Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Erde, Hölle und Himmel ("Christus") MWV A 26 - Oratorium (Fragment)
Leipziger Ausgabe der Werke von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Serie VI (Geistliche Vokalwerke), Bd. 12
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Erde, Hölle und Himmel ("Christus") MWV A 26 - Oratorium (Fragment)
Leipziger Ausgabe der Werke von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Serie VI (Geistliche Vokalwerke), Bd. 12
- Instrumentation Choir
- Composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
- Editor Clemens Harasim
- Edition Sheet Music
- Publisher Breitkopf & Härtel KG
- Order no. EBSON461
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Description:
Mendelssohn probably began writing his third oratorio at the beginning of 1847 based on a libretto by Baron Christian Carl Josias von Bunsen entitled "Erde, Hölle und Himmel" (Earth, Hell and Heaven), which is almost certainly no longer extant today. However, his preoccupation with the subject, which manifested itself in verbal drafts, concrete plans and the active search for a suitable textual basis, can be traced back to 1839, more than seven years before the premiere of "Elijah", his second oratorio.
There are no written statements by Mendelssohn himself about the compositional process; however, reports from contemporaries prove that the composer worked on the oratorio until a few weeks before his death and that it remained a fragment; the known autograph score and some sketches are most likely all that the composer left behind in this regard; i.e, there is no evidence of any other musical material that ever existed for the work. The individual sketches, which are being prepared for the first time in this edition and published accordingly, can be assigned to the pieces worked out in the score with the exception of one (for a German Nunc dimittis). Composed, there are thus three movements for the first scene (thematizing the birth of Jesus) as well as the Passion scene with a choral and a chorale movement; all belonging to the first part ("Earth").
The title "Christus" for the fragment, established by the posthumous first printing of 1852, goes back solely to the designation of the brother Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy handed down by Ignaz Moscheles. As, on the one hand, the autograph is not titled, Mendelssohn made no other written comments regarding the title and, on the other hand, the content of the underlying libretto is unknown, one can only speculate as to whether the composer had already finally decided on a title - and if so, which one - and also whether his third oratorio should have formed a trilogy together with "Paulus" and "Elijah".
Binding: linen
There are no written statements by Mendelssohn himself about the compositional process; however, reports from contemporaries prove that the composer worked on the oratorio until a few weeks before his death and that it remained a fragment; the known autograph score and some sketches are most likely all that the composer left behind in this regard; i.e, there is no evidence of any other musical material that ever existed for the work. The individual sketches, which are being prepared for the first time in this edition and published accordingly, can be assigned to the pieces worked out in the score with the exception of one (for a German Nunc dimittis). Composed, there are thus three movements for the first scene (thematizing the birth of Jesus) as well as the Passion scene with a choral and a chorale movement; all belonging to the first part ("Earth").
The title "Christus" for the fragment, established by the posthumous first printing of 1852, goes back solely to the designation of the brother Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy handed down by Ignaz Moscheles. As, on the one hand, the autograph is not titled, Mendelssohn made no other written comments regarding the title and, on the other hand, the content of the underlying libretto is unknown, one can only speculate as to whether the composer had already finally decided on a title - and if so, which one - and also whether his third oratorio should have formed a trilogy together with "Paulus" and "Elijah".
Binding: linen