_Lewin’s_ Jerusalem, 8
_Loudon’s_ Encyclopædia of Cottage Architecture, 23
_Loudon’s_ Encyclopædia of Agriculture, 26
_Loudon’s_ Encyclopædia of Gardening, 26
_Loudon’s_ Encyclopædia of Trees and Shrubs, 26
_Loudon’s_ Encyclopædia of Plants, 26
_Lowndes’s_ Engineer’s Handbook, 22
Lyra Domestica, 20
Lyra Germanica, 19
Lyra Sacra, 20
_Macaulay’s_ England, 2
_Macaulay’s_ Essays, 17
_Macaulay’s_ Miscellaneous Writings, 17
_Macaulay’s_ Laws of Ancient Rome, 21
_Macaulay’s_ Speeches, 5
_MacBrair’s_ Africans, 10
_MacDougall’s_ Theory of War, 24
_M’Culloch’s_ Commercial Dictionary, 22
_M’Culloch’s_ Geographical Dictionary, 22
_Marcet’s_ Land and Water, 25
_Marcet’s_ Political Economy, 25
_Marcet’s_ Conversations on Natural Philosophy, 25
_Marcet’s_ Conversations on Chemistry, 25
_Maunder’s_ Biographical Treasury, 27
_Maunder’s_ Geographical Treasury, 27
_Maunder’s_ Historical Treasury, 27
_Maunder’s_ Natural History, 27
_Maunder’s_ Scientific and Literary Treasury, 27
_Maunder’s_ Treasury of Knowledge, 27
_May’s_ England, 2
Memoir of Sydney Smith, 5
Memoirs, &c. of Thomas Moore, 5
_Mendelssohn’s_ Letters, 8
_Merivale’s_ Romans under the Empire, 2
_Merivale’s_ Fall of the Roman Republic, 2
_Merivale’s_ (H.) Lectures on Colonisation, 21
_Meryon’s_ History of Medicine, 3
_Miles_ on Horse’s Foot, 15
_Miles_ on Shoeing Horses, 15
_Moore’s_ Lalla Rookh, 21
_Moore’s_ Irish Melodies, 21
_Moore’s_ Poetical Works, 21
_Morell’s_ Mental Philosophy, 11
_Morell’s_ Elements of Psychology, 11
Morning Clouds, 16
_Morton’s_ Royal Farms, 2
_Morton’s_ Dairy Husbandry, 25
_Morton’s_ Farm Labour, 25
_Mosheim’s_ Ecclesiastical History, 18
_Müller’s_ Lectures on Language, 7
_Munk’s_ College of Physicians, 3
_Mure’s_ Language and Literature of Greece, 2
My Life, and What shall I do with it?, 16
_Neale’s_ Sunsets and Sunshine, 16
_Odling’s_ Chemistry, 11
_Owen’s_ Anatomy, 11
_Packe’s_ Guide to the Pyrenees, 9
Parry’s Memoirs, 4
Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers, 8
_Pereira’s_ Materia Medica, 12
_Peschel’s_ Elements of Physics, 12
_Phillips’s_ Guide to Geology, 13
_Phillips’s_ Introduction to Mineralogy, 12
_Piesse’s_ Art of Perfumery, 15
_Piesse’s_ Chemical Wonders, 15
_Piesse’s_ Chemical and Natural Magic, 15
_Pictrowski’s_ Siberian Exile, 1
Porson’s Life by _Watson_, 4
Practical Mechanic’s Journal, 24
Problems in Human Nature, 16
_Pycroft’s_ English Reading, 19
_Ranken’s_ Canada and the Crimea, 9
Record of International Exhibition, 24
_Rhind’s_ Thebes, 8
_Rich’s_ Roman and Greek Antiquities, 5
_Rivers’s_ Rose Amateur’s Guide, 27
_Rogers’s_ Essays, 17
_Roget’s_ English Thesaurus, 7
Romance of a Dull Life, 16
_Ronald’s_ Fly-Fisher, 15
_Rowton’s_ Debater, 7
_Sandford’s_ Bampton Lectures, 18
_Savile_ on Revelation and Science, 18
_Saxby_ on Projection of Sphere, 25
_Saxby_ on Study of Steam, 25
_Scoffern_ on Projectiles, 24
_Scott’s_ Lectures on the Fine Arts, 4
_Scott’s_ Volumetrical Analysis, 12
_Scrope_ on Volcanos, 11
_Senior’s_ Biographical Sketches, 3
_Sewell’s_ Ancient History, 5
_Sewell’s_ Early Church, 5
_Sewell’s_ Passing Thoughts on Religion, 18
_Sewell’s_ Self-Examination for Confirmation, 18
_Sewell’s_ Readings for Confirmation, 18
_Sewell’s_ Readings for Lent, 18
_Sewell’s_ Impressions of Rome, &c., 10
_Sewell’s_ Stories and Tales, 16
_Sharp’s_ British Gazetteer, 22
Short Whist, 15
Sidney’s (Sir P.) Life, by _Lloyd_, 3
_Smith’s_ (J.) St. Paul’s Shipwreck, 5
_Smith’s_ (G.) Wesleyan Methodism, 1
Social Life in Australia, 10
_Southey’s_ Poetical Works, 21
_Southey’s_ Doctor, 21
_Stephen’s_ Essays, 17
_Stephen’s_ Lectures on the History of France, 17
Stephenson’s Life, by _Jeaffreson_ and _Pole_, 3
‘Stonehenge’ on the Dog, 14
‘Stonehenge’ on the Greyhound, 14
_Strickland’s_ Queens of England, 3
_Sydney Smith’s_ Works, 17
_Sydney Smith’s_ Moral Philosophy, 17
_Tate_ on Strength of Materials, 13
_Taylor’s_ (Jeremy) Works, 18
_Tennent’s_ Ceylon, 14
_Tennent’s_ Natural History of Ceylon, 14
_Theologia_ Germanica, 19
_Thirlwall’s_ Greece, 2
_Thomson’s_ Interest Tables, 22
_Thomson’s_ Laws of Thought, 11
_Thrupp’s_ Anglo-Saxon Home, 3
_Todd’s_ Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, 11
_Trollope’s_ Warden, 16
_Trollope’s_ Barchester Towers, 16
_Twiss’s_ Law of Nations, 2
_Tyndall_ on Heat, 11
_Tyndall’s_ Mountaineering, 8
_Ure’s_ Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 23
_Van Der Hoeven’s_ Handbook of Zoology, 11
_Villari’s_ History of Savonarola, 4
Warburton’s Life, by _Watson_, 4
_Warter’s_ Last of the Old Squires, 16
_Watts’s_ Dictionary of Chemistry, 12
_Webb’s_ Celestial Objects, 13
_Webster_ and _Parkes’s_ Domestic Economy, 23
Wellington’s Life, by _Gleig_, 4
Wesley’s Life, by _Southey_, 5
_West_ on Children’s Diseases, 24
_White_ and _Riddle’s_ Latin Dictionary, 6
_Wilson’s_ Bryologia Britannica, 26
_Willich’s_ Popular Tables, 22
Wit and Wisdom of Sydney Smith, 17
_Woodward’s_ Chronological and Historical Encyclopædia, 2
_Worms_ on the Earth’s Motion, 11
_Wyndham’s_ Norway, 9
_Yonge’s_ English-Greek Lexicon, 7
_Youatt’s_ work on the Horse, 14
_Youatt’s_ work on the Dog, 14
[_January 1863._
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., PRINTERS, NEW-STREET SQUARE, LONDON
FOOTNOTES:
[1] At the period to which Mendelssohn here refers, owing to the
advice of his friends, he had applied for the situation of Director of
the Singing Academy, but was not chosen.
[2] “St. Paul.”
[3] From “Alexander’s Feast.”
[4] Mendelssohn’s sister had learned Greek along with him.
[5] The subject in question was Mendelssohn’s nomination (which
afterwards ensued) as a member of the musical class of the Academy of
Art in Berlin, as to the acceptance of which he had been doubtful.
[6] Immermann and Mendelssohn had agreed to give a certain number of
performances in the theatre, which they termed “classical.” A certain
portion of the public considered this to be arrogance on their part,
and as the prices were also raised on the occasion, at the first
performance the tumult ensued that Mendelssohn here describes.
[7] He never had recourse to it. Mendelssohn wrote invariably
everything, without exception, himself.
[8] Music Director in Stockholm.
[9] This fantasia and the E flat rondo (with orchestra), Op. 29, are
both dedicated to Moscheles.
[10] E flat (with orchestra), Op. 29.
[11] Well known as the most crowded street in London.
[12] “Ali Baba.”
[13] For the text of “St. Paul.”
[14] _Cantor_ (leader of a choir), a term Mendelssohn often applied to
his sister Fanny.
[15] A number of birthdays occurred at this particular period in the
family.
[16] Mendelssohn had made an expedition through part of Germany for
the benefit of the theatre, in order to engage singers.
[17] Professor Heyse, Mendelssohn’s teacher.
[18] The mode, however, in which Mendelssohn treated this affair
of the theatre was by no means approved of by his father; on the
contrary, some time afterwards he wrote to him as follows:--
“I must once more resume the subject of the dramatic career, as I
feel very anxious about it on your account. You have not, according
to my judgment, either in a productive or administrative point of
view, had sufficient experience to decide with certainty that your
disinclination towards it proceeds from anything innate in your
talents or character. I know no dramatic composer, except Beethoven,
who has not written a number of operas, now totally forgotten, before
attaining the right object at the right moment, and gaining a place
for himself. You have only made one public effort, which was partly
frustrated by the text, and, in fact, was neither very successful nor
the reverse. Subsequently you were too fastidious about the words,
and did not succeed in finding the right man, and perhaps did not
seek him in a right manner; I cannot but think that, by more diligent
inquiries and more moderate pretensions, you would at length attain
your object. With regard to the administrative career, however, it
gives rise to another series of reflections which I wish to impress
on you. Those who have the opportunity and the inclination, to become
more closely and intimately acquainted with you, as well as all
those to whom you have the opportunity and the inclination to reveal
yourself more fully, cannot fail to love and respect you. But this
is really far from being sufficient to enable a man to enter on life
with active efficacy; on the contrary, when you advance in years,
and opportunity and inclination fail, both in others and yourself,
it is much more likely to lead to isolation and misanthropy. Even
what we consider faults will be respected, or at least treated with
forbearance, when once firmly and thoroughly established in the
world, while the individual himself disappears. He has least of all
arrived at the ideal of virtue, who exacts it most inexorably from
others. The most stern moral principle is a citadel, with outworks,
in defence of which we are unwilling to expend our strength, in order
to maintain ourselves with greater certainty in our stronghold,
which indeed ought only to be surrendered with life itself. Hitherto
it is undeniable that you have never been able to divest yourself
of a tendency to austerity and irascibility, to suddenly grasping
an object, and as suddenly relinquishing it, and thus creating for
yourself many obstacles in a practical point of view. For example,
I must confess, that though I approved of your withdrawing from any
active participation in the management of details in the Düsseldorf
theatre, I by no means did so of the manner in which you accomplished
your object, as you undertook it voluntarily, and, to speak candidly,
rather heedlessly. From the beginning you, most wisely, declined
any positive compact, but only agreed to undertake the studying
and conducting of particular operas, and, in accordance with this
resolution, very properly insisted on another music director being
appointed. When you came here some time ago with the commission to
engage Krethi and Plethi, I did not at all like the idea; I thought,
however, that as you were coming here at all events, you could
not through politeness decline this service. But on your return
to Düsseldorf, after wisely refusing to undertake another journey
for the purpose of making engagements for the theatre, instead of
persevering in your duties in this sense, and getting rid of all
_odiosa_, you allowed yourself to be overwhelmed by them; and as they
naturally became most obnoxious to you, instead of quietly striving to
remedy them, and thus gradually to get rid of them, you at one leap
extricated yourself, and by so doing you undeniably subjected yourself
to the imputation of fickleness and unsteadiness, and made a decided
enemy of a man whom at all events policy should have taught you not
to displease; and most probably offended and lost the friendliness of
many members of the _Comité_ also, among whom there are, no doubt,
most respectable people. If I view this matter incorrectly, then teach
me a better mode of judging.”
This letter will show what an impartial and incorruptible judge
Mendelssohn possessed in his father.
[19] The following letter from Mendelssohn’s Father will certainly
not be read without interest, as it throws so clear a light on the
intellectual relations between father and son; a place may therefore
be appropriately found for it here. It has been selected from a large
collection of letters of a similar tendency.
[20] By Reichardt. Compare the passage in reference to Reichardt in
the letter of December 28th, 1833.
[21] “St. Paul.”
[22] Compare the passage on this subject in the letter of April 3rd,
1835.
[23] “Hommage à Handel.”
[24] The death of his Father.
[25] This refers to the circumstance of Mendelssohn’s father having
advised him to “hang up on a nail” the elfin and spirit life with
which, for a certain period, Mendelssohn had chiefly occupied himself
in his compositions, and to proceed to graver works.
[26] He alludes to the Musical Festival, where “St. Paul” was
performed for the first time.
[27] Verkenius.
[28] This Letter was written a short time before his betrothal.
[29] This project was never fulfilled, but the letter is inserted, as
it proves the deep earnestness with which Mendelssohn treated such
subjects.
[30] Mendelssohn’s marriage.
[31] “St. Paul” was performed for the first time in England at this
Festival.
[32] A provincial mode of pronouncing ‘Birmingham.’
[33] See Letter of October 6th, 1835.
[34] It appeared afterwards under the title of “Serenade and Allegro
Giojoso,” Op. 43.
[35] Hanover.
[36] A habit of Mendelssohn’s.
[37] Just before his Sister’s journey to Italy.
[38] ‘Earthly and Heavenly Love.’
[39] “Hommage à Handel.”
[40] This has been done. The monument is on the promenade, under the
windows of Sebastian Bach’s rooms, in the Thomas School.
[41] It is characteristic of both, that Mendelssohn’s sister set the
following poem of Goethe’s to music:--
“Here are we then, my friend, at home once more!
And tranquilly reclines the artist’s eye
On scenes of peace and love from door to door,
Where life to life in kindliness draws nigh.
“Back with our household gods, here are we then!
For though through distant regions we may roam,
From all these ravishments we turn again
Back to the magic sphere we call our home.”
[42] See the letter to Herr von Falkenstein, April 8th, 1840.
[43] By Sebastian Bach.
[44] His brother had gone to Leipzig, at the instigation of the
Wirklich Geheimrath Herr von Massow, to negotiate with Mendelssohn
the subject of a situation in Berlin. It was proposed to divide the
Academy of Arts into four classes,--namely, painting, sculpture,
architecture, and music,--and to appoint a director for each class,
to whom the superintendence of the Academy should be entrusted
alternately, and in fixed succession. The music class, for which
Mendelssohn had been selected as Director, was to consist essentially
of a large Conservatorium, in the expectation that in connection
with the resources of the Royal Theatre, public concerts, partly of
a sacred and partly of a secular nature, should be given. However
promising Mendelssohn considered this project, he at once expressed
considerable doubts, not so much that the plan _could_ not be carried
out, but that it _would_ not be so; and the result proved how correct
his judgment was on the point.
[45] The performance of “Athalie,” with Schulz’s music, had caused
considerable excitement in the Berlin Theatre.
[46] The ‘Vier Fragen’ of Jacobi, a pamphlet of the day, the purport
and contents of which, would certainly no longer cause the smallest
annoyance to either party.
[47] At the time of the appearance of the ‘Vier Fragen,’ Minister
Schön was unquestionably supposed by the public to be the author.
[48] An unpublished composition of Mendelssohn’s.
[49] In this Report, the result of the negotiations with Mendelssohn,
which finally caused him to go to Berlin, are fully detailed,--so it
was considered necessary to give it a place here.
[50] Massow’s proposals were finally accepted by Mendelssohn, who came
to Berlin; there were many conferences held as to the remodelling
of the musical class in the Academy, and the organization of the
future Conservatorium; but as Mendelssohn very justly foresaw, all
this evaporated, though from no fault of his, which the beginning of
Minister Eichhorn’s letter of the 2nd March, 1815, fully proves.
[51] The death of President Verkenius ended the correspondence by this
Letter.
[52] In answer to the Professor’s offer to write, or to cause to be
written, something in his musical paper with regard to ‘Antigone.’
[53] Compare also his letter to Julius Stern of the 27th of May, 1814.
[54] Mendelssohn and his wife.
[55] The party consisted of Mendelssohn and his Brother, and their
wives.
[56] See Mendelssohn’s Letters in 1831.
[57] Herr Souchay had asked Mendelssohn the meanings of some of his
“Songs without Words.”
[58] Goethe also says, in the fourth part of ‘Dichtung und Wahrheit,’
“I have already but too plainly seen, that no one person understands
another; that no one receives the same impression as another from the
very same words.”
[59] The following Letter contains the result of the audience
requested.
[60] See Letter to his Mother of the 3rd of September, 1842.
[61] See Letter to the King of the 28th of October, 1842.
[62] See Letter of 10th August, 1840.
[63] The birthday of Mendelssohn’s Father.
[64] After the death of his Mother.
[65] From his own Psalm, op. 42.
[66] Gade dedicated his C minor symphony to Mendelssohn.
[67] This conference was held in order to hasten the performance of
the plans of the King. See the letters of 28th October, 1842, and 5th
December, 1842.
[68] Neither of these works, however, had yet been performed.
[69] The execution of this project also, nevertheless was not
completed and Mendelssohn, after some time had elapsed, requested the
King to relieve him from all public duties, and to be permitted to
remain only in an artistic and personal relation to his Majesty, to
which the King was graciously pleased to accede.
[70] Mendelssohn’s request was graciously granted by the King.
[71] The letter of Herr von Bunsen to Mendelssohn is inserted here, in
order to render the following reply intelligible.
[72] Herr Stern had accomplished the production of “Antigone,” in the
Odéon Theatre, in Paris.
[73] See also the Letter to Dehn, of the 28th of October, 1841.
[74] Mendelssohn’s servant.
[75] Mendelssohn was desired by the Berlin Theatre Intendancy to
compose this overture as quickly as possible (which he consequently
did in a few days), because “Athalia” was to be performed immediately.
The performance, however, did not take place till the 1st of December,
1845.
[76] To direct the musical festival there.
[77] The son of his sister Fanny.
[78] Mendelssohn’s paternal home, in which the Boeckh family also
resided.
[79] Inserted in order to make Mendelssohn’s reply more clear.
[80] This communication also led to no results.
[81] Here also this letter to Mendelssohn seems necessary to render
his reply intelligible.
[82] See the Letter to Bunsen of May 1st, 1844.
[83] Referring to his edition of “Israel in Egypt,” for this Society.
[84] Franz Messer, at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
[85] For the Musical Festival in Birmingham, where “Elijah” was
performed for the first time.
[86] In relation to a couple of members of the orchestra, who took the
liberty to make some saucy remarks on Mendelssohn coming in rather
late one morning to direct a rehearsal at the Philharmonic.
[87] Moscheles recovered sufficiently to direct the rest of the
performances at the festival, except “Elijah.”
[88] Mendelssohn’s servant.
[89] Dirichlet was engaged in a negotiation about a situation at
Heidelberg.
[90] See letter about Reichardt, of December 28, 1833.
[91] After Fanny Hensel’s death.
[92] Mendelssohn and his brother, with their families, went together
to Switzerland after Fanny Hensel’s death.
[93] The author of the ‘History of Greece.’
[94] To allow the “Elijah” to be performed for the benefit of that
institution.
[95] Mendelssohn was to direct the “Elijah” in Vienna.
[96] In the tenth edition of Brockhaus’s ‘Conversations-Lexicon,’ vol.
vii., 1852, we read, “She felt great repugnance to publish, so that
her brother _often_, in jest, allowed her compositions to appear under
his name.”
[97] The name of the place invariably indicates where the Work was
composed, or at all events finished.