Romantic Era: Important Composers, Theorists, and Performers: Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847, German)

Felix Mendelssohn

Listen to the example below:

Mendelssohn was encouraged by his family to focus on music studies in order to make it his career. He showed incredible talent at a very young age. By 17, he began composing music based on Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." He inadvertently created a new form of composition called incidental music, which is basically background music, adding atmosphere to the action. He also incorporated the feelings of nature in his compositions as well as the national folk music of various countries into his symphonies that represented those nations.