motet notes - Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 –1847) occupies as a crucial link between the classical style of Mozart and Beethoven and the high romantic style of Schumann and Brahms. However, he is still, and unduly, an often misunderstood and lesser-known composer, whose reputation continues to rest on a very partial selection of his works such as Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lied ohne Worte. His sacred choral works, apart from the oratorios Elijah and St Paul, are very seldom heard. Yet Mendelssohn, both a Jew and a Protestant, devoted much of his energies and talents to music for liturgical use, and it forms a substantial proportion of his output that reflects Mendelssohn’s own tolerant, ecumenical spirit. In addition, Mendelssohn was in the forefront of the 19th century revival of the music of J.S. Bach – he conducted the first ‘modern’ performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829 – and his choral music owes a powerful debt to Bach’s influence. This influence served as a model to enable him to create his own liturgical idiom, creating a unique blend of baroque and the richer romanticism of Brahms.

Today’s motet "Ehre sei Gott in her Höhe" is a late work (1846) for double chorus a capella comes from the  “Die deutsche Liturgie.”  Mendelssohn makes economical use of antiphony between the choirs, one choir either making responses to the other, or imitating it contrapuntally.  The juxtaposition of large choral masses against the pleading solo voices that emerge in the Adagio section dealing with the Sins of the World, are extremely effectual in portraying both communal and individual conviction. The final section features smooth polyphonic writing of particular richness, arriving at confident ‘Amens.’

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