Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn is among the most celebrated child prodigies in history. With the support of his musical family, he was able to become an accomplished musician and composer by his early teens, and privileged with the gift of education and his upbringing, he was able to tour throughout Europe, showcasing his abilities. His home would become a musical salon for some of the great Romantic composers of the time. His musical style consists a unique blend of both traditional Classical and the new Romantic style of the time, featuring unparalleled lyricism filled with life, and a creative approach to using orchestral colour.

Felix was born in 1809 in Hamburg, Germany, to a family of musicians and intellects. From his early years, his mother Lea supervised the four children’s musical education before he started lessons with Marie Bigot in Paris at age seven. He was already travelling throughout Europe throughout his youth. In 1829, when he was just 20 years old, he organized a historic revival of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the first performance since Bach’s death. In 1843, he founded the Leipzig Conservatory, which was the first and finest of its kind in Germany at the time. This is also where he first met his soon-to-be longtime friend Ferdinand David, to whom he dedicated his Violin Concerto in E Minor. He was not only a successful musician, but also an accomplished sportsman, visual artist, organizer of events, and spoke many languages including German, English, Italian, and ancient Greek.

As a young musician, he was often encouraged to follow in the footsteps of some of the great composers before him. For example, he took great influence from Handel’s oratorios to enrich his choral writing, Bach for his contrapuntal skills, Haydn for his use of folk elements, and lyricism and symmetrical phrasing from Mozart, and last but not least, not to mention Beethoven for his linking of movements. However, he also embraced new Romantic trends, such as programmatic writing, memorable melodies, unexpected modulations, and virtuosic writing, and was responsible for the creation of new genres, including the concert overture (e.g. Hebrides Overture), incidental music (e.g. A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and short lyric piano pieces.

To conclude, Felix Mendelssohn may be best remembered as not only one of the most significant Romantic composers in the 19th century, but a true “Renaissance man” with many tastes.