The Life of Mendelssohn (Musical Lives)

Musical Lives

by Peter Mercer-Taylor

This biography of composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn traces his development from musical child prodigy to a conductor whose influence as an advocate of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven is still felt to this day. A great deal of attention is paid to Mendelssohn's early nineteenth-century cultural surroundings and the book includes interpretation and discussion of major works, without use of musical examples or technical language, placing them within the context of his personal and public life. This is the first new biography of Mendelssohn to appear in some seventeen years.

Genres: Music, Biography

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2000

Reviews

[Chris]

Concise and insightful.

[Carol]

This is one of the books in the Cambridge UP series of composer biographies. They are more in-depth than the Phaidon books, and aimed more towards serious musicians. Thus, despite being brief they are pretty dense with information.
I enjoyed this biography a lot. Mendelssohn has never been one of my favorite composers - I like his music well enough but I wouldn't buy a concert ticket or a recording just to hear one of his works. However, he turns out to have been a very interesting musician who not only wrote some good pieces but also played a pivotal role during the 19th century in shaping ensembles and repertoire into their modern forms. He was a key figure in bringing Bach's and Handel's larger works back into the repertoire (or canon, if you prefer), as well as reintroducing a lot of earlier choral music. Mendelssohn also helped shape a couple of Germany's major orchestras. Mendelssohn was very well-educated and had clear, ambitious ideas and goals for musical life in Germany. He did a lot for music and enjoyed well-earned international respect and acclaim during his life.
Mercer-Taylor's writing was very good. He remained engaging while covering a lot of information, producing intelligent prose that was never dry. He had a good sense of narrative and pacing.

[Linda]

The book is generally well-written with unfortunate factual errors. If you're reading this for historical details, be sure to consult the reviews in Journal of Musicological Review, Music & Letters, and Notes to get the facts straight. For a casual reader hoping to get a broader view of Mendelssohn and his works within their cultural context, free from most of the tropes that plague Mendelssohn's reception (like superficiality and the idea that his life was untroubled), this is a good place to start.

I'm most impressed with the opening of the fifth chapter. Mercer-Taylor shifts perspective away from Mendelssohn for a few pages in a very effective way. It's unexpected and refreshing in a biography. (And, as a musicologist, I'm inspired to find opportunities to try something similar in my own writing!)