Written by Anna Vorhes

Born
February 3, 1809, Hamburg, now Germany

Died
November 4, 1847, Leipzig, Germany

Duration
14 minutes

Composed
Finished September 30, 1830

World Premiere
There is no indication if this was performed in Mendelssohn's time.  It was not published during the composer's lifetime.

Instrumentation
two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, strings, bass vocal soloist, SATB choir

Something to listen for
Throughout this cantata the cantus firmus is in the soprano voice, even in the second movement when the bass soloist has the more interesting part.  If you are familiar with Christian hymns used at Good Friday, you'll recognize it as O Sacred Head Now Wounded.  If you listen carefully, you'll also realize that Mendelssohn split the viola section into two separate parts.  He did the same with the cellos.  In the first movement this is quite clear as the higher violins take some time to enter.

Program Notes

It is interesting to consider the connection between esteemed Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his grandson Felix.  Abraham, Moses' son and Felix's father made the decision to not follow the Jewish traditions of raising children.  Felix and his siblings (there were four including Felix) were raised without any religion until the boy was 7 years old and baptized into the Reformed Church.  It was Mendelssohn's mother who encouraged the family to add the surname of Bartholdy.  Mendelssohn did not use it regularly.

Mendelssohn's years in the bosom of his family produced a resilient, kind young adult.  He was recognized as a prodigy at an early age.  His family was interested in fostering education among their children, and secured mentors in music for the young composer.  Carl Friederich Zelter tutored Felix and his sister Fanny in counterpoint, including studies of scores by J.S. Bach and his sons.  The Mendelssohn family were strong supporters of the Berliner Singakademie, a local concert group.  Young Felix would attend rehearsals for fun and was delighted when his voice and skills were strong enough to join the treble choir.  In addition to musical training, Mendelssohn also took great delight in sketching and painting.

In his mid-teens, Mendelssohn's grandmother Bella Salomon gave her grandson a study score of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.  She and her sister Sara Levy had massed a large collection of Bach scores and were strong proponents of the importance of his music.  Felix was intrigued with the St. Matthew Passion, and in 1829 arranged for a performance of the work with the help of the Berliner Singakademie.  It was a great success, and is believed to have been the first performance of the work outside of Leipzig.

Following this triumph, Mendelssohn set out on a grand tour of Europe.  He met Queen Victoria of England and became close to her family.  He spent time in Scotland and in Italy, and in 1830, toward the beginning of the tour, he wrote tonight's cantata.

Many Christians recognize the core melody of this cantata.  Bach used it in his St. Matthew Passion as well as writing other works using the melody.  The melody is older.  It first appeared in print in 1601 in Hans Leo Haßler's Lustgarten Neuer Teutscher Geäng.  In that book the piece is titled Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret ( My confusion is my mind ), a clearly secular idea.  There are indications the melody actually dates from the 13th century, with the secular words.  Bach and Mendelssohn both used the 1599 text by Christoph Knoll in the songbook Harmoniae sacrae.  By Mendelssohn's time the hymn was firmly attached to the melody.  The current belief is that Arnulf of Leuven (1200-1250) actually was the first to write the melody.  The cantata includes three movements.  The choir presents the first and last verses, using the hymn tune in the sopranos but not without original material intertwined.  The middle verse is a bass solo with the sopranos keeping the melody in our minds by offering an obligato.

The harmonic sense of this cantata is quite interesting.  The melody is not strongly connected to the tonic.  There is no clear sense of major or minor.  Indeed, Mendelssohn wrote to his sister Rebecka that, "no one will be able to discern whether it will be in C-minor or E-flat."  Plagal cadences are used in the work as well.  A plagal cadence is the chords IV-I, often called the "amen" chord progressions, since many hymns use that format at the ends of phrases and the end of the hymn.  We actually hear the "amen" at the end of this work.

While many symphony audiences know Mendelssohn's large works including the Italian Symphony, The Hebrides, The Scottish Symphony and other larger pieces, singers are glad to have the repertoire he wrote for choirs with soloists.  Hermann Kretzchmar wrote in 1895, "With his many compositions of sacred vocal music, Felix Mendelssohn left a legacy of his most important creative efforts."