A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Lobgesang

by George Grove

LOBGESANG, eine Symphonie-Cantate. A well-known work of Mendelssohn's (op. 52), composed for the Gutenberg festival, and first performed at the church of S. Thomas, Leipzig, in the afternoon of June 25, 1840. The form of the work is no doubt due to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and in Germany it is taken as the third [App. p.705 "second"] of his published symphonies. It was performed the second time at Birmingham, Sept. 23, 1840 (Mendelssohn conducting); and after this performance was considerably altered throughout—including the addition of the entire scene of the Watchman—and published by Breitkopfs early in 1841. First performances, as published—Leipzig, Dec. 3, 1840; London, Sacred Harmonic Society, March 10, 1843. The selection of the words was doubtless in great measure Mendelssohn's own, though the title 'Symphonie-Cantate' was Klingemann's.^[1] The English adaptation was made with his concurrence by Mr. J. A. Novello, to whom more of the English texts of Mendelssohn's works are due than is generally known. The phrase (a favourite one with Mendelssohn) with which the symphony opens, and which forms the coda to the entire work, is the Intonation to the 2nd [App. p.705 "8th"] Tone for the Magnificat. [App. p.705 "Mendelssohn was engaged during 1838 and '39 on a symphony in B♭, which he often mentions in his letters, and at last speaks of as nearly complete. No trace of it has however been found. Is it possible that he can have converted it into the orchestral movements of the Lobgesang, the first of which is also in B♭?"]

[ G. ]

1. See Mendelssohn's Letter, Nov. 18, 1840.