Line #5 Music/FelixMendelssohn


1	[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Felix-MendelssohnBartholdi_7179.jpg]]
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3	Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was an early German Romantic composer.
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5	He wrote [[LohengrinAndMendelssohn one of the two most famous pieces of wedding music ever]], originally as incidental music for a production of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''. Other well-known works include the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "War March of the Priests," the concert overture ''Music/TheHebrides'' (also known as ''Fingal's Cave''), "Spring Song," and the Violin Concerto in E minor.
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7	Outside of being a famous Romantic Era composer, Mendelssohn is also credited with [[ColbertBump kickstarting]] the [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach Revival]], leading to the modern-day veneration and renown of J.S. Bach as a composer and music theorist.
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9	Like several early Romantic Period composers (Music/FranzSchubert, Music/FryderykChopin, Music/RobertSchumann, Music/VincenzoBellini, Music/CarlMariaVonWeber), he died young, at age 38 after a series of strokes.
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11	!!Tropes present in Mendelssohn's life and works:
12	* BrotherSisterTeam: Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. Society being what it was, the female half of the team was not allowed to pursue her career to the full extent.
13	* {{Cantata}}: His [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festgesang "Festgesang"]] cantata. It's also called the Gutenberg cantata because it celebrates Gutenberg's genius at inventing printing with movable type. He thought [[ItWillNeverCatchOn it'd never catch on]], but it did (become a respected classic music piece). It even gets used in [[EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas religious carols for Christmas]]!
14	* ChildProdigy: Gave his first public concert at ''nine years old.'' Some of his finest compositions, such as the Octet in E-flat major, the "Overture" to ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', his first two string quartets, and a pair of concertos for two pianos and orchestra (not to mention 12 string symphonies) were written when Mendelssohn was 18 years old or younger.
15	* CoolBigSis: His older sister Fanny, a talented composer in her own right who was nonetheless discouraged from publishing her works due to her gender. She would often help critique his pieces while he, in turn, published a few of her works under his own name (which led to an incident where he had to admit to UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria that one of her favorite pieces of music was written by Fanny, not himself). The two were close, and after her death Felix would dedicate his last major work, the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, to her memory.
16	* DramaticTimpani: In the "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" overture, the fast section ends with an Anti-Climax in which the orchestra drops out temporarily, but the timpani keeps going strong and sets the beat for the twice-as-slow coda.
17	* EarWorm: Mendelssohn did this ''to himself''.
18	--> "I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace." -- Mendelssohn to his childhood friend, violinist Ferdinand David.
19	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: The first movement of his Violin Concerto flows directly into the second by a sustained bassoon note.
20	* {{Fanfare}}: "Wedding March" opens with a fanfare that is repeated at intervals, though the main body of the piece relies rather more heavily on strings than the other examples of this trope.
21	* LohengrinAndMendelssohn: Half-TropeNamer. His "Wedding March" from ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' has long been a wedding recessional staple.
22	* OlderIsBetter: Although a member of the Romantic tradition in music, Mendelssohn was rather conservative in his tastes and compositional style. This led him to champion older composers; he led a revival of the music of Music/GeorgeFredericHandel in Germany, and put on the first production of Bach's ''St. Matthew Passion'' in decades, leading to new appreciation of the Leipzig master.[[note]]Actually, Mendelssohn's performance of the ''St. Matthew Passion'' was really the culmination of a steadily growing interest in Bach's music which had begun some years earlier. The performances had the effect of demonstrating to a wide audience, in the most dramatic way, that the composer who'd they'd only heard was great, really was great.[[/note]] He also conducted the first performance of Music/FranzSchubert's 9th Symphony, a decade after Schubert's death.
23	* PreachersKid: Mendelssohn's wife, UsefulNotes/CecileJeanrenaud, was a clergyman's daughter.
24	* RealMenLoveJesus: Mendelssohn was baptised into the Christian faith, but he embraced it as he got older. He attended worship services of different churches, but his love for the music of Bach anchored him to Lutheranism. He also composed a number of sacred works, like two oratorios based on the lives of St. Paul and the prophet Elijah; the ''Lobgesang'' (or Symphony No. 2), a choral symphony that uses portions of the Bible as its text; and Symphony No. 5, also called the ''Reformation'', which he composed in honour of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. He remained a committed Lutheran throughout his life, though he was also proud of his Jewish heritage.
25	* SiameseTwinSongs: One of the most striking examples in which it is not the last two movements but the first two movements which lead straight into each other is found in his Violin Concerto. The coda of the first movement builds and builds in energy until finally the full orchestra finishes on a grim E minor chord. However, the first bassoon holds its note after the rest of the orchestra falls silent, leading directly into the slow movement.
26	* SiblingTeam: As noted above, him and Fanny were one.
27	* TorchesAndPitchforks: Mendelssohn (setting a poem by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe) uses the heroic variant of the trope in ''Die erste Walpurgisnacht,'' in which a community of pagans uses the trope-naming implements, in conjunction with truly epic choral music, to impersonate demons, thus frightening off their Christian oppressors, so they can worship in peace.
28	* TravelogueShow: Or travelogue piece in this case. Mendelssohn wrote several such works, including his Symphony No. 3 in A minor ("Scottish"), Symphony No. 4 in A major ("Italian"), and the concert overture ''Music/TheHebrides''. The composer traveled extensively throughout Europe, and these pieces were inspired by his sojourns.
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30	!!Notable Works which cite Mendelssohn or his works:
31	* He is played by Otto Diamant in ''Film/{{Lisztomania}}'' and by André Heller in the West German film ''Frühlingssinfonie'' (''Spring Symphony'').
32	* "Athalia" (also called "War March of the Priests") is played on an Art Deco organ by the title character in the opening of ''Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes''.
33	* A snippet of the Violin Concerto is used to conclude ''Film/LesVisiteurs'' and its first sequel.
34	* As mentioned, the wedding music from ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' is so widely used that it gets [[LohengrinAndMendelssohn its own trope]].

Context Music / FelixMendelssohn