Mendelssohn was one of the most intelligent and scholarly composers of
the century. Learned in various branches of knowledge, and personally
a man of unusual accomplishments, his career was full of manly energy,
enlightened enthusiasm, and severe devotion to the highest forms of
the art of music. Not only his great oratorios, "St. Paul" and
"Elijah," but his music for the piano, including the "Songs without
Words," sonatas, and many occasional pieces, have won him a high place
among his musical brethren. As an orchestral composer, his overtures
are filled with strikingly original thoughts and elevated conceptions,
expressed with much delicacy of instrumental colouring. He was brought
but little in contact with the French and Italian schools, and there
is found in his works a severity of art-form which shows how closely
he sympathised with Bach and Handel in his musical tendencies. He died
while at the very zenith of his powers, and we may well believe that a
longer life would have developed much richer beauty in his
compositions. Short as his career was, however, he left a great number
of magnificent works, which entitle him to a place among the Titans of
music.
_RICHARD WAGNER._