| JAKOB LUDWIG FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY | ||
| geboren zu Hamburg am 3 Feb. 1809. Gestorben zu Leipzig am 4 Nov. 1847. |
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In London the feeling, though naturally not so deep or so universal as in his native place, was yet both deep and wide. His visits had of late been so frequent, and the last one was so recent, and there was such a vivid personality about him, such force and fire, and such a general tone of health and spirits, that no wonder we were startled by the news of his death. The tone of the press was more that of regret for a dear relation, than of eulogy for a public character. Each writer spoke as if he intimately knew and loved the departed. This is especially conspicuous in the long notices of the Times and Athenæum, which are full not only of keen appreciation, but of deep personal sorrow. Of his private friends I shall only permit myself two quotations. Mrs. Grote, writing nearly thirty years afterwards, names four friends whose deaths had occasioned her the most poignant sorrow of her life; and among these are Felix Mendelssohn, Alexis de Tocqueville, and John Stuart Mill. Mrs. Austin, the aunt of his early friends the Taylors, and herself one of his most intimate allies, in a tribute to his memory as beautiful [1]as it is short, says—
'His is one of the rare characters that cannot be known too intimately. Of him there is nothing to tell that is not honourable to his memory, consoling to his friends, profitable to all men.… Much as I admired him as an artist, I was no less struck by his childlike simplicity and sportiveness, his deference to age, his readiness to bend his genius to give pleasure to the humble and ignorant; the vivacity and fervour of his admiration for everything good and great, his cultivated intellect, refined tastes and noble sentiments.'
Nor was the public regret out of proportion to that of his intimate friends. We are not perhaps prone to be very demonstrative over artists, especially over musicians; but this was a man who had wound himself into our feelings as no other musician had done since Handel. What Handel's songs, Harmonious Blacksmith, and other harpsichord pieces had done for the English public in 1740, that Mendelssohn's Songs without Words, and Part-songs, had done in 1840, and they had already made his name a beloved household word in many a family circle both in town and country. He had been for long looked upon as half an Englishman. He spoke English well, he wrote letters and familiar notes in our tongue freely; he showed himself in the provinces; his first important work was founded on Shakspeare, his last was brought out in England, at so peculiarly English a town as Birmingham; and his 'Scotch Symphony' and 'Hebrides Overture' showed how deeply the scenery of Britain had influenced him. And, perhaps more than this, there were in the singular purity of his life, in his known devotion to his wife and family, and his general high and unselfish character, the things most essential to procure him both the esteem and affection of the English people.
The Sacred Harmonic Society, the only Society in London having concerts at that period of the year, performed Elijah on Nov. 17, preceded by the Dead March in Saul, and with the band and chorus all dressed in black. At Manchester and Birmingham similar honours were paid to the departed composer. In Germany commemoration concerts (Todtenfeier) were given at Berlin, Vienna, Frankfort, Hamburg, and many other places. His bust was set up in the Theatre at Berlin, and his profile in the Gewandhaus at Leipzig. The first Concert of the Conservatoire at Paris, on Jan. 9, 1848, was entitled 'à la mémoire de F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,' and comprised the Scotch Symphony, Hebrides Overture, Violin Concerto, and fragments from St. Paul. Among the very numerous letters of condolence addressed to his widow we will only mention those from the Queen of England, the King of Prussia, and the King of Saxony.
Two works were in the printers' hands at the time of Mendelssohn's death—the Six Songs (op. 71) and the Six Children's pieces (op. 72). These were quickly published. Then there was a pause, and at length, as he had left no will, Madame Mendelssohn confided to a kind of committee, composed of her husband's most intimate musical friends, the task of deciding which pieces out of the immense mass of MS. music should be published, and of supervising the publication. These gentlemen were Dr. Schleinitz, the acting member of the council of the Conservatorium, David, Moscheles, and Hauptmann, all resident in Leipzig, with Paul Mendelssohn in Berlin, and Julius Rietz in Dresden. The instrumental works still in MS. embraced the Trumpet Overture (1825) and Reformation Symphony (1830), the Italian Symphony (1833), the Overture to Ruy Blas (1839), 2 sets of P.F. variations (1841), the Quintet in B♭ (1845), the Quartet in F minor (1847), and fragments of another Quartet in E, Songs without Words, and other P.F. pieces. The Vocal works comprised the Liederspiel 'Heimkehr aus der Fremde' (1829), the Concert-aria 'Infelice' (1843), the Music to Athalie and to Œdipus Coloneus (both 1845), Lauda Sion (1846), fragments of the opera Loreley, and of the oratorio Christus, on which he had been at work not long before his death, Psalms and Sprüche for
- ↑ Fraser's Mag. April 1848.
