Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement

Siegwart Reichwald

doi:10.1017/9781009119610

Series: Elements in Music and Musicians 1750–1850

Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2023

Siegwart Reichwald

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Siegwart Reichwald: Affiliation:
Westmont College, California

Summary

Drawing on his experiences in Berlin under Schleiermacher and his travels to the Vatican, Mendelssohn, as the Director of Prussian Church Music, wanted to offer an edifying worship experience where large-scale choral works would become an indispensable part of the liturgy, which he saw as a performative or representational act, centered around the life of Christ. Yet he quickly realized that the court and clergy were not interested in his foundational concepts; they merely wanted reforms based on the restauration ideals espoused by Winterfeld and Thibaut. Analyses of his 25 Domchor compositions and their revisions in this Element chronicle Mendelssohn's stylistic development and his ability to continue to offer a Christological worship experience within strictly prescribed parameters. The Berlin Domchor and its new repertoire by Mendelssohn and contemporaneous composers quickly became the model for the emerging a cappella movement throughout Protestant Germany.

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Felix Mendelssohn Berlin Cathedral Choir Prussian liturgy Protestant church music nineteenth-century a cappella movement

Type: Element
Information: Series: Elements in Music and Musicians 1750–1850

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009119610 [Opens in a new window]

Online ISBN: 9781009119610

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication: 09 November 2023

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Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement

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