[Siegwart Reichwald]

Here’s my proposal for a lightning talk; it would be a condensed version of a formal paper I presented recently

Mendelssohn and the Reformed Tradition:

Re-evaluating Sources within the Context of the Prussian Restoration Movement

My new reading allows us to re-evaluate Mendelssohn’s only stint in church music as Music Director of Prussian Church Music for Friedrich IV in 1843/44. Not only have we underestimated Mendelssohn’s sense of obligation to the task of reforming the music of the Prussian Union of Churches, but his compositional efforts have also been undervalued. Once Mendelssohn’s large-scale approach was rejected in favor of a cappella Psalm singing, the composer’s subsequent smaller compositions have been tossed aside. By following his compositional journey from Christmas 1843 to Good Friday 1844 through careful study of his autographs a new picture emerges: Mendelssohn created a nuanced and expressive eight-part a cappella style culminating in his Psalm settings (MWV B 41, 45, 46, 51) and deutsche Messe(MWV B 57). Mendelssohn’s lasting legacy is evidenced in Lowell Mason’s Musical Letters from Abroad (1852) and Emil Naumann’s preface to Musica Sacra 8 (1855), one of several volumes of eight-part a cappella settings representative of the music of the Prussian Restoration Movement.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Siegwart Reichwald.

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