Mendelssohn and nineteenth-century England

This thesis is about the relationship of Felix Mendelssohn to the musical culture of nineteenth-century England. Mendelssohn's ten trips to England between 1829 and 1847 are described in detail, and his reception and impact there (both during and after his lifetime) are analyzed. The central arguments presented in this thesis cannot be reduced to a single statement. Rather, the focus of this study is a "constellation" of six related ideas. First, that the effects of Mendelssohn's impact on Victorian Britain's musical culture were extensive and far reaching, permeating almost all strata of society from the working classes to the aristocracy, and also having a profound effect on the music profession. Second, that Mendelssohn actively pursued an ameliorist agenda vis-a-vis British musical culture, seeking to bring musical standards, practices, and values in to line with those of Germany, and that his efforts in this regard were supported and encouraged by many British musicians. Third, that the enormous popularity of Mendelssohn's music in Britain during the composer's lifetime was, in part, the product of a personality cult, and that his sudden death at the age of thirty-eight re-enforced this phenomenon and helped to establish him as a canonic figure. Fourth, that during his lifetime, Mendelssohn was perceived in Britain as a "German" rather than a "Jewish" composer, even though this was not always the case in Germany. However, in the decades following his death, perceptions in Britain gradually shifted, so that, increasingly, he came to be viewed as Jewish. Fifth, that despite the attacks of some later nineteenth-century British critics, who portrayed Mendelssohn as a weak and obsolete cultural force, Mendelssohn's music remained popular within many segments of society through the late nineteenth century. And sixth, that the canonic aspirations of the composers associated with the so-called "English Musical Renaissance" of the late nineteenth century, such as Parry, Stanford, and Mackenzie were both enabled and inhibited by the Mendelssohnian values absorbed by Britain's musical culture. These values included learnedness, antiquarianism, cosmopolitanism, classical formalism, romantic pictorialism, and "gentlemanliness" (avoidance of emotional excess, and propriety in abiding by established conventions of good taste).

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