86 . MF , I, 102. Upon his marriage to Lea, Abraham was granted citizenship. Jacobson: 1962, 54.
87 . See Klein: 1995b, 91–98. The brother of the banker Simon Veit, former husband of Brendel Mendelssohn (Dorothea Schlegel), Philipp Joseph Veit is not to be confused with Dorothea’s son, the painter Philipp Veit, born in 1793.
88 . MF , I, 43.
89 . See her letter of March 2, 1818, in Gilbert: 1975, 38.
90 . See Lowenthal-Hensel: 1982, 141–46; and Rabien: 1990, 153–70.
91 . See Rabien: 1990b, 295–328; and Sammons, 282–83.
92 . Zelter to Goethe, November 16, 1831; Hecker, III, 513.
93 . Constant was a member of the Tribunat from 1799 until his dismissal in 1802. The following year he accompanied Madame de Staël to Germany and in 1806 began work on the novel Adolphe , partly based on their relationship. After authoring an anti-Napoleonic tract in 1814, he sought political asylum in the American embassy in Paris; during the Restoration he was elected to the Chambre des députés .
94 . MF , I, 46.
95 . Sebastiani (1772–1851) participated in Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1796–1797 and in the coup d’état of 1799 that ended the Directory. In 1802 he was the ambassador to Constantinople, which he defended against the English; in 1803, he was dispatched on a mission to Syria and Egypt. He later served in the July Monarchy of 1830 and became a field marshal during the reign of Louis-Philippe.
96 . MF , I, 46.
97 . Ibid., 57.
98 . Ibid., 55.
99 . Several of her letters are printed in Gilbert: 1975; and in Lambour: 1986, 49–76.
100 . Cited in Hertz: 1988, 172. Hertz asserts (106) that Brendel was allowed to “join the morning lessons [Moses] offered at the Mendelssohn home to a select group of young students, a group which included her younger brothers Joseph and Abraham and the two von Humboldt brothers.” But on this point, see Gilbert: 1975, xvii, fn. 4, who argues only for Alexander von Humboldt’s inclusion in the group.
101 . MF , I, 36.
102 . Ibid., I, 37.
103 . See Stern, 50–77.
104 . Körner, 18.
105 . Dilthey, 492.
106 . Behler, 289–90.
107 . MF , I, 40–41.
108 . Published in Eichner, 314–368. An English trans. is available in Schlegel: 1990.
109 . See Gilbert: 1975, xxii.
110 . Cited in Stern, 187.
111 . Ibid., 188.
112 . Upon converting Jonas became Johann Veit. In 1819, learning that Simon Veit was seriously ill, Dorothea asked for his forgiveness: “I know all too well, that my rigidity, my obstinacy, my vehemence, passion, impetuous restlessness, discontent and fantasizing, and a certainly reproachable striving for the unknown and strange engulfed me, and I alone am responsible for our separation, and for everything for which God wishes to pardon me, as you have pardoned me!” August 28, 1819, in Gilbert: 1975, 44.
113 . So called because they wore their hair to resemble Christ.
114 . Gilbert, 1975: xxv, fn. 32; and her letters of May 1, 1822, January 1829, and November 25, 1832, to Henriette and Joseph Mendelssohn, in ibid., 49–50, 74–75, and 87–89.
115 . See especially Suhr, 107–19.
Chapter 1
1 . Sammons, 24.
2 . T. Devrient, 329.
3 . Nowack, 247.
4 . Leipziger AmZ 4 (1869), 207. For an illustration of the residence, see Kleßmann, 96.
5 . MF , I, 72–73. Undated letter (ca. early 1805?) from Lea to her sister Rebecka Seeligmann (1776–1810).
6 . Whaley, 88–110.
7 . Nowack, 248. Fromet was in Hamburg by April 1806; see her letter of April 4, 1806, in Gilbert: 1975, 4.
8 . See Hoffmann: 1962, 53ff.
9 . In private possession; quoted in Elvers: 1997, 17.
10 . Elvers and Klein, 131–36.
11 . Ibid., 136; in 1983 the sum was estimated the equivalent of 100,000 marks.
12 . Benedict: 1850, 6.
13 . See Elvers: 1997, 17.
14 . Letter of May [2], 1809. Lea’s letters to Henriette are in private possession; transcribed extracts are in MDM c. 29, fols. 45–62.
15 . October 23, 1821; Hecker, II, 139. When the Goethe-Zelter Briefwechsel appeared in 1834, the passage was doctored to read: “The father with great sacrifice allowed his sons to learn something and raised them as is proper.” The original text was restored by Hecker in 1913. See Elvers: 1997, 18, and p. 292.
16 . Leon Botstein has questioned whether Zelter was “being metaphoric (as with, for example, today’s use of ‘kosher’) or literal.” See Botstein: 1991, 39–40 (n. 37).
17 . Sposato: 2000, 20–21.
18 . Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst 7 (1822); facs. in Klein: 1997, 65.
19 . MF , I, 34.
20 . Ibid., I, 58–59.
21 . Elvers, “Schenkungen und Stiftungen der Mendelssohns,” in Elvers and Klein, 97–98. The Bach materials had belonged to the Nachlass of C. P. E. Bach’s daughter Anna Carolina Philippina.
22 . The text is given in Klein: 1995b, 98.
23 . Ibid., 99–100.
24 . Kliem, 123–40; and Lowenthal-Hensel: 1990, 141.
25 . Alexander: 1979, 10.
26 . Klein, “Joseph Mendelssohn,” in Elvers and Klein, 21.
27 . Hensel incorrectly gives the year of Paul’s birth as 1813 (MF , I, 74), instead of 1812, confirmed by the baptismal record of the Jerusalemskirche. See Klein: 1997, 20.
28 . Treue, 33, fn. 1a.
29 . Klein: 1990, 112.
30 . Promoted for his knowledge of French to police chief by Marshal Davout, Friedrich Wagner succumbed to typhoid following the battle.
31 . Schroeder: 1979.
32 . MF , I, 74.
33 . Elvers: 1997, 21–22. See also “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy,” in MT 38 (1897), 731; J. Werner: 1947, 304; and Ward Jones: 1997b, 6. Elvers dates the portraits from 1813; the other scholars maintain they were taken in Paris in 1816.
34 . Letter of April 29, 1814, quoted in Walter Kaufmann, ed., Hegel: A Reinterpretation , N.Y., 1966, 341.
35 . William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair , Ch. 28.
36 . According to the agreement for 1817–1818, M. A. Rothschild & Söhne received 14/32, or nearly half, of the business; the Mendelssohns’ share was 5/32. Elvers and Klein, 160.
37 . Klein: 1990, 119.
38 . The witnesses were Carl Ludwig Ferdinand Heinsius (Justiz-Commisarius ) and Carl Philipp Stägemann (Regierungs-Conducteur ). See Elvers: 1997, 18; Kliem, 136; and Sievers.
39 . Letter of December 1, 1823, Wilhelm Hensel to his sister Luise, in Gilbert: 1975, 58.
40 . Benedict: 1850, 6.
41 . The documents, three “monthly reports” and a certificate, are preserved in MDM c. 29, fols. 98–102.
42 . July 20, 1818, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (extract); MDM c. 29, fol. 45.
43 . Stenzel, 79. I am indebted to Dr. Hans-Günter Klein for bringing this source to my attention. Concerning Stenzel’s later career, see Lenz, I, 609.
44 . Heyse, 11.
45 . Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein; MDM c. 29, fol. 45 (extract).
46 . Sheehan, 269.
47 . See also Eduard Dürre, Aufzeichnungen, Tagebücher und Briefe aus einem deutschen Turnerund Lehrleben , Leipzig, 1881, 746, cited in Elvers: 1997, 20–21.
48 . April 4, 1816, Zelter to Goethe; Hecker, I, 465. For the date of Abraham’s visit, see Steiger and Reimann, VI, 349.
49 . April 14, 1816, Goethe to Zelter, in Hecker, I, 468.
50 . May 18, 1816, Amalie Beer to her son, Giacomo Meyerbeer. Meyerbeer, I, 313.
51 . Henriette Mendelssohn to Lea, November 10, 1816, Gilbert: 1975, 33. On November 9, the Mendelssohns were in Weimar, where Abraham again visited Goethe. See Steiger and Reimann, VI, 430; and Kippenberg, 81.
52 . AmZ 39 (1837), 846.
53 . J. F. Reichardt, Vertraute Briefe, geschrieben auf ei
ner Reise nach Wien , ed. G. Gugitz, Munich, 1915, 14th Letter (December 16, 1808).
54 . Forbes, 414.
55 . Johnson, 204; Fauquet.
56 . November 10, 1816, in Gilbert: 1975, 35.
57 . Stern, 305.
58 . AmZ 39 (1837), 845.
59 . Gustav Schilling, Encyclopädie der gesamten musikalischen Wissenschaften oder Universal Lexicon der Tonkunst , Stuttgart, 1837, IV, 654.
60 . SBB, MA Ms. 142; see Klein: 1993, 143–44.
61 . Elvers and Klein, 145.
62 . Elvers: 1997, 20.
63 . MF , I, 76.
64 . March 2, 1818, Rebecka Meyer to Rosa Herz, in Gilbert: 1975, 39.
65 . MF , I, 88–89. According to Hensel, Fanny was thirteen when she accomplished the feat, thus placing the performance between November 14 and the end of 1818, possibly on December 11, Abraham’s birthday.
66 . Gilhofer & Rauschberg (October 29–30, 1906).
67 . AmZ 20 (1818) 791; see also Elvers: 1963. The Salzburg pianist Wölfl had been Beethoven’s chief Viennese rival during the 1790s.
68 . AmZ 39 (1837), 845–46; Concert militaire in B ♭ major, Op. 40 (1798). No review appears in the AmZ of 1818 or 1819, from which we might surmise the concert was a private event, in contrast to Felix’s public appearance with the Gugels.
69 . Dorn, “Recollections,” 398, and Ludwig Rellstab, obituary for Fanny Hensel in the Berlin Vossische Zeitung , May 18, 1847.
70 . Letter of April 21, 1822, Berger to Jenny Sieber, in Siebenkäs, 233.
71 . Plantinga: 1977, 210.
72 . Gesänge aus einem gesellschaftlichen Liederspiele “Die schöne Müllerin,” Op. 11, Berlin, 1819.
73 . Among the more than one hundred documented guests of the salon were the writers E. T. A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, and Achim von Arnim (Wilhelmy, 851–60).
74 . Youens, 13.
75 . Letter of May 6, 1821, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (MDM c. 29, extract).
76 . Posthumous Memoirs of Karoline Bauer , London, 1884, I, 220.
77 . Schottländer: 1930, 131–33.
78 . Son of the composer Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758), a contemporary of J. S. Bach.
79 . The fourth son of Veitel Ephraim, Benjamin Veitel (1742–1811) as a youth knew Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn. In 1790 Frederick William II sent Veitel to Paris to explore an alliance; later he fell under suspicion of espionage and was arrested by French authorities in 1806.
80 . Schottländer: 1930, 155–56.
81 . K. F. Zelter, Karl Friedrich Christian Fasch , Berlin, 1801.
82 . Ibid., 17.
83 . Ibid., 60.
84 . Active in Rome, Benevoli (1605–1672) left several examples of the monumental baroque polychoral style. One of the most imposing seventeenth-century examples, the Missa Salisburgensis in fifty-three parts, was formerly attributed to Benevoli but now is thought to have been the creation of H. I. F. von Biber.
85 . C. F. C. Fasch, Sämmtliche Werke , 7 vols., Berlin, 1839, issued by the Berlin Singakademie; as early as 1802, Zelter intended to send an exemplar of the Mass to Joseph Haydn. See Elvers: 1968.
86 . MDM b. 5, fols. 155–61; I am grateful to Peter Ward Jones for alerting me to this source.
87 . Among his other polychoral sacred works are Psalm 114, Op. 51, the Doppel-Quartet “Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir” from Elijah , Drei Psalmen , Op. 78, Sechs Sprüche , Op. 79, and Psalm 98, Op. 91.
88 . Schünemann: 1928, 138–71.
89 . Zelter, 29–32.
90 . AmZ 2 (1799), 587.
91 . Zwölf Lieder am Klavier zu singen ; for a facs., see C. F. Zelter, Lieder , ed. Reinhold Kubik and Andreas Meier, Munich, 1995, 3–15.
92 . Goethe to Zelter, August 26, 1799, Hecker, I, 4.
93 . Zelter to Goethe, September 21, 1799, Hecker, I, 9.
94 . Schottländer: 1930, 199.
95 . Goethe to Zelter, May 11, 1820, Hecker, II, 59.
96 . November 12, 1808, Zelter to Goethe, Hecker, I, 224–25.
97 . Schünemann: 1941, 28.
98 . May 1, 1819, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (copy in MDM c. 29).
99 . Applegate, 293.
100 . For a study and edition of Felix’s early composition studies with Zelter, see Todd: 1983. Fanny’s exercises have been examined in Schröder. Two other Zelter students, Emil Fischer and G. W. Teschner, are treated in Ruhnke and Seaton: 1981.
101 . Marx: 1865, I, 109–10.
102 . E. Devrient, Erinnerungen , 36.
103 . Letter of April 21, 1822, Berger to Jenny Sieber, in Siebenkäs, 233.
104 . E. Devrient, Erinnerungen , 36.
105 . March 10, 1835, Abraham to Felix; P. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Briefe , 1865, 85.
106 . July 20, 1829, Felix to Zelter (Berlin, MA Ep. 8); quoted in Großmann-Vendrey: 1969, 381.
107 . Letter of May 1, 1819, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (copy in MDM c. 29).
108 . Klein: 1993, 144.
109 . Letter of July 14 [recte 19], 1819, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein; quoted in Filosa, 23.
110 . Zelter to Goethe, July 20, 1819; Hecker, II, 25.
111 . Forbes, 186, 738–39.
112 . Ibid., 832–33.
113 . Zelter to Goethe, May 13, 1820; Hecker, II, 62.
114 . Fanny to Zelter, August 18, 1819; cited in Klein: 1997, 69.
115 . MDM c. 43 (see Todd: 1983).
116 . May 1, 1819, Lea to Henriette von Pereira Arnstein (MDM c. 29, extract).
117 . Ledebur, 233–34.
118 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 7.
119 . In Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmonie , Berlin, 1773; rep. Hildesheim, 1970, 53–103.
120 . In the Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst , Mainz, 1817–1821.
121 . Kirnberger, Die Kunst , II/1, 55–56.
122 . May 25, 1826, Zelter to Goethe, in Hecker, II, 424.
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