An Oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, a Painting by Ludwig Meidner, and a Play by Franz Werfel

Der Musikwissenschaftler August Wilhelm Ambros (1816-1876) spielte als Feuilletonist und Komponist im Prager Musikleben der 1840er Jahre eine wichtige Rolle. Seine 1848 komponierte Schauspielmusik zu William Shakespeares "Othello" (die in Prag zahlreiche Aufführungen erlebte) wurde nie publiziert und galt als verschollen. Diese Ansicht muss revidiert werden. Das Autograph der Komposition befindet sich seit 1939 unbeachtet im Besitz der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek. Die erste Sichtung ergab folgenden Befund: Ambros hat sich an dem für eine Schauspielmusik üblichen Modell orientiert. Neben Ouvertüre und Finale besteht die Komposition aus mehreren Zwischenaktmusiken, die durch die Handlung des Dramas miteinander verknüpft sind. Stilistisch orientiert sich die Komposition an den Werken Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys und Robert Schumanns, die für den Prager Davidsbündler Ambros als wichtige Vorbilder fungierten. Durch die Entdeckung der Schauspielmusik zu "Othello" lässt sich diese immer wieder betonte Nähe nun an einem größeren Werk untersuchen. The musicologist August Wilhelm Ambros (1816-1876) played an important role as feature writer and composer in the musical life of Prague during the 1840s. In 1848 he composed an incidental music for William Shakespeare's drama "Othello" which was performed in Prague for several times, but never was published. It has been considered to be lost, what has to be revised. The autograph of the composition is owned by the Austrian National Library since 1939, but has met with no response so far. The results of a first investigation are: the music to the drama "Othello" does not diverge from the common patterns of this genre. It consists an overture, a finale and some intermission music. Its style is affected, like most of Ambros' other compositions, by Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The recovering of this composition now allows to research this influence on a larger opus.

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Nunca un mono amaestrado: la genialidad musical de Fanny Mendelssohn

La Palabra y el Hombre revista de la Universidad Veracruzana ◽

10.25009/lpyh.v0i51.3114 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 83-84

Author(s):

Lorena Huitrón Vázquez

Keyword(s):

Felix Mendelssohn

"Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy fue una de tantas relegadas de la historia de la música. Solía aparecer entre paréntesis o como nota a pie, siempre eclipsada porsu hermano Félix Mendelssohn, a quien muchas veces se le atribuyó la composición de piezas que en realidad habían sido hechas por su hermana. Fanny nació en 1805, en Hamburgo. Provenía de una adinerada familia judía convertida al protestantismo, por ello adoptarían el apellido Bartholdy".

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Unbekannte Zeugnisse zu den Leipziger Aufführungen von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys Bühnenmusik zur „Antigone“ in den Jahren 1841 und 1842

Die Musikforschung ◽

10.52412/mf.1998.h1.923 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 50-57

Author(s):

Hermann F. Weiss

Keyword(s):

New Information ◽

Circle Of Friends ◽

Felix Mendelssohn ◽

A Performance

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's activities in Leipzig and his circle of friends and acquaintances in that city have not yet been fully explored. On the basis of hitherto unknown sources new information is provided concerning the performances of his <Antigone> at the Leipzig Theatre in March, 1842, as well as a performance at the Leipzig home of Johann Paul von Falkenstein on November 28, 1841. The reactions of two Leipzig professors, Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch and Gottfried Hermann, to these events are of particular interest.

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Individual and Communal Freedom and the Performance History of the St. Matthew Passion by Bach and Mendelssohn

Theology, Music, and Modernity ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198846550.003.0008 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 147-179

Author(s):

Markus Rathey

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Upper Class ◽

Liturgical Music ◽

Original Performance ◽

Performance History ◽

History Of ◽

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy ◽

The Individual ◽

Felix Mendelssohn ◽

Performance Conditions

When Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the concert hall of the Berlin Singakademie in 1829, he not only transferred a piece of liturgical music into a secular space, but he also made numerous cuts that changed the theological profile of Bach’s composition. The essay explores the theology of the St. Matthew Passion in the context of early eighteenth-century theology and gives an overview of the original performance conditions and the audiences at the performances in Bach’s time. The second half of the essay analyses how these parameters changed when Mendelssohn conducted the Passion in 1829. It becomes clear that the sociological profile of the audience (educated middle and upper class who had to pay money to attend the performance) remained essentially the same, while the theology shifted from a focus on the freedom of the individual in Bach’s time to an emphasis on the community (congregation, Volk, nation) in the adapted version the Singakademie presented to its listeners in 1829.

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