Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family in 1809. His grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was one of the most prominent Jewish intellectuals of the Enlightenment. But in 1816, Felix and his three siblings were all baptized into the Christian faith at his parents request by a Reformed Protestant minister in Berlin. As a young man, Felix would later disclose that he had become a follower of the Prussian Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Neither his baptism nor his numerous compositions of Christian sacred music were mere formalities. The best-known of his sacred choral works are the larger, longer, concert-sized works, especially the oratorio Elijah (1846). But there are many shorter…
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Felix Mendelssohn
Aus tiefer notBased on Martin Luther’s paraphrase of Psalm 130, Felix Mendelssohn’s setting of Aus tiefer Not is the first of three works grouped together in Drei Kirchenmusiken (Op. 23). The other two pieces are a setting of Ave Maria and Mitten wir im Leben sind (“In the Midst of Life we are in Death”), Luther’s re-working of an eleventh-century Latin antiphon, Media vita in morte sumus. Mendelssohn’s Aus tiefer not is a cantata-like piece in in F-minor in five movements, each movement featuring one of the five verses in Luther’s paraphrase of the psalm. It has often been recognized as Mendelssohn’s most “Bachian” composition, both in the sound of the music…
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Bend down thy gracious ear
by Ken Myers [This article originally appeared in the January/February 2017 issue of Touchstone magazine.] The Reformation’s lasting influence on the music of the Church begins with the publication in early 1524 of Etlich Cristlich lider Lobgesan, the first Lutheran hymnbook. Also known as the Achtliederbuch, the Hymnal of Eight, it contained the German texts for just eight hymns (four of which were by Luther) and only five tunes. One of the texts — printed under the heading “Der Psalm de Profundis” — was Luther’s paraphrase of Psalm 130. Better known by the first several words in the German, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir,” this hymn has been translated…
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Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
In 2003, renowned Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd wrote an important biography of the composer, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford University Press). When the book was published, conductor Christopher Hogwood praised it highly: “Here not only the music but the pressures of life that created it, the constant travel, the correspondence with friends and family, the witty asides, and even a synoptic and sympathetic view of critical opinion on his main works from his own time until the present day are digested within this much-needed survey, and presented with accuracy, intelligence and insight.” Todd is also the editor of the anthology Mendelssohn and His World (Princeton University Press, 1991).…