171
See also: Magnus Liber organi 28–31 ■ Canticum Canticorum 46–51 ■
Monteverdi’s Vespers 64–69 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105Felix Mendelssohn
Born into a wealthy German-
Jewish family in 1809, the
young Mendelssohn was a
child prodigy. He excelled
not only at the piano, violin,
conducting, and composition
but also at painting, fencing,
and riding. At the age of 20,
he conducted a performance
of the St. Matthew Passion—
the first since Bach’s death.
Mendelssohn’s visit to
England in 1829 was well
received and made a great
impression on him, resulting
in nine further extended trips
and invitations to Buckingham
Palace. As well as composing
and performing, Mendelssohn
conducted the Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra and
also founded the Leipzig
Conservatoire. Following
ill-health, possibly due to
overwork and the death of
his beloved sister, he suffered
a series of strokes and died in
1847, at the age of 38.sacred music, there was also little
incentive for composers to write
new choral works. As a result, the
choral music performed tended to
draw on works from the past.An appetite for oratorios
In England, regular renditions
of Handel’s oratorios in the late
1700s marked the start of a trend
that continued through the 19th
century. Among the first works
to be revived after the composer’s
death, they were often updated
for large, grandiose performances.
At later music events, such as the
Three Choirs Festival (instituted
by the cathedrals of Hereford,
Worcester, and Gloucester),
choirs could number more than
a thousand singers—a far cry from
the composer’s original intentions.
The Berlin Singakademie was
one of the first choral societies to be
established, with amateurs paying
a regular subscription to engage aprofessional conductor and defray
concert expenses. It started as an
educational venture for wealthy
ladies, then went on to include men
in 1791, and thereafter gave regular
concerts. It was here that the young
Felix Mendelssohn, whose father
was a member of the choir, first
came across the works of J.S. Bach
and was inspired to conduct a
performance of the St. Matthew
Passion, which helped to establish
the Bach revival in Germany.
Further choral societies sprang up
throughout Europe and America,
and publishing choral music
became a lucrative concern, as
some choirs needed in excess of
300 copies of a vocal score for a
single performance.
It was almost certainly through
attending performances of Handel’s
oratorios in London in the 1790s
that Haydn was inspired to create
a similar work in the Classical style.
The Creation, based on the Book of
Genesis, was published in 1800,
and curiously in a bilingual edition
in both German and English—
probably because Haydn had an
eye on the British market, in which
he was very successful. The Creation
was an instant success and was
performed throughout the Western
world in Haydn’s lifetime. Even as
his other music dropped out of the
standard repertoire, this oratorio
remained one of the core works
for choral societies and festivals.
It was within this cultural
climate that Mendelssohn
composed his oratorio St. Paul in ❯❯ROMANTIC 1810 –1920
Other key works1826 Overture “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream,” Op. 21
1833 Symphony No. 4 in
A major (“Italian”), Op. 90
1844 Violin Concerto in
E minor, Op. 64Oratorios, such as Elijah, were
regularly performed with huge choirs
and crowd-drawing soloists at the
Crystal Palace, London, and elsewhere
in England during the Victorian era.US_170-173_Mendelssohn.indd 171 26/03/18 1:01 PM