اکثر موسيقیدانان در قرن هجدهام، فقير بودند و در تنگدستیی بدی جان سپردند. با ثروتمندتر شدنِ ملل اروپايی به طور کلی و با انقلاب فرانسه و به دنبال آن انقلاب صنعتی، دورهی فئوداليسم به پايان رسيد. بنابراين، اين گونه بود که وضع اقتصادی مردم بهتر شد و نيز با تلاشها موزارت و به خصوص بتهوون، که موسيقی را به ميان مردم بردند، وضعيت در قرن نوزده به مراتب بهبود يافت.
موسيقیدانان ديگر در ردهی خدمتکاران نبودند و میتوانستند زندهگی عادیای داشته باشند. اما هنوز موسيقیدانانِ فقير در قرن نوزده مشاهده میشوند. ولی اين نوشته در مورد آنان نيست! اين نوشتهای است در مورد کسی است که ثروت زيادی هم داشت. در تضاد کامل با شرايط شوبرت، او در خانوادهای ثروتمند متولد شد و تحصيلات خوبای هم داشت.
فليکس مندلسون بارتولدی، در خانوادهی يهودی روشنفکری، در آلمان، هامبورگ، سه فوريهی 1809 متولد شد. پدربزرگاش، موسی، شاعر، فيلسوف و يکی از سرشناسترين افراد در زمان خود بود. پدرش کارش را در بانکای آغاز کرد و سپس با نقل مکان به هامبورگ و بعدتر به برلين، ثروت فراوانای اندوخت. بر خلاف ميلاش، دين خود را به مسيحيت تغيير داد، تنها برای اين که شرايط تحصيل پسرش را آسان کند. بارتولدی نام برادر زناش بود که او برای ايجاد تمايز بين خودش و مندلسونهای يهودی آن را به نام خود افزود.
Most of musicians in eighteenth century were poor, and they died in an awful deprivation. As European nations got wealthier in general and with France revolution followed by industrial revolution, age of feudalism came to an end. So with people having better economical conditions and with attempts of Mozart and in particular Beethoven to take music between people, conditions got better in nineteenth century. Musicians weren’t of the rank of servants anymore, and they could have a normal life.
Yet, they’re nineteenth century musicians that were poor. But this won’t be a post about them! This one’s about one that had a lot of money. In total contrast with Schubert, he was born in a wealthy family and had good educations.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was born in an intellectual Jewish family in Germany, Hamburg, on 3 February 1809. His grandfather, Moses, was a poet, philosopher and one of his celebrities of his own time. His father started with a job in a bank, and then as they moved to Hamburg and latter to Berlin, earned a lot of money. In spite of his own desire, he changed his religious to Christianity, just to ease his son’s education conditions. Bartholdy was his wife’s brother’s name and he added this to his name to distinguish his family name with Jewish Mendelssohns.
Felix’s mother was daughter of a very rich Jewish family, and was smart and cultured.
So everything was ready for him to have best teachers and this was exactly the case. His musical talent was soon discovered and it was developed very well. In age of nine he performed for the first time in a public concert. He started music composition before fourteen and at the age of sixteen there was just Mozart and Schubert who could compose a piece such as Octet, opus 20.
His characteristics completed by his philosophic courses at Berlin university, with Hegel, and his acquaintance with Goethe.
Here I’ve chosen one of his most famous pieces, Violin concerto in E, opus 64.- and its third movement.
The Concerto has a history of association with child prodigies.
At the age of sixteen Mendelssohn met the rising fifteen years old violinist Ferdinand David, who had already appeared as a soloist in the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus, a hall which was to figure prominently in the development of the concerto. The two quickly became close friends, and maintained contact via a steady stream of letters as their careers developed.
In 1836, Mendelssohn was appointed conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and asked that David be chosen as leader, or concertmaster. Mendelssohn soon began thinking of writing a concerto to showcase the talents of his friend. In 1838 he proposed this in a letter, having selected a key and already thought of the opening melody, even complaining that he could not get it out of his mind. Other commitments intervened, though, and the work was not completed for another six years. The concerto was a great success at its spring premiere, and was mounted again the following autumn. About a month after this second performance, Clara Schumann was scheduled to play her husband Robert’s piano concerto in Dresden, but fell ill and was unable to take the stage. Ferdinand Hiller, the conductor, substituted the Mendelssohn violin concerto. David had a prior engagement, however, and sent a pupil who had been studying the work in his stead. The third prodigy, fourteen years old Joseph Joachim, performed masterfully in this outing, beginning a career that was to make him the undisputed king of nineteenth century violinists.
Since Joachim, this work has been used to introduce many a talented young fiddler. However, this fact should not lead one to conclude that the concerto is easy to perform. Quite the contrary: the frequent virtuoso passages provide ample opportunity for a young star to show off his or her technique, while the lyricism of the piece will quickly reveal the performer’s interpretive talents.
The final movement, you can download here, pays proper homage to the virtuoso tradition of the concerto, displaying buoyant themes at such breakneck speed that the soloist seems to play twice as many notes as any pair of other instruments combined. This movement is structured in a “question and answer” form, with the violin and orchestra trading lively ideas and challenges back and forth with ever- mounting glee until they finally marshal their forces to agree on an ending statement that leaves the audience clamoring for more.
Mendelssohn’s poetic sensation is as of a Romanticist, but his works are of the form of a Classicist. He can be supposed of the last of Classicists, and his works are natural consequences of Mozart’s. With the ever changing society, little by little music changed to Romanticism era. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy died in Leipzig, on 4th of November 1847, after a period of depression for the reason of death of his sister. His burial ceremony was like national burial ceremonies.
He was skilled in literature, painting, philosophy, swimming and riding, and influenced European music a lot. Many of musicians such as Berlioz, Chopin, Hiller, Bennett, Gade, Schumann and Wagner are in his debt for some of their career.