The spiritual concept “Hope in God!” in the psalms by F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Section 1. Western European music of the 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

Statement of the problem.
The spiritual music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi remains insufficiently covered in domestic scientific research. To a greater extent, the interest of musicologists is observed in his secular work – large symphonic or chamber-instrumental compositions (the overture “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Songs Without Words” for piano etc.). However, the musical embodiment of religious texts by F. Mendelssohn testifies to how deeply they were heard by the author. Since the composer was a religious person, spiritual choral music occupies a significant place in his legacy. In addition to psalms, it is represented by oratorios, cantatas, motets, hymns. Nevertheless, compared to oratorios, other genres (psalms, motets, cantatas, hymns) have not been studied enough in scientific works. In fact, spiritual concepts in the sacred music of F. Mendelssohn also remain unexplained. However, it is precisely the considering certain leading ideas that can combine different works that is the key to a deeper understanding of the composer’s spiritual music.
Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research.
The purpose of this article is to consider the specifics of implementation of the spiritual concept “Have hope in God!” in the psalms by F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdi. The term “concept” is used in a meaning close to its original understanding by the “father of conceptology” P. Abelard – as higher than even the “category” the result of the vivid activity of the exalted spirit. The specificity of the chosen topic required the application of an interdisciplinary approach to the subject of research and methods of spiritual-semantic, comparative, genre-stylistic analysing the musical material. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time in the musicological thought, the concept of hope in God was revealed in F. Mendelssohn’s psalms and the ways of its embodiment in various examples of this genre in the composer’s work were explored.
Research results and conclusion.
During his lifetime, the composer wrote nine psalms, which we propose to divide into two groups based on their structure and composition: 1) large-scale psalms for choir, soloists, and orchestra; 2) more chamber ones, for a cappella performance. As a result of the study of these works at different levels (verbal, tonal and harmonic, intonation-thematic, timbre) it was found that the studied spiritual concept is actualized through a verbal text that is identical (“Harre auf Gott!” – “Have hope in God!”) or similar (common ideological content of the text – the hope in God), through musical intonations (use of separate melodic and rhythmic constructions of leit-theme “Harre auf Gott!”), certain common tonal principles (major key), performance staff (choral rendition). Degree of conformity may be varied. The highest degree of similarity is observed between two parts of the psalm № 42. № 4 and № 7 are characterized by equal text, thematic material, key, and scale (F-major). Connection between the psalm № 42 (№ 4 and № 7) and psalm № 43 (Final) is almost the same, but the scales are different (F-major and D-major). There are more distant parallels between the psalm № 42 and psalms №№ 2, 22, 115.
The conclusion states that the spiritual concept of hope in God combines not only different numbers within one psalm and psalms within one cycle, but also works that belong to different groups of psalms and periods of the composer’s work.