Articles and Essays

Articles related to Mendelssohn's work, biographies, additional topics and research resources.

  • Felix Mendelssohn as Composer First page of holograph manuscript score of Lieder ohne Worte by Mendelssohn. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. During his brief life, Mendelssohn produced approximately 750 musical works in nearly every genre -- from solo songs and works for solo piano, to choral and chamber works, and to large scale orchestral works, oratorio and even opera. As a virtuoso pianist and organist, it…
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Sacred Works First page of Mendelssohn's Jubilate Deo from the Moldenhauer Archive (1847). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Sacred music retained a position of major significance throughout Felix Mendelssohn's career as a composer, beginning with sacred choral songs performed at the Berlin Singakademie in 1821 and concluding with the Three Motets, op. 69, completed in the summer of 1847. Intended for both church and…
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte First page of [op. 38, no. 2] from Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte (March 29, 1836). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Mendelssohn's most significant contribution to the solo piano literature rests in the approximately forty works -- about one quarter of the total number of works that he composed for that instrument -- that are designated as the Lieder ohne Worte, or "Songs…
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat major, op. 20, for strings (1825) First page of the holograph manuscript of Mendelssohn's Octet (1825). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. While the genre of the string quartet -- consisting of two violins, one viola and one 'cello -- developed slowly over the second half of the eighteenth century, it had, by the turn of the nineteenth century, achieved such a wide popularity as to be regarded as…
  • Felix Mendelssohn and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Detail from Gewandhaus in Leipzig [interior view]. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. By late 1834, at the age of twenty-six, Mendelssohn had risen to the top of his profession, gaining the respect of his peers throughout Europe as the consummate professional musician: a leading conductor, brilliant performer and teacher, a composer of major status, and musico-historical scholar. In that year alone he…
  • Felix Mendelssohn and Jewish Identity Cover of If with all your hearts by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (Boston: E. H. Wade, [n.d.]). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Felix Mendelssohn was born into a family of means and privilege. His intellect and aptitude for music were apparent at an early age; by the age of fourteen he had already demonstrated an astonishing facility for musical composition, composing over one hundred works,…
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Art Works Drawing from Felix Mendelssohn's travels to Italy (n.d.) from The Moldenhauer Archives - The Rosaleen Moldenhauer Memorial. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. The development of Mendelssohn's musical and compositional skills parallels that of another aspect of his creativity: his skills in drawing and painting, which, like music, became a means of expression on which he relied throughout his life.
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Reviving the Works of J.S. Bach First page of a manuscript part, in Mendelssohn's hand, for J.S. Bach's Cantata, BWV 106 [183?]. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Johann Sebastian Bach's stature as a composer of such extraordinary genius and widespread influence is so firmly established in Western culture that it is difficult to imagine that only a little over a century-and-a-half ago, his music and reputation languished in…
  • Felix Mendelssohn as Correspondent Letter to Eduard Devrient; 10 July, 1832. Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Letter writing was a carefully cultivated art in the household of Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn, a tradition that was maintained throughout their lives as well as the lives of their children. Felix likely exceeded both his siblings and parents as the family's correspondent extraordinaire: recognized as one of the most…
  • Felix Mendelssohn Manuscripts and Resources for Research at the Library of Congress Felix Mendelssohn (Prang and Co., 1897). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. The largest part of the Library of Congress's resources for performing research related to Felix Mendelssohn is, predictably, housed in the collections of the Library's Music Division. While published scores of the composer's works, biographies and journal articles are held in the Division's general collections, the majority of primary source material…
  • Biographies