Romantic Period: Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny grew up in a home surrounded by intellectuals. Their grandfather,
Moses Mendelssohn, was a well-known Jewish philosopher. The model for G. E. Lessing’s Nathan the
Wise, Moses was admired as the epitome of tolerance in a generally intolerant world. In 1812, after the
French occupation of Hamburg, the family moved to Berlin. In Berlin, Mendelssohn studied music with
Carl Zelter who regarded the boy as a second Mozart. As a child Mendelssohn was charming and
precocious; he profited from the wide cultural interests of his parents and relations, excelled as a
pianist, and was busy with composition after composition. In 1816, he was baptized a Christian, a step
taken by his father, Abraham Mendelssohn, six years later. In this action, the family accepted what
Heine described as “a ticket to admission into European culture,” although, by prejudiced
contemporaries, it was not always regarded as valid. This religious conflict was common, as Jews were
often not considered equal members of European society. (For a similar case study, see the life of
Gustav Mahler).

When it came to his son’s career, Abraham Mendelssohn sought the best advice. In 1825, Cherubini,
director of the Paris Conservatory, was consulted and agreed that Felix should become a professional
musician. That same year, Mendelssohn started to meet the most distinguished composers and
performers of the day. His career, however, took shape in Berlin, with prolific activity as a pianist,
composer, and conductor. His education, nonetheless, also included a period of travel throughout
Europe, a Grand Tour that took him as far north as Scotland, and as far south as Naples. These journeys
served as inspiration for many of his compositions.

Though Mendelssohn revered the music of Beethoven and Mozart, he also cherished the music of Bach.
In the early 19th century, some of Bach’s music was known, but most of his works had not received
popular recognition. At an early age, Mendelssohn decided to raise awareness about one of his favorite
composers. Therefore, in 1829, he arranged a performance of the St. Matthew Passion, a work that had
been relatively unknown since Bach’s death. The performance spurred a renewed interest in the artist’s
music, leading to the formation of the Bach Society for the cataloging and preservation of his music in
1850.

In 1835, Mendelssohn was appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. There were
concurrent commitments to be fulfilled in what became a short career of breathtakingly intense activity.
In Leipzig, he established a series of historical concerts, continuing the revival of earlier music on which
he had embarked under Zelter with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Mendelsohn’s
admiration for Bach may be heard in his choral music. The polyphonic texture of his choral works such as
St. Paul, Elijah, and Hear My Prayer, imitates Bach’s choral treatment in his cantatas and passions.
Mendelssohn and Brahms, the two 19th century composers who best understood choral writing, also
were the most knowledgeable about 17th and 18th century music. Furthermore, they were also the most
resistant to the extreme tendencies of the Romantic era. At the same time, however, Mendelssohn
encouraged contemporary composers even those for who he felt little sympathy. In 1843, he
established the Leipzig Conservatory. At the age of 38, on November 4, 1847, six months after the death
of his beloved sister Fanny, Mendelssohn died.
Mendelssohn’s symphonies adhere fairly strictly to classical form and scope, particularly compared to
the more effusive works of some of his contemporaries such as Hector Berlioz. It is precisely this
simplistic element of Mendelssohn’s music that makes him a Classicist at heart. There is, however, a
Romantic sparkle in his instrumental works that places him among the transitional composers.

Between the ages of 12 and 14, while still a child, Mendelssohn wrote 13 string symphonies. In what
must pass for compositional maturity, from the age of 15 onwards, he wrote five more symphonies for
full orchestra. The Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op 56 was the second in conception and the last in order
of completion. Its inspiration came from a visit to Scotland in 1829, but was not finished until 1842 and,
in Leipzig that same year, was given its first performance. The Italian Symphony was completed in 1831
but, due to his own dissatisfaction with it and his intention of revising the first movement, remained
unpublished in Mendelssohn’s lifetime. He developed the ideas for the symphony during his stay in Italy
in 1831. In both works, Mendelssohn relies on regional dance rhythms to accurately depict the
landscape in musical terms. For example, the second movement of the Scottish Symphony is built on the
bright rhythmic pattern and pipe sounds reminiscent of a Scottish country dance. The final movement of
the Italian Symphony is based on two traditional Italian dances, the saltarello and the Neapolitan
tarantella. The Symphony No. 5, Reformation, written in 1832 to celebrate the third centenary of the
Augsburg Confession, and the Symphony No. 2, the choral Lobgesang, written to mark the fourth
centenary of the invention of printing in 1840, are performed less frequently.

In the orchestral works that are not symphonies, Mendelssohn operates as a true Romantic artist. The
concert overture is a single-movement work designed to be a short attention grabber at the beginning
of a concert. The overture Ruy Blas, completed in 1839, is based on the play by Victor Hugo. One of the
greatest early examples of a concert overture is Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture also known as
Fingal’s Cave, based on a poem by Goethe, a writer who had received the young Mendelssohn at
Weimar and prophesied a successful career for him. Inspired by the composer’s travels, the work evokes
a visit to Scotland and the sight of the sea surging over the Giant’s Causeway. This piece is remarkable
for its orchestral representation of the ocean.

Audiences in the Romantic era were fascinated with program music, music that tells a story or paints a
musical picture. The four main types of program music in the Romantic era were: the symphonic
poem, the program symphony, the concert overture, and incidental music. The symphonic poem, a
single-movement work that tells a story, is most frequently found in the music of the Late-Romantic
period. Two examples that we will listen to are Franz Liszt’s Hamlet and Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote.
The program symphony is a multiple-movement symphony with a program. One of the best examples of
a program symphony is a work by Berlioz that we will listen to in an upcoming chapter, the Symphonie
Fantastique.

Composers wrote incidental music to be performed during a play. Its modern equivalent in music for
film. Perhaps the greatest example of incidental music is Mendelssohn’s music for Shakespeare’s play
Midsummer Night’s Dream, written when the composer was only 17-years-old. The Scherzo evokes a
delightful world of fairies and nymphs. In works such as these, Mendelssohn comes closer to the ideals
of the Romantic composers.
Chamber Music:

Mendelssohn wrote his first chamber pieces at the age of ten. One of his most delightful works is the
Octet for double string quartet, which was written to celebrate the birthday of a violinist friend in 1825.
His early precocity is also evident in the equally fine Sextet for violin, two violas, cello, double bass and
piano, written in 1824. Mendelssohn also composed two string quintets, six string quartets, and two late
piano trios. The two Cello Sonatas and the Variations Concertantes for cello and piano, along with a late
Song without Words for cello and piano comprise an important part of 19th century cello repertoire.

Concertos:

The best known of Mendelssohn’s concertos is probably the Violin Concerto in E minor, written in 1844
and first performed in Leipzig the following year. He also wrote two piano concertos, the first written in
1831 and the second in 1837.

Piano music:

The 19th century was the age of the piano, a period in which the instrument became an essential item of
household furniture and the center of domestic music making. Short piano pieces always found a ready
market, but none were more successful than Mendelssohn’s eight albums of Lieder ohne Worte (Songs
without Words), a novel title that perfectly describes the length, quality, and intention of these short
pieces.

Stage Works:

Mendelssohn’s music for the theater includes full incidental music for Shakespeare’s a Midsummer
Night’s Dream, written for the new King of Prussia and first used at Potsdam in 1843, preceded by the
Overture written in 1826. The music captures the enchanted fairy world of the play. In connection with
the King’s attempts to revive Greek tragedy, Mendelssohn also wrote incidental music for Antigone and
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, as well as for Racine’s Athalie.

Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti

Due in part to the spectacular popularity of opera, Italy became the center of European music during the
Baroque and Romantic eras. Italy was the place where a young composer could truly make his mark in
the world. At the same time, Italian musicians, composers, and poets were in high demand throughout
the principal cities of Europe: Paris, Vienna, Bonn, and Salzburg. Ironically, Italian opera had changed
very little since its inception in the early 17th century. During the 18th century its refinements were
primarily melodic and formal. Hence, the dramatic elements of opera leading into the 19th century were
relatively consistent.

In the early years of the 19th century, several composers made substantial changes to the operatic
landscape thereby clearing the way for later musical giants. These early Romantic composers inherited
Mozart’s operatic style that adhered fairly strictly to Italian traditions and romantic form. Gioacchino
Rossini (1792 – 1868), Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), and Gaetano Donizetti (179 – 1848), however,
changed Italian opera in a relatively brief period of time, and paved the way for Italy’s two great Late-
Romantic opera composers: Verdi and Puccini.

Rossini was a composer whose melodic gifts and comic flair were perfectly suited for opera buffa. His
abilities for both are aptly demonstrated in the aria Una voce poco fa from his masterpiece, The Barber
of Seville.

During this transition into the Romantic era, Italian opera composers slowly began to incorporate some
changes that had already occurred in French opera, as well as others inspired by Beethoven’s symphonic
music. As the staging became more elaborate, opera orchestras became larger. The inclusion of more
brass and woodwinds in the orchestra increased the colors in the composer’s palette. The line between
opera buffa and opera seria blurred, as did the line between the recitative, aria, ensemble, and chorus.
To see how one part of the operatic structure changed, compare Rossini’s overture to William Tell
(1829). The earlier work has a simplified sonata-allegro form with a medium-sized orchestra. The later
work is considerably longer, has more passages for winds and brass, and exhibits a more complex form.

Rossini was born in Pesaro in 1792, five months after his parents’ were married. His father, a brass
player, and later, a horn teacher at the Academy in Bologne, had a modestly successful career that was
frequently disturbed by the political changes of the period, as the French replaced the Austrians in
Northern Italy. Rossini’s mother was a singer. As a boy, Gioacchino played with his father in the
orchestra pit, and, from time to time, appeared as a singer with his mother. Later, he worked as a
keyboard player in the opera orchestra. Rossini’s early music studies were primarily with his parents,
and, through the generosity of rich patrons, with a few, select other teachers.

From his first opera, La cambiale di matrimonio, in 1810, to William Tell, his final work for the stage,
which was written for Paris in 1829, Rossini enjoyed a short and extremely successful career as a
composer. Other operas had been commissioned in Paris, but the fall of the Bourbon King Charles X in
1830 concluded these plans. In 1836, he returned to Italy and, in spite of ill health, was very much
involved in the affairs of the Liceo Musicale in Bologne. In 1853, having already retired from operatic
composition after William Tell, he returned to Paris, where he enjoyed a reputation as an arbiter of
musical taste, a wit, and a gourmet. Rossini devoted the last forty years of his life to piano music and
sacred choral works, and to the enjoyment of the continued popularity of his works. By the 1850s, he
had already taken his place atop the pantheon of Italian opera composers.

Of Rossini’s three dozen plus operas, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is probably the best
known. The work is a treatment of the first play of the Figaro trilogy by Beaumarchais from which
Mozart had drawn thirty years earlier. Other well-known comic operas by Rossini include La Scala di Seta
(The Silken Ladder), Il Signor Bruschino, L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers), Il Turco in Italia
(The Turk in Italy), La Cenerentola (Cinderella), and La Gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie). More serious
subjects were tackled in Otello, Semiramide, Mose in Egitto (Moses in Egypt), and the Guillaume Tell
(William Tell), based on the play by Schiller. The Overtures to many of these operas are a recurrent
element in the concert halls all over the world.

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Although he only wrote ten operas, all of them opera seria, Bellini exercised considerable influence over
contemporaries and successors alike. His melodies are among the most beautiful to be found in Italian
opera. His work incorporates Romantic themes and ideas; Norma and La Sonnambula (The Sleep-
Walker) produced in Milan in 1831, for example, are based on Romantic or historical themes, instead of
the romantic literary stories found in the 18th century opera seria. Yet Bellini’s music is still conservative,
as evidenced in the soprano aria Come per me sereno (See how the day serenely) from La Sonnambula,
and opera which was first performed at the Teatro Carcano, Milan, in 1831. In the piece, Amina, foster-
daughter of Teresa, owner of the village mil, is set to marry Elvino. However, she walks in her sleep, and
is discovered in the bedroom of Count Rodolfo. Rodolfo eventually puts matters right by convincing the
villagers and Elvino that Amina is a sleepwalker. In Come per me sereno, Act I, Amina sings of her
happiness at her betrothal to Elvino.

Other Bellini operas include a version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, I Capuletti I Montecchi (The
Capulets and the Montagues) and I Puritani, mounted in Paris in 1835.

Together with Bellini, Donizetti is of the generation of Italian opera composers who fit between Rossini
and Verdi. Along with other composers of the period, he found inspiration in the novels of Sir Walter
Scott. His opera Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) is based on The Bride of Lammermuir, a story that contains
the necessary dramatic elements of love, revenge, and madness. The plot concerns the dispossessed
landowner, Edgardo, who has lost both his ancestral Ravenswood Castle and his beloved Lucia, sister of
his enemy Enrico. Act III of the opera opens at Wolfscrag Castle, where Edgardo now resides. It is a
stormy night, Orrida e questa note, and Edgardo is deep in thought. Horses approach, and Enrico bursts
in, resolved to avenge his honor. Enrico tells Edgardo that Lucia is now married, and challenges him to a
duel to be fought at dawn. Orrida e questa note for baritone and tenos is a splendid example of
Donizetti’s compositional style, particularly his approach to writing operatic duets.

Having written close to 70 comic and serious operas in his lifetime, Donizetti was one of Italy’s most
prolific composers. He was a commercially successful composer who often wrote quickly and according
to what he felt the public would want to hear. Perhaps his most lasting legacy comes from Lucia di
Lammermoor, La Fille du Regiment (Daughter of the Regiment), L’elisir d’amore (Elixir of Love) and Don
Pasquale.

Further Listening: Romantic Period

1. Schubert - Gretchen am Spinrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel)
2. Schubert - Erlkönig (Erlking)
3. Schubert - Trout quintet, first movement
4. Schubert - C-major symphony, The Great, fourth movement
5. Schubert - B-minor symphony, Unfinished, first movement
6. Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 3, Scottish, 2nd movement
7. Mendelssohn - Scherzo from incidental Music for Midsummer Night’s Dream
8. Mendelssohn - Hear My Prayer for chorus, soloist and organ
9. Rossini - Overture to The Barber of Seville
10. Bellini - Come per me sereno from La Sonnambula
11. Donizetti - Orridaé questa notte from Lucia di Lammermoor