Mendelssohn: A Life in Music by Todd R. Larry

Author:Todd, R. Larry [Todd, R. Larry]
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003-10-23T04:00:00+00:00

Ex. 11.5a: Mendelssohn, Psalm 42, Op. 42 (1837), First Movement

Ex. 11.5b: Mendelssohn, Psalm 42, Op. 42 (1837), No. 4

Rather than depicting a soul in distress, the serene beginning (“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God”) projects an idealized approach to God through carefully regulated dissonances. The aria “My soul thirsteth for God” individualizes the struggle through alternating phrases in the oboe and soprano and suggests a “religious drama expressed in music.” 72 But the addition of female and male choruses and return of the full chorus for the refrainlike fifth and eleventh verses (“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why are thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God”) expands the scope from the particular to the general. The composition ends with a broadening, universal song of praise—an addition buttressed by trombones and the organ—that traces, as in St. Paul , a course of emotional and spiritual Steigerung .

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