The Christian church may not be the musical trendsetter that it has been in past centuries, but the church’s “cloud of witnesses” includes several of the greatest musicians who have ever lived. Today it’s appropriate to remember one of them in particular: Felix Mendelssohn, who was born 200 years ago.

Mendelssohn was a prolific composer; chances are you’d recognize several of his works today, even if you didn’t know Mendelssohn was the composer. He was an interesting character whose reputation was heavily attacked by anti-Semite critics. Here are a few places to read up on Mendelssohn and his contributions to the field of music:

• An overview of his life at Songs and Hymns, along with an MP3 of the famous hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.”
• The NPR website has a number of excellent features on Mendelssohn and his music.
• The Mendelssohn Project aims to restore Mendelssohn’s reputation and bring many of his lost works back into the public spotlight.
• The Christian History Institute relates Mendelssohn’s efforts to revive the music of Bach, another famous Christian composer.
• And lastly, an essay about the Mendelssohn family’s Jewish heritage, and the anti-Semitic efforts to erase Mendelssohn’s music from the public square during the Nazi era in Germany.

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Art, Church History, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.