Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement

This Element through Mendelssohn's compositions tells a different story than that of his stint as Director of Prussian Church Music.

Siegwart Reichwald (Author)

9781009113359, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 November 2023

98 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.16 kg

'This book sheds new light on the importance of Mendelssohn's output in the genre of a cappella music, and it offers insight into the state of liturgy and music in a transitional period of (Lutheran) church music. Indeed, the details of the clergy/musician struggles that were so bothersome to Mendelssohn make this episode very interesting to read. For the modern church musician, it confirms that, even for a musical genius, the practice of music in the church was never simple.' Jane Schatkin Hettrick, The American Organist magazine

Drawing on his experiences in Berlin under Schleiermacher and his travels to the Vatican, Mendelssohn, as the Director of Prussian Church Music, wanted to offer an edifying worship experience where large-scale choral works would become an indispensable part of the liturgy, which he saw as a performative or representational act, centered around the life of Christ. Yet he quickly realized that the court and clergy were not interested in his foundational concepts; they merely wanted reforms based on the restauration ideals espoused by Winterfeld and Thibaut. Analyses of his 25 Domchor compositions and their revisions in this Element chronicle Mendelssohn's stylistic development and his ability to continue to offer a Christological worship experience within strictly prescribed parameters. The Berlin Domchor and its new repertoire by Mendelssohn and contemporaneous composers quickly became the model for the emerging a cappella movement throughout Protestant Germany.

1. Back to the future: Mendelssohn, Berlin, and the protestant a cappella movement
2. Mendelssohn's concept of church music
3. An inauspicious start: music for christmas 1843
4. Ideals proposed: music for New Year's Day 1844
5. Ideals compromised: music for epiphany and lent 1844
6. New ideals conceptualized: preparing for departure
7. Mendelssohn's lasting legacy
References.

Subject Areas: Baroque music [c 1600 to c 1750 AVGC3]