Felix Mendelssohn, Richte mich Gott, Op. 78

Picture of Gewandhaus concert hall, drawn by Mendelssohn himself

It seems fitting that the Bach Choir expand its musical offerings beyond Bach with a work by Mendelssohn, since were it not for Mendelssohn, we might not have a Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Indeed, while after his death a few of Bach's works continued in the repertoire, primarily as didactic pieces, the bulk of his compositions immediately fell into virtual oblivion, considered "too old style," or "not progressive." But Mendelssohn in the 1830s recognized their value, and began to program Bach's compositions in the Gewandhaus Orchestra concerts he supervised in Leipzig -- one of the cities in which Bach had flourished.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was, like Mozart, a fantastic musical prodigy. Born to a prominent Jewish family in Berlin (the family later converted to Lutheranism, marking another tie to Bach), he was immersed in cultural and intellectual family activities. His grandfather was the famous Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Both Felix and his sister Fanny, to whom he was extremely devoted, were given musical instruction from an early age. Although Mendelssohn studied both violin and piano, his most important early studies were those with Friedrich Zelter, director of the Berlin Singakademie, who gave both Mendelssohn children a strict regimen of figured bass, counterpoint, canon, fugue, and four-part choral writing. Zelter had studied with students of J.S. Bach, and thus many of the examples he chose for the children's theoretical studies came from the works of Bach. In working with Zelter and attending the rehearsals of the Singakademie, Mendelssohn and his sister heard the instrumental works of Bach and Handel (at a time when few were performing these works). Mendelssohn’s workbook from this time also shows numerous exercises based on models of Haydn and Mozart. It should be no surprise, therefore, that many of Mendelssohn's early works derived from 18^th-century traditions: an orchestra dominated by the strings (especially the violins), but with pairs of winds for color; complex, chromatic part-writing; use of counterpoint; and clear, symmetrical phrasing. While his style did develop beyond this, particularly in his harmonic language, this "classical" grounding is evident throughout Mendelssohn's works.

Mendelssohn was among the most literate and well-traveled of all composers, and his friends and acquaintances included Fétis, Goethe, Thomas Attwood, and Hegel; musicians Berlioz, Moscheles, Liszt, J.B. Cramer, Chopin, Kalkbrenner, Meyerbeer, and Maria Malibran, Ferdinand Hiller, Hummel, Cherubini, Schumann, Reicha, Spohr, Glinka, and Donizetti; the painters Hildebrandt, Schadow, Sohn, and Bendemann.

For those of you who might not be familiar with Mendelssohn's life and career, here is a summary of his biography:

• February 3, 1809: Felix Mendelssohn is born in Hamburg (later known simply as Felix Mendelssohn)

• July 1811: after fleeing Napoleon's forces in Hamburg (for reasons unknown), Abraham Mendelssohn moves his family to Berlin

• March 21, 1816: Felix and his sister are baptized secretly into the Protestant faith; Felix is given the additional names "Jacob Ludwig," and the surname "Bartholdy" is added, so as to distinguish them from the Jewish Mendelssohns [Bartholdy was the name of a family dairy farm!]

• 1816-1817: family visits Paris, where Felix and Fanny studied piano and chamber music

• July 1818: Mendelssohn finished his elementary schooling; his father arranges for a private tutor

• October 1818: Felix makes his public debut

• 1819: Felix and Fanny begin studies with Carl Friedrich Zelter, and join the Singakademie chorus

• 1820: Karl Ludwig Heyse is hired to continue the Mendelssohns's tutoring: studies included reading Ovid; studying history, geography, arithmetic and French; writing poetry; Felix becomes fascinated with the classics as a result

• 1821: Mendelssohn completes his first opera, a Singspiel (sung play in German with spoken dialogue instead of recitatives)

• 1822: Felix's compositional career really takes off

• 1824: Mendelssohn writes his first mature symphony (No. 1, Opus 11)

• August 1824: Mendelssohn was confirmed into the Protestant faith

• 1827: Mendelssohn enrolled at the University of Berlin in order to complete his general education

• 1828: completes his second cantata, entitled Jesu, meine Freude, which clearly owes much to his early training in the Bach style; this year, he also decides to revive Bach's St. Matthew Passion (rehearsals begin in October)

• 1829: the St. Matthew Passion is performed under Mendelssohn's direction at the Singakademie; the performance received great critical acclaim, and a second performance was ordered by the Crown Prince in honor of Bach's birthday on March 21

• April-August 1829: travels to the British Isles, where he finds the inspiration for his works Die Hebriden and the "Scottish" Symphony

• 1830-1832: travels to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and back to London

• 1833-1835: settles in Düsseldorf when Mendelssohn was not selected as director of the Singakademie; Mendelssohn is named music director at Düsseldorf; here, he was encouraged to arrange performance of "master" productions of operas and other stages works, including Don Giovanni, Oberon, Der Freischütz, Die Zauberflöte and other works. His primary interest, however, as a choral conductor was to revive the oratorio; performances included Haydn's The Seasons and The Creation, numerous works by Handel; he also programmed numerous works of earlier composers, including Bach, Palestrina, and Lotti

• 1835: dissatisfied with his position in Düsseldorf, Mendelssohn asked to be relived from his responsibilities there, and moves to Leipzig

• 1835-1840: Mendelssohn becomes director of the Gewandhaus orchestra

• November 1835: Mendelssohn's father died

• March 1836: Mendelssohn receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig; shortly thereafter, his oratorio St. Paul is premiered

• 1837: Mendelssohn marries Cécile Jeanrenaud

• 1837-1840: extremely active compositional period

• 1840: Mendelssohn is hired to help revitalize the arts in Berlin, but his responsibilities are so vague, he is not satisfied there

• 1841: Mendelssohn appointed Kapellmeister for Friedrich Wilhelm IV; later, he arranges to work half-time so that he may continue his position at the Gewandhaus

• 1844: Mendelssohn writes several a cappella musical settings for Passion Sunday and Good Friday, as part of the attempt to revise the Prussian liturgy at the Berlin Cathedral (the king encouraged a cappella writing and an older style of polyphonic writing, as well as antiphonal writing as part of this revival)

• 1846: Mendelssohn completes Elijah

• May 14, 1847: Mendelssohn's sister Fanny dies; Mendelssohn is devastated by the news; unable to attend her funeral, he visits her grave in September, but the visit left him so disturbed that he was unable to conduct

• October 1847: he suffers a series of strokes, until he finally dies on November 4

Mendelssohn's output includes works in every genre of his day: opera, cantata, oratorio, solo concerto, symphony, overture, solo piano works, Lieder (solo German-language songs), ensemble vocal pieces, choral works, incidental music for plays, organ works...the list goes on. At the time of his death, he was considered a leading figure in both German and English musical culture. But because Mendelssohn was born into a Jewish family -- even though he and his family completed embraced the Christian faith -- his music and reputation fell into a stage of disrepute in the wake of the strong anti-Semitic culture in Europe in the early- and mid-20^th century. At one time, his music was even banned in Germany, and his statue in the front of the Leipzig Conservatory was removed and destroyed. In addition, because his music was often based on Classical models and was, quite simply, beautiful, it was often trivialized in the late-19^th and early-20^th centuries, treated as a "lovely interlude" (Nietzsche) in the development of German music, a pleasant respite between the more revolutionary, passionate, fiery works of Beethoven and Wagner. Fortunately, more recent scholarship has been more favorable towards Mendelssohn, and his works for orchestra, organ, and piano, as well his oratorios, remain staples of the repertoire.

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As a composer of sacred music, Mendelssohn is best known for his compositions which model Handel's, rather than Bach's -- the English oratorios Elijah and St. Paul. But Mendelssohn also set numerous psalms, and composed cantatas, anthems, motets, and other liturgical pieces in Latin, German, and English.

Richte mich Gott is one of three German-language psalms Mendelssohn originally wrote in 1843; the three were first performed on December 24, 1843, then revised in 1844-1845. They were published as a set in 1849, two years after Mendelssohn died.

Richte mich Gott is an 8-voice setting of Psalm 43. Unlike Bach's 8-voice motets which are written for double chorus (2 groups of SATB), Mendelssohn's work is for a single 8-voice ensemble (SSAATTBB). Clearly, in this case, Mendelssohn prefers to separate the ensemble by gender, often writing for the men's voices alone or the women's voices alone, rather than two equal choirs.

The German text employed by Mendelssohn and an English version of the psalm follow [note: this is not a literal translation]:

You can see from the text that, while this doesn't make any specific reference to Christ's suffering and death, the overall mood is perfectly suited for Lent and Holy Week; this work (as well as op. 78 no. 3) were written for Passion Sunday in 1844.

"Richte mich, Gott" is almost entirely homophonic and rhythmically-simple in style, so it is much more akin to a chorale than to the polyphonic motets of Palestrina (one of the composers emulated by Mendelssohn in his choral writing) or even of Bach in his motets. It begins in D minor, though it is more modal in sound than minor (because initially Mendelssohn avoids using the leading tone, C#, to solidify the key). This modal feel combines with unison writing in the men's voices to create a stark sound, one perhaps reflecting the desperate plea of the group. Read the score as you listen to it.

While the men sustain the unison pitch A, the women enter in a fully-harmonized response. Here, the d minor tonality is solidified through the use of C# in the many dominant (V) chords in this 4-measure passage:

The unison men enter subsequently, using an almost identical 6-measure phrase; this time, the final two measures differs in order to turn towards the relative major key, F major- but in a surprising tonal twist, Mendelssohn instead inflects f minor, keeping the dark quality:

With the words "send in your light," the men's and women's voices sing together for the first time (ignoring, of course, the fact that the men simply sustained a unison pitch each time the women had sung previously). The tonality turns suddenly to F major, reflecting the burst of light for which the choir hopes. Initially, the men's and women's parts stand a measure apart, but by the seventh measure they are in rhythmic unison and singing first the first time the same words together, showing one accord as they send their prayers to the Lord.

Typical of Bach's motets, Mendelssohn here inserts a change of both tempo and meter. The move to andante and 3/8 comes as the choir sings "Dass ich hineingehe zum Altar Gottes, zu dem Gott, der meine Freude und Wonne ist," (Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy). The 3/8 meter may have been chosen merely for purposes of variety, but I can't help think how often Bach used triple meter to symbolize the Holy Trinity, and here is Mendelssohn, his "student" (or, at least a student of Bach's works), suddenly switching to triple meter as the choir prepares to approach the altar of God. Their gladness, and joy, however, are restrained by the return to d minor and the andante tempo, perhaps reflecting some hesitancy, or at least humility, on the part of the choir. Once again, the men's parts begin this phrase, and do so in a monophonic texture, returning to the austerity of the opening. Listen to it...

The men's and women's roles are somewhat reversed in the final portion of the setting ("Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele,..."/Why are you so downcast, o my soul?). Here the women sing in monophonic texture for a while, while the men fill out the harmonies. Ultimately, the eight voices come together for the final phrase, singing at fortissimo, in a bright D major, chorale-style, in a final prayer of thanks to the Lord. Listen to it...

© 2003 Carol Traupman-Carr