Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, FELIX, composer, was born at Hamburg on February 3, 1809. The family name was already remarkable by the fame of his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. Abraham, the second son of Moses Mendelssohn, had entered a banking business in Paris, but subsequently, on his marriage with Lea Salomon in 1804, settled in Hamburg. The French occupation in 1811 forced him to escape with his family to Berlin, where he founded the eminent firm of bankers known by his name. He resolved about this time to bring up his children as Protestant Christians, and added the name of Bartholdy to that of Mendelssohn in order to distinguish his own from the Jewish branch of the family.
The education he bestowed on Felix appears to have been as liberal as it was systematic. In his eighth year we find the child studying composition under Zelter and the pianoforte under Ludwig Berger, besides receiving lessons in drawing and the violin. Two years later he made his first public appearance, playing the pianoforte part in a trio at a concert in Berlin. With 1820 began that period of prolific production which lasted almost till his death. At the same time he entered upon a ceaseless round of gaiety and activity which largely determined his character. The home-life of the Mendelssohn family was eminently suited to the musical tendencies of the boy. A concert was given at the house on alternate Sunday mornings, when some of Felix's compositions generally found a place in the programme. Within the next few years he formed the acquaintance of such men as Goethe, Weber, and Moscheles, and had composed his Symphony in C minor and the B minor Quartet. A short visit to Paris with his father in March 1825 did not impress him favourably with the French musicians.
The following August saw the completion of his opera, Camacho's Wedding, which was destined to be the beginning of his unpleasant relations with the Berliners; and his well-known Octet for strings was finished in October. With the composition of the Midsommer Night's Dream overture, in August 1826, Mendelssohn may be said to have attained his musical majority, and his lessons with Zelter ceased. On April 29, 1827, the opera Camacho's Wedding was produced in Berlin. Though received with vehement applause it never reached a second performance, owing, among other reasons, to the illness of one of the principal singers, and the personal criticisms on the work in the press. Soon after this Mendelssohn commenced the formation of a small choir of sixteen voices, which met at his house for the purpose of studying Bach's Passion Music; and, in spite of the difficulties of the work and the determined opposition of Zelter, the scheme culminated in the famous performance by the Singakademie on March 11, 1829, the first since Bach's death. For some reason, however, his success did not improve his relations with Berlin musicians. Accordingly, being now twenty years old, he resolved to leave home and to visit the different countries of Europe. England, afterwards the land of his most pleasant associations, was his first destination. He arrived in London on April 21, 1829, and was warmly welcomed by the Philharmonic Society. He made his first appearance at one of their concerts, when he conducted his Symphony in C minor. A tour through Scotland in the summer inspired him with the Hebrides overture and the Scotch Symphony.
During the next year he visited Munich and Vienna. By October he had reached Venice, and the following winter he spent in Rome. Returning to Munich he proceeded thence to Paris, paying his second visit to London in April 1832. He shortly afterwards returned to Berlin, having been absent three years. In the spring of 1833 he was invited to conduct the Lower Rhine festival at Düsseldorf, where his success led to his being offered the entire direction of the music for three years. He at once accepted the post and commenced his new duties in September. His work at the theatre, however, proved uncongenial, and was accordingly relinquished. His stay at Düsseldorf was full of responsibilities and worries, and he ultimately left the town in October 1835 to conduct the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig. A subsequent visit to Frankfurt brought him in contact with Rossini, and was also the occasion of his first meeting with Cecile Jeanrenaud, who afterwards became his wife. The marriage took place in 1837, and was followed by a visit to Birmingham, where he conducted his St Paul, which had been first heard at Düsseldorf the previous year. His attention was now chiefly devoted to Leipzig, but September 1840 found him again at Birmingham conducting the Lobgesang. About this time Mendelssohn was requisitioned by the king of Prussia to go to Berlin to assist in the foundation of an Academy of Arts; and, though loth to leave a place where he was so much appreciated and beloved as in Leipzig, he removed to Berlin in May 1841, on the understanding that his stay there should not exceed one year. The king's idea of reviving the ancient Greek tragedies led to the composition by Mendelssohn of the music to the Antigone and Edipus.
In 1843 he had the satisfaction of seeing his favourite scheme carried into effect by the opening of the new music-school at Leipzig, with Schumann and David among his associates. He was in London the following year to conduct the last five concerts of the Philharmonic season; and in 1846 he paid his ninth visit to England for the production of Elijah, which took place at Birmingham on August 26. But his hard work was now beginning to tell on him, for, although his Berlin duties and his position as chief of the Leipzig Conservatorium entailed constant labour and anxiety, he persisted in carrying out all his engagements. He had scarcely returned from his tenth and last visit to England, in May 1847, when the news of his sister Fanny's death reached him. Periods of illness and depression rapidly followed; and on November 4, 1847, he expired at his house in Leipzig. The body was conveyed to Berlin, and was interred in the family burial-place in the Old Trinity Churchyard.
In stature Mendelssohn was short, and his handsome countenance was of a decidedly Jewish cast. He was eminent both as pianist and organist, especially in his rendering of the works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. He moreover possessed a remarkable facility of improvisation. His gifts also included a talent for landscape-drawing; and he has left behind him a whole series of sketches illustrating his different journeys. His music dwells almost exclusively on the sunny and gay side of life. Rarely, if ever, does he touch the innermost depths of passion and feeling. But he was, like Handel, one of the few composers who appealed to English audiences; for forty years his Elijah has been almost as popular as the Messiah itself.
See two collections of Mendelssohn's Letters (1861 and 1863; trans. by Lady Wallace, 1862-63), those to the Moscheles (1888), and the selection edited by W. F. Alexander and Sir George Grove (1894); the Lives by Benedict (1850), Moscheles (1873; trans. by Coleridge), Lampadius (1886), and Reissmann (3d ed. 1892); Reminiscences by Devrient (1869; trans. by Mrs Macfarren), Hiller (1874); and Hensel, Die Familie Mendelssohn (1879; trans. 1882).