Scan 193
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
13 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Paul.' Indeed, Bach may be tracked still later in the solid construction and architectonic arrangement of the choruses, even of the 'Lobgesang,' the grand Psalms, the 'Walpurgisnacht,' and 'Elijah,' works in all respects emphatically Mendelssohn's own, not less than in the religious feeling, the union of noble sentiment with tender expression, and the utter absence of commonness or vulgarity which pervade all his music alike.
3In the instrumental works, however, the year 1826 broke the spell of all external influence, and the Octet, the Quintet in A, and, above all, the 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture, launched him upon the world at seventeen as a thoroughly original composer. The Concert-overtures, the two great Symphonies, the two PF. Concertos, and the Violin Concerto, fully maintain this originality, and in thought, style, phrase, and clearness of expression, no less than in their symmetrical structure and exquisite orchestration, are eminently independent and individual works. The advance between the Symphony in C minor (1824),—which we call 'No. I.,' though it is really 'No. XIII.'—and the Italian Symphony (Rome, 1831), is immense. The former is laid out quite on the Mozart plan, and the working throughout recalls the old world. But the latter has no model. The melodies and the treatment are Mendelssohn's alone, and while in gaiety and freshness it is quite unrivalled, it is not too much to say that the slow movement is as great a novelty as that of Beethoven's piano Concerto in G. The Scotch Symphony is as original as the Italian, and on a much larger and grander scale. The opening andante, the scherzo, and the finale are especially splendid and individual. The Concert-overtures are in all essential respects as original as if Beethoven had not preceded them by writing 'Coriolan'—as true a representative of his genius as the 'Hebrides' is of Mendelssohn's. That to the 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' which brought the fairies into the orchestra and fixed them there, and which will always remain a monument of the fresh feeling of youth; the 'Hebrides' with its intensely sombre and melancholy sentiment, and the 'Melusina' with its passionate pathos, have no predecessors in sentiment, treatment, or orchestration. 'Ruy Blas' is as brilliant and as full of fire as the others are of sentiment, and does not fall a step behind them for individuality.
5In these works there is little attempt at any modification of the established forms. Innovation was not Mendelssohn's habit of mind, and he rarely attempts it. The Scotch Symphony is directed to be played through without pause, and it has an extra movement in form of a long Coda, which appears to be a novelty in pieces of this class. There are unimportant variations in the form of the concertos, chiefly in the direction of compression. But with Mendelssohn, no more than with Schubert, do these things force themselves on the attention. He has so much to say, and says it so well, the music is so good and so agreeable, that it never occurs to the hearer to inquire if he has altered the external proportions of his discourse.
7His Scherzos are still more peculiarly his own offspring, and really have no prototypes. That in a movement bearing the same name as one of Beethoven's most individual creations, and occupying the same place in the piece, he should have been able to strike out so entirely different a path as he did, is a wonderful tribute to his originality. Not less remarkable is the variety of the many scherzos he has left. They are written for orchestra and chamber, concerted and solo alike, in double and triple time indifferently; they have no fixed rhythm, and notwithstanding a strong family likeness—the impress of the gay and delicate mind of their composer—are all independent of each other. In his orchestral works Mendelssohn's scoring is remarkable not more for its grace and beautiful effect than for its clearness and practical efficiency. It gives the conductor no difficulty. What the composer wishes to express comes out naturally, and, as already remarked, each instrument has with rare exceptions the passages best suited to it.
9Mendelssohn's love of 'Programme' is obvious throughout the foregoing works. The exquisite imitation of Goethe's picture in the Scherzo of the Octet (p. 118a) is the earliest instance of it; the overture founded on his 'Calm sea and prosperous voyage' is another; and as we advance each overture and each symphony has its title. He once said, in conversation with Friedrich Schneider on the subject, that since Beethoven had taken the step he did in the Pastoral Symphony, every one was at liberty to follow.1 But the way in which he resented Schumann's attempt2 to discover 'red coral, sea monsters, magic castles, and ocean caves' in his 'Melusina' overture shows that his view of Programme was a broad one, that he did not intend to depict scenes or events, but held fast by Beethoven's canon, that such music should be 'more expression of emotion than painting'—mehr Ausdruck der Empfindung als Malerei. Thus he quotes the first few bars of the 'Hebrides' Overture (see p. 124a) not as his recollection of the sound of the winds and the waves, but 'to show how extraordinarily Fingal's cave had affected him'—wie seltsam mir auf den Hebriden zu Muthe geworden ist. True, in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture we are said to hear the bray of Bottom in the low G of the ophicleide; and in the three North Wales pieces for pianoforte (op. 16) we are told of even more minute touches
111 Schubring, p. 347b, note.
122 L. to Fanny, Jan. 30, 1836. The reference is to an article in the N.M.Z. When asked what he meant by this overture he once replied 'Hm. une mésalliance.'
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