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 coloring. 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 sympathized 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.