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Felix Mendelssohn was a many-faceted individual. While known now primarily as a composer, in his time he was also important as a virtuoso pianist and conductor. His contribution to the musical life of his time and to posterity is significant. As well as composing for nearly every genre (see Table 1) Mendelssohn was a popular soloist and dominated German conducting from 1830 until his death in 1847. Over the years his popularity has waxed and waned. The works of Mendelssohn were highly regarded during his lifetime and remained popular until about 1900. Around 1900, however, there was a major shift in opinion. At this time, his music was considered to be mediocre. The rise of anti-Semitism in Germany during the twentieth century caused a further underrating of Mendelssohn's music in his homeland. It is hoped that this, and other present-day studies, will offer a more objective view of his music. As is true with most composers, in the body of Mendelssohn's compositions, one can find individual pieces to support either greatness or mediocrity. The music which is most familiar to the public: Italian and Scottish symphonies, the Hebrides and Overture and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream orchestral overtures, and the String Octet in E-flat Major are undoubtedly some of Mendelssohn's best. On the other hand, his operas never have been effective. Even at the end of his life, he was still searching for the perfect libretto. But it is inconsistent writing within individual pieces which is the most frustrating aspect of Mendelssohn's music. The first cello sonata is one such example. Here a solid first movement is followed by two weak ones. Included in the total number of pieces of chamber music on Table 1, are the four pieces that Mendelssohn composed for cello and piano. They consist of two short pieces and two sonatas, and were written over a sixteen year span (see Table 3, page 8). This paper aims to familiarize the reader with these cello works, investigate them in terms of the criticisms leveled at Mendelssohn's music, and examine their contribution and place in today's literature for the violoncello.

The reputation of Mendelssohn's music has suffered more than that of most major composers of his era from the vicissitudes of musical taste. From the beginning, the general public felt drawn to his simple lyricism and vitality, expressed within clearly ordered, easily understandable musical structures. Performers and critics at first responded with the same warm enthusiasm, but later became caught up in sweeping changes of musical style and in political propaganda which denounced Mendelssohn's work for non-musical reasons. Until recently his music has rarely received an objective evaluation. During his lifetime his music was received with almost universal acclaim. To the public, even to the most conservative elements of Victorian society, it had an immediate emotional appeal, while professional musician appreciated his polished craftsmanship. Performances of his works were greeted with the eager excitement described in the following London Times review of the oratorio Elijah: "It was as if enthusiasm, long checked, had suddenly burst its bonds and filled the air with shouts of exultation." His friend and colleague Robert Schumann called him a "god among men," and described him thus: "He is the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the brightest musician who most clearly fathoms, and then reconciles the contradictions of our time -- classicism and romanticism." In another comment, Schumann pays tribute to the ease and elegance of his compositional technique: "Mendelssohn I consider the first musician of this day...He plays with everything, especially with the grouping of the instruments in the orchestra, but with such ease, delicacy and art, and with such mastery throughout."

The unpublished concert aria, "Ch'io t'abbandono," by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1825), is representative of the adolescent composer's developing musical aesthetic. In this study, Mendelssohn's education, work ethic, and perfectionism are revealed, paradoxically, as both the catalysts for the piece's composition and also the reasons it was not published during Mendelssohn's lifetime. An exploration of the text, form, thematic usage, and performance demands of the aria yields specific examples of his uniquely balanced romantic-classicist style. A consideration of possible original performers of the piece, Franz Hauser and Eduard Devrient, leads to further discussion about the nature of the work as both a reflection of Mendelssohn's romantic self-expression and his appreciation for the Baroque melismatic style. The significance of the aria, both stylistic and biographical, is further delineated by a presentation of possible motivations for its composition. The musical setting of the text, as well as the text itself, indicates both Mendelssohn's awareness of himself as a maturing adolescent composer and his desire to be a composer of operatic works, a desire that was never fully realized.

This thesis offers a brief overview of the life and the work of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. It was no coincidence that Robert Schumann called him the Mozart of the 19th century: Being a prodigy from a very early age, he composed with such an unbelievable lightness. Many of his compositions have become an essential part of the world of music nowadays. Equally, his pieces for the cello and the piano, which are dealt with in the second part of the thesis, have their remarkable qualities and they are worth playing.

Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Opus 11, is important primarily as a transitional work. It is the first work in which Mendelssohn deploys large orchestral forces in the traditional form of the symphony; thus, it provided Mendelssohn with the means of making the important transition from the relatively small, chamber-music ensemble in which he had previously worked (as represented by the "string symphonies") to large-scale symphonic works. Its historical or biographical importance definitely outweighs its importance as a musical work in its own right; this can be seen by the fact that it is much less performed today than other symphonies by Mendelssohn. In these later symphonies the composer displays his talents in a more fully developed form. Nonetheless, Symphony No. 1 has many excellent qualities. It has several memorable melodies and shows the working of a vigorous, youthful, though somewhat derivative musical intelligence. It has several brilliant and memorable moments, although considered as a whole it must still be regarded as a work that promises a greater talent than it displays.

The purpose of this study was to analyze for reasons of interpretation the unaccompanied choral music of Felix Mendelssohn. What are the stylistic characteristics in each of the compositions selected for examination in this study? What comparisons and conclusions based on the analyses can be made concerning the character of compositional style in Felix Mendelssohn's unaccompanied choral music? What conclusions can be made concerning the interpretation of Felix Mendelssohn's unaccompanied choral music based on the compositional style of his music and an understanding of his musical attributes?

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This thesis is a study of four compositions written by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Her music is compared with four pieces composed by Felix. This study shows that Fanny was a gifted and creative composer, even surpassing Felix and predating Brahms with her compositional ideas and progressive uses of harmony. Despite her excellent education and recognition among those who knew her well, she did not publicize her talent in any way because of pressure from her father, Abraham, and Felix to stay within the prescribed societal confines of wife and mother.

The following study deals with the structural elements of the six Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas, opus 65. The problem excludes stylistic considerations. The Mendelssohn organ works are the greatest that appeared from the time of J. S. Bach until the nineteenth century. The Sonatas "have long been accepted as 'classics' of the instrument." Of them Mendelssohn himself wrote in a letter to his publisher, "I attach much importance to these Sonatas." They have no formal predecessor and no formal counterpart in subsequent organ literature. Their structures are hybrid, contrasting, unique, and unconventional; yet, to the writer's knowledge, there is no material available which presents a thorough, scientific formal analysis. It is hoped that the following study will fill this need.