A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Walpurgisnight

by George Grove

WALPURGISNIGHT, the night (between April 30 and May 1) of S. Walpurga or Werburga, a British saint, sister of S. Boniface, on which a Witches' Sabbath is supposed to be held in the Harz Mountains. 'The First Walpurgisnight, Ballad for Chorus and Orchestra, the words by Goethe, music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, op. 60,' is a setting of a poem of Goethe's, which describes the first occurrence of the event in an encounter between old heathens and Christians.

The intention to compose the poem probably came to Mendelssohn during his visit to Goethe in 1830, and he announces it as a Choral Symphony.^[1] He began to write it in April 1831, and by the end of the month speaks of it as practically complete. On July 14, at Milan, however, he is still tormented by it, and the MS. of the vocal portion is dated '15th July, 1831.' The Overture—'Saxon Overture' as he calls it—followed '13th Feb. 1832,' and the work was produced at Berlin, Jan. 1833. Ten years later he resumed it, re-scored the whole, published it, and performed it, first in Germany, and then in England (Philharmonic, July 8, 1844), to English words by Mr. Bartholomew. [See vol. ii. pp 266b, 269b, 284a.]

[ G. ]

1. Letter to Klingemann, Nov. 1840. The idea of a choral symphony was carried out in the Lobgesang.