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What did Fanny Mendelssohn die of?
StrokeFanny Mendelssohn / Cause of deathOne day in May 1847, a few hours after rehearsing Felix's cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht for a Sonntagsmusiken performance, Fanny collapsed and died at the age of forty-one, the victim of a stroke.
Where did Felix Mendelssohn die?
Leipzig, GermanyFelix Mendelssohn / Place of deathRead a brief summary of this topic. Felix Mendelssohn, in full Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, (born February 3, 1809, Hamburg [Germany]—died November 4, 1847, Leipzig), German composer, pianist, musical conductor, and teacher, one of the most-celebrated figures of the early Romantic period.
What is Felix Mendelssohn's real cause of death?
Six months later, on November 4, 1847, Felix Mendelssohn died of a ruptured blood vessel in Leipzig, Germany. He had recently returned from a brief visit to Switzerland, where he'd completed composition of his String Quartet in F Minor.
How old was Felix Mendelssohn when he died?
38 years (1809–1847)Felix Mendelssohn / Age at deathAbstract. Composer and director of music at Leipzig's Gewandhaus Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy died remarkably young, on 4 November 1847, at the age of 38. The cause of his early death has been a mystery ever since.
Did Mendelssohn have perfect pitch?
When Fanny Mendelssohn, the older of the canonized and famous 19th-century composer Felix Mendelssohn, demonstrated that she was a child prodigy and had perfect pitch, she was not encouraged to publicly compose.
What nationality was Mendelson?
GermanFelix Mendelssohn / Nationality
Is Mendelssohn A good composer?
Felix Mendelssohn is one of the most renowned composers of the 19th century; his works are performed all over the world and their is no doubt about their firm place in the standard repertoire.
What is Fanny Mendelssohn most famous piece?
Mendelssohn composed over 200 lieders (including her famous “Swan Song”), over 100 pieces (including bagatelles, fugues, preludes and sonatas), choral music (the cantata “Oratorium nach den Bildern der Bibel” being most famous) and instrumental music for string and piano.
What is the last great piece Mendelssohn composed?
The Sixth Quartet was Mendelssohn's last major work, composed after his beloved sister Fanny - also a prodigiously talented composer - died in May 1847.
Who was Felix Mendelssohn's wife?
Cécile Mendelssohn-BartholdyFelix Mendelssohn / Wife (m. 1837–1847)The same year at Frankfurt he met Cécile Jeanrenaud, the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman. Though she was 10 years younger than himself, that is to say, no more than 16, they became engaged and were married on March 28, 1837.
Is Mendelssohn classical or Romantic?
Classic-Romantic composerFelix Mendelssohn is often viewed as a Classic-Romantic composer whose style paradoxically incorporated elements of formal balance and graceful control on the one hand, and romantic subjectivity and fantasy on the other.
Who was influenced by Mendelssohn?
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartJohann Sebastian BachLudwig van BeethovenHeinrich HeineFelix Mendelssohn/Influenced by
Where is Felix Mendelssohn buried?
Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I, Berlin, GermanyFelix Mendelssohn / Place of burial
Where did Felix Mendelssohn live?
BerlinFelix Mendelssohn / Places lived
Is Felix Mendelssohn still alive?
November 4, 1847Felix Mendelssohn / Date of death
What was Mendelssohn's last composition?
The Sixth Quartet was Mendelssohn's last major work, composed after his beloved sister Fanny - also a prodigiously talented composer - died in May 1847.
Who was Mendelssohn married to?
Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Reformed Church clergyman, on 28 March 1837. The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lili and Felix August. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with impaired health; he died in 1851. The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a historian, and Professor of History at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities; he died in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg aged 59. Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolf Wach, later Professor of Law at Leipzig University.
Where did Mendelssohn study?
The composer's study in Mendelssohn House, a museum in Leipzig. In Leipzig, Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the town's musical life by working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Thomanerchor (of which Bach had been a director), and the city's other choral and musical institutions.
How old was Mendelssohn when he started playing music?
Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo. He was a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin. Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts, and a number of chamber works. His first work, a piano quartet, was published when he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of this quartet by the house of Schlesinger. In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11).
Why did Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn move to Berlin?
The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise in fear of French reprisal for the Mendelssohn bank 's role in breaking Napoleon 's Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka – the best education possible.
What music school did Felix Mendelssohn start?
In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory , now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy". where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him.
What is the most famous piece Mendelssohn wrote?
(Later, in 1843, he also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous " Wedding March ".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism.
What is the Leipzig edition of the letters of Felix Mendelssohn?
Complete Edition: Leipzig Edition of the Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (in German) Information about the ongoing complete edition. The Mendelssohn Project A project with the objective of "recording of the complete published and unpublished works of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn".
Where did Mendelssohn go to perform?
In the spring of 1829 Mendelssohn made his first journey to England, conducting his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (1824) at the London Philharmonic Society. In the summer he went to Scotland, of which he gave many poetic accounts in his evocative letters. He went there “with a rake for folksongs, an ear for the lovely, fragrant countryside, and a heart for the bare legs of the natives.” At Abbotsford he met Sir Walter Scott. The literary, pictorial, and musical elements of Mendelssohn’s imagination are often merged. Describing, in a letter written from the Hebrides, the manner in which the waves break on the Scottish coast, he noted down, in the form of a musical symbol, the opening bars of The Hebrides (1830–32). Between 1830 and 1832 he traveled in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland and in 1832 returned to London, where he conducted The Hebrides and where he published the first book of the piano music he called Lieder ohne Worte ( Songs Without Words ), completed in Venice in 1830. Mendelssohn, whose music in its day was held to be remarkable for its charm and elegance, was gradually becoming the most popular of 19th-century composers in England. His main reputation was made in England, which, in the course of his short life, he visited no fewer than 10 times. At the time of these visits, the character of his music was held to be predominantly Victorian, and indeed he eventually became the favourite composer of Queen Victoria herself.
What did Mendelssohn teach his children?
Other teachers gave the Mendelssohn children lessons in literature and landscape painting, with the result that at an early age Mendelssohn’s mind was widely cultivated. His personality was nourished by a broad knowledge of the arts and was also stimulated by learning and scholarship.
What is the most famous piece of music that Mendelssohn composed?
Among his most famous works are Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826), Italian Symphony (1833), a violin concerto (1844), two piano concerti (1831, 1837), the oratorio Elijah (1846), and several pieces of chamber music. He was a grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
What genre of music did Mendelssohn use?
Mendelssohn developed in this work the genre of the swift-moving scherzo (a playful musical movement) that he would also use in the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1843). Mendelssohn, Felix: Songs Without Words. “Spinnerlied” (“Spinning Song”), Op. 67, No. 34, in C major, one of Felix Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte ...
How many operas did Mendelssohn write?
Mendelssohn was an extemely precocious musical composer. He wrote numerous compositions during his boyhood, among them 5 operas, 11 symphonies for string orchestra, concerti, sonatas, and fugues. Most of these works were long preserved in manuscript in the Prussian State Library in Berlin but are believed to have been lost in World War II. He made his first public appearance in 1818—at age nine—in Berlin.
Where did Mendelssohn go to perform his first concert?
In the spring of 1829 Mendelssohn made his first journey to England, conducting his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (1824) at the London Philharmonic Society. In the summer he went to Scotland, of which he gave many poetic accounts in his evocative letters.
Who gave the cudgel to Mendelssohn?
Later, at Leipzig, where Hector Berlioz and Mendelssohn exchanged batons, Berlioz offered an enormous cudgel of lime tree covered with bark, whereas Mendelssohn playfully presented his brazen contemporary with a delicate light stick of whalebone elegantly encased in leather.
What was the name of the city that Mendelssohn died in?
Leipzig after Mendelssohn’s death was Pompeii after the eruption of Vesuvius. The musicians carried on as best they could, but they were dead at heart. Mendelssohn was indispensable — irreplaceable. Ferdinand Hiller wrote: “In the evening there was a concert at the Gewandhaus to his memory. ‘The saddest thing,’ says George Sand somewhere, ‘after the death of a beloved being, is the empty place at table.’ I had exactly the same feeling during the concert. There were the orchestra, the chorus, the audience, which for so many years had been inspired by Mendelssohn; they made their music and played and sang — and only a few days before they had followed his corpse to the church.” [x]
How did Mendelssohn breathe?
As they awaited the arrival of his sister Rebekkah and several other close friends, Mendelssohn’s breathing became slow and labored. “The doctors counted [his breaths] as if they were hoping to be able to enrich scientific research with new discoveries,” wrote Moscheles. “His features were transfigured; Cécile knelt by his bed and burst into tears. Paul Mendelssohn, David, Schleinitz and I stood round the bed in deathly silence, immersed in prayer. With every breath that was wrested from him, I could feel the struggle of his great spirit, wanting to free itself from its earthly shell. I had often heard his breathing while admiring his performing, as if he were riding heavenwards on Pegasus, and now these same sounds had to ring out, announcing this terrible end… At 24 minutes past nine, with one last deep sigh, he exhaled his great soul from his body.” [iv]
Where is Mendelssohn's bedroom?
The hallway in the Mendelssohn home. The small bedroom in which Mendelssohn died is at the end of the hall on the right.
Who urged Joseph to return home to Pest?
Reacting to the news of Mendelssohn’s death, Joseph’s father urged him to return home to Pest. Joseph, however, wrote to his physician brother-in-law, Dr. Rechnitz:
Who was Mendelssohn's friend?
In England, the “musical world talked as if the sun had fallen from the sky.” [xiv] Mendelssohn’s friend Sophy Horsley traveled to Leipzig to be with Cécile. Years later she wrote to Joachim: “In November 1847, when I was at Leipsic dearest Cécile M. B. spoke of the great love her Husband had borne you, of the high hopes he entertained for y r future career, adding ‘Poor boy, he has lost his best friend.’” [xv]
Who committed his meditations to paper?
On the morning of November 4, as Mendelssohn lay dying, Ignaz Moscheles sat in his friend’s house, and committed his meditations to paper:
How did Mendelssohn die?
Six months later, on November 4, 1847, Felix Mendelssohn died of a ruptured blood vessel in Leipzig, Germany. He had recently returned from a brief visit to Switzerland, where he'd completed composition of his String Quartet in F Minor.
How did Mendelssohn's sister die?
His health, already compromised by his strenuous career, began to deteriorate rapidly. Six months later, on November 4, 1847, Felix Mendelssohn died of a ruptured blood vessel in Leipzig, Germany. He had recently returned from a brief visit to Switzerland, where he'd completed composition of his String Quartet in F Minor.
Who Was Felix Mendelssohn?
German composer Felix Mendelssohn made his public debut in Berlin at just 9 years old. In 1819, he joined the Singakademie music academy and began composing non-stop. At Singakademie, he also became a conductor, but continued to compose prolifically. Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music in 1843.
What was Mendelssohn's first work?
Early Work. In 1819, Mendelssohn joined the Singakademie music academy and began composing non-stop. In 1820 alone, he wrote a violin sonata, two piano sonatas, multiple songs, a cantata, a brief opera and a male quartet. In 1826, Mendelssohn produced one of his best known works, Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream.
What major instrument did Mendelssohn compose?
Later Work. The same year that he married, Mendelssohn composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor. From 1838 to 1844, he toiled away on his Violin Concerto in E Minor. Prior to the piece's completion, Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music and became its director.
How long did it take Mendelssohn to compose his Symphony No. 3?
Inspired by his visit to England and Scotland, Mendelssohn began composing his Symphony No. 3; it took more than a decade to complete.
How old was Mendelssohn when he made his debut?
Mendelssohn was quick to establish himself as a musical prodigy. During his childhood, he composed a handful of operas and 11 symphonies. At just 9 years old, he made his public debut in Berlin.
Overview
Life
Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent city-state, in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, would be born. Mendelssohn's father, the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, was the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, whose family was prominen…
Music
Something of Mendelssohn's intense attachment to his personal vision of music is conveyed in his comments to a correspondent who suggested converting some of the Songs Without Words into lieder by adding texts: "What [the] music I love expresses to me, are not thoughts that are too indefinite for me to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite."
Reputation and legacy
In the immediate wake of Mendelssohn's death, he was mourned both in Germany and England. However, the conservative strain in Mendelssohn, which set him apart from some of his more flamboyant contemporaries, bred a corollary condescension amongst some of them toward his music. Mendelssohn's relations with Berlioz, Liszt and others had been uneasy and eq…
Sources
• Barenboim, Lev Aronovich (1962). Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein (in Russian) (2 vols. ed.). Leningrad: State Musical Publishing House. OCLC 16655013.
• Barr, John (1978). The Officina Bodoni, Montagnola, Verona: Books Printed By Giovanni Mardersteig on the Hand Press, 1923–1977. London: The British Library. ISBN 978-0-7141-0398-3.
Further reading
There are numerous published editions and selections of Mendelssohn's letters.
The main collections of Mendelssohn's original musical autographs and letters are to be found in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, the New York Public Library, and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The autographs of his letters to Moscheles are in Special Collections at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
External links
• Works by Felix Mendelssohn at Project Gutenberg, Works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy at Project Gutenberg (Both these relate to Felix Mendelssohn, but the Gutenberg system lists him under both names).
• Works by or about Felix Mendelssohn at Internet Archive
• Felix Mendelssohn at the Musopen project