Sometime ago we mentioned the bicentennial of Charles Darwin & Abraham Lincoln. They are truly great men in their fields---science & humanity. There is another great man (also born in 1809) in the field of music that deserves our admiration. His is Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn. Most of us know some of his music. He was a child prodigy and born to a wealthy family. He was more conservative comparing with some of his contemporaries like Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner et al. Because of his Jewish blood (although he was converted to Lutheran), his music was shunned in Germany from time to time especially during WWII. He was one of the greatest composers in the period of Musical Romanticism.He revived Bach’s St. Matthew Passion & made Bach’s music popular. He was the first to conduct Schubert’s symphony #9, the Great. This work was buried under a pile of papers in some attic for more than 10 years after Schubert’s death. Mendelssohn's most popular works include Wedding March (from Midsummer Night’s Dream), Violin Concerto in E Minor, Italian symphony, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Spring Song (song without word, piano work), auf flugeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song) etc.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: He composed the overture while he was 17. He finished the work 16 years later. The overture is open with a theme & end with the same theme that sounds like a curtain call, the opening and the closing of the Shakespeare’s play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUm1HU29TfI&feature=PlayList&p=C40130D5C035CDC3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=6
(opening)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-SLeBjvg8g&feature=PlayList&p=C40130D5C035CDC3&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7
(closing)
Wedding March: Mendelssohn befriended with Queen Victoria. This wedding march was played when the Queen married her daughter to Frederick of Prussia in 1858. If you have watched “Fall of Eagles” (BBC TV series), you know the episode. Since that time, this wedding march becomes one of the most popular classical music played in the wedding ceremony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDYMayp6Dk
Violin Concerto in E minor: This one was very popular while we were in Taida. It was played at least once a month from some radio stations in Taipei. This concerto is unique in its opening. The violin solo just ushers in playing the main theme without any introduction. If you are familiar with other great violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms or Tchaikovsky, you will know what I mean. You can find the first movement of this concerto played by Heifetz from the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27n4rQ-VIT8
Spring Song: This is a piano work, song without words. It depicts the glorious spring will definitely come to an end. However, it is worth the effort & time to enjoy the last trace of the season. Almost everybody loves this song and I bet you all know the tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tkqdOB5bEw&feature=related
Italian Symphony: Mendelssohn composed this piece when he traveled to Italy. This is generally considered the best one among his five symphonies. The whole piece is filled with romantic mood & the lovely melodies flow effortlessly throughout the four movements. The following link is the 1st movement of this symphony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIITKVYrHvQ
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: One of the most popular Christmas carol in our time was composed by Mendelssohn. I bet we all listened to this hymn at least 20 times during Christmas holidays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPwNPAV6tA
Auf Flugeln des Gesanges: This is a lovely song composed for the work by Heine (1797-1856), a famous German lyric poet. Heine was like Mendelssohn with Jewish blood converted to Lutheran. His another famous poem is “Die Lorelei”. If you have ever cruised river Rhine, you know the Lorelei Rock, its romantic & tragic tale. Auf Flugeln des Gesanges is “On Wings of Song” in English. You will love it when you listen to it. I think most of you already familiar with the melody & will not get tired of it even you listen to it 10 more times. In the following link you will find the lyrics in German, English & Chinese (click “more info”). Please compare the content and meaning of the poem among different languages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4QC35LfhU
The soprano is Victoria de los Angeles (1923-2005), a well known operatic soprano.
In order to follow the music, you may note the following:
Die Lotosblumen erwarten
Ihr trautes Schwesterlein
(repeat once)
Und in der Ferne rauschen
Des heilgen Stromes Well'n
(repeat once)
Und träumen seligen Traum
(repeat once)
seligen Traum
(repeat once more)
PS: This one has nothing to do with Mendelssohn. If you have ever watched the movie "Death in Venice", (1971, based on Thomas Mann's Novel), you will not forget that moody melody permeated throughout the movie. The theme is from the 4th movement of Mahler's symphony #5. If you are interested, go to the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kpJehOi2p4
2 comments:
It was said that Mendelssohn wrote nothing but pleasant music. Well, what do you expect? A guy growing up in a comfortable environment and never had to endure any struggle probably would not have seen the unsavory side of the world. Yet, his talent didn’t go to waste; he gave us so much beautiful music to enjoy.
When you talk about wedding march, you inevitably have to bring up Wagner’s “bridal chorus”. The “bridal chorus” is quite solemn, while Mendelssohn’s wedding march is jubilant. The former is played when the bride enters the church, while the latter is played when the new couple is leaving the church. It makes sense, when the bride enters the church, the blessing has not yet been bestowed by the church, so you had better be serious; when the couple is leaving the church, the blessing has been given, and it is time to have fun and celebrate such, as exotic American honeymoon paid for by your credit card(s). See, it’s fairly common in America that the first thing in a marriage is to have debt. Of course, as Mark Lin mentioned that Mendelssohn was Jew; and Wagner was considered anti-Semitic. So, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has banned Wagner’s works long ago. Undoubtedly, “bridal chorus” is not played in Jewish weddings.
There was animosity between Wagner and Mendelssohn. Most of the offenses were from Wagner, not only because he was more political but also he was slighted by Mendelssohn in his earlier career (he believed).
A while back, we talked about the strange thing that the melody in Brahms’ Academic Festival overture had been used in Taiwan as funeral music and as a song “Rover’s song”. Well, there are some stranger things in America too. The tune of the popular patriotic song, America, is British national anthem or “God save the Queen” or used to be “God save the King”. Imaging that the Americans wanted to be independent from the British! Then, there is Tchaikovsky’s “1812 overture” which is always performed on America’s independent day. Yeah, the U.S. and the British were at war in 1812, but the Tchaikovsky music has nothing to do with either Americans or British. Tchaikovsky wrote that to commemorate the triumph of Russia over the French invasion of 1812. In that music, you hear parts of the “La Marseillaise” (French National Anthem) and parts of the “Slavic March”; there was nothing belonging to the Americans or the British. Yet, Americans are just happy to hear it year after year on Fourth of July. Americans also love Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet suite because it is a story about Christmas, and Americans are the most Christmas crazed people. So, there you have it.
Mendelssohn is usually listed as one of the top 12 Greatest Composers in history. He is unique in his rich state that he was free from financial worry throughout his life & had a pretty wife who understood his music & supported his work.
Bridal Chorus is from Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. Its wedding march is also one of the most beautiful classical music played in most wedding ceremony. I have heard Lohengrin from the beginning to the end. I found that the Bridal Chorus is the only piece really pleasing to the ear. All the rest are not popular except the overture. However, in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night's Dream, almost every piece is a gem & popular. It was known that Wagner didn’t like Mendelssohn. It is also true that Wagner liked nobody except the mad king Ludwig who supported his ring cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" financially. So the problem was Wagner, not Mendelssohn. The latter was so selflessly that he made the music of Bach & Schubert known to the world. There is another example of the animosity of composers between Brahms & Tchaikovsky. Both of them are rated as the top ten greatest composers in history & they failed to see the merit of the other’s music. This proves that even great composers have blind spot in their souls.
As to "America" & "God Saves the Queen", people seem don’t care as long as the lyrics are different. It is not uncommon to adapt the same tune to different occasions or lyrics. For example, La Donna e Mobile becomes 夏天裡過海洋, a completely different subject. The most bizarre one is the national anthem of Austria becomes national anthem of Germany (same tune with different lyrics). The tune is from Haydn’s Emperor String Quartet & Haydn was an Austrian in his lifetime when Austria & Prussia were fighting each other. People in Austria didn't protest when German swiped their anthem. I think nationalism (民族主義) had not been very strong in the western world. Columbus (Italian) worked for Spain. Magellan (Portuguese) worked for Spain. Bering (Dane) worked for Russian. Hudson (English) worked for Holland. Cabot (Italian) worked for Spain, Portugal & England. They were all famous navigators who influenced the history. It was like 戰國時代 in Chinese history, able men worked for any country that could support them. It didn’t matter which country he served. Perhaps this explains why those two periods were so creative & brilliant culturally in the history.
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