and especially the close bonds which
bound him to his friends in Diisseldorf, London, and
Leipzig ; the rich store of communications which his
friends still hold, declare the very opposite. Of course,
a man like him could not open his nature to every one
who approached : this was sheerly impossible. He was
in much the same position as Goethe, though with a
far warmer and more communicative nature than he.
But Mendelssohn carried to an almost morbid extent
an unwillingness to allude to any thing pertaining to
himself. From principle, he almost never read what
was written about himself; and he was very unwilling
that any thing, musical criticism excepted, should be
published about him. The will of a living man must
be law in such a matter as this : I trust that a desire to
paint him worthily, now he has left us, would not offend
his pure nature. Enthusiasm, such as greeted him so
often, indeed so constantly, was not grateful to him: he

166 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

had seen so much that was factitious, that he distrusted
the real, excepting upon the fullest evidence that it was
real. Discriminating praise, however, gratified him.
That he was sometimes irritated, and out of tune, so to
speak, as one may of a musical artist ; that he was
occasionally subject to a temporary ill-humor, no one
who knew him well, will deny : but so finely strung a
nature must be exceedingly sensitive; and one who
carried in his mind such a burden of thoughts might
well Jbe pardoned for neglecting other men's talk
sometimes, and giving fullVent to himself. His whole
education and training had been such as to fit him
for the most polished society. In large gatherings, he
was, for the most part, very much reserved; espe-
cially where he did not think it worth while to make
much effort : but, if he did once break the silence, word
followed word, each weighty and comprehensive ; his
enunciation became very rapid; his countenance was
all aflame ; and, as his knowledge compassed all depart-
ments of learning, he wandered at his will over the
whole domain of science and art. In circles of his
nearest friends, where he felt entirely at home, and did
not fear being misunderstood, he was often merry and
free to the very last extent of unrestraint. Larger cir-
cles he used often to enliven with graceful contributions
of his art; and the social gatherings of the Leipzig
singers remember his presence with the greatest inter-

LIFE OP MENDELSSOHN. 167

cst. Especially his four-part songs, both in the re-
hearsals and when they sang them at the table, gave
to all the highest pleasure. At such times, Men-
delssohn was the very picture of amiability, the very
personification of a lovely character.

A very beautiful feature in Mendelssohn is his treat-
ment of other artists, particularly those whose direc-
tion differed widely from his own. That he should be
on the kindest terms with such men as Moscheles,
Rietz, and David, whose career ran in parallel course
with his own, and who were, moreover, his personal
friends, is not at all to be wondered at. Tet it would
not seem surprising, if, with the singleness of his devo-
tion to his profession, and the intense earnestness with
which he approached music, with the exactness and
perhaps I might say, the rigid severity of his self-
discipline, he had turned away somewhat coldly from
those whose life's course did not coincide with his own.
Yet this was very seldom the case. In his judgments
on the efforts of artists personally unknown to him, he
was very careful and considerate ; yet the play of his
features was an excellent barometer of his feelings.
The vast numbers of virtuosos whose merit lies alone
in their rapid execution, he bore with great patience,
He did not refuse to acknowledge this kind of skill,
while often pained to the soul at the ill-treatment which
great masterpieces suffered at the hands of such inter-

168 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

preters. But, where soul and taste were associated
with the mechanical talent, lie was the first to express
his satisfaction, and to speak words of approbation ; and
to such artists he was the kindest henefactor. Some
examples may show this. In January, 1840, Franz
Liszt came to Leipzig, for the first time, to give con-
certs. By reason of the somewhat mercantile aspect
of his agent's conduct, and the prominence which the
latter gave to the preliminary business arrangements,
together with some unwonted changes which he made
in the Music Hall, the public judgment was arrayed
against Liszt, even before he made his appearance.
When he seated himself at the piano, he was not only
not greeted with applause, but there were actually a
few hisses heard. Liszt cast a defiant glance at the
audience, and struck out into his finest style, fairly com-
pelling the disaffected to forget their prejudice for the
moment, and applaud. Still for this there was an un-
pleasant gulf between Liszt and the Leipzig musical
public. The reconciliation was but momentary. In
this emergency, what did Mendelssohn do? He gave
Liszt a brilliant soiree in the hah 1 of the Gewandhaus,
to which he invited half the musical world of Leipzig ;
and provided not only a feast of melody fit for the
gods, but a substantial banquet of earthly delicacies
besides. It was a party on the grandest scale ; and he
and his wife played the parts of host and hostess in the

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 169

most graceful and winning style. Madame Mendels-*
sohn, clad in a simple white dress, moved up and down
among her guests like a fair visitant from heaven. The
music on that brilliant occasion was equal to the de-
mands of the hour ; and it may be said without exag-
geration, that perhaps Liszt never heard finer in his
life. At his desire, there were given the then new " C-
major Symphony " by Schubert, the Forty-second Psalm,
and some passages from Mendelssohn's " St. Paul." At
the close, Mendelssohn played Bach's triple-concerto with
Liszt and Hiller. The manner with which the great
Leipzig master comported himself towards the unwel-
come stranger completely won over the musical public
of the city ; and, when Liszt -gave his next concert, he
was received and dismissed with the greatest applause.

The next instance of Mendelssohn's magnanimity
occurred in 1843. In February of that year, Hector
Berlioz came from "Weimar to Leipzig. He knew that
his own direction diverged fundamentally from that
of Mendelssohn's, and feared that his reception by
the latter would be rather cool. Chelard of Weimar
encouraged him to write to Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn's
answer was as follows : " Dear Berlioz, I thank you
heartily for your pleasant letter, and am rejoiced that
you still remember our old friendship in Rome. I shall
never forget it in my life, and shall be glad to talk it
over with you. Every thing that I can do to make your

170 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

stay in Leipzig agreeable to you, I shall make it equally
my duty and my pleasure to do. I believe I can assure
you that you will be happy here, and be satisfied with
artists and the public." (Then follow some passages
regarding the preliminary details of a concert.) "I
charge you to come as soon as you can leave Weimar.
I shall rejoice to give you my hand, and to bid you
welcome to Germany. Do not laugh at my bad
French, as you used to do at Borne, but remain my
friend, as you were then ; and I shall always be your
own Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy."

Berlioz came to Leipzig during the rehearsals of the
" Walpurgis Night," which appeared to him a master-
piece. He reminded Mendelssohn of their residence *
at Rome, and their experience at the Baths of Caracalla
(where Berlioz had made fun of Mendelssohn's belief
in immortality, retribution after death, providence, &c.) ;
and asked him to make him a present of his director's

* One evening we were exploring together the Baths of Cara-
calla, debating the question of the merit or demerit of human actions,
and their remuneration during this life. As I replied with some
enormity, I know not what, to his entirely religious and orthodox
opinions, his foot slipped, and down he rolled, with many scratches
and contusions, in the ruins of a very hard staircase." " Admire the
divine justice,'* said I, helping him to rise: " it is I who blaspheme,
and it is you who fall ! " This impiety, accompanied with peals of
laughter, appeared to him too much, it seemed; and, from that time,
religious discussions were always avoided." Berlioz's Musical Tout
in Germany.

LIFE OF MENDELSSO&M. 171

staff, which Mendelssohn willingly gave him, only on
this condition, that Berlioz should give his in return.
Although, with the repeated rehearsals of the ""Wal-
purgis Night," Mendelssohn was completely exhausted,
yet he helped Berlioz to organize his own concert, and
treated him, to use his own words, like a brother.

But one of the fairest honors which one great artist
ever paid another was the brilliant soiree which Men-
delssohn gave in honor of Spohr's visit to Leipzig, the
25th of June, 1846. Only selections from Spohr's
music were given, the overture to "Faust," an aria
from " Jessonda/' the violin-concerto in E minor (played
by Joachim), two songs with clarionet accompaniment,
and the " Consecration of the Tones." It must have been
a rare pleasure to Spohr to have seen his works brought
out in the perfection of the Leipzig Conservatorium,
and under Mendelssohn's direction ; and, to the public,
it was a great delight to see these two eminent com-
posers side by side. At the close, Spohr went into the
orchestra ; and, to manifest his pleasure at the manner
in which his pieces had been brought out, he directed
the last two movements of his symphony with all thfi
old fire of youtK

U2 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

CHAPTER XVI.

Wonderful Union of the Highest Gifts in Mendelssohn. His Power aa a
Conductor. Incidents. His Skill as a Virtuoso. His Greatness at
a Composer. Conclusion.

*TT7"HAT gave Mendelssohn so great a compass to
' ^ his musical activities was the union, in the
highest perfection, of three gifts which are usually
granted only singly to men in the measure with which
he commanded them. He was as great as a conductor,
as he was as virtuoso and composer. His fame as a con-
ductor is now world-wide. When once his fine, firm
hand grasped the baton, tbe electric fire of Mendels-
sohn's nature seemed to stream out through it, and be
felt at once by singers, orchestra, and audience. We
often thought that - the flames which streamed from
the heads of Castor and Pollux must play around his
forehead, and break from the conductor's staff which he
held, to account for the wonderful manner with which
lie dissipated the slightest trace of phlegm in the singers
or players under his direction. But Mendelssohn con-
ducted not only with his baton, but with his whole body.
At the outset, when he took his place at the music-
stand, his countenance was wrapped in deep and almost

LIFE OF ZtENDELSSOHN. 173

solemn earnestness. You could see at a glance that
the temple of music was a holy place to him. As soon
as he had given the first beat, his face lighted up,
every feature was aflame, and the play of countenance
was the best commentary on the piece. Often the
spectator could anticipate from his face what was to
come. The fortes and crescendos he accompanied with
an energetic play of features and the most forcible
action; while the decrescendos and pianos he used to
modulate with a motion of both hands, till they slowly
sank to almost perfect silence. He glanced at the most
distant performers, when they should strike in, and
often designated the instant when they should pause, by
a characteristic movement of the hand, which will not
be forgotten by those who ever saw it. He had no
patience with performers who did not keep good time.
His wondrously accurate ear made him detect the least
deviation from the correct tone, in the very largest
number of singers and players. He not only heard it,
but knew whence it came. Once, during a grand per
formance, when there were about three hundred singers
and over two hundred instruments, all in chorus, in the
midst of the music, he addressed a young lady who
stood not far from him, and said to her, in a kindly
way, " F, not F sharp " [F, tiebes Fraulein, nicht Fis].
To singers, his rehearsals were a constant enjoyment.
His praise was always delightfully stimulating; hia

174 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

criticism, not chilling nor disheartening. By throw
ing in all kinds of bright and merry words, he knew
how to rouse the most indifferent and idle to the best
performance they were capable of, and to keep the
weary in good-humor. Eepeated and perverse careless-
ness would provoke him, but never to a coarse or harsh
word : he had too much knowledge of the world, and
too much grace of character, for that ; the farthest he,
went was to a dash of sarcasm. " Gentlemen," he once
said to a number of men who insisted on talking together
after the signal to begin had been given, " I have no
doubt that you have something very valuable to talk
about ; but I beg you to postpone it now : this is the
place to sing." This was the strongest reproof that
I ever heard him give. Especially kindly was he when
he praised the singing of ladies. "Keally," said he
once, when a chorus went passably well at the first sing-
ing, " very good, for the first time exceedingly good ;
but, because it is the first time, let us try it once again:"
on which the whole body broke into a merry peal of
laughter, and the second time they sang with great
spirit. All prolonging of the tones beyond the time
designated by the written notes, he would not suffer,
not even at the close of the chorus. " Why do you
linger so long on this note, gentlemen ? it is only an
eighth." He was just as averse to all monotonous
singing. (e Gentlemen," he once said at a rehearsal.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 175

" remember this even when you sing at home ; do not
sing so as to put any one to sleep, even if it be a
cradle-song." The pianos could not be sung too softly
for him. Did^ the chorus only sink in a piano passage
to a mezzo-forte, he would cry out, as if in pain.
" Piano, piano, I hear no piano at all ! " It was one
of the remarkable features of his leading,, to hear the
largest choir sink at the right places into the faintest
breath of sound. Mendelssohn's unwearied patience at
rehearsals was all the more remarkable, as his frame was
so delicate and his ear so sensitive; but it made the
result, when he was satisfied with it, as perfect as any
work can be in the hands of human performers.

Mendelssohn's skill as a virtuoso was no mere leger-
demain, no enormous finger facility, that only aims to
dazzle by trills, chromatic runs, and octave passages j
it was that true, manly virtus from which the word vir-
tuoso is derived ; that steadfast energy which overcomes
all mechanical hinderances, not to produce musical noise,
but music, and not satisfied with any thing short of ex-
hibiting the very spirit of productions written in every
age of the musical art. The characteristic features of
his playing were a very elastic touch, a wonderful
trill, elegance, roundness, firmness, perfect articulation,
strength, and tenderness, each in its needed place. Hia
chief excellence lay, as Goethe said, in his giving
every piece, from the Bach epoch down, its own dis-

176 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

tinctive character ; and yet, with all his loyalty io the
old masters, he knew just how to conceal their obsolete
forms by adding new graces in the very manner of his
playing. Especially beautiful was his playing of 'Beet-
hoven's compositions, and the adagios most of all, which
he rendered with unspeakable tenderness and depth of
feeling. The soft passages were where his strength lay
in his performance upon the piano-forte, as they were
in his leading of a great choir ; and in this no man has
surpassed him, I might say no one has approached him.
His skill on the tenor-viol -has already been spoken of.
He possessed a pleasant, but not strong tenor voice ;
but he never used it, excepting at the chorus rehearsals,
or, at the practice of a soloist, to indicate a tone-figure
or an interval, or, at the most, to sing a brief reci-
tative.

To speak more at length of Mendelssohn as a com-
poser is hardly necessary, as I have already detailed
the history of about all his more important produc-
tions. These works speak for themselves; and, if
they do not, no analysis of mine can speak for them.
But, in fact, they stand in need neither of approval nor
defence : the most audacious critic bows before the
genius of their author: the power and weight of public
opinion would strike every calumniator dumb. What
eo universally affects and pleases, must be true and
beautiful. But what has made Mendelssohn's a classic

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 177

Muse? Foremost of all, the master's pure and
aspiration, which set for itself only the highest ideal,
and did not bow before any throne, not even that of the
world ; his moral energy of will, which did not ask
what pleased the multitude, but, listening only to the
inspiration from within, broke for itself a victorious
way through all obstacles. Then his universal culture,
which made him at home in a great variety of spheres,
enabled him to enter deeply into the nature of the
given subject, and choose that form of representation
which best harmonized with it. Music was to him utterly
plastic ,* first the transparent clearness of his understand-
ing suffered him to conceive of his object with noonday
distinctness, and then his mastery of his art gave him a
matchless power of expression. He always knew what
he wanted to do; and, when he had once grasped his
subject, he did not rest till the musical delineation per-
fectly corresponded to the idea: and his light hand
wove all the graceful fabric, with almost magic skill,
and with the speed of light. It is true, in all his
greater works, his style is earnest, I might say, severe,
throughout, true to his models, and always worthy
of his subject, but never wearisome and heavy.
"Whether Mendelssohn treated a religious, a romantic,
a lyric, an epic, or a dramatic theme, he always trans-
ported the hearer to the situation, transferred his own
feeling to him, and held him to the very close in perfect
12

178 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

satisfaction and unabated interest. The main thought
was manifest at once ; and it was invariably one which
it was worth while to follow, through which heart and
soul were mightily moved. Thus, in " St. Paul," the
noble choral, " Awake, the voice calls us," discloses the
entire burden of the piece ; so, in the " Hymn of Praise,"
the wonderful theme, " Let ail things that have breath,
praise the Lord," running through the whole first move-
ment, and re-appearing in the mighty chorus which
ends the work ; so, too, the first measures of the over-
ture to " Antigone," pervaded by the deep earnestness
and fire peculiar to the antique tragedy. To all these
genuine artist-gifts, there was added the most needed
one of all, a fancy teeming with images, and able to
present each thought in that ideal, characteristic dress
which made it unmistakeable. The finest instances of
this are his descriptive overtures, with their sumptuous
tone-painting, always perfectly intelligible, yet never
going too minutely into details. Thus, in the overture
" The Hebrides," there are seen the moist, heavy fog,
the gray, strange-shaped clouds ; there are heard the
simple song of the old bard, the dull crash of battle,
and the maiden's lamentation, as she stands by the
seashore, and waits for her lover, for whom she shall
wait in vain. And, in the wave-like " Melusina " over-
ture, does not the sea-nymph lift herself bodily, and
offer herself in love to the brave knight ? Even more

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN. 179

characteristic and lifelike in tone-color are the other
two overtures which I have previously spoken of in
some detail. Only a hearer utterly without fancy can
fail to see what the artist meant to embody in music.

The last element of power that I will speak of in
Mendelssohn was the depth of soul, the kindling fervor
of his feeling, the profound and almost romantic melan-
choly, the tendency to revery, the light and airy sport-
iveness, the last of which appeared especially in his
smaller pieces, his trios, quartets, sonatas and songs
with and without words, and which equally pleased and
amazed the listener. In the " Songs without Words,"
Mendelssohn has created a new department of music, in
which it is not wise for every one to be an imitator. It
was a necessity with him to throw into artistic form the
fulness of charming melodies with which his soul teemed,
and to which there were no words at hand to wed them.
The number of the songs which he wrote from this
need of expression is a lasting proof of the rich world
of tone in which his spirit lived. The text to his songs
must be not merely musical in its flow, it must be thor-
oughly poetical, to correspond to the feelings to which
Mendelssohn gave expression when he wrote his " Songs
without Words ; " 'for, when he had chosen his theme,
he poured out a wealth of fantasy and feeling, of sym-
pathy with nature, of noble aspiration, of thanksgiving
and praise.

180 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

And here closes our poor tribute to this great man :
a tribute, which, if it be weak in its execution, carries
our heart with it. We lay down the pencil, and leave
thy portrait, dear departed master ; but we do not part
from thee. Thy mortal part is given back to the earth
whence it came ; but the immortal part has gone to its
true home. Yet may thy figure still hover over us,
and with glorified features still teach us lessons of love ;
and may the spirit which lives in thy immortal works
still animate us, and bid us shun all that is low and
vain and worthless ! May we all be led to live a life
as full of glorious aspirations as thine was, till we come,
as we shall at last, to the common goal, which ends
every mortal career!

APPENDIX,

APPENDIX.

JULIUS BENEDICT'S SKETCH OF THE CAEEEK
OF MEM3ELSSOKN".

[In December, 1849, Julius Benedict, a near friend of Mendelssohn,
the eminent composer, teacher, and conductor, living now in London,
and still remembered for his efficient direction, in this country, of
Jenny Lind's concerts delivered a lecture before the Chamberwell Lit-
erary Institution, on tie lixe and works of Mendelssohn. The lecture
has real value, freshness, and interest ; yet I have not needed to use it
in full, since it repeats, of course, many facts already related with
more detail in the narrative of Lampadius. Such passages as throw
new light on Mendelssohn's career, especially in England, I have
therefore detached from their connection, for insertion here. The
entire Lecture may be found in the Boston "Athenaeum."]

"[% /TY first meeting with Mendelssohn took place
-L*-*- under such peculiar circumstances, that I may,
perhaps, he permitted to enter into some particulars
about it.

It was in the "beginning of May, 1821, when walking
in the streets of Berlin, with my master and friend Yon
Weber, he directed my attention to a boy, apparently
about eleven or twelve years old, who, on perceiving
the author of " Freischutz," ran towards him, giving
a most hearty and friendly greeting. " 'Tis Felix

rmi

184 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Mendelssohn," said Weber, introducing me at once to
the prodigious child, of whose marvellous talent and
execution I had already heard so much at Dresden. I
shall never forget the impression of that day on behold-
ing that beautiful youth, with his auburn hair clustering
in ringlets round his shoulders, the look of his brilliant
clear eyes, and the smile of innocence and candor on
his lips. He would have it that we should go with him
at once to his father's house ; but, as Weber had to
attend a rehearsal, he took me by the hand, and made
me run a race till we reached Ms home. Up he went
briskly to the drawing-room ; where, finding his mother,
he esclaimed, " Here is a pupil of Weber's, who knows
a great deal of his music of the new opera ! Pray,
mamma, ask him to play it for us ; " and so, with an
irresistible impetuosity, he pushed me to the piano-forte,
and made me remain there till I had exhausted all the
store of my recollections. When I then begged of him
to let me hear some of his own compositions, he refused,
but played, from memory, such of Bach's fugues or
Cramer's exercises as I could name. At last we parted,
not without a promise to meet again. On my very next
visit, I found him seated on a footstool; writing, with
great earnestness, some music. On my asking him what
he was about, he replied gravely, " I am finishing my
new quartet for piano and stringed instruments."

I could not resist my own boyish curiosity to examine

APPENDIX. 185

this composition, and, looking over his shoulder, saw as
beautiful a score as if it had been written by the most
skilful copyist. It was his first quartet, in C minor,
published afterwards as Opus 1.

But, whilst I was lost in admiration and astonishment
at beholding the work of a master written by the hand
of a boy, all at once he sprang up from his seat, and,
in his playful manner, ran to the piano-forte ; performing,
note for note, all the music from " Freischutz," which,
three or four days previously, he had heard me play ;
and asking, " How do you like this chorus ? what do
you think of this air ? " and so on. Then, forgetting
quartets and Weber, down we went into the garden ; he
clearing high hedges with a leap, running, singing, or
climbing up the trees like a squirrel, the very imago
of health and happiness.

When scarcely twenty years old, he had composed
his octet, three quartets for piano and stringed instru-
ments, two sonatas, two symphonies, his first violin-
quartet, various operas, a great number of separate
Lieder or songs, and the immortal overture to "A Mid-
summer Night's Dream." On the 20th of April, he
arrived in London, where he was first welcomed by
him whom I may call his life-long friend, Moscheles.
Shortly afterwards, he conducted, at the Philharmonic
Concert, his own first symphony, as well as his overture
to " A Midsummer Night's Dream."

186 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

effect of the first performance of this overture
In London was electrical. All at once, and perhaps
when least expected, the great gap left by the death
of Beethoven seemed likely to be filled up. His re-
nown, after the enthusiastic but just reports of his
reception in London, both as a composer and pianist,
spread like wildfire all over Europe, and gave the young
and ardent maestro a new stimulus to proceed on his
glorious path.

During a brilliant season in London, he became ac-
quainted with the two vocal stars, Sontag and Malibran,
and, moreover, gained the esteem and affection of men
eminent in his profession, such as Attwood, the worthy
pupil of Mozart, and Horsley, the distinguished theorist,
whose friendship Mendelssohn ever valued most highly
In the beginning of August, he made an extensive torn
in Scotland, with the friend already alluded to, Carl
Klingemann ; drawing, composing, and feeding his fancy
amid its romantic scenery. They went first to Edin-
burgh ; then to Perth, Blair, Athol, Loch Tay, to the
Island of StafFa, and Fingal's Cave j then southwards,
by Glasgow and Loch Lomond, visiting the Cumber-
land Lakes and Liverpool, a journey fraught with
valuable influences on a cultivated and poetical mind
like Mendelssohn's. The splendid overture to "Fin-
gal's Cave " (ffebriden) was the only immediate result
of these impressions ; but even the greatest of his in-

APPENDIX. 187

strumental works, the " Symphony in A Minor," though
not completed until fourteen years later, may be said to
have had its origin in the sombre inspirations of ancient
Holyrood, as beheld in the still gloom of evening. On
his way back from Scotland, he paid a short visit, in
North Wales, to the estimable and accomplished family
of Mr. and Mrs. John Taylor, where he was received
in the most cordial manner, and under whose friendly
roof several of his capriccios and scherzos for the piano-
forte were composed.

I met Mendelssohn again, when, in the course of his
Italian journey, he called upon me at Naples. My joy
at seeing him was boundless. We had met in the inter-
val under circumstances less cheering and agreeable,
indeed, than when in connection with Weber : but the
passing cloud had now vanished ; and, as if to compen-
sate the blank of so many lost years, he unfolded to me
all the treasures of his inexhaustible genius. I then
heard, for the first time, his overtures ; numerous songs
imbued with the impressions of fresh scenes; and, above
all, one of his greatest works, his "Walpurgis Night,"
full of solid grandeur, and overflowing with the rich
ideas of his teeming fancy. In two instances I had the
opportunity of witnessing his almost marvellous facility
of retaining, as it were stereotyped in his mind, any
passages of music he had heard, even if only once. At
an evening party at the house of the celebrated vocalist,

188 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Madame Fodor, several airs of Donizetti and Ros-
sini, French romances, and an instrumental duet by
Moscheles, were performed. Mendelssohn, being sub-
sequently invited to play, without a moment's hesitation
introduced first one theme of the pieces performed, then
another, added a third and fourth, and worked them
simultaneously in the most skilful manner. At first
playfully mimicking the Italian style, and then adopting
the severe forms of the old masters, he contrived to give
a perfect musical form and shape to all ; and thus the
inspiration of the present moment seemed as though it
had been the result of forethought and study.

In society, apart from musical subjects, nothing could
be more entertaining or animated than Mendelssohn's
conversation on literary topics. The works of Shak-
speare and other eminent British poets were quite as
familiar to him as those of his own country; and,
although his accent was slightly tinctured by his Ger-
man origin, he spoke as well as wrote the English
language with great facility and purity. He drew from
nature, and painted also very well ; and, indeed, might
be said to possess every social accomplishment.

In April, 1832, he arrived again in London. Here
lie produced, and played at the Philharmonic Concert,
his " G-minor Concerto," which made an extraordinary
impression : so much so, that he was obliged to repeat
it at the following concert of the same society, an

APPENDIX. 189

occurrence without precedent. And here it may be
mentioned, that, considered as a piano-forte player, the
complete mastery he possessed over all mechanical diffi-
culties, joined to the spirit, delicacy, and certainty of his
execution, left him confessedly without a rival.

But, over and above all evidences of his creative
genius, he displayed, at an organ performance at St
Paul's Cathedral, quite as transcendent a talent for that
branch of executive skill, as he had done, at the Phil-
harmonic, on the piano-forte. Whether in working up
one of Bach's mighty pedal fugues, or in extempore
display of his own, he equally astonished and delighted
an audience comprising many of the most eminent pro-
fessors and critics of the metropolis.*

Mendelssohn was the inventor of an original and
interesting class of short piano-forte pieces, most ap-
propriately called " Songs without Words." At that
period, mechanical dexterity, musical claptraps, skips
from one part of the piano to another, endless shakes
and arpeggios, were the order of the day : every thing

* It was humorously said, at the time, that Mendelssohn could do
every thing but one on the organ: one thing he could not do. play
the audience out of church. The more he attempted it. the less they
were inclined to go : the more gracefully insinuating his musical
hints, the more delightedly patient they became to remain. It is
said that once, when playing at St. Paul's, the vergers, wearied with
endeavoring to persuade the people to retire, resorted, at length, to
the more convincing argument of beating them over the head, and
it last cleared the cathedral. Am. Ed.

190 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

was sacrificed to display. Passages were written for
the sole purpose of puzzling and perplexing the musical
dilettanti, causing amazement by the immense quantity
of notes compressed into one page. Mendelssohn, who
would never sacrifice to the prevailing taste, took, in
this new species of composition, quite an independent
flight: his aim was to restore the ill-treated, panting
piano-forte to its dignity and rank ; and 3 in this view,
he gave to the world those exquisite little musical poems
I have mentioned. Though limited in extent, and un-
equal, in point of merit, the hand of the master is
perceptible in every one ; and long hence, when even
the trace of the thundering piano-forte school shall have
disappeared, the musician and amateur will recur with
delight to these charming fruits of a refined and elevated
taste. It must not "be inferred from this, that Mendels-
suhn's piano-forte works are wholly free from mechanical
difficulties. On the contrary, they abound in brilliant
passages and dispersions of chords, that, from their
very novelty, present no mean obstacle even to expert
performers; but Mendelssohn never writes difficulties
for the mere sake of display.

It would be a matter of difficulty to decide in what
quality Mendelssohn excelled the most, whether as
composer, pianist, organist, or conductor of an orchestra.
Nobody, certainly, ever knew better Low to communi-
cate as if by an electric fluid his own conception

APPENDIX. 191

of a work to a large body of performers. It was high-
ly interesting, on such an occasion, to contemplate the
anxious attention manifested by a body of sometimes
more than five hundred singers and performers, watch-
ing every glance of Mendelssohn's eye, and following,
like obedient spirits, the magic wand of this musical
Prospero. Once, while conducting a rehearsal of Beet-
hoven's " Eighth Symphony," the admirable allegretto
in B flat not going at first to his liking, he remarked,
smilingly, that " he knew every one of the gentlemen
engaged was capable of performing, and even of com-
posing, a scherzo of his own ; but that just now he
wanted to hear Beethoven's, which he thought had
some merits." It was cheerfully repeated. " Beautiful,
charming ! " cried Mendelssohn, " but still too loud in
two or three, instances. Let us take it again, from the
middle." " No, no," was the general reply of the band:
" the whole piece over again, for our own satisfaction ; "
and then they played it with the utmost delicacy and
finish, Mendelssohn laying aside his ~baton, and listening
with evident delight to the more perfect execution.
" What would I have given," he exclaimed, " if Beet-
hoven could have heard his own composition so well
understood, and so magnificently performed ! "

It is perhaps not generally known, that Mendelssohn
Bpent some of his happiest hours in the neighborhood
of London. At his fifth visit to the great metropolis

192 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

he was accompanied by his wife, who had never before
seen England ; and they resided at the house of one of
her relations, Mrs. Benecke, on Denmark-hill. Here
Mendelssohn led a quiet and almost secluded life, re-
ceiving few visitors, and only going to town when called
thither by his professional duties at the Philharmonic
Concerts ; two of which were directed by him.

On one fine morning, a party had been arranged by
his amiable host to spend the day at Windsor. Every
thing was prepared, the carriages were at the door,
and the word for starting had been given, when
Mendelssohn found suddenly some pretest for not join-
ing the party, and remained at home with the children,
with whom he was a universal favorite. When Ms
friends returned from Windsor, he played to them a
sparkling and delicious melody, the offspring of that day,
subsequently introduced in the fifth book of his " Songs
without Words j " and which, among the most generally
played and admired, is perhaps the preferred of all.

My reminiscences of him in England date next at the
performance of u Elijah," which took place, for the first
time, at Birmingham, Aug. 26th, 1846.

The noble Town Hall was crowded, at an early hour
of that forenoon, with a brilliant and eagerly expectant
audience. It was an anxious and solemn moment
Every eye had long been directed towards the conduct-
or's desk, when, at half-past eleven o'clock, a deafening

APPENDIX. 193

shout from the band and chorus announced the approach
of the great composer. The reception he met with, on
stepping into his place, from the assembled thousands,
was absolutely overwhelming ; whilst the sun, emerg-
ing at that moment, seemed to illumine the vast edifice
in honor of the bright and pure being who stood theie,
the idol of all beholders! Even now I hardly dare
trust myself with the recollection, that, within one short
year from that day, the light of those brilliant expressive
eyes was fated to be dimmed, and that the treasures of
that exalted, fruitful, and imaginative mind would be
lost to us for evermore.

The first performance of Elijah," at Exeter Hall,
took place on Friday, the 16th of April, 1847, and was
received with prodigious applause. On the following
Friday, Her Majesty and Prince Albert paid their first
visit to the Sacred Harmonic Society, on the occasion
of its second performance. What they felt on that
evening is best described by Prince Albert himself,
who, on the morning of the 24th of April, sent to Men-
delssohn the book of the oratorio which he had used to
follow the performance ; on the first page of which was
the following inscription, in German, in the Prince's
own handwriting :

*' To the noble artist, who, surrounded by the Baal-worship
of corrupted art, has been able, by his genius and science, to
preserve faithfully, like another Elijah, the worship of true art,
IS

194 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

and once more to accustom our ear, lost in the whirl of an
empty play of sounds, to the pure notes of expressive composi-
tion and legitimate harmony, to the great master, who makes
us conscious of the unity of his conception, through the whole
maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty
raging of the elements ! Written in token of grateful remem-
brance, "by Albert.

" BUCKINGHAM PALACE, April 24, 1847."

The death of Mendelssohn, which shortly followed,
was felt as a general calamity. One whose life was
throughout pure and spotless, and whose rare faculties
were entirely devoted to the highest ends of art, was
taken from us in the meridian of life, when, according
to the ordinary chances of mortality, scarcely more than
half of his glorious career had been accomplished I
The space left by such a man can never, perhaps, be
filled up. Of frank and cordial temper, impatient oi
deceit or intrigue, indulgent and encouraging to others
in whom he discerned talent and worth, he was neither
elated by extravagant adulation, nor disheartened under
envious and unjust criticisms. His one absorbing aspi-
ration through life was the promotion of his divine art.
His unaffected and cheerful manner was joined with an
unswerving integrity of mind and purpose.

The fame of this illustrious musician may and proba-
bly will reach into future ages ; but a knowledge of the
qualities which' distinguished him as a man can never
be adequately communicated to posterity. Those only

APPENDIX. 195

who possessed the blessed privilege of calling him their
friend can either know or feel how much of virtue,
genius, and charm of character, was extinguished in the
person of that miracle of humanity, Felix Mendelssohn

196 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

FIVE SKETCHES BY HENEY F. CHOELEY

I.

MENDELSSOHN" AS THE DIRECTOR OF A NORTH
GERMAN MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

T WAS lying in the sunshine, after the one-o'clock
-*- table d'hote, feverish and sleepy, lazily calling up
past festivals and distant faces, when the thread of my
musings was cut short by the entrance of a clean, civil
little boy, with a message from Dr. Mendelssohn, who
was then in the Egydien Church, superintending the
rehearsal. We were there ere I was well awake. The
church is but the fragment of a large Gothic building,
which has been sorely despoiled of much of its old
ornaments by time or violence ; and its one good point,
height, renders it ineligible for musical purposes. Even
then, though it was late in the afternoon, and the re-
hearsal had been going on with small intermission since
the morning, it was three parts full. I arrived in the
midst of Beethoven's " C-minor Symphony," just a few
bars before the commencement of its glorious final
March. Had I desired a moment of the strongest pos-
sible sensation on first making acquaintance with a

, APPENDIX. 197

3erman orchestra, it could not have been more com-
pletely granted.

The performance fell far short of what It would have
been by Dr. Mendelssohn's own band at Leipzig. At
these German musical festivals, as was formerly the
case at our English ones, the orchestra is compounded
of unequal materials ; being assisted by many persons
unused to practise together. Here, too, it was largely
amateur ; but the effect of the music, nevertheless, was
overcoming. The glory of the symphony was height
ened by the lofty arches and long-drawn aisles through
which it resounded ; and there was that thrill, and the
mustering of blood to the heart, which so few things
excite when early youth is past.

Yet, in the performance of Beethoven's symphony,
the orchestra was hardly as exact as it might have
been ; but the earnestness and anxiety of its members,
who betook themselves to their tasks, one heedless, if
he seesawed over his violoncello as oddly as Dr. John
son ; another, if he rasped the very hair off his head ;
a third, if, like the bassoon-player in " Bracebridge
Hall," he " blew his face to a point," made a sight at
once new, and, though amusing, calculated to disarm
ridicule. Indeed, that sense of the whimsical and gro-
tesque, which is so invaluable as a travelling companion
to solitary persons, becomes far less sardonic in Ger-
many than elsewhere. Every eye was fixed fast upon

198 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

the conductor, with a submissiveness and an admiration
which must have had their reciprocal effect in inspiring
him to go through his fatiguing duties without flagging
or impatience; and Dr. Mendelssohn's conducting at
rehearsal, though easy in appearance, and therefore
any thing but distracting to the eye, was the strictest in
spirit of any that I had then witnessed.

After the symphony, a weak and tame contralto
singer, with a profusion of fair ringlets, went through
the delicious arioso in "St. Paul," "But the Lord is
mindful of his own ; " and then the conductor, hitherto
a personal stranger, came down to me, and gave me a
friendly welcome to Germany.

It is sad now to recall the inquiries after mutual
friends, the quick interchange of a musical piece of
news or two, and the unexpected joke (for a joke there
was, I remember), which began an acquaintance soon to
be ripened into indulgent friendship on' the one side, and
faithful regard on the other. There was this inexpress-
ible comfort in all intercourse with Mendelssohn, that
he made no secret of his likings and dislikings. * Few
men so distinguished have been so simple, so cordial, so
considerate ; but few have been so innocent of courtier-
ship, positive or negative. One might be sure that a
welcome from him was a welcome indeed.

I thought then, as I do now, his face one of the most
beautiful which has ever been seen. No portrait extant

APPENDIX. 19

ioes it justice. A Titian would have generalized, and,
out of its many expressions, made up one, which, ir
some sort, should reflect the many characteristics and
humors of the poet, his earnest seriousness, his
childlike truthfulness, his clear, cultivated intellect,
his impulsive vivacity. The German painters could
only invest a theatrical, thoughtful-looking man with
that serious cloak which plays so important a part on
the stage, and in the portraits of their country, and con-
ceive the task accomplished when it was not so much ag
begun. None of them has perpetuated the face with
which Mendelssohn listened to the music in which he
delighted, or the face with which he would crave to be
told again some merry story, though he knew it already
by heart. I felt in that first half-hour, that in him
there was no stilted sentiment, no affected heartiness ;
that he was no sayer of deep things, no searcher for
witty ones ; but one of a pure, sincere intelligence,
bright, eager, and happy, even when most imaginative.
Perhaps there was no contemporary at once strong,
simple, and subtle enough, to paint such a man with
Buch a countenance.

The rehearsal proceeded. A Psalm by Schneider
was gone through, the " Hallelujah Chorus " from the
''Messiah," and Weber's "Jubilee Overture," all practised
with care and intelligence, not rattled over as a task
The audience remained attentive and numerous till th.

200 LIFE OP MENDELSSOHN.

last chord, and then dispersed in happy anticipation of
the morrow; Dr. Mendelssohn, to be serenaded by the
young men of the town with some of the part-songs,
which make up so peculiar a feature in German vocal
music.

By six o'clock, A.M., on the first morning of the festi-
val, there was no possibility of sleeping in Brunswick.
Not only was the entire Blue Angel stirring and
clamorous for its breakfast: the whole town was blithely
alive. In every room of the opposite four-story house,
which seemed nodding into my little light chamber, the
work of adorning was busily going on, in one window,
the first flourish of the razor; in another, the last
shoulder-knot pinned on ? or the sash tied. But neither
gentlemen nor ladies denied themselves the pleasure of
throwing wide the casements, and leaning out into the
fresh autumnal sunshine, so often as the frequent sound
of creaking springs and jingling wheels, the leisurely
trot of horses, or the eager brawling of their drivers,
announced that another cargo of pleasurers was coming
in to enjoy the execution of Mendelssohn's " St. Paul."

By nine, every one was streaming towards the
Egydien Church, which, even at that hour, was three
parts full. A gayly varying sight was the audience.
Elegantly dressed girls, in the transparent and gay toi-
lettes of an English ball-room 3 might be seen sitting side
by side with the gypsy-colored, hard-hauded peasant

APPENDIX. 2Q A

women of the district, in their black caps gracefully
displaying the head, and picturesquely decorated with
pendent streamers of ribbon. Here, again, was a
comely youth tight-laced in his neat uniform, and every
hair of his mustache trimmed and trained to an agony
of perfection, squeezed up against a dirty, savage, half-
naked student, with his long, wild hair half-way down
his back, and his velveteen coat confined at the waist
with one solitary button, letting it be clearly seen that
neither shirt nor waistcoat was underneath. The
orchestra, on the other hand, had an effective appear-
ance of uniformity. The lady-singers, though all serv-
ing gratuitously, both amateurs and theatrical artists,
had wisely agreed to merge all individual fancies in an
inexpensive, but delicate and pretty uniform of white,
with large nosegay by way of ornament. The whole
assembly of orchestra and audience, thus heterogene-
ously composed, was cemented by one sympathetic desire
to honor a great musician. All eyes awaited Mendels-
sohn's (not the Duke of Brunswick's) coming. His
conductor's desk was wreathed with a fresh garland of
flowers. Upon it, beside the score of his oratorio, was
laid another more delicate bouquet, and for his refresh-
ment, a paper, if I mistake not, of those dainties in
\vhich every good German housewife is so skilful.

Precisely at ten o'clock, the performance began. I
had heard the oratorio of " St. Paul " two or three times

202 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

before, but had never thoroughly enjoyed it till then,
There was much, of course, in time, place, and sympa-
thy ; but, allowing for these influences as largely as may
be required, there is little modern music which gains so
much with every subsequent hearing as that of the " St.
Paul." How forcible in their simple truth are the effects !
How thrillingly expressed by the multipli cation of treble
voices and wind-instruments is the celestial apparition
in the scene of Saul's conversion ! How ferociously real
are the cries of the multitude at the stoning of St.
Stephen! How melodious, in its sweet holiness of
consolation, is the funeral chorus, "Oh, happy and
blest are they," when the proto-martyr is laid in his
grave!

In adverting to some of the claims of "St. Paul" on the
future, the scope it gives to the principal singers must
not be forgotten. Though it affords less opportunity for
separate display than most of Handel's oratorios, it still
contains a song of the very highest order for each voice
of the vocal quartet, for the soprano, the air "Jeru-
salem;" for the contralto, that delicious arioso, "But
the Lord is mindful of his own ; " for the bass, the
scena, " God, have mercy upon me ! " and for the
tenor, the cantabile, "Be thou faithful unto death!"
than which Handel himself has hardly left us a tenor
air deeper or more earnest in its expressiveness. Every
song, moreover, is not only tempting to declaim, ]>ut

APPENDIX. 203

agreeable to sing. From the date of the composition
of this oratorio till the last hour of his life, Mendelssohn
was increasingly anxious to produce effect by the ease,
beauty, and practicability of his vocal writing. The
above four songs were the work of happy hours ; and
their success may have contributed to that mellowing
of his style, and simplification of his manner, which
may be traced through the works of his short life.

In some respects, the performance of " St Paul " must
have satisfied its author. The chorus was extremely
good, clear in the delivery of its tone, and its precision
to be inferred from the tremendous sibilation on certain
words, to an amount of sssss-sforzando, rarely, in
1839, to be remarked at home, even in the performance
of the choruses, " For unto us a child is born/' or " From
the center/' both favorites with us, both full of the dan-
gerous sound. The absence of an organ to support and
blend the voices was a great loss. In the fugue at the
opening of the second part, and in most of the choruses,
this was sadly felt. It is one of the few English indis-
pensables which the Germans would do well to natural-
ize, and for the want of which, in grand sacred music,
not even the superiority of their orchestras, nor the
heartiness of zeal, such as characterized every chord of
the Brunswick chorus, can altogether satisfactorily com-
pensate. The solo exhibitions were, as usual, the least
admirable part of the performance ; yet I was told by

204 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN,

Kendelssohn that the great songs of the St. Paul" had
not hitherto been better executed in Germany.

I was sitting, on the second morning, rejoicing in the
rationality of a few hours' pause, when Dr. Mendelssohn
kindly paid me a visit. There were some manuscripts
of Sebastian Bach to be inspected. There was to be-
organ-playing in the cathedral. In short, it was to
be one of those mornings of musical lounging and lux-
ury, which, as regards real enjoyment of, and insight
into, the art, are sometimes worth a score of formal per-
formances. Once again, the friendly hospitality must
be dwelt on, which included in these choice pleasures
a total stranger, without his being allowed for a single
instant to feel himself tolerated or de trap.

The Bach manuscripts did not turn out any thing
very extraordinary. It was interesting to hear Men-
delssohn pronouncing on their authenticity with the
certainty of a Beckford, when examining a Cellini
carving or a jewel ; though, for such a thoroughgoing
intimacy, one might have been prepared by the spirit
which runs through the younger composer's harmonies,
especially in his later works, and by the circumstance
of his being one of the finest organ-players of his
time.

The interior of the cathedral in Brunswick is strik-
ing ? striking from its antiquity, and the air of bleak,
naked cheerlessness, which, if the unpleasant truth be

205

told, hardly ever fails to follow the steps of Lutheranism,
when possessing itself of a Catholic huilding. The organ-
case, though dolefully worm-eaten, and spoiled with
white paint, is a fine piece of carving. The instrument
was sadly out of order ; but Mendelssohn made it speak
most gloriously, winding up nearly an hour's magnificent
playing by one of Bach's grand fugues. - But the thing
which comes most vividly before me, in recalling that
morning, is the expression of love and dutiful reverence
on the faces of half a dozen urchins, who awaited the
composer, cap in hand, at the foot of the gallery-stairs.
Nothing analogous to it is found in English admiration
or French enthusiasm.

Brunswick dined in the interval between the organ-
playing and the commencement, at two o'clock, of the
second day's performance, in the church. This last
would hardly be accepted as sacred, according to the
English acceptation of the word ; for the programme
ran thus:

FIRST PART.

JUBILEE OVER-TUBE ....... WEBER.

ABAGIO (VIOLIN) ....... - - SPOHK.

.... ........ SCHNEIDER.

SECOND PART.

CONCERTO ^CLARIONET) ...... KLEIN.

SYMPHONY (C-MINOR) ....... BEETHOVEN.

HALLELUJAH CHORUS ....... HANDEL.

206 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

The Egydien Church, as before, was crowded. The
orchestra and chorus, as before, were sedulous and ener-
getic. "When the symphony of Beethoven was over, a
feu de joie of splendid bouquets, carefully hidden till
then, was discharged upon the conductor by the ladies.
But the climax of enthusiasm was yet to come. This
was reserved for the ball in the evening.

The scene of this festive ceremony, which ended with
the apotheosis of Mendelssohn, was the theatre, which
had been gayly decorated for the occasion, though not
sufficiently lighted. A suite of rooms had been tempo-
rarily added for supper. At the furthest depth of the
stage, a stately pavilion, draperied with white, had been
erected. This was at first concealed by the curtain,
which was kept down till the right moment, the arri-
val of the composer.* When he entered the theatre,
according to preconcerted signal, he was met by two
young girls, who led him gently forward, the curtain
slowly rising, to this shrine of honor : six other young
ladies, dressed as genii, there awaited him; and, after a
brief address from one of them, a laurel - crown was
placed on his head.

The last entertainment of the Brunswick Festival
was Dr. Mendelssohn's morning concert, given in the

* The reader of " Charles Auchester" will recall th vivid passage
in that book, which only amplifies in luxuriant detail the outline of
this.

APPENDIX. 207

saloon where the public dinner had been held. The
programme was excellent alike for its selection and its
brevity.

FIRST PABT.
OVERTURE.

AIR, " IL MIO TESORO " MOZART.

CONCERTO FOR PIANO (D-MINOR) . . . MENDELSSOHN.

SECOND PABT.

VlOLIN-CONCERTO MOLIQUE.

SERENADE (PIANO AND OKCHESTRA) . MENDELSSOHN.
SYMPHONY (A-MAJOR) BEETHOVEN.

The piano-forte playing was of course the chief treat.
It is rarely that I have been so delighted, without nov-
elty or surprise having some share in the delight. It
would have been absurd to expect much pianism, as
distinct from music, in the performance of one writing so
straightforwardly, and without the coquetries of em-
broidery, as Mendelssohn. Accordingly, his perform-
ance had none of the exquisite finesses of Moscheles,
on the score of which it has been elsewhere said that
" there is wit in his playing;" none of the delicate and
plaintive and spiritual seductions of Chopin, who s\vept
the keys with so insinuating and gossamer a touch, that
the crudest and most chromatic harmonies of his music
floated away under his hand, indistinct, yet not un pleas-
ing, like the wild and softened discords of the JEoliau
harp ; none of the brilliant extravagances of Liszt, by

208 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

which lie illuminates every composition lie undertakes
with a living but lightening fire, and imparts to it a soul
of passion, or a dazzling vivacity, the interpretation
never contradicting the author's intention, but more
poignant, more intense, more glowing, than ever the
author dreamed of. And yet no one that ever heard
Mendelssohn's piano-forte playing could find it dry,
could fail to be excited and fascinated by it, despite of
its want of all the caprices and colorings of his contem-
poraries. Solidity, in which the organ-touch is given
to the piano without the organ ponderosity ; spirit
(witness his execution to the finale of the "D-minor
Concerto ") animating, but never intoxicating, the ear ;
expression, which, making every tone sink deep, required
not the garnishing of trills and appoggiature, or the aid of
changes of time, were among its outward and salient
characteristics. Within and beyond all these, though
hard to be conveyed in words, there was to be felt a
mind clear and deep ; an appreciation of character and
form referring to the inner spirit rather than the outward
details ; the same which gives so exquisitely Southern a
character to barcarolle and gondola tune in the com-
poser's " Songs without Words," and its fresh, Ossianic,
sea-wildness to his overture to the " Hebrides ;" the same
which enabled him, when a little boy, in the happiest
piece of descriptive music of our time, to illustrate
Shakspeare's exquisite fairy-scenes neither feebly nr

APPENDIX. 2( 9

anwoithily. Demanding as it does execution without
grimace ; fancy, cheerful and excursive, but never mor-
bid ; and feeling, under the control of a serene, not slug-
gish spirit, Mendelssohn's is eminently manly music,
and loses effect beyond that of almost any other of his
contemporaries, when attempted by female hands.

The concerto and the serenade were too soon over,
things to be regretted as not lasting longer, for the sake
of the manner in which they were performed, and be-
cause they were almost the last music of the evening.
The applause which attended them was what might
have been expected, what was deserved. Then came
the beautiful symphony by Beethoven, which was hardly
relished according to its merits ; for who can settle
himself to enjoy a last pleasure? then drove up the
primitive equipages, and the remarkable charioteers I
had watched arrive in such a different mood but three
days before ; and the glory of the " celebrity," as Dr.
Burney primly called the Handel Commemoration in
Westminster Abbey, was over !

210 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

n.

MENDELSSOHN'S SISTER AND MOTHER*

THE amateurs in Berlin are all little maestri: they
dabble in composition, have most of them the score
of a mass, sinfonia, or overture, locked up in their
desks; the consciousness of which helps to sweeten
their lives, and gives them the smiling satisfaction which
Mr. Bickerstaff discovered in the girl who embroidered
his garters." Thus writes a cynical critic ; but I found
traces of taste and knowledge everywhere, and know
that they possessed one amateur pianiste and composer
of no ordinary force and feeling. I allude to Madame
Hensel, the sister of Mendelssohn, whose sudden death
(in the midst of her music) gave to her brother's over-
wrought nerves and wasted frame the shock from which
he never recovered, which, indeed, hastened his own
decease. This cherished sister, Fanny, had been the
companion of the great musician's pursuits, during the
years of childhood, in the days when they used to take
five-minute lessons together, and in later days also,
when (as I have heard him tell) they vied with each
other which could best execute a certain difficult left-
hand passage in Kalkbrenner's " Effusio Musica." Had
Madame Plensel been a poor man's daughter, she must
have become known to the world by the side of Madama

APPENDIX. 211

Schumann- and Madame Pleyel, as a female pianist of
the very highest class. Like her brother, she had in
her composition a touch of that southern vivacity which
is so rare among the Germans. More feminine than
his, her playing bore a strong family resemblance to
her brother's in its fire, neatness, and solidity. Like
himself, too, she was as generally accomplished as she
was specially gifted.

Now that all are gone, when I am speaking of that
most delightful artistic musical circle of Berlin, the
one she adorned and animated, it is fitting, and not
indelicate, to speak, too, of the head of the family house,
to whom Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn owed so much
of all that made them charming, the excellent and
accomplished mother of the composer. There have
lived few women more honorably distinguished than she
was by acquirement ; by that perfect propriety, which
Horace Walpole has justly called the grace of declining
life; by a cordial hospitality, the sincerity of which
there was no mistaking ; by an easy humor in conversa-
tion, a knowledge of men and books, and a lively inter-
est in the younger generation, which, at her age, is only
found in the brightest and best of their species. It is
true that she had no common motive for keeping pace
with the world of Europe, in the fame of her son, and
in the brilliant succession of guests whom her daughter
assembled; but, apart from this, she possessed a fun<J

212 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

of intelligence, a habit of mind bred amidst constant
intercourse with the best things and persons of all
countries, which belonged to herself, and remained with
her to the last. "With such a mother, and such a
brother, it was hardly likely that one like Madame
Hensel should bury her talents in a napkin, or let them
waste. Her morning music will be spoken of and rec-
ollected with cordial regret by all who retrace the story
of the art, in Berlin, during the first half of this
century.

I shall never think of the life-size oil-sketches taken
from life in Borne, which, in 1840, adorned the studio
of Professor Hensel, without recalling the running ac-
companiment (as it were) of the graceful and solid
compositions in which his wife also called up her char-
acteristic remembrances of her Italian journey. And
the delight with which she spoke of her brother, and
the cordiality with which she welcomed his friends from
England, are as vividly present to me now, when I
write, as if I had only an instant since seen her bright
face (the " Miriam" of her husband's picture) ; had only
just heard the pleasant, racy English, "You will excuse
my poor little music of my own," with which she opened
her piano. It will be long before Berlin, or any other
capital, can show a musical circle more delightfully
composed, or animated by brighter presiding spiritSj
than that of Madame HenseL

APPENDIX.. 213

in.

MENDELSSOHN'S INVITATION TO BERLIN.

MENDELSSOHN was not wholly a stranger to the stage
of the Prussian capital. To the production there and
withdrawal thence of one of his early operas, " Cama-
cho's Wedding," he never referred willingly. Both the
work and its composer were, probably, heartlessly
treated in his own town. But though posterity may
some day fall back on the opera with that toleration
bred among its writer's later successes, which will in-
vest every line from his pen with a certain charm, no
one can pretend that the opera per se deserved to live.
It is among the few published compositions by its
writer to which the epithet " crude " may be applied.
The pedantry in it oppresses the fancy. There is a
taste of Berlin pretension in the music, which may
be the reason why the prophet did not find honor at
home.

Be it good or bad, however, the fate of " Camacho's
Wedding" contributed to keep Mendelssohn from the
stage. By the four theatrical works which he pro-
duced (as has been just said) " on command," as much
as by the fragment of " Lorelei," which was his swan
song, we may divine the extent of our loss in his
silence. Who will not regret, that, in place of the

214 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Court Commissions, Mendelssohn's royal patron did
not order a simple, honest, entire opera ? The circum-
stance of his having to write for the delectation of
princes, courtiers, professors, and men of letters, in no
respect exempted the composer from the annoyances
and postponements which seem inevitably to belong to
the production of theatrical music. He had to fight
with pedantic fopperies or inane criticisms in the pro-
duction of his music to Shakspeare's fairy play, and
with caprices no less teasing in the delayed execution
of his " Athalie " music. " Antigone " seemed to come
out under a brighter star ; and he always referred to its
first performance as to one of the good days of which
(God be thanked!) his life had so many. But, under
the best of circumstances, these works are, by their
nature, rarely accessible, appealing only to a peculiar
and limited public ; liable, when produced, to miscon-
struction and failure of effect, in no respect ascribable
to their musical qualitie? , and thus they can hardly be
esteemed as important gifts to the musical stage of
Germany.

APPENDIX. 215

MENDELSSOEET AS A COMPOSER.

IT will be thought by many that the present is too
early a period for pronouncing a fair judgment on
Mendelssohn as a composer, or for venturing to point
out the place he is destined to hold in the history of
German music. Immediate survivors are, and should
be, at the mercy of their sympathies. That which is
the newest enjoys, in its very novelty, a temporary
advantage, which must be allowed for as a flattering, if
not a false light. There are many reasons, furnished
by both theory and precedent, for waiting. On the
other hand, the temptation to speak is great in the
present case ; seeing that a section of musicians is al-
ready professing to take leave of Mendelssohn, as one
who has closed a great period; and, after whom, no
more great works shall be produced, save by an utter
re-arrangement of every known form, principle, and
material of music. The art, they say, when fully ripe,
must begin to rot, or else be bora entirely anew.

But this mechanical speculation and systematizing
cannot be admitted to dispose of the future prospects of
German music. Let a few examples be offered to
these dealers of doom and discouragement. Have mat-
ters hitherto proceeded with this chronological regu-

216 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

iarity, this regular going up the ladder and down
again ? Does the recognized supremacy of Beethoven's
great symphonies close the ear to Weber's overtures ?
Or, to take a yet more extreme instance : there is no
part of a concert, whatsoever he its ingredients, at
which the odd, delicate, wayward, yet thoroughly artis-
tic music of Chopin, if rendered in any thing like the
right spirit, comes too late. For delicious, spontaneous
melody, and for a Shakspeariaa profusion of the clear-
est, most heautiful, and noblest thoughts, Mendelssohn
cannot be rated as the equal of either Mozart or of
Beethoven. All three were masters of musical science
and orchestral combination ; yet the symphonies, over-
tures, and quartets of Mendelssohn can be played after
those of Beethoven without loss of effect, whereas those
of Mozart cannot. Do instances like these illustrate
the existence of formal and sequentially necessary pref-
erences ? Do they indicate to us a world of which the
limits have been reached, and in which constructive
ingenuity has been exhausted ? where the public, more-
over, has been rendered so fastidious by its worship of
supreme genius, that it will bow to nothing less supreme ?
Assuredly not. Leaving this theory of degradation to
those who are concerned in proving it, let us see what
characteristics of Mendelssohn's genius can be assem-
bled, without rhapsody or false enthusiasm.

The amazing musical activity of his brief career has

APPENDIX. 217

hardly jet been sufficiently considered. It was not
maintained at the sacrifice of every other faculty and
pursuit. To use a phrase applied by himself to an-
other : " Not only did he love to give pleasure, but he
would have some for himself too." He could manage
to read and to think, and to make himself the delight of
the choicest and most intellectual society, wherever he
went ; he kept up his taste for painting, and for looking
at pictures ; he was devoted in all his domestic rela-
tions; his time was wasted by the importunities of
coarse and self-interested people, from whose assaults
there was no possibility of entirely escaping. He did
the work of a strong and busy man, for some years, as
merely conductor of concerts and festivals in Germany
and in England ; and yet the list of complete works
produced by him, and sanctioned as such, is, its bulk
considered, among the longest lists by the great com-
posers that could be cited. The mass of unpublished
manuscript, too, that will never see the light, is known,
by the thematic catalogue of his works left behind him,
to be still very large. And with him there was no
slovenliness, no taking for granted, no gross and blurred
manuscript, no hurried pages, no flagrant platitudes
thrust in to do emergency work. His music was the
best that he could make; and its high finish is only
equalled by its evenness of quality. He was always
willing to retouch a new composition, without that irri-

218 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

table finicality, which, enamoured of retouching, ends
by depriving the work of all nature a"nd proportion,
It is well known that the "Elijah" was largely altered
after its first performance. The " Walpurgis Night *
lay unfinished for many years : so, I believe, did the
third symphony, in A minor; and the symphony in
A major was withheld from the press during its com-
poser's lifetime, because he expressed his intention of
remodelling the first movement. He was as consci-
entious and exact as he was quick. I can hardly name
one bar of slighted music which bears his signature.
Some hard and dry, and, as he called them, " rebellious "
compositions were put forth in his young days; but
they were knotted up, as it were, with close care and
pains, not dashed off with insolence. They were the
works of a boy anxious to prove himself a man among
the double-refined intelligences of those by whom he
was surrounded; and parading his science, his knowl-
edge of the ancients, his mastery over all the learning
of his art. Tear by year, less aridity, more grace,
flexibility, and versatility, marked the thinking and
writing of Mendelssohn. There is the distance of a
long life betwixt his early stringed quartet in A mi-
nor, with the Lied prefixed, and his last quintet in
B fiat, with its adagio (of all modern movements tho
most grandiose and impassioned) and its scherzo on a
theme

APPENDIX. 219

*-*

as quaintly national as some old English " fancy," danced
under the mistletoe at Christmas-time, or on the green
at May Day,

That Mendelssohn possessed a natural vein of such
flowing melody as Mozart and Beethoven commanded,
cannot be claimed for him. Yet, as a melodist, he has
been misunderstood and undervalued in no common
degree ; the fate, by the way, of every new composer
who is more than a melodist. Those who have passed
hasty judgment on him as "dry" have done so rather
on the strength of some one work which does not suit
their humor, than on the bulk of his writings. Further,
to every man's definition of melody, there goes more of
temperament, association, and extraneous sympathy than
professors or amateurs will willingly admit. To those
who have estimated Mendelssohn as poor in melody, let
me recall, from his instrumental works alone, such
themes as the slow movement of his first piano-forte
concerto, the slow movement to his symphony in A
major, the theme of his overture u Melusina," the
minuet of his quartet in D major, the theme of the
andante to his first sonata with violoncello, all the sub
jects of the several movements of his violin-concert,
- the notturno in his "Midsummer Night's Dream"
music, the scherzo in his "A-miiior Symphony." If

220 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

the list be not lengthened, it is from no want of
example.

Or is variety brought forward as an indispensable
requisite for the genius who is to rank among those of
the first class ? Here, again, I think Mendelssohn will
be found to stand the test : in fact, the admirable pro-
priety of his productions proves versatility as the attri-
bute of one who wrote for every conceivable purpose,
if not in every style. "Who, for instance, that heard his
"Ave Maria," or his "Lauda Sion," could fancy either
a Protestant hymn? Who that listened to his treat-
ment of the choral in the " Hymn of Praise," could im-
agine that noble movement belonging to a 8 Catholic
service of praise ? The choruses to Eacine's " Athalie/'
and to the translation of " GEdipus," are, in some re-
spects, written under the same conditions. Yet the
former is at once as French and Israelitish as the latter
is German and Greek. There is not in Mehul no,
not even in Auber a touch of melody more perfectly
Gallic in its humor than this subject in the introductory
chorus to " Athalie,"

Yet how old-world and Jewish is the leading phrase of

the overture, with its antiphonic repetition, in another

key ; while the wail on the passage to the English words,

" David's regal home ! n

APPENDIX. 221

Is a true strain from the harp, that, being hung on the
willows of Babylon* could not give forth "the Lord's
song in a strange land."

What the music of the Greeks was, we can less
dream or divine. Its rules bore, so far as we can
gather, no such relation to our present canons of musi-
cal beauty, as did the rules of their sculpture and archi-
tecture to those of the moderns. But do not a sym-
metrical beauty, a sensual grandeur, a spiritual glory,
akin to those of the Ilissus, breathe through that deli-
cious chorus in the " CEdipus,"

" Thou comest here to the land, friend! "
so flowing, so grave, so enticing, and withal so volup-
tuous ? I know of nothing in choral music more sonor-
ous in tone, more temperately rich in accompaniment^
moving more gradually with a sonorous and stately
crescendo, than the close of that movement. There not
merely is the mellow fulness of the tenor instruments
admirable, but the form of triplets in the accompani-
ment to the passage which sings the praise of the
" mighty God Poseidon " is new ; and, by the flux and
reflux of the figure,

indicates, as closely and poetically as art can indicate,
" the swell of Summer's ocean.."

222 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

What Beethoven was to the rivulet, in his " Pastoral
Symphony," Mendelssohn is to the great ocean, in the
close of this admirable Greek chorus, and in the im-
mense opening of his " Meeresstille " overture: the
former a sea-picture in music, which may be paired off
with the " Quos Ego " of Rubens, or the notable " Tri-
umph of Galatea ; " the latter, a piece of calm as limit-
less, as deep, as sublime, as any spread forth on his
canvas by the great Van der Yelde. The above, be it
lastly observed, are from the same fountain of inspira-
tion as could turn into a volcano, flinging out fierce and
stormy fire, when the subject was a Pagan revel, as the
" First Walpurgis Night ; " or, with a wish, could change
like a dream into showers of dew amid the moonlight,
bearing the delicate and freakish burden of a "roun-
del and a faery song " to the most exquisite faery poetry
in the world, that of Shakspeare's " Midsummer
Night's Dream."

I could continue these illustrations of variety, from
the single and concerted songs of Mendelssohn, to a
great length. In his instrumental music, I could point
to the novelty of form given by him to the scherzo, to
his having originated the " Songs without Words," were
further examples needed. It is true that favorite chords,
intervals, closes, and phrases recur again in his music ;
that he had a shy way of his own of returning to his
first subjects, as, if the humor was to perplex, not to sa1>

APPENDIX. 223

isfy, tlie ear ; a plainness, amounting to meagreness, in
the sotting of his instrumental melodies, arising from
the most Spartan resolution to avoid meretriciousness
of garniture ; and that these things establish a manner,
a manner at once tempting and not hard to imitate.
But from some such manner 110 musical composer is
free, save Beethoven ; who may be said, with a pardon-
able stretch of language, to be only recognizable by his
resembling no one, not even himself.

Once more, as regards devotional elevation of tone,
wrought out in forms of the utmost originality, we shall
find Mendelssohn rising in proportion to the dignity of
his subject. His sacred works are so well known that it
is almost needless to offer instances from them ; though
there are one or two numbers (to use the technical
phrase) of such rare felicity that it becomes a pleasure
to recall them. Among these are the burial chorus,
Oh, happy and blest are they!" in "St. Paul;" the
tenor solo, " The shadows of death," in the " Hymn of
Praise ; " and the entire passage from " Elijah," begin-
ning with the persecution of the triumphant prophet by
Jezebel, which conducts Elijah through the wilderness,
where he is comforted by angels, and lastly is permitted
to hear the " still, small voice," announcing the coming
of the Most High, and to behold a vision of God en-
throned among his cherubim and seraphim. It may be
paid, without fear of disproof, that the "Eex tremendse*

224 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

and li Conf utatis " of Mozart's " Requiem," and the lof
tiest portions of Beethoven's Masses, do not exceed in
expression and power the four choruses, " He watching
over Israel," " He that shall endure to the end," " Be-
hold! God the Lord passed by," and "Holy, holy !"
taken as a series. With regard to such inspirations,
there is neither doubt, nor fear of the future. They are,
as Beethoven proudly said of his own music, " safe/*

Eegarding Mendelssohn's skill in managing his or-
chestra, or his science as a writer in parts, there has
never been, so far as I am aware, the slightest dispute.

Surely the above list of characteristics, then, makes
up no common claim for a place among the noblest
worthies of German music, for him by whom they were
possessed. What further he might have achieved, had
his appointed time in this world been longer, it is idle
to dream. Those who knew him, knew that he could
not and would not stand still ; that every year of life
brought with it its ripening and sweetening and deep-
ening influences, and new power, and new pleasure, and
new hope in his new fame; that he felt how much
might still be done in music, and longed to try to do it.
Vain was this, as are all earthly longings ; and yet not
wholly vain. Such very aspiration did its part in com-
pleting the life and character of one who was happy
because of his gifts, and because of the love that they
brought him; but happier in his honest and ceaseless

APPEND fX. 225

lesire to brighten and purify and extend them for the
service of music, and the service of his country. There
may come a day, yet, when the example of Mendels-
sohn's life, still more than of his works, may be invoked
in Germany. May this come soon, for the sake of a
people who should be as great as they are gifted, and
for the sake of an art which has risen to such eminence
in their land !

V.

THE LAST DATS OF MEXDELSSOHNV

I PASSED the last days of August, 1847, beside Men-
delssohn, at Interlachen, in Switzerland, very shortly
before his return to Leipzig, and that fatal attack
of illness which ended in his death there, on the 4th
of November. He looked aged and sad, and stooped
more than I had ever before seen him do ; but his smile
had never been brighter, nor his welcome more cordial.
It was early in the morning of as sunny and exhila-
rating a day as ever shone on Switzerland that we got
to Interlachen, and then and there I must see the place
and its beauties. "We can talk about our business
better out of the house ; " and forth we went, at first
up an I down under the walnut-trees, in sight of the
15

226 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Jungfrau, until, by degrees, the boarding-houses legan
to turn out their inhabitants. Then we struck off
through the wood to a height called, I think, the Ho-
henbuhl, commanding the Lake of Thun, and the plain,
with Neuhaus and Unterseen, with the snow-moun-
tains all around us. It was while we were climbing up
to this nook that the tinkling of the cow-bells, which
adds to, rather than takes from, the solitude of moun-
tain scenery, came up from some pasture-land not far
off. My companion stopped immediately, listened,
smiled, and began to sing,

from the overture to u Guillaume Tell." " How beau-
tifully Rossini has found that ! " he exclaimed. " All
the introduction, too, is truly Swiss. I wish I could
make some Swiss music 1 But the storm in his over-
ture is very bad." And he went off again into the
pastoral movement ; speaking, afterwards, of Swiss see*
nery with a strength of affection that almost amounted
to passion, "I like the pine-trees, and the very smell
of the old stones with the moss upon them." Then he
told, with almost a boyish pleasure, of excursions that
he had taken with his happy party of wife and children,
" We will come here every year, I am resolved. How
pleasant it is to sit talking on this bench, with the glon-

APPENDIX. 227

iras Jungfrau over there, after your Hanover square
rooms in London!"

But Mendelssohn must needs be drawn back into the
concert-room, even at Interlachen. A new composition
for the opening of the magnificent Concert Hall in Liv-
erpool had been proposed to him ; and this was to be
talked over. He had already a new cantata in view, I
think for Frankfort; and mentioned some text from
"Die Hermanns chlacht," of Klopstock, as the subject
which he had selected. " But that," he said, with his
own merry laugh, " would never do for Liverpool. No :
we must find something else." He spoke of Napoleon's
passage of the Alps as an event he wanted to see
arranged for music, again repeating, "I must write
something about this country ; but that, again, will not
do for England!" I mentioned Wordsworth's ode on
the u Power of Sound," as a noble poem, full of pic-
tures, from which, perhaps, portions might be detached
fit for a composer's purposes ; but he seemed to treat
the idea of describing the various effects of music in
music as too vague and hackneyed, and, moreover, ob-
jectionable, as having been done completely by Handel,
in his "Alexander's FeasL" Then he began to fear
that he could get nothing ready by the time mentioned
"for you know," he went on, "something of mine is
to be sung in the Dom, at Cologne, when the nave is
thrown open. That will be an opportunity 1 But I

228 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

stall not live to see it ;" and he paused, and put I is
hand to his head, with a sudden expression of weariness
and suffering.

He had composed much music, he said, since he had
been at Interlachen; and mentioned that stupendous
quartet in F minor, which we have since known as one
of the most impassioned outpourings of sadness existing
in instrumental music, beside some English -service
music for the Protestant Church. " It has been verj
good for me to work/' he went on, glancing for the first
time at the great domestic calamity (the death of Ma-
dame Hensel) which had struck him down immediately
on his return from England ; " and I wanted to make
something sharp and close and strict " (interlacing his
fingers as he spoke) : " so that church music has quite
suited me. Yes : I have written a good deal since I
have been here ; but I must have quiet, or I shall
die!"

I will not swear to the very order of words which
Mendelssohn spoke ; but that day is too brightly printed
in my memory, for a topic or a trait or a characteristic
expression to be forgotten. Life has too few such.

I may be permitted to say, that his use of English
was much after the manner described. He understood
and wrote our language thoroughly well : the slight
touch of the foreigner in his speaking made it all the
more racy. Sometimes, Ms epithets were most pre

APPENDIX. 229

cious. I remember once his venturing his displeasure
against a songstress whose behavior had offended him,
by declaring that " she was like an arrogant cook."

In answer to the inquiries concerning the opera on
which he was understood to be engaged, he spoke long
and freely concerning the theatre, and his own plans
and purposes with respect to it. " The time has come
when I must try what I can do," was his language ; "and,
after I have written four or five operas ? perhaps I shall
make something good. But it is so difficult to find a
subject." Then he discussed many which had been pro-
posed to him ; speaking in the strongest manner of the
unauthorized use of his name which had been made in
London by announcing the " Tempest," as having been
commenced by him with a view to its performance at a
given period. " The book is too French," he said ; " and
the third act is thoroughly bad. I would not have
touched the opera till all that had been entirely altered.
And I never would tie myself to time in such a hasty
manner ! No : when I have finished something, I dare
say that I shall get it produced somewhere." He then
went on to talk over other S'hakspearian subjects ; in
particular the " Winter's Tale," a sketch from which
had been laid before him. This seemed, in some degree,
to have engaged his liking. " Something very merry,"
said he, " could be made with Autolycus." How merry
he could have made it, the world has since learned by

230 LIFE OF MENDBLSSOHN.

the publication of his operetta, in which the knavish
peddler Kauz plays so notable a part. Truer comedy
does not exist in German music not even in the
most comical portions of Mozart's " Die Entfuhrung"
than the dancing song of this precious knave, or the
part taken by him in the serenade of the village girl,
with its j sentimental caricature of the German watch-
man's droning call.

" We have no one in Germany who can write opera
books," Mendelssohn continued. "If Kotzebue had
been alive he had ideas!" and he warmed himself
up as he talked, by recalling how a prosaic occasion of
mere parade the opening of the new theatre at Pesth
could inspire Kotzebue with such a characteristic
invention as his " Ruins of Athens," so good for Beet-
hoven to set. u Well, I must do my best with 'Loreley ;'
for Geibel has taken great trouble with the poem. We
shall see." And then, again, he broke off suddenly, and
put his hand to his head. "But what is the use of
planning any thing ? I shall not live/'

Who could attend to such a foreboding in one appar-
ently so full of energy and forecast and enterprise ? 1
confess, that I ascribed it mainly to the impression left
by the fearful trial which Mendelssohn had recently
sustained in the loss of the sister to whom he was so
tenderly attached. Other painful ideas seemed to rise
before him. He spoke with more fear than hope of the

231

fermenting state of opinion in Germany, and its <Jisas-
trous influences upon morals, education, good citizenship,
on all that keeps society sound, and makes home
happy. He dwelt on the impatience of duty ; on the
sympathy shown to error and license ; on the disregard
of obligation ; on the difficulties preparing for Germa-
ny by such perverse and preferred lawlessness among
the middle classj with tears in his eyes : for never
was man of any country more sincerely, affectionately
national. He spoke, too, and bitterly, of the folly
and falsehood of those in high places, who had alienated
the hearts which they might so easily have attached,
and who had demoralized, under pretext of educating, a
great people ; giving illustrations, instances, anecdotes
(which I need not say are sacred), with a nervous
earnestness which showed how seriously and apprehen-
sively his bright and quick mind had been at work on
these subjects. Then he turned to his own future plans.
I had often before heard him discuss that point in every
artist' s career, at which retirement from close personal
intercourse with the public is desirable ; but never so
emphatically as that day. He was determined to give
up presenting himself to the public so freely as he had
done. " When one is no longer young, one should not
go about playing and concert-giving ; " and he expressed
his strong wish, almost amounting to an intention, of
settling down somewhere in the Rhine Land, not ic

232 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

any town, there to devote himself more eagerly than
ever to composition. "I shall be near England," he
added, " and can come over as often as you wish ; and
I shall be within reach of our towns, with all these new
railroads : but I must live quietly, and get rid of all that
noise and interruption, if I am to live." And again
was repeated the mournful presage ; and the glow faded
from his face, and the sad worn look came back which
it pained the very heart to see.

Later in the day, I was shown, with eager pleasure,
the drawings made by him at Interlachen; for he
drew landscapes faithfully, if not altogether gracefully,
though in color " that green " was owned by him to be
a stumbling-block. I was shown, too, his piano, "a
shocking thing," as he called it ; " but I am so glad that
there was no decent piano in Interlachen ! This will
do to try a chord on when I want it ; but I do not wish
to make finger music." And he touched it, the last
time that I heard him touch a piano, that I might
hear what an old kettle it was!

We were bound for Freiburg, and I asked him much
about Mooser's famous organ. He said that he had
heard wonders concerning its vox liumana stop. " How
odd," he continued, "that such an expressive thing,
which can almost talk, should be made merely of two
bits of wood ! " I pressed him earnestly to go on
with us, and try this marvel for himself. "No," he

APPENDIX. 233

eaid, laughingly, " those organists always like no one to
play but themselves. There is always some difficulty,
and then there is the noise ! I must give up organ*
playing; and, besides, winter is coming, and we had
better draw quietly homewards." There was some
talk, too, of his being obliged soon to make a profes-
sional journey to Vienna, which further limited his
time. In short, never had I seen him so full of plans ;
and surely, never, in the annals of any art, had artist
more honorably arrived at well-merited and universal
fame. Vanity of vanities !

The second day of our stay at Interlachen was cloudy,
with occasional torrents of rain : all the mountains were
u straitly shut up." Mendelssohn spent nearly the
whole day with us: indeed, I never was near him,
without being reminded of what we are told of Sir
Walter Scott, that he was as lavish of good- will and
time in the entertainment of his friends as if he had no
other earthly thing to do. When and how he managed
to write, were not easy to discover. He spoke again of
Freiburg ; and, for half an hour, relented, and would
go there with us : and then, when he relapsed into his
less enterprising resolution, he offered us, instead, some
playing on a poor little organ that was there. He had
stumbled upon a solitary village on the lake of Brienz,
to which there was no proper road ; he had found the
church-door open, and the organ open, and nobody -" tn

234 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

prevent him;" and had been up there to play once '/t
twice. The beauty and loneliness of the place, and the
easy access to the instrument, had taken strong hold of
his imagination. He would take us there that after-
noon, and make a little music for us.

It was a gray, sullen, cold day, with passing showers,
making an awning necessary for the boat ; for by boat
only could we get to Ringgenberg. There is something
curiously secluded and quiet in the aspect of its little
gray church, which stands on a knoll close to the lake,
and is approached by rude steps carpeted with maiden
hair and moss, and the small-leafed clinging ivy. That
day, too, as before, the church-door chanced to be open,
and the organ was accessible. It is the work of a Val-
laisan maker, not super-excellent in tone, it may be
supposed; but its pretty, gay-looking case, nevertheless,
gives a certain air of splendor and fascination to that
remote place of peasant worship. A peasant boy was
presently found, willing, for a few latzen, to blow the
bellows as long as Mendelssohn liked ; and he sat down

I have since learned, for the last time that he ever

sat down to an organ for the pleasure of his three
auditors. It seems to me now as if he never could
have played more nobly. After one or two movements
by Sebastian Bach, he began an improvisation in C
minor, which took the canonical form of a prelude and
fugue ; his fancy kindling as he went on, and his face lit

APPENDIX. 235

up by that serene and elevated smile, the highest and
most beautiful of its many expressions, which all
who knew him must remember, while he drew forth
those long and rich chains of sound which
"bring all heaven before the eyes,"

as old Milton sang. I feel, when I think of this organ-
playing, as if I had taken leave of the greatest music
for ever : since, in that exercise of his art, the amount
of science he would bring was animated by a radiant
fancy often dispensed with on like occasions ; the want
of which is supposed to be disguised by the glory of the
sound, and the skilful intertexture of the parts. More
perfectly, every genial sympathy, every sense of calm
practical approval, could not be gratified. There was
the true, gracious, gifted man, old in experience, but
young in the quickness of his sensibilities, to be heard,
that day it seems to me more remarkably than ever.
He was giving and receiving pleasure without parade,
and from a store which had never been fuller of the
highest thoughts and the richest fancies. Such things
must come to an end; but they are never to be for-
gotten.

In the evening, chance brought the conversation on
the ground of Italian music. He spoke, again, in warm
tones rf admiration, of Rossini's " Guillaume Tell;" and,
to my surprise, with a good-natured cordiality, of Doni-
eetti'a " Fille du Regiment." " It is so merry," he said.

236 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

" with so much, of the real soldier's life in it. They call
it bad ; and to be sure," he continued, with a half-hu
morous tone of self-correction, "it is surprising how
easily one can become used to bad music ! " Then he
began to ask about Verdi, having heard that there
was something like a new effect in some of his finales ;
and he would have this described, and shown to him, as
well as could be done. He expressed a wish, too, to
hear Handel's organ-concertos properly played, speak-
ing about them doubtfully, and with hesitation, because
of the frivolous and old-fashioned passages for solo stops,
with which they were full ; talked eagerly of the Grand
Opera at Paris, as of a theatre for which one day he
might be asked to write (I almost think that some
negotiations had passed on the subject) ; and referred to
his sojourn in Rome, as one which had been full of the
highest and most important influences on his career. It
was apropos of Rome, that some one mentioned Shelley's
" Cenci," which had been given to him by one of his
English friends. He spoke of it with almost angry
dislike. " No : it is too horrible ! it is abominable ! I
cannot admire such a poem."

The next morning, Mendelssohn drove with us to
Lauterbrunnen. The view of the Jungfrau and the
Silberhorn was superb as we went up the valley ; nor
can ever have the fall of the Staubbach looked more
magical than it did in the bright light of that late

APPENDIX. 237

summer day, its waters, gleaming like a shower of
rockets, launched over the edge of the high cliff; their
expanded fires spreading and mingling as they fell and
faded. Almost my last distinct remembrance of Men-
delssohn is, seeing him standing within the arch of the
rainbow, which, as every reader of " Manfred " knows,
the Witch of the Alps flings around the feet of the cas-
cade, looking upward, rapt and serious, thoroughly
enjoying the scene. My very last is the sight of him
turning down the road, to wind back to Interlachen
alone ; while we turned up to cross the "Wengern Alp to
Grindelwald. I thought even then, as I followed his
figure, looking none the younger for the loose dark coat
and the wide-brimmed straw-hat bound with black
crape, which he wore, that he was too much depressed
and worn, and walked too heavily. ; But who could
have dreamed that his days on earth were so rapidly
drawing to a close?

238 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

KELLSTAB'S ACCOUNT OF MENDELSSOHN'S
VISIT, WHILE A BOY, TO GOETHE.

T UDWIG RELLSTAB, a German writer of con-
^-^ siderable reputation, published, a few years since,
in Germany, two volumes of his autobiography, replete
with interesting gossip about distinguished men. He
tells the following tale of the meeting of the author of
" Faust," and the composer of " Elijah : "

" In the evening, we assembled in Goethe's rooms to
iea ; for he had invited a large party of his Weimar
musical acquaintances to make them acquainted with
the boy's extraordinary talents. Presently Goethe
made his appearance : he came from his study, and had
a habit at least I generally noticed it of waiting
till all the guests were assembled, ere he showed him-
self. Till that period, his son and daughter-in-law did
the duties of host in the most amiable way. A certain
solemnity was visible among the guests, prior to the
entrance of the great poet ; and even those who stood
on terms of intimacy with him underwent a feeling of
veneration. His slow, serious walk ; his impressive
features, which expressed the strength rather than

APPENDIX. 239

weakness of old age ; the lofty forehead ; fche ^hit
abundant hair ; lastly, the deep voice, and slow way of
speaking, all united to produce the effect. His 'good
evening ' was addressed to all ; but he walked up to
Zelter first, and shook his hand cordially. Felix Men-
delssohn looked up, with sparkling eyes, at the snow-
white head of the poet. The latter, however, placed
his hands kindly on the boy's head, and said, ' Now you
shall play us something.' Zelter nodded his assent.

" The piano was opened, and lights arranged on the
desk. Mendelssohn asked Zelter, to whom he displayed
a thoroughly childish devotion and confidence, 'What
shall I play?'

"'Well, what you can/ the latter replied, in his
peculiarly sharp voice ; ' whatever is not too difficult
for you/

" To me, who knew what the boy could do, and that
no task was too difficult for him, this seemed an unjust
depreciation of his faculties. It was at length arranged
that he should play a fantasia; which he did to the
wonder of all. But the young artist knew when to
leave off; and thus the effect he produced was all the
greater. A silence of surprise ensued when he raised
his hands from the keys after a loud finale.

" Zelter was the first to interrupt the silence in his
humorous way, by saying aloud, ' Ha ! you must have
been dreaming of kobolds and dragons : why, that went

240 LIFE OJ? MENDELSSOHN.

over stick and stone !' At the same time theie was a
perfect indifference in his tone, as if there were nothing
remarkable in the matter. Without doubt, the teacher
intended to prevent, in this way, the danger of a too
brilliant triumph. The playing, however, as it could
not well otherwise, aroused the highest admiration of
all present; and Goethe, especially, was full of the
warmest delight. He encouraged the lad, in whose
childish features joy, pride, and confusion were at once
depicted, by taking his head between his hands, patting
him kindly, and saying jestingly, ' But you will not get
off with that. You must play more pieces before we
recognize your merits.'

< But what shall I play ? ' Felix asked : < Herr Pro-
fessor/ he was wont to address Zelter by this title, -
' what shall I play now ? *

"I cannot say that I have properly retained the pieces
the young virtuoso now performed; for they were nu-
merous. I will, however, mention the most interesting.

" Goethe was a great admirer of Bach's fugues, which

musician of Berka, a little town about ten miles from
Weimar, came to play to him repeatedly. Felix was
therefore requested to play a fugue of the grand old
master. Zelter selected it from the music-book ; and
the boy played it without any preparation, but with
perfect certainty.

" Goethe's delight grew with the boy's extraordinary

APPENDIX. 241

powers. Among other things, he requested him to play
a minuet.

" ' Shall I play you the loveliest in the whole world ?
he asked, with sparkling eyes.

" < Well, and which is that ? '

" He played the minuet from tf Don Giovanni.'

" Goethe stood by the instrument, listening ; joy glis-
tening in his features. He wished for the overture of
the opera after the minuet ; but this the player roundly
declined, with the assertion, that it could not be played
as it was written, and nobody dared make any altera-
tion in it. He, however, offered to play the overture
to ' Figaro.' He commenced it with a lightness of
touch, such certainty and clearness as I never heard
again. At the same time he gave the orchestral effects
BO magnificently that the effect was extraordinary ; and
I can honestly state, that it afforded me more gratifica-
tion than ever an orchestral performance did. Goethe
grew more and more cheerful and kind, and even played
tricks with the talented lad.

"'"Well, come,' he said, f you have only played me
pieces you know ; but now we will see whether you can
play something you do not know. I will put you on
trial/

" Goethe went out, re-entered the room in a few
moments, and had a roll of music in his hand. *I
have fetched something from my manuscript collection.
16

242 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Now we will try you. Do you think you can play
this?'

" He laid a page, with clear but small notes, on the
desk. It was Mozart's handwriting. Whether Goethe
told us so, or it was written on the paper, I forget, and
only remember that Felix glowed with delight at the
name ; and an indescribable feeling came over us all,
partly enthusiasm and joy, partly admiration and ex-
pectation. Goethe, the aged man, laying a manu-
script of Mozart, who had been buried thirty years,
before a lad so full of promise for the future, to play at
sight, in truth such a constellation may be termed a
rarity.

" The young artist played with the most perfect cer-
tainty, not making the slightest mistake, though the
manuscript was far from easy reading. The task was
certainly not difficult, especially for Mendelssohn, as it
was only an adagio : still there was a difficulty in doing
it as the lad did ; for he played it as if he had been
practising it for years.

" Goethe adhered to his good-humored tone, while all
the rest applauded. i That is nothing,' he said : others
could read that too. But I will now give you' some-
thing over which you will stick; so take care.'

" With these words, he produced another paper, which
he laid :>n the desk. This certainly looked very strange,
It was difficult to say if they were notes or only a

APPENDIX. 243

paper, ruled, and splashed with ink and blots. Felix
Mendelssohn, in his surprise, laughed loudly. f How
is that written ? who can read it ? ' he said.

" But suddenly he became serious ; for while Goethe
was saying, c Now, guess who wrote it ? ' Zelter, who
had walked up to the piano, and looked over the boy's
shoulder, exclaimed, ' Why, Beethoven wrote that ! any
one could see it a mile off. He always writes with a
broomstick, and passes his sleeve over the notes before
they are dry. I have plenty of his manuscripts. They
are easy to know/

" At the mention of the name, as I remarked, Men-
delssohn had suddenly grown serious, even more than
serious. A shade of awe was visible on his features.
Goethe regarded him with searching eyes, from which
delight beamed. The boy kept his eyes immovably
fixed on the manuscript ; and a look of glad surprise
flew over his features as he traced a brilliant thought
amid the chaos of confused, blurred notes.

" But all this lasted only a few seconds ; for Goethe
wished to make a severe trial, and give the performer
no time for preparation. 'You see/ he exclaimed, <I
told you that you would stick. Now try it : show us
what you can do/

" Felix began playing immediately. It was a simple
melody ; if clearly written, a trifling, I may say no task,
for even a moderate performer. But to follow it

244 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

through the scrambling labyrinth required a quickness
and certainty of eye such as few are able to attain. I
glanced with surprise at the leaf, and tried to hum the
tune ; but many of the notes were perfectly illegible, or
had to be sought at the most unexpected corners, as the
boy often pointed out with a laugh.

" He played it through once in this way, generally
correctly, but stopping at times, and correcting several
mistakes with a quick 4 No, so : ' then he exclaimed,
'Now I will play it to you.' And, this second time,
not a note was missing. * This is Beethoven, this pas-
sage/ he said once turning to me, as if he had come
across something which sharply displayed the master's
peculiar style. i That is true Beethoven. I recognize
him in it at once.*

" With this trial-piece Goethe broke off. I need
scarcely add, that the young player again reaped the
fullest praise, which Goethe veiled in mocking jests,
that he had stuck here and there, and had not been
quite sure."

APPENDIX. 245

RECOLLECTIONS OF MEITOELSSOEDT.

BY BAYARD TAYLOR.

Tl /TY first winter in Europe (that of 1844-5) was
-**J-"- passed in Frankfort-on-the-Main. Among the
advantages which I there enjoyed, not the least was
that of educating, to some extent, a totally uncultivated
taste for music, taste only, not talent, "by hearing
habitually the best productions of the best composers.
The City Theatre at that time was noted throughout
Germany for the classic character of the operas which
were produced on its boards. It possessed an admirable
orchestra; a company of singers, of whom, if none
were great, none at least were indifferent ; and a direc-
tor who consulted the interests of art as the true means
to advance his own, Not only Beethoven's " Fidelio,"
and all the operas of Mozart, including " Titus " and the
tc Abduction from the Seraglio," were given, but many
forgotten operas of the past century were revived. My
enjoyment of these works was, of course, more enthusi-
astic than intelligent ; but, under the guidance of my
friend and housemate, Richard Storrs Willis, I attained,
at last, some appreciation of the characters of the various
masters.

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

My highest measure of veneration was given to
Beethoven ; but, of living composers, none impressed
me more profoundly than Mendelssohn. In him I
found that rare union of imagination with the artistic
sense (the classic instinct of proportion), which is the
loftiest characteristic of genius. During the winter,
the Society of St. Cecilia produced his "Walpurgis-
nacht;" the music to Goethe's words. I remember
repeating to myself the opening lines, on the way to the
concert-hall, and imagining a light, joyous air:

" How laughs the May:

To forests gray
The ice no more is clinging;

The snow has fled;

And every glade
Kesounds with merry singing."

And I remember, too, the surprised delight with which
I heard, instead, the long, ringing outcry of gladness,
monotonous as sunshine, and as dazzling. Mendels-
sohn was then temporarily residing in Frankfort, and
was himself present at the performance of the work.
I was not, however, aware of this at the time.

Shortly afterwards, during the great Annual Fair,
I was waking, one afternoon, with my friend Willis,
along the northern bank of the Main. It was a deli-
ciously warm, sunny day at the close of March; and
the long stone quay was thronged with thousands of
strangers from all parts of Europe. Poles, Bohemians,

APPENDIX. 247

Tyrolese, Italians, and Greeks were scattered through
the crowd ; and their various tongues and dialects con-
tinually met the ear. Against the ancient houses ;
beside the water-gate, were booths glittering with
gaudy wares, and surrounded with groups of peasants
in holiday costume; and up the river, over the old sand-
stone bridge, over the green meadows of Offenbach,
rose the mountains of Spessart, a dim, purple back-
ground to that broad picture of moving life. As we
pushed through the crowd, my eyes, which had been
wandering idly over the picturesque faces and costumes
around us, were suddenly arrested by the face of a man,
a little distance in front, approaching us. His head was
thrown back ; and his eyes, large, dark, and of wonderful
brilliancy, were fixed upon the western sky. Long,
thin locks of black hair, with here and there a silver
streak, fell around his ears. His beard, of two or three
days' growth, and his ,cravat, loosely and awkwardly
tied, added to the air of absorption, of self-forgetful-
ness, which marked his whole appearance. He made
his way through the crowd mechanically, evidently but
half conscious of its presence.

As he drew nearer, I saw that his lips were moving,
and presently heard the undertone of a deep, rich voice,
chanting what appeared to be a choral ; judging from
the few bars which reached me in passing. It was
evidently as I felt immediately a soliloquy in

LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

music. I have not yet lost, and never shall lose, the
impression it produced upon me, though I can no longer
recall the notes. My companion grasped my arm, and
whispered, "Mendelssohn! " as he slowly brushed past
me; and, for a single moment, the voice of his inspira-
tion sang at my very ear. I stopped instantly, and
turned ; yet, so long as I could follow him with my
eye, he was still pressing slowly onward, with the same
fixed, uplifted gaze, lost to every thing but his art.

I was twenty years old, and as enthusiastic and senti-
mental as youth of that age are prone to be. So I
wrote, the next day, an eloquent letter to the composer,
concluding with the request, that he would send me a
line as a souvenir of the place and the season in which
I first became acquainted with his works. (If there
was any indiscretion in this, I have since received ample
punishment for it.) He replied immediately in a very
kind note, enclosing the score of a chorus in the " Wal-
purgisnacht," in his own manuscript :

" Still shines the day,

Whene'er we may
A. pure heart bring to thee."

Something kindly and cordial in his words inspired me
with confidence to venture farther. I had written
several poems on musical subjects during the winter;
and it entered my mind, that I might use them as a
means of introducing myself to his acquaintance. On

APPENDIX. 249

second thoughts, I selected the best, a lyric, entitled
" Beethoven " (which, I am now glad to say, was never
published), and set out for Mendelssohn's residence.
He was then occupying modest apartments in the
Bockenheimer Gasse, not far from the gate of that name.
The servant ushered me into a plainly furnished room,
containing a grand piano, and a few pictures and books,
in addition to the ordinary articles. A moment after-
wards, the door of an adjoining chamber opened, and
Mendelssohn appeared. I explained, in rather an em-
barrassed manner, that I was the person who had
written to him two days before, and begged pardon for
the additional liberty I had taken. He at once gave me
his hand, asked me to be seated, and drew another chair
for himself to the little round table near the window.

I sat thus, face to face with him, and again looked
into those dark, lustrous, unfathomable eyes. They
were black, but without the usual opaqueness of black
eyes, shining, not with a surface light, but with a
pure, serene, planetary flame. His brow, white and
unwrinkled, was high and nobly arched, with great
breadth at the temples, strongly resembling that of
Poe, His nose had the Jewish prominence, without its
usual coarseness: I remember, particularly, that the
nostrils were as finely cut and flexible as an Arab's.
The lips were thin and rather long, but with an expres-
sion of indescribable sweetness in their delicate curves,

,250 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

His face was a long oval in form ; and the complexion
pale, but not pallid. As I looked upon him, I said to
myself, "The Prophet David!" and, since then, I have
Been in the Hebrew families of Jerusalem, many of
whom trace their descent from the princely houses of
Israel, the same nobility of countenance. Those who
have read the rhapsodical romance of " Charles Auches-
ter," wherein the character of Seraphael is meant to
represent Mendelssohn, will find his personality trans-
figured by one of his adorers, yet, having seen that
noble head, those glorious eyes, I scarcely wonder at the
author's extravagance. The composer Benedict once
told me, that, when he was pursuing his musical studies
under Carl Maria von Weber, his fellow-student, the
boy Mendelssohn, was a picture of almost supernatural
beauty.

"You are an American," said he, after a pause. "I
have received an invitation to visit New York, and
should like to go ; but we Germans are afraid of the
sea. But I may go yet : who knows ? Music is making
rapid advances in America; and I believe there is a
real taste for the art among your people." I assured
him this was true, and hoped that he would still find it
possible to visit us. " Are you a musician ? " he asked.
"No," said I : "I have devoted myself to literature. I
have not achieved much, as yet ; but I hope to succeed.
I have ventured to bring with me a poem on Beethoven,

APPENDIX. 251

*ehom, I know, you honor as a master. 1 ' " Ah ! " said
he ; " let me see it." He then read it through carefully,
partly aloud, with a very good English pronunciation ;
and, on concluding, asked, "May I keep it? Here is a
stanza which I like especially." (Excuse me from
quoting it.) " Oh, you must persevere ! Let your art
be all in all to you. You have your life still before
you ; and who knows what you may make of it ? "

I rose to leave, fearful that I might be detaining him
from some important labor. He again shook hands,
and said, playfully, " Now we know one another, you
must come and see me whenever we happen to be in
the same town. When you vi?it Leipzig or Berlin or
Cologne, if you find I am there, come at once to my
house ; and we can have further talk, and become bet-
ter acquainted."

I was never able to take advantage of this kind in-
vitation. His cordial auf wiedersehn! were the last
words I heard from him; and the spiritual beauty of his
face is now^ in memory, indeed, the beauty of an im-
mortal spirit. Two years and a half afterwards (in
November, 1847), he died ; having not yet attained his
thirty-ninth year.

To Mr. Taylor's sketch, we append that of another
well-known countryman of our own, RICHAHD
WILLIS:

252 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

" Mendelssohn was a man of small fiame, delicate
and fragile looking ; yet possessing a sinewy elasticity
and a power of endurance, which you would hardly
suppose possible. His head appeared to have been set
upon the wrong shoulders, it seemed, in a certain
sense, to contradict his body. Not that the head was
disproportionately large ; but its striking nobility was a
standing reproof to the pedestal on which it rested.
His eye possessed a peculiarity which has been ascribed
to the eye of Sir Walter Scott, a ray of light seemed
often to praceed from its pupil to your own, as from a
star. But yet, in the eyes of Mendelssohn, there was
none of that rapt dreaminess so often seen among men
of genius in art. The gaze was rather external than
internal : the eye had more outwardness than inward-
ness of expression. In his gait, he was somewhat loose
and shambling ; he had a flinging motion of the limbs
and a supple-jointedness, which, coupled with other
little peculiarities of carriage, determined him ac-
cording to popular German tradition as of Oriental
origin. But this listlessness of bearing seemed to dis-
appear entirely the moment he sat down to a piano-forte
or organ, and came into artistic action. Then, like a
full-blooded Arabian courser, he showed his points : you
had before you a noble creature. All awkwardness
disappeared : he was Mendelssohn, and no longer a son
of Mendel. His wife was as beautiful as she was high-

APPENDIX. 253

bred and refined. She bore him children of remarkable
personal charms. One boy, particularly, I was neve*
weary of gazing at, for his extreme comeliness. He
had his father's eye, and his mother's elegance and
grace of figure."

254 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN,

MENDELSSOHN'S "ELIJAH."*

BY JOHN S. DWIGHT.

figure of the prophet is stationed, at once,
-*- boldly in the foreground. Even the overture ia
prefaced by a brief recitative, in which, with firm, deep
voice, he declares that " there shall not be dew nor rain
these years." Had Mendelssohn composed expressly
for an American audience, who never begin to settle
down into the listening state until they hear the human
voice, we might have suspected him of an innocent
manoeuvre here, to procure silence and a hearing for
the overture. In this overture, there is a sort of sullen,
smothered, choking energy, fretting against chains self-
forged: an obdurate wilfulness seems depicted, a des-
perate impulse continually trying itself over again, only
to find the same fatal limitations : it is the mood of an
unrepenting criminal in his cell. The music is all of
very short fibre, woven into the toughest, knottiest sort
of texture : full of movement, but no progress. One or
two little short starts of melody, constantly repeated,
are its themes ; and, though these are woven into a
consistent and artistic whole, you hear nothing else from
* From "Dwight's Journal of Music," October, 1852

APPENDIX. 255

*

first to last. This is in the appropriate key of D minor
and sheds the right murky coloring over all that is to
follow ; helping imagination to realize the state of Israel
under Ahab. Drought and famine ; life denied its out-
ward sustenance ; starved impulses, which, getting no
expansion, only murmur of themselves, are the alter-
nate changes of one figure on this monotonous web of
tones.

And now the suffering finds a voice. There is a
chorus of the people " Help, Lord ! wilt thou quite
destroy us ? " still in D minor, 4-4 time, andante.
First a loud cry, " Help, Lord ! " upon the minor com-
mon chord of D, the accompaniments traversing down-
wards arid upwards through all its inversions for two
bars : then, as the air climbs one note higher, the same
process is repeated on the crying chord of the dimin-
ished seventh, which, through the dominant seventh
upon C, would fain force its way out into the bright
major key of F, and find relief; but, while the bass
tends boldly that way, the chord of D minor, returning
in the upper parts, smothers the tendency, producing a
discordant mixture of tonics, which is peculiarly expres-
sive on the words: "Wilt thou quite destroy us?"
Out of the massive and compact beginning, the tenors
lead the way in a freer movement, chanting the two
plaintive phrases, " The harvest now is over, the sum-
mer days are gone," and " And yet no power cometh to

256 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

help us," which are duly taken up by the other voices,
and passed round as the themes cf a very beautiful and
graceful fugue, which works itself up, by degrees, into
the right chord for a transition to the key of E major,
when the fugue is quelled for a while into a uniform
movement, "Will then the Lord be no more God in
Zion ? " with a fitful, tremulous accompaniment : but it
soon breaks loose again ; and amid renewals of the cry,
Help, Lord ! " from single voices, terminates the cho-
rus. A remarkable choral recitative succeeds, in which
the complaints of famine come up, in distinct, successive
fragments of melody, from one mass of voices after
another : " The deep affords no water/' " The in-
fant children ask for bread," &c., exceedingly expres-
sive, if the voices start the theme with perfect concert
Next, we have a plaintive duet for sopranos, " Zion
spreadeth her hands for aid," one of those wild and
tender melodies (each part a melody however) In which
we get the genuine aroma of Mendelssohn's^ peculiar
genius, as in his " Lieder." There are several such in
" Elijah." In the pauses of the duet, which is in A
minor, and forming a sort of background to it, is con-
stantly heard the burthen (an old Jewish chant) of the
entire female alternating with the entire male chorus,
in unison, on the words, " Lord, bow thine ear to
our prayer." The effect is as poetic as it is original.
At first it was the popular complaint of the short bar-

APPENDIX. 257

rest; then, in the recitative, it was the children hun-
gering at home ; now it is youthful loveliness and
beauty interceding, as by special affinity, with heaven.
(Remark this fine touch of the delicate and feminine
side of the composer's genius : had this duet been left
out, it would hardly have been Mendelssohn.)

So much in description of the drought. Now comes
the appeal of Obadiah to the consciences of the people,
a tenor recitative, " Rend your hearts," &c., fol-
lowed by the exquisitely tender and consoling tenor song
(andante, in E flat), "If with all your hearts ye truly
seek me." If you compare it with Handel's " Comfort
ye, my people," you have the whole difference of com-
plexion between these two deeply religious natures. In
that, it is the perfect sanguine buoyancy and confident
announcement of hope : in this, it is hope tinged with
sadness, more of reflective yearning, and less of the
child's unquestioning acceptance and assurance. It
would compare more closely, however, with " He shall
feed his flock," only that is an alto song, and this a
tenor, as befits the difference of sentiment : for, in that,
the feminine element, or love, is all in all ; whereas, in
this, the masculine element of justice tempers love.
In this song, as in the duet before, and as throughout
the oratorio, Mendelssohn displays his rare poetic in-
vention in accompaniment : in every bar, at first, it
takes, as if unconsciously, the form of " seek and find,"
17

258 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

a climbing arpeggio answered by a full chord ; when
it reaches the words, " Oh that I knew where I might
find him ! " the whole air pulses to the heart-beat of the
melody, as the violins divide the measure into crystal
and precise vibrations. Then breaks out the turbulent
chorus in C minor, " Yet doth the Lord see it not, . . . his
wrath will pursue us," &c. ; full of diminished sevenths
and of discords, from bold overlapping of one chord
upon another. Its vehement and angry motion is sud-
denly arrested on a discord of this sort (dominant seventh
upon the tonic), in the words, "Till he destroys us;"
and, after the pause, follows the grave, massive, psalm-
like, solid piece of counterpoint, all in long half-notes,
" For he, the Lord our God, he is a jealous God,"
&c., thrown up, like a mountain-range of the prime-
val granite, in the midst of this great musical crea-
tion ; yet its solemnity is not all barren, for, ere long,
its sides wave with the forests, sprung from the accu-
mulated soil of ages ; and the solemn procession of
the clouds in heaven passes in shadows over their sur-
face : the key shifts to the major ; the accompaniments
acquire a freer movement ; rich, refreshing modulations
succeed each other smoothly; and the vocal parts di-
verge in separate streams of perfect harmony at the
thought, "His mercies on thousands fall," &c. Fit
prelude to the voice of angels ! An alto voice, in
recitative, bids Elijah " hence to Cherith's brook," tell-

APPENDIX. 259

ing of the " ravens " who will feed him. Then a re-
markable double quartet (four male and four female
voices) follows, with the words, " For he shall give his
angels charge," &c. The very simplicity, together with
the animated movement of this, requiring perfect pre-
cision and blending of the eight distinct parts, makes it
difficult to convey its beauty in a performance. Again
the angel warns him to " Zarephath," to the "widow
woman ; " and the homely images of the " barrel of
meal" and the "cruise of oil" do not "fail," or fall, in
any wise, short of dignity and beauty in Mendelssohn's
pure recitative, which quite transcends the usual com-
mon-place.

We have now reached the first in the series of dra-
matic sketches, of which the body of the oratorio is
mainly composed: the miracle of raising the widow's son.
The sentiment of the marvellous is first raised by the
accompaniments, which, confined chiefly to the violins
and treble wood-instruments, keep up a light tremolo,
to a melody, full of sad, sweet humility (E minor, 6-8),
introducing the lamentation of the woman over her
son. The answer of the prophet, and his prayer,
" Turn unto her," are in the major of the key, in grave,
fourfold measure. The return of the tremolo, in the
still more mystical key of E -sharp major, swelling
and diminishing, raises expectation to the height, and
noakes natural the woman's question of surprise, "Wilt

2(50 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

thou show wonders to the dead ? " The prayer is re*
newed, and so, too, the woman's exclamation, striking a
higher note in her growing earnestness. Yet a third
time the prophet prays, amid crashing, measured peals
of harmony, announcing that the miraculous agency is
at work restoring life. The joy and devout thankful-
ness of the mother, prompting the question, " What
shall I render the Lord ? " are followed by the brief but
beautiful duet between her and the prophet, " Thou
shalt love the Lord with all thy heart;" which is in
broad fourfold measure, and glides directly into the
chorus, " Blessed are the men who fear him ; " a chorua
distinguished by the soft, rippling flow of the accompa-
niments, the violoncellos keeping up one uniformly va-
ried and continuous figure in sixteenths through the
whole of it; while the vocal parts steal in, one after
another, with the same whispered melody, which, with
that multitude of voices, is like the soft rustle of the
bending grass before successive breathings of the west
wind, until the words, " Through darkness riseth
light to the upright," where the sopranos shout forth a
clarion call, climbing through the harmonic intervals of
the fifth of the key, as far as its tenth, and closing with
a cadence upon B; which note the basses take for a
starting-point, and thence repeat nearly the same figure,
ending in A, where it is taken up by the altos, and again
echoed, ere it is half out of their mouths, by the tenors,

APPENDIX. 261

until all come unitedly upon the words, "He is gra-
cious, compassionate, righteous." These words are treat-
ed somewhat after the manner of, " And his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counsellor," &c., in Handel's
sublime chorus ; though no such stupendous effects are
here attempted. The original whispered melody flows
in again with mingled fragments of the second theme ;
and the chorus ends with echoing, retreating calls of
" Blessed ! " while that rippling accompaniment floats
skyward, and is lost.

Now comes the appearance of Elijah before Ahab,
and the second dramatic scene, the challenge of the
priests of Baal. The several proposals of Elijah (in
bold recitative) are echoed in choral bursts from the
people, "Then we shall see whose God is the Lord,"
&c. The invocation of the priests of Baal is very ef-
fective musically, however fruitless for their purpose ;
and the music of it is in striking contrast with the
severe and spiritual tone of the rest of the oratorio.
Noisy, impetuous, full of accent and of animal life, it
befits the worshippers of natural things ; and it com-
mences in the key of nature, or F major. First, it is
in 4-4 time, a double chorus, with a sort of bacchana-
lian energy, " Baal, we cry to thee ; " then sets in an
allegro 3-4 movement, with arpeggio accompaniment
in thirds, in single chorus, basses and altos in unison
crying, " Hear us, Baal ! hear, mighty god ; " and so

262 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN,

pranos and tenors, in unison more earnest, following
" Baal, ohj answer us ! let thy flames fall and extirpate
the foe," &c. In vain : no help for them ! In long,
loud cadences (the minor third so loved by Mendels-
sohn), with hopeless pauses between, their " Bear us ! "
floats away upon the empty air. The prophet taunts
them, " Call him louder." Again they raise their cry,
this time in F-sharp minor, in hurried 4-4 time ; the
full force of the orchestra reiterating quick, short,
angry notes, as if they were all instruments of percus-
sion, and trying restless and discordant modulations, as
the voices, with agonized impatience, repeat, " Now
arise; wherefore slumber?" Again the prophet taunts;
and again they call on Baal, still in the same wild key,
but with the most furious presto movement, in 6-8,
ending, as before, in fruitless cadences : " Hear and
answer," succeeded by unbroken pauses.

It is now Elijah's turn. In a solemn adagio air,
expressive of sublimest faith and feeling of the right,
and even of a tenderness which you cannot help con-
trasting afterwards with his ruthless slaughter of his
defeated rivals, he offers up his prayer to the " God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Israel." This is followed by a
short and simple quartet : " Cast thy burden upon the
Lord." All this was in the confident key of E-flat
major. In his invocation, " Thou who makest thine
angels spirits, Thou whose ministers are flaming tires!

APPENDIX. 263

let them now descend," the prophet's voice, unaccom
panied, rises a minor third in uttering the first clause,
followed by the full minor chord pianissimo from the
instruments ; in the second clause, it ascends (through
the minor third again) to the fifth, again more loudly
answered by the instruments ; and, in the third clause,
it reaches the octave, when bursts forth the wild de-
scriptive chorus, " The fire descends from heaven ! "
This change to the minor in the invocation makes a
presentiment of miracle, as surely as a preternatural
change of daylight, or the noonday darkening of eclipse.
The fire-chorus, with its imitative accompaniments, we
will not attempt to describe : it is fearfully grand, and
terminates in a massive choral, "The Lord is God,"
&c. ; the earth quakes as it rolls away, with the pro-
longed tremolo of the double basses, during which Eli-
jah dooms the prophets of Baal.

This scene closes with two remarkable songs. First,
a bass solo by Elijah, " Is not his word like a fire, and
like a hammer that breaketh the rock into pieces ? "
Here the composer evidently had in mind a similar
great solo in Handel's " Messiah." Both song and ac-
companiment are cast in the same iron mould, requiring
a gigantic voice to execute it. Indeed, it is almost too
great to be sung, as some parts are too great to be
kcted. Next, the exquisite alto solo, " Woe unto them
who forsake him ! " which is again of the " Lieder ohne

264 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

Worte" order, Laving that characteristic wild-fbwei
beauty so indescribable in the melodies of Mendels-
Bohn.

Finally, we have the coming of rain, prepared in
a dialogue between the people, the prophet, and the
youth whom he sends forth to " look toward the sea."
There is a gradual mellowing of the instruments, so
that you seem almost to snuff rain in the parched
air. The responses of the youth, clear, trumpet-toned,
in the major chord of C, as he declares, "There is
nothing," each time with the eifect enhanced by the
humid, continuous, high monotone from the orchestra,
and finally announcing, amid the mysterious thrilling of
the air with violin thirds, " a little cloud, no bigger
than a man's hand;" then the "blackening the hea-
vens with clouds and with wind ; " and then the loud
rushing of the storm, are wrought up to an admirable
climax ; and the chorus breaks forth, like a perfect flood
of joy, refreshing and reviving all things, " Thanks be to
God ! He laveth the thirsty land. The waters gather ;
they rush along; they are lifting their voices! The
stormy billows are high ; their fury is mighty : but the
Lord is above them, and Almighty ! " This rain-chorus
(which is in E-flat major) is in perfect contrast with
that fire- Chorus. The music itself is as welcome as
showers after long drought ; as tears of joy and reconci-
liation after years of barren, obstinate self-will and cold*

APPENDIX. 265

ess ; as the revisiting of inspired thoughts to the dry
dull, jaded, unsuggestive brain ; and that not the less
because all the music which precedes is rich and various.
The voices seem to launch themselves along rejoicing,
like the copious billows of a torrent ; while the instru-
ments, by a well-chosen figure, imitate the sound of drip-
ping-streams. You feel the changing temperature of the
air in some of those modulations. What a gusto, what
a sense of coolness, in some of those flat sevenths in the
bass ! There are certain chords there which we would
call barometrical, or atmospheric, if the extravagance
of fancy might be allowed to keep pace with the full-
ness of delight in listening to this tone-translation of
one of the inexhaustible phenomena of nature.

The second part has for its subject-matter the re-
action of the popular sentiment against Elijah, at the
instigation of the queen, his sojourn in the wilderness,
and his translation to heaven. This is prefaced by a
eong of warning to Israel, " Hear ye, Israel," for
a soprano voice, in B minor, 3-8 time : one of those
quaint little wild-flowers of melody again, which seem
to have dropped so often from another planet at the
feet of Mendelssohn. The short-breathed, syncopated
form of the accompaniment, and the continual cadence
of the voice through a third, give it an expression of
singularly childlike innocence and seriousness. Then

266 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

follows, in the major of the key, in statelier 3-4 measure
and with trumpet obligate, a cheering air, which differs
from the last, as a bracing October morning from a soft
summer sabbath evening, " Thus saith the Lord ; I am
he that comforteth," &c., leading into the very spirited
chorus, in G major, " Be not afraid, saith God the
Lord." This has a full, broad, generous, Handelian
flow, like a great river "rolling rapidly;" and as your
ear detects the mingling separate currents when you
heed the river's general roar more closely, so hurry-
ing, pursuing, mingling, go the voices of the fugue,
" Though thousands languish/' which gives the chorus a
more thoughtful character for a moment, before they are
all merged again in the grand whole of that first strain,
Be not afraid ! "

One cannot conceive how the scene which follows
could have been wrought into music with a more dra-
matic effect. The prophet denounces Ahab ; then the
queen in the low tones of deepest excitement, in angry
and emphatic sentences of recitative, demands, " Hath
he not prophesied against all Israel ? " " Hath he not
destroyed Baal's prophets? " " Hath he not closed the
heavens? " &c.; and to each question comes an ominous,
brief choral response, t We heard it with our ears,"
&c. ; and finally the furious chorus, " Woe to him, he
shall perish," in which the quick, short, petulant notes
of the orchestra seem to crackle and boil with rage.

APPENDIX. 267

Yielding to Obadiah's friendly warning, the prophet
journeys to the wilderness : and here we have the ten-
derest and deepest portions of all this music ; here we
approach Elijah in his solitary communings and his
sufferings ; here we feel a more human interest and
sympathy for the mighty man of miracle ; we forget the
terrible denouncer 6f God's enemies, and love his human
heart, all melting to the loveliness of justice, and
mourning over Israel's insane separation of herself from
God, more than over his own trials. Follow him there I
genial guides stand ready to your imagination's bidding,
first, the grand old words of the brief and simple
Hebrew narrative ; then the befitting and congenial mu-
sic of this modern descendant of the Hebrews, this artist
son of Mendel. Listen to that grand, deep song which
he has' put here into the mouth of Elijah, "It is
enough, Lord ! now take away my life, for I am
not better than my fathers," &c. What resignation !
His great soul, bowed to that unselfish sadness,
gives you a nobler, more colossal image, than the
fallen Saturn in the "Hyperion" of Keats. The
grave and measured movement of the orchestra marks
well his weary, thoughtful, heavy steps. But his soul
summons a new energy, the smouldering music blazes
up, as he ^remembers, "I have been very jealous for
the Lord."

Follow him ! Fatigue brings sleep, and sleep bringa

268 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN.

angel voices. Let that sweet tenor-recitative interpret
Ms warderiugs and his whereabouts, and the angelic
voices interpret the heaven in his heart. " Under a juni-
per-tree in the wilderness ! " Mark the quaint simplicity
of the words, and how heartily the musical vein in
Mendelssohn adapts itself to such child's narrative.
And now hear, as the composer heard, the heavenly voices
floating down. It is a scene almost as beautiful as that
portrayed in Handel's music for the nativity of the Mes-
siah. First a trio (female voices) without accompani-
ments, "Lift tbine eyes to the mountains," pure and
chaste as starlight ; then the lovely chorus (for all four
parts), " He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor
ileeps." If the trio was like heaven descending, this is
like the peacefulness of earth encompassed with heaven ;
st has a gentle, soothing, pastoral character, like " There
ffere shepherds watching their flocks by night." The
aniversal bosom seems to heave with the serene feeling
$f protection, and the heart to throb most joyously,
nost gently, with the equal and continuous rise and fall
>f those softly modulated triplets in the accompani-
ments. Voice after voice breathes out the melody; and
what unspeakable tenderness in the new theme which
the tenors introduce ! " Shouldst thou, walking in grief,
languish, He will quicken thee."

Again follow him. "Forty days and forty nights"
BO sings the angel (alto recitative), and again the noble

APPENDIX. 269

recitative of the prophet "wrestling with the Lord
in prayer : " "0 Lord ! I have labored in vain ; ... oh
that I now might die ! " This is relieved by the pro-
foundly beautiful alto song, in the natural key, four-
fold measure, "Oh, rest in the Lord;" and he
resumes, " Night falleth round me, Lord ! Be thou
not far from me ; my soul is thirsting for thee, as a
thirsty land;" which last suggestion the instruments
accompany with a reminiscence from that first chorus,
descriptive of the drought, "The harvest now is
over," &c.

And now he stands upon the mount, and, " Behold !
God, the Lord, passed by ! " We are too weary with
fruitless attempts to convey a notion of the different
portions of this oratorio by words, to undertake the
same thing with this most descriptive and effective
chorus. One cannot but remark the multitude of sub-
jects which the story of Elijah offers for every variety
of musical effects. The orchestra preludes the coming
of the " mighty wind." Voices, accompanied in loud,
high unison, proclaim, "The Lord passed by;" the
storm swells up amid the voices, wave on wave, with
brief fury, and subsides ; and again the voices in whis-
pered harmony pronounce, "Yet the Lord was not in
the tempest." The same order of treatment is repeated
with regard to the "earthquake," and with regard to
the "fire." All this is in E minor: the key opens into

270 LIFE OF MENDELSSOHN,

the major, into the inoist, mild, spring-like atmosphere
of E major; and the voices in a very low, sweet chorus,
in long notes, whisper the coming of the "still, small
voice," while the liquid, stroking divisions of the accom-
paniment seem " smoothing the raven down of darkness
till it smiles." The seraphim are heard in double cho-
rus, chanting, after the soprano quartet, " Holy, holy,"
&c., a high, clear strain, of awful purity and
majesty. One more recitative from the prophet, "I
go on my way in the strength of the Lord," with the
air, "For the. mountain shall depart;" during which
the instruments tread on with stately, solid steps,
in notes of uniform length, in 6-4 measure, and we
have the marvellously descriptive, awe-inspiring cho-
rus, which describes his ascent to heaven in the
fiery chariot. There is uo mistaking the sound of the
swift-revolving fiery wheels, suggested by the accom-
paniment.

Another beautiful tenor song, " Then shall the right-
eous shine ; " and a fit conclusion to the whole is made
by two grand choruses, foreshadowing the consumma-
tion of all prophecy in the God-Man, just leaving off
where Handel's "Messiah," the oratorio of oratorios,
begins. The first "Behold, my servant and mine
elect " has much of the grandeur, but not the sim-
plicity, of Handel. It is separated from the last by an
exquisite quartet, "Come, every one that thirsteth,"

APPENDIX. 271

which is wholly in the vein of Mendelssohn. And the
whole closes with a solid, massive fugue, in the grand
old style, " Lord, oar Creator, how excellent thy

MOSCHELES ON THE CHARACTER OF
MENDELSSOHN.

TRANSLATED FROM HIS "LIFE AJST> DIARY."

[Since the first editions of this hook were published, Mo-
scheles has died ; and his life has heen written by his widow.
This book reached me soon after publication ; and I trans-
lated the following pages, before an English translation,
under the head of "Recent Music and Musicians," was an-
nounced by Holt & Williams. As they contain all of that
work, of special interest, which relates to Mendelssohn, I take
the liberty of inserting here my own translation, to add com-
pleteness to this volume. At the same time, I cannot forbear
thanking the American publishers for giving us in English
dress Mrs. Moscheles' entertaining volume, for which she de-
serves the thanks of all musicians.]

ON the 31st of October, Moscheles came to Berlin. In
his diary at this time there is observable a kind of haste,
as if he pushed every thing to one side in order that he
might devote the more time to the Mendelssohn family ;
and there are whole pages devoted to this genial theme.
On his introduction to this household, he records his im-
pressions as follows : " Such a family as this is I have
never seen before. The fifteen-year-old boy, Felix, is a
phenomenon whose like is nowhere to be found. What
are all wonder-children in comparison with him ? They
are mere wonder-children, and nothing more; but this
Felix Mendelssohn is already a mature artist, though but
fifteen. We were together for hours ; and I had to play
a good deal, although I wanted to be a listener ; for Felix
had a concerto in G-minor, a double concerto, and several
motets, to show ; and all was so genial, and at the same
time so correct! His older sister, Fanny, also most richly
endowed, played fugues and pascailles from Bach by
heart, and with amazing accuracy. Both of the parents
make an impression as people of the highest culture ; for
272

CHARACTER OF MENDELSSOHN. 273

they are far from being vain of their children. They are
very solicitous about Felix and his future, and wondei
whether there is any thing in him which will ripen into
real greatness. Will he not, they ask, be like so many
precocious children, and suddenly go out in darkness ? I
could not sufficiently insist that I had not the least doubt
about his having genius; but I had to repeat it many
times before I could convince them.'*

The pleasure of this acquaintance was mutual ; and, the
oftener Moscheles caine to see the Mendelssohns, the
more glad were they to welcome him. The parents
wanted him to give lessons to their son ; but he would
not consent. In his diary he writes, " He has no need
of lessons : if he sees any thing noteworthy in my style
of playing, he catches it from me at once." Neverthe-
less, on their urgent and repeated request, that he would
give him a few hours' instruction, Moscheles did so ; but
he writes, " To-day, from two to three, I gave Felix his
first lesson ; but not a moment could I conceal the fact
from myself, that I was with my master, not with my
pupil." Six daysJater he writes, "Felix's lessons grow
in interest: he has already played my Allegri di Bra-
vura, my concertos, &c. And how he has played them !
He catches at the slightest hint I give, and guesses my
meaning before I speak."

He was with the Mendelssohns day after day ; attended
their musical parties ; made the acquaintance of Rahel,
the wife of Varnhagen von Ense, and of Zelter, and on
the 15th of December took a reluctant leave of Berlin,
and his new friends.

At a subsequent visit to Berlin, in 1826, he writes,
" How great was my joy as Felix played, with his sister
Fanny, his new overture to the Midsummer .Night's
Dream ! and how beautiful was his sonata in E-major 1
He also played for me his great overture in C, with the
leading theme for trumpets ; and a little caprice, which
he called < Absurdity.' This young but mighty genius has
been taking giant strides forward, which, however, are
not recognized except by Zelter, Berger, and a few others.
This prophet, too, must be without honor among his own
people."

The next glimpse which we have of Mendelssohn is in

274 MOSCHELES ON 'THE

London, in 1829, when he visited Moscheles there. His
father had already written, inquiring whether Moscheles
would advise Felix's coming to the great city with some
of his compositions, among them the Midsummer Night's
Dream overture. It did seem advisable to the master ;
and accordingly the young composer came. Of the visit,
Moscheles has kept the following record: "I hired for
him lodgings at 203 Portland Street ; and, since he came,
we have had the greatest delight in his society, and in
his artistic skill. As a man, he is most dear to us.
Merry, and yet full of sympathy with us in our bereave-
ment, and care of our surviving yet weakly child, he is
always ready to exchange the attractive enjoyments of
London for our solitude in the country; and knows just
how to minister graciously and healingly to our suffering
spirits, and to bring us a certain compensation for our
loss.'* And how beautiful it was to see him bring out
his new compositions, and with childlike modesty to
hang upon Moscheles 1 lips, and wait for his judgment!
"Every one else," says Moscheles, "would have seen al-
ready that I had my master in him : yet he continues to
regard himself as my pupil, and I cannot get him to take
his true position in relation to me. The enthusiasm
which his Midsummer Night's Dream overture called out
from the public does not intoxicate him. The piece
must all be improved, he thinks ; and my personal praise
he received in this childlike way : ' Does it, then, please
you? Then I am glad/ "

While visiting Moscheles, he showed to them the
manuscripts of his cantata, based on a choral in A-minor ;
a sixteen-voice chorus, " Hora est ; " and a violin quartet
in A-minor. He would also not disdain little musical
conceits and novelties for the entertainment of his
friends. He wrote in Moscheles' album a charming bit
called "Perpetual Motion;" and other trifles dropped
from his pen during the visit.

With Mendelssohn there appeared in London, at this
time, Neukomm, the pupil of Haydn, a noble character
and highly trained man, who, as a friend, was most true;
but who, as a composer, though solid, clear, and careful,
vet lacked the Attic salt. He was at that time bring-
ing out his oratorios, "The Ten Commandments," and

CHARACTER OF MENDELSSOHN. 275

" Christ ; " and he was adapting some parts to the voices
of Braham and Phillips. At first he was received with
enthusiasm ; but he had not the ability to retain the love
of the English public*

Yet Mendelssohn and Neukomm, who often met at
Moscheles 1 house, had a great regard for each other;
that is to say, each recognized in the other a noble char-
acter. As musicians, however, the gentle Neukomm
found the energetic Mendelssohn too active, too vigorous,
too profuse in the use of brass, too hasty in his tempo, too
unquiet in his play ; and, on the other hand, Mendelssohn
would sometimes exclaim, in youthful impatience, "If
the excellent Neukomm would only write better music !
He is so good in what he says, and in his letters ; but,
when he comes to notes, he does produce such common-
place ! "

We subjoin one of Mendelssohn's letters, written to
congratulate Moscheles on the birth of a son, and in the
merriest vein :

Y<ni see the wind-instruments and the violins; for the head
of a family must not wait till I come, hut must have a cradle-
song, with kettle-drums and trumpets, and brass-hand music;
for the mere violins are by no means enough. Abundant joy
and happiness and blessings on the little man! May all go
well with him ! may the world be a good world for him ! And
so he is to he called Felix V That is very kind and gracious in
you, that he is to be regularly my godson; and my first pres-
ent shall be the whole orchestra above,* to accompany him his
life through: the trumpets, when he shall become famous;
the flutes, when he shall fall in love; the cymbals, when his
beard comes; the piano explains itself; and, when people shall
play badly with him, as they will at times, why, there
are the kettle-druins, and the big "bass-drum in the back-
ground. Enough of this nonsense 1 hut really I am. merry at
heart to-day, as I think of your happiness, .and of the time
when I shall share it.

I am greatly delighted with your septet: Klingemamx has
taken eleven notes out of it, namely,

* One of Mendelsohn's easy pen-and-ink sketches was in the origi-
nal letter. ED.

276 MOSCHELES ON THE

and they please me much. I can well imagine what a bright,
lively bit this last must be. Don't expect too much of my
things which I shall bring with me. You will, doubtless, often
find in them traces of that ill-humor from which I emancipate
myself only slowly and with difficulty. It often seems to me
as if I had never learned how to compose, and must begin away
back at the alphabet; but I am out of that feeling now, and
my last things will sound better. It was very nice that your
letter came to me while I was in my room alone, and quietly
composing; and I hope, as you do too, that my answer may
hit you in your house, and in the home-circle all well and
happy ; and we shall see whether I have as good success in
my wishes for you as you had for me. I am in a hurry, and
must close; for I had but a half an hour in all, and half of the
time went into that fine drawing. But I have nothing fur-
ther to say to you than just this: Good luck to you, and a
steadfast heart, and a happy meeting! My family are all
well, and send their greetings, and rejoicings over your good
fortune. My father is suffering in his eyes, without relief;
and this troubles us, though we hope for a speedy bettering.
My sister and I are playing a good deal of music every Sun-
day morning, with accompaniment; and I have just received
from the bookbinder a grass-green volume of M:oscheles, be-
cause the next time your trio is to be played. But, farewell,
f areweU, and be happy.
Thy

FELIX MENDELSSOHBT-BABTHOLDY.
BERLIN, Feb. 27, 1833.

To Moscheles 5 wife lie writes, under the same date:

DEAR MADAHE MOSCHELES, Although I can send you
only a few lines, yet I must express my good wishes, and my
joy over the happy event that has occurred with you. It is
delightful to think that I am soon to make the personal ac-
quaintance of the little stranger, and that he is to bear my
name. I beg you to put off the christening till I come : I will
make all possible haste. It is good that it is a boy: we must
make a miisician of him, that all that we are striving after
without being able to reach may be attained by him. But
all the same if he doesn't reach it: if he is a good man, that
is the main thing. I can see already how the two older sis-
ters, Emily and Serena, will lord it over him. When he
comes to be fourteen, he will have many a side-glance to
endure at his long arms, and his too short body and his poor
voice ; but he will then soon be a man. Then he will have
to be their protector, and have a great many evenings
spoiled for him by ennui while serving as their convoy.
You have probably scolded a little about my neglect of
writing. But you must forgive me : I will do better. Cer-
tainly I shall, when I get to London, and can ask my own ques-

VHAKACTEB OF MENDELSSOHN. 277

tions, and improvise the answers to yours; but I will do "better
before that. My sisters send a thousand greetings to you, my
Barents also ; and we all congratulate you heartily on this
first son. I must now begin the very close of my symphony :
it is right at my finger-tips; and that is what is spoiling my
writing now. and demanding my time. Excuse my hastily
written words: what they mean,' you know well.
Your devoted

FELIX MENBELSSOHN-BAB.THOLDT.

The proposed visit followed soon; and Mendelssohn
came to London, accompanied by his noble father. In a
letter, Moscheles hints at the great pleasure he had in
this visit. "What have we not played together! He
had to run over his own works for me, and then I to him ;
which I read from the original manuscript score, while
he accompanied, imitating the sound of a trumpet, or
sometimes letting his fine tenor voice play the part of a
chorus. And he has arranged his overtures for four
hands; and we practise them together till we have
thoroughly mastered them."

They often played together Beethoven's sonatas, and
throwing in, by way of fun, improvisations of the drollest
kind, and musical caricatures. Once he took the nurs-
ery song, " Polly, put the kettle on : well all have tea,"
as a theme, and made all manner of merriment for the
children, besides taking them to the Zoological Garden,
and having the gayest time with them there. Among
the many excellent men who came to London in the in-
terest of music, we had many good friends ; but of them
all, Mendelssohn was the best. What drew him and
Moscheles so closely together was, that they were both
of them true, good, and genial men : this had as miich to
do with it as their common love for music. Moscheles
was amazed at the talents of the younger man ; yet he
looked at the rapid strides which he was making, with-
out a particle of envy; and not even the fact that Men-
delssohn was exempt from the necessity of earning his
living called forth no unworthy feeling in Moscheles,
whose whole life was pierced with domestic necessities.
Mendelssohn, on the other hand, was all pious thankful
ness for the treasury of experiences which, the elder had
gotten together in his works for the piano.

But, while they were passing delightful days together

278 MOSCHELES ON THE

some sad clouds swept over the sky. Zelter, Mendel-
ssohn's famous teacher, died ; and, when the news came,
the pupil came to Moscheles' house, and said, " I cannot
work to-day: I should like to stay with you." After-
wards he was often with these friends. Were Madame
Moscheles unwell, and unable to go out, Mendelssohn
would remain at home with her, and spend the evenings
there. Were Felix worried, he always found a resting-
place in the sofa-corner. There he would sit for a little
while, the children, meantime, keeping as still as mice ;
and then, after this refreshment, he would be as lively
as ever, and would take hold of some severe musical work,
or read the morning paper, or go to some political meet-
ing. Sometimes Madame Moscheles would allow herself
to reprove him for being so disturbed and impatient at
being interrupted by callers ; but he would cut her short
by asking, " Well, why do they come at exactly the time
when I am having a good time playing with Moscheles ? "
Whenever he went away, he begged Madame Moscheles
to drop him a line about all the little family matters,
since her husband was too busy. And when she would
say, " Yes ; but no answer from you, for you are a cele-
brated man, and have better things to do," he would in-
sist that it was no such thing.

Ncf long after this, Mendelssohn's father died ; and a
letter of Moscheles thus alludes to this event : " Still our
Felix remains silent : he has not got over the loss of his
father, or he would write. What we hear about him is
not refreshing. He feels that he has lost his best sup-
port, and that an indescribable emptiness has come to
him, so that he cannot work. This must be changed.
But I can understand his loss, when I remember the days
which I have spent with him in his father's house. The
feeble, almost blind old gentleman had a mind so active,
and a judgment so sure, that I ceased to wonder why he
was so honored; for I shared in the common feeling
towards him." How deeply this unexpected loss was
felt by the family, the following letters will show. The
first is from the bereaved widow :

BERLIN, Jan. 12, 1836.

In the dreadful and utterly unlooked-for blow which has
stricken me, it will be a comfort to you, with, your sympa-

CHARACTER OF MENDELSSOHN. 279

fehizing heart, dear Madame Moscheles, when I assure you
fchat tlie two days which your husband spent with, us, in Octo-
ber, were among the most cheerful of all near his life's close
and that he cherished the memory of them to the end. And,
indeed, every thing conspired to satisfy all his wishes. Every
thing had been carefully thought over by him; and he left
nothing uncared for and undone. And how noble, gentle,
lovely, and exalted was his spirit!- every day more complete,
more strong, inore aspiring. "With what remarks, even the
night before his death, he listened to the "Profession de Foi du
vicaire Savoyard " in Rousseau's "EmUe!" How peaceful,
how serene, was that last gathering about his bed, before sleep
the eternal came! I had never thought of death in con-
nection with such painlessness; and so I could not compre-
hend that I was ^at an epoch so fearful and so inevitable.
With not a suspicion of my misery, I was in a moment
widowed and pitiable,

My children all of them conducted themselves like
angels ; and I should be unthankful to fate if I did not, with
all my grief, recognize how much remains to me. Felix's
manner of bearing agitated me, at the outset, to the last de-
gree; but among us worn en he found tears and new spirit.
It is good that he is so near us : he has visited us twice since.

Accept my thanks, my clear, dear friend, for all the kind-
ness which you showed my husband in London. In his later
hours, which were in a measure unoccupied because of his
loss of sight, he used often to say, "I have no ennui: I have
lived through a great deal that is beautiful and interest-
ing | " and then he would talk of the time in London, and of
his interviews with you there.

There is also a letter from Mendelssohn's eldest sister,
Fanny Hensel, from which I take an extract:

Do you remember, dear Mr. Moscheles, how, on one of the
evenings whicli you spent with TIS in the autumn, Felix played
that wonderfully fine adagio in F-sharp, from one of Haydn's
quartets. Father loved Haydn exceedingly; and every
tiling of his took hold of him. He wept while listening to
the one of which I speak, and afterwards said that to him it
was full of sadness. This remark struck Felix as strange; for
the direction "mesto" stood over it, and it had awakened a
sense of liveliness in the rest of us. Father's judgment of
music was extraordinarily keen and, true for a man who had
np knowledge of the science as such. He valued you very
highly, dear Mr. Moscheles, and loved you very dearly. I
have no more fear for Felix, for he has collected himself very
much ; and, although his j^rief remains very deep, yet it is a
natural sorrow, and not ot that anguishing sort as at the first,
when he filled us all with double pain and care. The better
season, and travel, will, I hope, put him into that improved

28Q MOSCHELES ON THE

stale of mind which he must seek, if he wants to progress,
to live, in father's sense, as, indeed, he has always done.
There was a connection between him and his father, such as
is very seldom seen here on earth.

On the 3d of September, 1832, Mendelssohn wrote to
Madame Moscheles, "Klingemann remains a knight of
the order of bachelors, and I bear him company. Prob-
ably in thirty years more we shall be glad to marry ; but
then no< girl will have us. You may cut this prophecy
out of this letter, and save it carefully : in thirty years
it will be proved whether it was true." On the 6th of
October, however, there came a letter from Mendelssohn's
mother, with quite the contrary purport.

N, Oct. 6, 1836.

Bumor, which travels so much faster than other people, on
cars and steamers, has probably enlightened you already re-
garding Felix's engagement, my dearest Madame Moscbeles.
I cannot, however, deny myself the pleasure of communi-
cating to you and your husband, his dear friends, that which
is to us so exceedingly agreeable tidings. You who are a
mother, and know a mother's feeling, can imagine how
strange it is to me to know neither his betrothed nor any
member of her family, and even to be a stranger to the very
name. And it will be a punishment to my altogether too
great liveliness, that I shall have to wait a long time before
seeing the fair unknown one. But you also know how disin-
terested is a mother's feeling; and so you will be able to
measure the joy which we have over Felix's happiness. The
only bitterness lies in the unescapable thought, If only his
father had lived to share it! He wished that such a clay
might coiue for Felix, but he did not expect it. Perhaps his
father's disappointment in this may have been Felix's most
urgent reason for thinking of marriage. We saw in him last
Christmas such an inexpressible t sadness, such inward dis-
turbance even in his artistic strivings, so much that was
cramped and aimless, that his sisters charged him to find a
new object of life.

An acquaintance with a lady in Frankfort soon drove
him from his sad strain; and now he is the happy be-
trothed of his Cecile. Her mother, Madame Jeanreneaucl
was the wife of the deceased pastor of the French Reformed
Church in Frankfort] . .

The joy of Mendelssohn's friends over this engage-
ment was great ; for they soon learned in Cecile Jeanre-
neaud he had found a rich treasure, a spirit kindred with
his own, and one which could understand him, and prize

CHARACTER OF MENDELSSOHN. 281

him at his true worth. At about, this time, too, England
gave him a great triumph. His " St. Paul " was first pro-
duced at Liverpool, and was received with the greatest
enthusiasm. Moscheles, who had engaged to revise the
work for England, writes of it in his diary: "To my
great delight, I often have the magnificent < St. Paul 7 in
hand, and bury myself in it. Its chief peculiarities for
me are its sublimity, noble simplicity, depth of feeling,
and antique form. In it Mendelssohn has shown his
masterly skill most unmistakably."

_ A letter, written by Madame Moscheles to her relatives,
gives a good impression of Mendelssohn's bearing in
London shortly after :

Our dear Mendelssohn for I cannot call "hi otherxnse
arrived on the 18th in London, and reached our house at seven
in the evening. He brought his old friendliness and hearti-
ness with him; was merry, genial, well, in a word, just as
you. want a man to "be in every respect. At tea, and during
the whole evening, all sorts of reminiscences were gone over.
Then lie drew Moscheles to the piano, and made him play all
his favorite studies ; and, as each one was also his own favor-
ite, he grew so enthusiastic, that he only yielded to my third
urgent request, that he would go to his "bed and rest. On
Saturday he was with us again ; and, as Moscheles was en-
gaged with a pupil, he and I spent an hour alone : he played
me his overture to " FingaTs Cave." Chorley and Klingemann
came to tea; and, in the evening, Felix the younger had great
sport with his godfather, so that the whole house snook
with their fun. who would believe that the same man, who
was so immensely droll with the child, could improvise music
as he could,? Then Mendelssohn and Moscheles played to-
gether, taking a common theme ; and when I say it was grand,
beautiful, memorable, I have not written the half. For seven
years I have not heard them play as they did that night, I
think ; and it was fine enough to wait seven years for.

On Monday we rode to Birmingham, whither Mendelssohn
had already preceded us; and on Tuesday we went to the
Music Hall, and heard him play the organ. He played a
fugue from Bach in a masterly manner, afterwards the ''Israel
in Egypt," and a miscellaneous programme. Lablache sung.
He and the organ stood like giants over against each other,
while many of the other singers seemed like pygmies. How the
"Israel in Egypt," with Braham and Phillips and Lablache
and Madame Dorns, sounded, with this organ to accompany,
t must leave to your imagination..

"We were with Mendelssohn again in the evening : he had
much to tell us about his wife, and showed us her likeness,
which is wonderfully beautiful. If she is what he describes
her to be, she must be an angel.

282 MOSCHELES 017 THE

On the 23d of September, Moscheles writes from Bir-
mingham :

I have received a new joy in Mendelssohn's visit; and I
take him close to wy very heart. In my eyes he appears in-
terchangeable, as "brother, son, lover; chiefly as a fiery musical
enthusiast, who seems to hardly suspect how high a point he
has himself reached. "While his genius "bears him so far ahove
the common world, he yet knows very well how to he modest
with it all. "While Birmingham was in a flutter at containing
within itself the great composer, and at being the first to wel-
come his newest work, he found time to sketch a pen-and-ink
drawing of the city for our children. The view of the chim-
neys, factories, town hall, and the railway-carriage in which
he and I are represented as sitting, is exceedingly well and
truly done.

Yesterday morning the town hall presented an imposing
appearance, by reason of its fulness, and the fine show of the
chorus and orchestra. For music, we had Handel, Bach,
Palestrina, and Mozart; Lablache great as ever. The second
part was devoted to Mendelssohn : lie was received with loud
applause, and heartily. His direction of the orchestra pro-
duced an unwonted unity and precision. The "Lobgesang"
is really a symphony joined with a religious cantata, the for-
mer wrought in a masterly manner, and in various styles,
strong, glowing, genial, and inspiring. The hymn and chorus
part, which follows, is in the strictly severe style. Braham sang
his recitative with great pathos, and with rejuvenated voice.
A noble duet for two sopranos follows, and then the great
masses of sound break grandly forth for the first time. The
fugue then rises triumphantly over all; the organ thunders
royally; and the drums, in double force, work the rhythm
like the pulses of a man in the most exalted niood. A choral
of such beauty followed, that the whole multitude rose from
their seats, as they had only done before when the Hallehi-
jah was sung. The fugue of the final chorus is grand : its chief
theme is "Praise the Lord," which runs through the entire
work, The loudest applause repaid the noble composer.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, when the hall was emp-
tied, he played the organ for three-quarters of an hour, in the
presence of some select friends. It did not seem as if he had
been directing and hearing music before on the same day, but
as if he were beginning the day afresh. The same evening
we heard, for the first time, an act of the Gazza Ladra, sung
by Caradori and Lablache; then Mendelssohn's G-minor con-
certo, played by him with an immense flow of spirit, and yet
with a very delicate handling.

After the stay in Birmingham, came some very pleasant
hours in London, closing with a meeting of mutual
friends m Moscheles' house. Mendelssohn played the

CHARACTER OF MENDELSSOHN. 283

score of the Hymn of Praise; and, after some other
things, there was some four-handed improvisation, with
a wonderful mixing of themes, yet so that all went har-
moniously together.

It was determined to invite Chorley to make a third
in taking the journey to Germany. On the departure
Mendelssohn made a pen-sketch, in Madame Moscheles'
album, of his experiences during the past weeks ; Chorley
wrote an explanation in doggerel; Moscheles put in a
few hearty words of parting ; and, at midnight, they three
took the Dover mail-coach. The carriage had four in-
side places, and, unfortunately, an uninvited guest had the
fourth. He is a good sleeper," said one : " let's think
what we can do with him when he wakes. " "Make
away with him : that's the only help," said another. At
that instant the sleeper awoke. Naturally, the speakers
were anxious whether he had heard their miserable jokes ;
and Moscheles, not losing his presence of mind, says (in
English), " And then she declared that she never would
marry that man." The sentence remained a by-word
among the friends. Mendelssohn broke out in Homeric
laughter, and the others caught the contagion. What
could the half-sleeping man have thought of his com-
rades ?

When the friends reached Ostend, after an eight-hours'
voyage, and a very uncomfortable one, Moscheles' first
task was to write to his wife; Chorley added a few
friendly words ; Mendelssohn made a sketch of a steamer
on a rough sea, and underneath wrote the words :

Heiss mich nicht reden, heiss mich sehweigen,

SCHILLEB.

Ea giebt Augenblicke im Menschenleben.

GOETHE.
Here the ship gave a lurch, and he grew sea-sick.

LORD BYKON.

wir sitzen a"ber alle drei sehr comfortabel uni das Feuer in
Moscheles' Zimmer und gedenken Hirer.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BABTHOLDY.*

*It Is impossible, in a translation, not to spoil the fun of this;
which springs from the dignity of the quotations fiom Schiller and
Goethe, coupled with the commonplace one from Byron, and the
proho remark of Mendelssohn. But they run thus, put into English:
" Bid me not speak : bid me keep silence ; " then Goethe's, u There are

284 CHARACTm OF MENDELSSOHN.

The further journey was made in Mendelssohn's pri-
vate carriage ; and was uneventful, save in the breaking of
an axle.

Prior to the 10th of July, Mendelssohn and his wife
were in Hamburgh, where Moscheles gave a concert, with
the valuable help of his great friend. It was, of course,
very successful. Madame Moscheles was now with ^ her
husband ; and, from a letter which she wrote at that time,
we gather her impressions about Mendelssohn's wife.
She says, " At last my earnest longing is met : I have
made acquaintance with the beautiful, lovely Cecile.
Mendelssohn was quite right when he said that ^ we
should understand and love each other. I had no time
to lose in order to love her; for to see her, and to be
drawn to her, was a simultaneous act with me. Mendel-
ssohn can surely be congratulated, that with his enthusi-
astic, excitable, overflowing nature, this gentle, womanly
being is his life's companion: they complement each
other perfectly."

On the 10th of April, 1843, the Leipzig Conservatory,
with Mendelssohn at the head, received its first pupil.
In 1847 the Conservatorium had the following list of
professors :

Dr. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, composition and solo
playing.

6. Becker, organ, practice in directing.

David, Klengel, Sachse, violin.

Gade, harmony and composition. ^

Hauptinaun, harmony, counterpoint.

Moscheles, chief teacher of the piano, practice in execution,
and in piano composition.

Plaidy, Wenzel, piano.

Bohme, solo and chorus singing.

Brendel, lecturer on music.

Neumann, Italian language.

Bichter, harmony and instrumentalism,*

moments in the life of man;" and Mendelssohn's is merely this,
" We are sitting together, all three of us, notwithstanding all this,
around the tire very comfortably in Moscheles' room; and are thiuk-

m ^ Lampadius has told the story of Mendelssohn's last days and death
so fully, that I will not quote the parallel passages from Mrs. Mo~
scheles' life of her husband, ED.