Selected letters of Mendelssohn

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Selected letters of Mendelssohn (1894)
by Felix Mendelssohn
2604802Selected letters of Mendelssohn1894Felix Mendelssohn
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Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

​

SELECTED LETTERS

OF

MENDELSSOHN

EDITED BY

W. F. ALEXANDER M.A.


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SIR GEORGE GROVE AND A PORTRAIT OF MENDELSSOHN

LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.
NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1894

​

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF EVENTS.

Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, born
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 February 3rd, 1809.
Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” completed,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 August 6th, 1826.
Reformation Symphony composed,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 Winter of 1829–30.
Journey to Italy commences,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 August, 1830.
Return from Italy and Switzerland to Munich,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 October, 1831.
Settles at Düsseldorf as Intendant of Church and Secular Music,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 September 27th, 1833.
Commences “St. Paul,”
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 March, 1834.
Leaves Düsseldorf to become Conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipsic,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 Commencement of 1835.
His father, Abraham Mendelssohn, dies,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 November 19th, 1835.
First performance of “St. Paul,”
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 May, 1836.
Married to Cécile Jeanrenaud,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 March 28th, 1837.
​
The Lobgesang, first performed,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 June 25th, 1840.
His Mother dies,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 December 12th, 1842.
“Elijah” completed,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 July, 1846.
Mendelssohn conducts “Elijah” at Birmingham,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 April 26th, 1847.
Death of his Sister, Fanny Hensel,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 May 14th, 1847.
Mendelssohn dies,
.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .
 November 4th, 1847.

​

CONTENTS.


LETTER
PAGE
I. TO HIS FAMILY. Weimar, 21st May, 1830 1
II. TO HIS FAMILY. Weimar, 25th May, 1830 7
III. TO HIS FAMILY. Rome, 8th November, 1830 10
IV. TO HIS SISTERS. Rome, 22nd November, 1830 16
V. TO HIS FATHER. Rome, 10th December, 1830 20
VI. TO REBECCA DIRICHLET IN BERLIN. Naples, 13th April, 1831 27
VII. TO HIS FAMILY. Rome, 4th April, 1831 32
VIII. TO PROFESSOR ZELTER OF BERLIN. Rome, 16th June, 1831 36
IX. FROM A LETTER TO HIS FAMILY. Isola Bella, 14th July, 1831 57
X. TO HIS FAMILY. Milan, 14th July, 1831 60
XI. TO HIS SISTERS. Charney, 6th August, 1831 64
XII. TO HIS FAMILY. Munich, 6th October, 1831 82
XIII. TO HIS FAMILY. London, 11th May, 1832 89
XIV. TO PASTOR JULIUS SCHUBRING, DESSAU. Coblentz, 6th September, 1833 90
XV. TO J. MOSCHELES IN LONDON. Düsseldorf, 7th February, 1834 93
XVI. TO PASTOR SCHUBRING AT DESSAU. Düsseldorf, 15th July, 1834 95
XVII. TO HIS MOTHER. Düsseldorf, 4th November, 1834 98
XVIII. TO SECRETARY HIRTE AT COLOGNE. Düsseldorf, 18th May, 1835 101 ​
XIX. TO PASTOR SCHUBRING AT DESSAU. Leipsic, 6th December, 1835 102
XX. TO HERR ADVOCAT CONRAD SCHLEINITZ AT LEIPSIC. Berlin, 1st August, 1838 105
XXI. TO PASTOR JULIUS SCHUBRING AT DESSAU. Leipsic, 2nd November, 1838 107
XXII. TO PROFESSOR SCHIRMER AT DÜSSELDORF. Berlin, 21st November, 1838 109
XXIII. TO R. SIMROCK AT BONN. Leipsic, 4th March, 1839 111
XXIV. TO J. MOSCHELES, LONDON. Leipsic, 30th November, 1839 112
XXV. FROM A LETTER TO MINISTER VON FALKENSTEIN (proposing the foundation of an Academy of Music in Leipsic). Leipsic, 8th April, 1840 114
XXVI. TO HIS MOTHER. Leipsic, 27th October, 1840 117
XXVII. TO THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR, JULIUS RIETZ, DÜSSELDORF. Leipsic, 23rd April, 1841 119
XXVIII. TO HIS MOTHER. Interlaken, 18th August, 1842 122
XXIX. TO MARE ANDRE SOUCHAY, LUBECK. Berlin, 15th October, 1842 124
XXX. TO PAUL MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY. Birmingham, 26th August, 1846 126
XXXI. TO CARL KLINGEMANN, LONDON. Leipsic, 6th December, 1846 128
XXXII. TO GENERAL VON WEBER, BERLIN. Frankfort, 24th May, 1847 130
XXXIII. TO HIS NEPHEW, SEBASTIAN HENSEL. Baden-Baden, 13th June, 1847 132

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PREFACE.

I have been asked to say a few words to introduce this new translation of a selection from the letters of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to the public. Mendelssohn is so well-known and so much beloved in England that to some this may seem unnecessary. But there are still many who, much as they enjoy his music, do not know him in his almost equally attractive character of a letter-writer, and to these the present volume may be heartily recommended. At any rate the task is a very pleasant one to me, and I think that I am not without justification in attempting it. I believed that I knew these very letters well; and yet, on reading them over again in Mr. Alexander’s version, they come upon me almost as freshly ​as they did in 1861, when I first made their acquaintance on the deck of the Austrian-Lloyd steamer between Jaffa and Alexandria. Not only had Mendelssohn the keenest insight into the scenes, events, and persons that came before him, but few writers have ever had a happier knack of expression; in this even Dean Stanley, the prince of letter-writers, hardly exceeds him.

To convey such happy expressions—free and gay, but never tinctured with slang—into equivalent English is a very difficult task. The reader must judge for himself how far Mr. Alexander has succeeded. It appears to me that he has been unusually fortunate.

Christmas, 1893.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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