Mendelssohn: A Life in Music
Page 81
76 . T. Devrient, 280.
77 . A pupil of Zelter and Berger, Dorn (1804–1892) produced his own opera, Rolands Knappen , in 1826. A few years later, Robert Schumann studied counterpoint with him in Leipzig.
78 . T. Devrient, 279.
79 . Dorn: 1872, 399.
80 . Ibid.
81 . AmZ 26 (1824), 107.
82 . See Dorn: 1872, 399; Schünemann: 1923, 533ff.; and Warrack: 1987, 285–86.
83 . Zelter to Goethe, February 8, 1824; GM , 37.
84 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 15.
85 . Ibid., 16.
86 . July 6–7, 1824; NYPL No. 11.
87 . Dorn: 1872, 400.
88 . Klingemann.
89 . Ibid., 6; Ward Jones: 1989, 74.
90 . Several, including the text of Felix’s Singspiel Heimkehr aus der Fremde , are in Klingemann, 343–57.
91 . Ledebur, 463; Dorn: 1872, 400.
92 . See Hake.
93 . Sammons, 109.
94 . See further Andreas Feuchte, “Hermann Franck (1802–1855): Persönlichkeit zwischen Politik und Kunst,” in Lars Lambrecht, ed., Philosophie, Literatur und Politik vor den Revolutionen von 1848 , Bern, 1996, 399–412.
95 . AmZ 12 (1809), 630, 652.
96 . Marx: 1865, II, 50.
97 . See further Scott G. Burnham, “Aesthetics, Theory and History in the Works of Adolph Bernhard Marx,” Ph.D. diss., Brandeis Univ., 1988, Ch. 1.
98 . BamZ 1 (1824), 174.
99 . Ibid., 152ff. (April 24, 1824).
100 . Thus, in 1826 Zelter commented that Marx “may have been baptized with salt-water, for his excrement has a gray-green-yellow color.” Zelter to Goethe, May 25, 1826, Geiger, II, 425.
101 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 35.
102 . Siegfried, 38–39.
103 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 35.
104 . Dorn: 1872, 401.
105 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 98.
106 . Therese Marx.
107 . Marx, “Memoirs,” 207.
108 . Ibid., 211–12.
109 . MN 49.
110 . MN 4, 167–76.
111 . MN 4, 107–65.
112 . See the Preface to Gerhard Allroggen’s ed., Kassel, 1987.
113 . MN 4, 89–106.
114 . See Todd: 1990, 56–59; and Mendelssohn, Early Works for Piano , ed. R. L. Todd, Cambridge, 1985, 5–20. The undated Capriccio may be placed by its clefs before September 1824, when Felix altered the style of clefs in his manuscripts (see p. 132).
115 . MN 4, 71–87; ed., Leipzig, 1966.
116 . London, BL Loan 4, Royal Philharmonic Society Ms. 289. Felix drafted the symphony between March 3 and March 31, 1824. See further the Preface to Ralf Wehner’s ed. in LAWFMB I:4.
117 . See Todd: 1997b, 84.
118 . Two of his drawings are reproduced in Ward Jones: 1997b, 15; and Koyanagi, 53.
119 . See the letters of July 16 and July 30, 1824, in Schmidt-Beste, 37–41.
120 . July 21, 1824, Felix to Fanny; Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, 24.
121 . Edition (Amsterdam, 1989).
122 . Werner: 1963, 40; also in the revised German version, Mendelssohn: Neuer Sicht , 63.
123 . Sposato: 1998, 194.
124 . Berlin, MA Ms. 34, 77.
125 . Ed. Liana Gavrila Serbescu and Barbara Heller, Kassel, 1991.
126 . Mendelssohn, Early Works for Piano , ed. R. L. Todd, Cambridge, 1985, 24–30; with a facs. on xi.
127 . See Werner: 1955, 132.
128 . In the first movement of the Eroica Symphony, and Piano Sonatas, Opp. 31 No. 1 and 53.
129 . AmZ 25 (1823), 186.
130 . I. Moscheles: 1873, 59.
131 . Ibid., 10.
132 . Jerome Roche, “Moscheles,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , London, 1980, XII, 599–600. A selection of Moscheles’s solo piano music is available in Jeffrey Kallberg, ed., Piano Music of the Parisian Virtuosos 1810–1860 , V, N.Y., 1993.
133 . AmZ 26 (1824), 860.
134 . Zelter to Goethe, November 27, 1824, Hecker, II, 306.
135 . Polko: 1869, 4–6. Polko (née Elise Vogel, 1823–1899) was an amateur singer who sang in the Gewandhaus concerts of 1846 and 1847 before she devoted herself to a writing career.
136 . Lampadius, 17.
137 . BamZ 1 (1824), 405–7 (November 24, 1824).
138 . F. Moscheles: 1888, 1–2. As early as 1822 Lea had attempted to engage Moscheles for lessons (communication from Peter Ward Jones).
139 . I. Moscheles: 1873, 65.
140 . Ibid., 66.
141 . MN 13, 49.
142 . November 19–22, 1824, Speyer to Spohr, in Speyer, 83.
Chapter 5
1 . Children of Bella’s daughter Rebecka Seeligmann, who had died in 1810.
2 . April 24, 1824, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein, Lowenthal-Hensel: 1990, 142.
3 . Peter Ward Jones has suggested (communication of June 28, 2001) that motivating Bella’s decision may have been a practical concern, to bequeath her fortune to the least financially secure members of her family; Bella may have viewed Lea and Abraham as comfortable enough from their own assets.
4 . Much of the following discussion derives from two studies: Cullen and Lowenthal-Hensel: 1990.
5 . Frederick A. Pottle, ed., Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764 , N.Y., 1953, 77–78.
6 . MF I, 123.
7 . Hensel: 1911, 9.
8 . E. Devrient, Erinnerungen , 45; Cullen, 49.
9 . MDM e. 3, facs. in Lowenthal-Hensel: 1990, facing 144.
10 . MF I, 122.
11 . Ibid.
12 . Giesau, 58–66.
13 . Cited in Lowenthal-Hensel: 1990, 145.
14 . Letter of March 13, 1825, MLL , 27–30.
15 . Soret to Caroline von Egloffstein, March 13, 1825, in Goethes Gespräche , ed. F. von Biedermann and Wolfgang Herwig, vol. 3/1, Zurich, 1971, 755.
16 . July 8, 1829, Abraham to Felix in London; Werner: 1963, 36–38.
17 . Though music publishers occasionally hyphenated Felix’s two surnames, he consistently signed his correspondence “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.”
18 . MF , I, 85.
19 . March 23, 1825; Elvers, MLL , 31.
20 . Bellasis, 195.
21 . April 1, 1825, Felix to Berlin. Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, 35.
22 . April 6, 1825, Felix to Berlin. MLL , 37.
23 . Zelter to Goethe, May 28, 1825; Hecker, II, 322–23.
24 . AmZ 39 (1837), 847.
25 . March 27, 1825, Henriette to Fanny; Lambour: 1986, 75–76.
26 . A piano-vocal score of the work ed. by Ralph Leavis appeared in 1964; a full score ed. by R. L. Todd, in Stuttgart in 1986.
27 . See BamZ 2 (1825), 211–12.
28 . See GM , 42n.
29 . Onslow’s father, a member of Parliament, had been involved in a homosexual affair in 1781, and was compelled to leave England for France.
30 . April 1, 1825; Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, 33–34.
31 . Stendhal, Life of Rossini , trans. Richard N. Coe, Seattle, 1970, 404.
32 . March 25 and April 6, 1825, in MLL , 32, 34–35.
33 . Unpublished letter of April 18, 1825 (NYPL No. 25).
34 . Stendhal (n. 31), 379.
35 . April 6, 1825. MLL , 36.
36 . MF I, 126.
37 . Warrack: 1968, 227.
38 . April 6, 1825; MLL , 39.
39 . April 20, 1825; MF I, 127.
40 . May 9, 1825. Ibid., I, 128.
41 . Hiller, Letters , 4.
42 . Lea to Goethe, April 9, 1825; Friedlaender: 1891, 114.
43 . Steiger and Reimann, VII, 507; GM , 50; Friedlaender: 1891, 126.
44 . Hiller, Letters , 58.
45 . Schubring, “Reminiscences of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,” in MahW , 222.
46 . Zelter to Goethe, June 7, 1825 (Hecker, II, 340).
47 . Dale A. Jorgenson, The Life an
d Legacy of Franz Xaver Hauser , Carbondale, Ill., 1996, 21.
48 . Bill, 348. The autograph of the song is in MDM b. 5, fols. 5–6a.
49 . The autograph is in PML.
50 . In 1826 Weber stayed at Smart’s London residence but died after the premiere of Oberon ; Smart had the misfortune of discovering the composer’s body.
51 . Cox, 191.
52 . See Clive Brown, “The Chamber Music of Spohr and Weber,” in Stephen Hefling, ed., Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music , N.Y., 1998, 161.
53 . Louis Spohr, Lebenserinnerungen , ed. Folker Göthel, Tutzing, 1968, II, 134.
54 . MF , I, 131.
55 . Dorn: 1872, 400.
56 . The 1825 autograph is in the Whittall Foundation Collection of LC. A facsimile, ed. by Jon Newsom, was published in 1976.
57 . Copies of letters from Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein, 1826, in MDM c. 29.
58 . Das Mädchen von Andros, eine Komödie des Terentius, in den Versmassen des Originals, übersetzt von F****, mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen herausgegeben von K. W. L. Heyse , Berlin, 1826.
59 . From the trans. by John Sargeaunt, Cambridge, Mass., 1918, 23.
60 . Felix to Goethe, September 30, 1826; MLL , 42.
61 . Über die Dichtkunst/Epistel an die Pisonen , SBB MA Ms. 134.
62 . See the review by A. B. Marx in BamZ 2 (1825), 364–65 (November 9, 1825), and the unsigned review in AmZ 27 (1825), 825.
63 . Beethoven [Klingemann] to Fanny, November 8, 1825, in Elvers: 1997b.
64 . Schubring: 1991, 229.
65 . “Felix Mendelssohns Konfirmations-Bekenntnis,” in Klingemann, 358–62. An English trans. is in Brown: 2003, 93–102.
66 . Lea to Hensel, January 4, 1826, in Gilbert: 1975, 65.
67 . MF I, –104 (Lea to Hensel, March 6, 1826).
68 . Gilbert: 1975, 66.
69 . “Schreibt der Komponist ernst,” in a letter of 1826 from Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (MDM c. 29); published in Galley, 7.
70 . MLL , 43-4; much of their correspondence was published in Dahlgren.
71 . C. H. Bitter, ed., Carl Loewes Selbstbiographie , Berlin, 1870; rep. Hildesheim, 1976, 106.
72 . I. Moscheles, 89–90; E. Devrient, Recollections , 31–32.
73 . BL Music Loan 95/2, 92–95 (November 24, 1826).
74 . Vossische Zeitung (November 13, 1826).
75 . BamZ 3 (1826), 189–90; see Dorn: 1872, 401.
76 . Felix to Fanny, July 7, 1826; Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn: 1997, 48.
77 . Berlin, DSB 13, 119–23 (January 5, 1826; unpublished).
78 . See further Todd: 1990b. For an edition of the Vivace and Fugue in E ♭ see Mendelssohn, Early Works for Piano , ed. R. L. Todd, Cambridge, 1985.
79 . Blumner, 71; an edition with critical notes by Barbara Mohn is available (Stuttgart, 1997).
80 . The manuscript of the fugue shows signs of haste, including, uncharacteristic of Felix, some parallelisms in the voice leading. See R. Werner, 35.
81 . They were announced in the Vossische Zeitung in February 1827.
82 . Dinglinger: 1997.
83 . AmZ 30 (1828), 63.
84 . Robert Schumann: 1888, I, 237.
85 . BamZ 4 (1827), 288.
86 . Schumann: 1946, 210.
87 . The autograph is in PML; see further Todd: 1979, 293–328.
88 . Ibid., 309–13; see also Todd: 1998, 184–85.
89 . The dated autograph is in BN, Conservatoire Ms. 206; according to E. Devrient, the work was heard on a concert of the violinist Louis Maurer, on which Felix also performed the piano part in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia. That concert occurred on November 2, 1825, but the work performed then was the Symphony in C minor, Op. 11 (see n. 62, supra ).
90 . July 7, 1826, Felix to Fanny, in Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, 48–49.
91 . Marx: 1865, II, 229.
92 . See Todd: 1993, 41–42.
93 . From Weber’s 1816 review of the Overture to Spohr’s opera Faust , also performed on the concert of July 17, 1826. Carl Maria von Weber, Writings on Music , ed. John Warrack, Cambridge, 1981, 193.
94 . Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein, August 1826 (MDM c. 29, fol. 59, extract).
95 . A. W. Schlegel, Sämtliche Werke , Leipzig, 1846–1847, VIII, 29; trans. in Wellek, II, 65.
96 . In the autograph score Felix specified an English bass horn for Bottom. When he published the overture in 1835, he replaced the instrument with an ophicleide, a member of the keyed bugle family; today, a tuba ordinarily performs the part.
97 . Bellasis, Cherubini , 203.
98 . MF I, 130.
99 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 21.
100 . Schubring, “Reminiscences,” in MahW , 225 (mm. 264ff. of the overture, where the cellos execute a pianissimo descending scale).
101 . MF , I, 130.
102 . SBB, MA Ms. 63, 1.
103 . See Klein: 1997, 54.
104 . “Gab die liebende Natur,/Gab der Geist euch Flügel,/Folget meiner leichten Spur,/Auf, zum Rosenhügel!”
105 . “Gab die liebende Natur/Euch der Kraft Behagen:/Schaffet frei und fröhlich! Nur/Jugend darf es wagen!”
106 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 31.
Chapter 6
1 . MF I, 156.
2 . Zelter to Goethe, July 1, 1825; Hecker, II, 352.
3 . Schünemann: 1941, 40.