Scan 21
STOKES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS VOLUME II, 1908
2 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1on advice of Cherubini, composed a five-part Kyrie with orchestra, which, though the score has disappeared, he considered "the biggest thing he had yet done." Returning by way of Weimar, he played his B minor quartet for Goethe, and dedicated it to him, an honour which the poet returned by addressing some verses to him. The family removed from their house on the Neue Promenade to a more commodious residence, surrounded by spacious grounds and having a large garden house on the site now occupied by the Herrenhaus. There Mendelssohn reached manhood in music with his Octet for strings, Op. 18, and there, in the garden house, his Midsummer Night's Dream overture had its first performance, the composer conducting, in 1827. The opera "Camacho" had been submitted to Spontini the previous year, and it likewise was performed in 1827, but was withdrawn after the first performance, having been cheered by his friends but vigorously attacked by the critics. Mendelssohn was at this time a student in Berlin University. He made what is said to have been the first metrical translation of Terence into German, and worked hard at the modern languages. That winter a choir of music lovers Mendelssohn organized at his home began to practice Bach's Passion according to St. Matthew. Its performance in 1828 aroused general interest and led to the formation of the Bach Gesellschaft. In 1829 Mendelssohn was authorized to conduct a performance of this Passion at the Singakademie. This extended his reputation throughout Europe, but aroused the ill-will of the Berlin musicians, the Royal orchestra thereafter declining to play under his baton. The composer, then in his 20th year, determined to visit England. On May 25, he conducted his C minor symphony at the concert of the London Philharmonic Society, where his reception was most cordial. Two other concerts at which he played piano confirmed him in that popularity with the English public which proved a life long asset, and he was elected an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society. It was during this sojourn in London that he declined the task of writing a hymn to celebrate "the emancipation of the natives of Ceylon," although he humorously described himself as "composer to the Island of Ceylon" in letters to his family. A tour of Scotland inspired the "Hebrides" overture, afterwards played with great success in London, as well as the "Scotch" symphony, and he was also engaged in working out his "Reformation" symphony for the tercentenary celebration of the Augsburg Confession of Faith, an operetta for the silver wedding of his parents, and his Scotch sonata for piano (the F sharp minor Fantasia, Op. 28). Returning home, he was offered the chair of music at Berlin University, a post created in his honour, but declined it in favor of Marx, and in the spring of 1830 set out for a long anticipated tour of Italy, accompanied by his younger sister Rebecca. On his way he stopped at Weimar, where he was closely associated with Goethe for two weeks, at Vienna, where he found to his disgust that Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven were being forgotten; at Presburg, where he attended the coronation of the King of Hungary, and on Oct. 9 arrived at Venice. A delightful account of his wanderings through Italy, including brief sojourns in Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, will be found in his "Letters from Italy." Returning north by way of Switzerland, he reached Munich in the fall of 1831, played in a concert devoted to his own compositions, and then travelled to Paris, where he was welcomed at the best concerts, both as composer and pianist. Tiring of the French capital, he again visited London, played in several concerts, had the satisfaction of hearing his larger works at others, and issued the first book of his "Songs without Words" (Lieder Ohne Worte), which had a greater vogue than anything published in England since the death of Handel. Returning to Berlin, he
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.