The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn (Cambridge Companions to Music) by Peter Mercer-Taylor

Author:Peter Mercer-Taylor [Peter Mercer-Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2004-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

I

The year 1843 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Temple in Hamburg, when preparations were made to construct a new building, to be consecrated at Pentecost (Shavuot) in 1844. On 14 November 1843, Dr. Maimon Fränkel, Praeses of the Temple, invited Felix to compose some Psalm settings for the ceremony. “Your sublime talent,” Fränkel wrote, “is too much the common property of the entire Fatherland, and the Mendelssohn name still always too dear to every German Israelite to prevent us from yielding to the pleasant prospect of your undertaking to compose some of these pieces . . .” 20 Though Felix’s reply does not survive, it was encouraging enough to prompt Fränkel to forward on 8 January 1844 a copy of the Gesangbuch of the Tempelverein, and to propose that Felix set three Psalms deemed appropriate for the consecration, Nos. 24, 84, and 100. Fränkel recommended that Felix arrange the first two as a cantata, and employ the translation of Moses Mendelssohn (1782). Fränkel restricted the instrumental accompaniment to an organ, but noted that the choir could be expanded from its normal complement of sixteen boys to forty, to include “ladies and gentlemen of Jewish and Christian faiths.” 21 At this point, Felix evidently began to envision a more ambitious composition, and on 12 January posed the possibility of an expanded setting with orchestral accompaniment; in addition, Felix inquired if the Lutheran version of the Psalms would be acceptable. 22 On 21 January, Fränkel agreed to the stipulation of an orchestra, and added, “we also have nothing against the use of the Lutheran Psalm translations, as long as the severities and errors [Härten und Unrichtigkeiten ] of the same are avoided.” By 1 February, Felix was apparently willing to commit himself to Psalm 24; near the end of March, Fränkel was still hopeful Felix would also complete Psalms 84 and 100. But on 8 April, Felix wrote he would be unable to take on the additional psalms; 23 on 12 April, Fränkel regretted this decision, but reaffirmed his intention to provide a worthy performance of the new setting of Psalm 24, which he expected to receive no later than mid-May. Here, regrettably, the surviving correspondence ends.

To date, no score of Psalm 24 has come to light, so it is not yet possible to verify whether Mendelssohn ever completed the composition. Compounding the mystery is the survival of one other source – an a cappella setting of Psalm 100 finished by Mendelssohn on 1 January 1844, and published posthumously in 1855 in the eighth volume of Musica sacra , a compendium of sacred music for the Berlin Cathedral. The autograph, unavailable to Eric Werner but preserved today in Kraków, Poland, shows no link to the Neues Tempel; there is, for example, no evidence that Mendelssohn revised or modified the text, which transmits the Lutheran version (Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt! ). Then, too, Fränkel’s letters establish that Felix declined the invitation to set Psalm 100 for the Temple; as we know, in April 1844 Fränkel was awaiting the delivery of Psalm 24.

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