The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-25
SKETCH OF MENDELssOHN.

the warm and grateful remembrance of every
one whose heart can be touched and moved TO
emotion by the power of music. As we fol-
low in this sketch the course of his short but
beautiful life, we shall be the more interested
if we keep in mind that he lived almost in
our own times, and that his soul was subject
to many of the same influences which we feel
to-day. He belongs to us, almost as much as
does Tennyson or Longfellow, and we fn1 in
him as much sympathy and love as is to be
found in the works of those masters of word
music.
Mendelssohns career is remarkable for the
great contrast which it presents to the lives of
so many men of genius. He was not sub
jected to pinching poverty his lot was not to
struggle for his very existence, while pursuing
his calling with almost superhuman zeal and
energy; his piano was not his food, and cloth
ing and fuel, as in the case of some whose
career has been traced. His happy lot was SO
far from this that he was born in luxury, with
kind and appreciative parents, and with every
thing that could be desired to make life
happy and prosperous. He had health, per-
sonal beauty, intellectual culture, a refined
and dearly-loved home, beautiful and affee-
tionate wife, and the admiration, nay, almost
the worship, of the public that awaited with
longing and received with the greatest Joy
every fresh creation of his mind Yet in all
this prosperity we find him, not the spoiled
child of fortune, but her dutiful and loving
son. amiable and philanthropic, devoted to
his art for his own sake, not for the sake of
the emoluments and honors which it brought
him, with its conscience ever true and always
obeyed, and with his energy of character un-
impaired With truth we can say, most hap
PLY was he named Felix.
He was born at Hamburg on the Sd of Feb
ruary, 1909. He was the second of four chill
dren the eldest of whom was the sister
L - 4 4.
also possessed of rare musical Abilities and
whose warm sympathy won for her place
nearer her brothers heart than was occupied
by any of his other relations
Felix's musical abilities were manifested at
a very early age, and his mother devoted her
self TO his education with care The family
finally removed to Berlin, where the boy was
placed under the tuition of Zelter, the Direc-
tor of the Berlin Singing Academy, for
thorough-bass and composition. Berger was
his instructor upon the piano-forte, and occa-
sionally he took lessons of distinguished pro-
fessors residing for short periods in Berlin,
among whom were Hummel and Moscheles.
He played publicly for the first time in his
ninth year, at Berlin and that, too, with so
much ightness, certainty, and spirit, that it
was beyond the power of the most practised
critic to detect from the performance that
there was only child nine years old seated
at the piano-forte Meanwhile his father
had planned small family concerts at inter
walls of fortnight; and at these little assem-
blies were produced the symphonies that
Zelter had induced his pupil to write for the
quartets of stringed instruments.
When twelve years old he went with Zelter
to visit Goethe, who quickly perceived the
genius of the boy, and continued to be his
warm friend ever afterwards. OF all the let
ters of the composer which we have, perhaps
| the most interesting are those written during
| visits to Goethe, for in them we find recorded
| the close relations of friendship between two
of the greatest artists that have ever lived,
and can trace the bonds of affinity between
| two great and noble souls.
| In his sixteenth year Mendelssohn wrote
the Ottett for stringed instruments, which
will always be considered masterpiece Of
chamber music, and the overture to the Md
summer Nights DFednI was composed only
two years later. But all this time his atten-
ton was not devoted exclusively to his own
special subject. For more than year he
was a matriculated student in the University
of Berlin, and proof of his proficiency is to
be found in amasterly translation of Terence's
| ''Andria, which was printed at the time for
private circulation, and copy of which he
sent to his friend Goethe.
In 1929 Mendelssohn went for the first time
to England, where his double character of
pianist and composer won for him the valu-
able friendship of many most distinguished
men in his profession. Afterwards proceed
ing to Scotland for a tour among the High
lands, his mind received impressions from
which resulted the Overture to the Hebri-
des, and his Scottish symphony in minor.
Soon after this journey, his operetta of SIN
md Stranger was produced for the occasion
of the silver wedding of his parents, which fell
on Christmas day. In the spring of 1880 he
left home again for longer tour, and it was
during this absence that the letters from Italy
and Switzerland, published by his brother
| Paul were written. 1t is from these letters we
can get a better idea of his character than,
| perhaps, from any other source. They are
full of intellectual vitality and spiritual life
and activity, conveying readily to the mind of
| the reader a conception of the mobile and
sensitive character of their author. For this
purpose, however, little book, recently pub-
lished, called "reminiscences of Mendels-
sohn," by Elise Polko, a book of which
cannot help speaking, is particularly service
able. 1t is hardly biography-it tells neither
when he was born nor when he died; yet it is
| better than biography; it is more than a
book of remembrances; it is almost Mendels-
sohn himself and in reading it one seems to
see the slender, agile form of the master
welding the baton or bending over the score
with his head resting on his hand; while at
other times we thrill with emotion at hearing
the grand music in the Gewandhaus Hail.
The two greatest works of Mendelssohn,
the Oratorios of ST. Paul and Ekjdh, are those
upon which his fame chiefly rests. The latter
was written expressly for the festival held al
Birmingham, England, where it was performed
August 2G, 1916. He had been engaged nine