The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History

These essays present the findings of three generations of members of the international community of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel scholars, and constitute a compendium of cutting-edge research relating to these two important representatives of 19th-century musical culture.
This is a compendium of scholarship concerning the lives, works and receptions of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel. Representing the work of specialists from the USA, France, Great Britain and Italy, the essays are organized according to a number of issues that have become vital since the 1980s: sources and source problems - including the disposition of missing and lost works, issues of musical identity as they pertain to little-known concert arias and editorial issues presented by the organ preludes opus 37; studies of individual works - including Felix Mendelssohn's first composition, the "Scottish" and "Reformation" symphonies and "Die erste Walpurgisnacht"; problematic repertoires - Felix's occasional works, song cycles and opera plans; the relationships between Felix and Fanny; and issues of reception history - including Felix's influences as composer of organ music and string quartets and gender and race in biographical studies of Felix.