Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Mendelssohn“

This thesis is a study of four compositions written by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Her music is compared with four pieces composed by Felix. This study shows that Fanny was a gifted and creative composer, even surpassing Felix and predating Brahms with her compositional ideas and progressive uses of harmony. Despite her excellent education and recognition among those who knew her well, she did not publicize her talent in any way because of pressure from her father, Abraham, and Felix to stay within the prescribed societal confines of wife and mother.

In der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts spielte Mendelssohns Musik in Kompositionslehren noch eine keineswegs unbedeutende Rolle. Insbesondere in deren Abteilungen zur sogenannten freien Komposition, soweit sie Fragen der musikalischen Form und der Orchestration betrafen, wurde Mendelssohn oft zitiert. Vor allem in Salomon Jadassohns Kompositionslehre erlangte sein Werk Modellcharakter. Der Beitrag zeigt, wie dieser Lehrer am Leipziger Konservatorium im späten 19. Jahrhundert auf der einen Seite Mendelssohns musikalische und ästhetische Haltung fortwirken lassen wollte, wie er sich jedoch andererseits bereits vorsichtig von gewissen Aspekten des Mendelssohnschen Komponierens distanzierte. Aus um 1900 geschriebenen Lehren verschwindet Mendelssohns Name zusehends ebenso wie die Namen jüdischer oder französischer Komponisten wie Halévy oder Meyerbeer<br>In the second half of the 19th century Mendelssohn’s music played a prominent role in treatises upon composition. Especially the volumes on socalled „free composition“, including recommendations concernig musical forms, instrumentation and orchestration, often quote from his works. Mendelssohn claimed the figure of a model-composer. The paper concentrates on Mendelssohn as a model for young composers, as it was given by teachers at the Leipzig conservatoire. Treatises upon musical forms and instrumentation, written by Mendelssohn’s successors at the conservatoire show how the teachers on the one hand try to continue Mendelssohn’s compositional attitude and on the other hand try to part themselves from certain aspects of Mendelssohn’s music

How does the aesthetic category of the sublime, in its various formulations from the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, assist in explaining the significance of Felix Mendelssohn and his compositions to English and German audiences in his lifetime and beyond? Due to the conceptual proximity of a number of formulations of the sublime to primary traits of his compositional output, Mendelssohn’s life and work can be understood through the categories of sublime aesthetics. Despite challenges in his reception and complexities in modern scholarship, Mendelssohn’s biography and musical accomplishments consistently show conceptual and contextual relations to a wide variety of sublime formulations. Mendelssohn’s early life and works display a prodigious musical talent impacted by multiple sublime influences, including the ‘sublime’ music of George Frideric Handel. His most popular early overtures – Midsummer Night’s Dream, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and The Hebrides – demonstrate connections with an even wider range of sublime objects and concepts. Although Mendelssohn’s works from the 1830s and 1840s show an increasing appreciation for historical genres and forms, this does not represent a ‘decline’ from ‘sublime’ standards of originality, but an ‘ascent’ to new heights of ‘genius’, according to early nineteenth-century standards. His late works such as the Lobgesang, the Berlin Psalm Introits, and Elijah confirm his ability to create music modelled on sublime predecessors, communicating ‘Grand Concepts’, and expressing ineffable feeling. Overall, this thesis aims to show that the sublime can serve to evaluate the music of Mendelssohn using contextually-appropriate aesthetic concepts, thus offering a new understanding of his compositional accomplishments.

The music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-47) has earned a prominent position in the orchestral repertoire. One of his greatest works, and certainly one of the most performed, is his Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64. The work enjoys much popularity with, and recognition by, soloists, orchestras, and conductors alike. Even with its fame and familiarity, it remains a work that must be carefully studied and prepared by the conductor. This document presents an examination of a conductor’s performance preparation of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. The purpose of this examination is to equip the conductor with a depth of knowledge that will yield rehearsals and performances of the concerto that are stylistically appropriate, well informed, and efficient. Major sections include an examination of the concerto’s 1844 and 1845 versions and available performance materials, tempo selection and execution, size, balance and composition of the orchestra, stylistic traits, and aspects of performance practice.