Scan 66
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1910
7 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 46. See the scan on archive.org.
1Mendelssohn
2mer at Frankfort writing some of his finest songs during this time. At the Birmingham Festival of 1840 he gave Lobgesang, composed for a festival in honor of the discovery of printing, held at Leipsic during that year, and during the following winter he produced it at a Gewandhaus concert and at a special concert to the King of Saxony.
4In 1840 the King of Prussia founded an Academy of Fine Arts at Berlin and appointed Mendelssohn director of the musical department. This was not a welcome appointment to the composer because he dreaded court restriction and disliked returning to Berlin to live. He did not remove his family from Leipsic and returned there often, on one occasion to conduct his Scotch Symphony at a Gewandhaus concert. He directed the Rhine Festival at Düsseldorf that year, and in the spring went to England to conduct his Scotch Symphony at a Philharmonic concert. The position at Berlin was more intolerable than before; plans for the Academy had fallen through, and as a substitute the King proposed giving him charge of a select choir and orchestra which he should organize and permission to live wherever he wished. He was given the title of General Music Director to the King of Prussia, and in consequence had to resign the position he held as chapelmaster to the King of Saxony. During an interview with the King of Saxony regarding this resignation he persuaded that monarch to devote a legacy left to the state to the founding of a musical conservatory at Leipsic. Such a project had always been the work nearest his heart, and he started at once to organize this institution. While at Leipsic on this work he set to music Racine's Athalie, Œdipus Coloneus, and The Tempest for the King of Prussia. In December, 1842, he lost his mother, but, as in his former bereavement, hard work proved his solace. In January, 1843, the prospectus of a conservatory appeared, bearing the names of Mendelssohn, Becker, David Hauptmann and Schumann. In April the great Bach monument opposite the Thomas School was unveiled, and he conducted a concert composed wholly of Bach's compositions. Thus in the same year two of his dearest wishes were accomplished. After a quiet summer at Leipsic he resumed his duties at Berlin in August, conducting Antigone and the Midsummer Night's Dream music at Potsdam. Seeing that he would have to stay in Berlin during the winter, he arranged to have Ferdinand Hiller conduct the Gewandhaus concerts. In February he received an invitation to conduct the last six concerts of the London Philharmonic Society and gladly accepted. After the coldness of Berlin the enthusiastic reception he was given in London was very grateful. He played at concerts of the Sacred Harmony Society and at the Society of British Musicians, and everywhere was greeted with an ovation. After this and a summer spent near Frankfort with his wife and children return to Berlin was out of the question. He obtained a release from the King, then returned to Frankfort to rest until September. During this time he completed six organ sonatas; a trio in C minor; a string quartet in B flat; and the sixth book of Songs Without Words.
6In September, 1845, Mendelssohn returned to Leipsic. His first appearance at the Gewandhaus received an ovation. His work at the Conservatory was a source of unfailing inspiration to his students. He taught no regular classes, but his lectures, enlivened by the fire of his genius, inspired every one present. He talked sometimes on composition, sometimes on technical matter, often illustrating by brilliant playing on piano and organ, of which he was the first master of his time, and often drawing on his beloved Bach for suggestion or example. His marvelous memory was stored with the works of the masters and his resources were unfailing. Among other things, he organized an orchestra among the students of the Conservatory, which played at the Gewandhaus, and which has since become famous as one of the finest orchestras in Germany. Beside all his work at the Gewandhaus and the Conservatory, he worked on Elijah, and during 1846 conducted the Lower Rhine Festival, composing Lauda Sion for this occasion and, for the first festival of the German-Flemish Association which he conducted at Cologne, arranged a Festsang on Schiller's An die Kunstler. He went to Birmingham to conduct Elijah, which he had sadly overworked himself to finish,
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