Now, How About Your Favorite Mendelssohn Piece?
Guess we’re on a birthday/anniversary kick lately, and today we’re honoring Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) with my favorite selection. I forgot to get John’s selection as he was jumping out of the car today, heading off to teach his class. I hope to add it later.
Anyway, Bonnie Gibbons’s Official Favorite Chorus Ever just happens to be by Mendelssohn, and I’ll bet any of you choral enthusiasts will recognize it immediately. One word always pops into my head when I hear this: sublime.
“He, watching over Israel”
From the oratorio Elijah (Elias) by Felix Mendelssohn, premiered in Birmingham, England in 1846.
- Listen now in your browser (free)
Found on Kohit.net - Download a free vocal score.
This is movement is #29, and is on pages 66-78 of the PDF file. - Browse Mendelssohn Elijah recordings
The words are:
He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps. Shouldst thou walking in grief languish; He will quicken thee.
or in German:
Siehe, der Hüter Israels schläft noch schlummert nicht. Wenn du mitten in Angst wandelst, so erquickt er dich.
The standard liner notes for Elijah, with which I have no quarrel, is that Mendelssohn’s scholarship and editing of the works of Bach and Handel inspired the format of Elijah, but the orchestral and choral color is sheer early romanticism. For trivia fans, the German text came first, but when Mendelssohn got the Birmingham commission he decided to use this piece and had an English version prepared. Many excellent recordings are available in both languages.
An honorable mention goes to Mendelssohn’s String Octet (1825), which I am proud/ashamed to admit that I once or twice played as a drinking game (drink if you mess up) back in my days as a music camp counselor.
Today’s post by Bonnie Gibbons.
John Gibbons
My pick: Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 13 (1827).
First Movement, performed by the ELYX Quartet:
More videos:
Reader Comments (3)
It is hard to pick a favorite from among Mendelssohn's many delightful works. While some may consider it a 'warhorse" of sorts I consider his Overture, ``The Hebrides, or Fingal's Cave'', Op. 26, my favorite (at least for today). It was completed December 16, 1830, and revised June 20, 1832 (first performed May 14, 1832, in London).
Unlike so many pieces with programmatic names, this overture was named by the composer who was inspired by a visit to Scotland and the Hebrides. He penned the theme and his reaction to the beauty of the place in a letter. Very evocative of the sea and the rocks, this is a highly romantic work. This seems a precursor to the tone poems of Liszt and Strauss that would follow later in the century. I have loved it ever since my days in high school when I played the transcription for band.
I loved that one, too. (Even Wagner did, I read somewhere.) FYI, we were in Scotland a couple of summers vacations ago, and when touring Holyrood palace with its ruined church (at the bottom of Edingurgh's Royal Mile), the Scottish Symphony would not leave my head. We didn't get to the Hebrides, though. They're kind of "outer" to where we were (even the inner ones).
The Scottish Symphony is another piece connected with his visit to Scotland and apparently yours. In spite of my own Scottish heritage I have never been there. Mendelssohn's music, in its own melodic way, has the effect of sticking in your mind. In addition to the Scottish, I often find the Italian Symphony and his ebullient Violin Concerto, and others, have the same effect on me.