Being honored with the Echo Classic (2009) and Professor of the Year (2017) awards, Martin Schmeding is one of the most sought-after international concert organists and organ teachers. Born in 1975, he studied in Hanover, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf, and among his teachers are Ulrich Bremsteller, Lajos Rovatkay, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jacques van Oortmerssen, and Jean Boyer. During his studies, he was a prizewinner in many international competitions.
Between 1999 and 2004 Martin Schmeding filled two important posts for church musicians in Germany. In 1999 he was appointed music director at the Neander Church in Düsseldorf. As titular organist at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, a place with a more than 700-year-old tradition of church music, he worked from 2002 until 2004.
After faculty positions in Hannover, Leipzig, Weimar, and Dresden, he taught as organ professor at the University of Music in Freiburg from 2004 until 2015. Since autumn 2015 he has served as professor at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig, alongside the directorship of the European Organ Academy. In addition, he is professor of organ at the Royal College of Music in London.
Martin Schmeding has made numerous radio and CD recordings. In 2009, 2017, and 2020 he was awarded the Prize of the German Record Critics. He has written for many publications and has given concerts as a soloist, chamber musician, and with orchestras all over the world, including important festivals.
Martin Schmeding is also active as a competition jury member, guest-lecturer at masterclasses, and he publishes articles and music editions. In 2021 he finished his PhD degree summa cum laude at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden.
Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the June 2025 issue, pages 12–17.
The organ occupies an important position in the life and work of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Having received instruction on the instrument during his youth, he continued to compose for it throughout his life, although he only published two major cycles, Three Preludes and Fugues, opus 37, and Six Sonatas, opus 65.
He also performed regularly in concert, undertook editorial work on the organ compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, and advocated for the construction of new, high-quality organs. The use of the organ in oratorios was so important to him that, for example, he borrowed stops from the nearby Cologne Cathedral organ for the performance of Handel works at the Rhenish Music Festival in Cologne in order to use them for a small accompanying instrument. Mendelssohn’s organ sonatas were initially intended as occasional compositions and commissioned works, but in the course of their creation they developed into both the basis of contemporary organ technique and the reinvention of the organ sonata genre.
The first part of this article explored Mendelssohn’s perspective on the organ and the genesis of the sonata cycle in more detail. On this basis, his approaches to an independent genre were examined and described in more detail using initial examples from the sonatas. At this point, the second part continues the detailed analysis of the sonatas and their approaches to the creation of a “poetically new form.”
The “chorale” sonata: Number VI
In Mendelssohn’s youth, when preparing for his Protestant confirmation at the Berlin parochial church, he was given thorough lessons by Friedrich Philipp Wilmsen, an enlightened, liberal theologian whose teaching allowed for controversial discussions on central issues of faith. In that Protestant catechism, the chorale Vater unser im Himmelreich probably played a central role in presenting the topic of prayer. It is not surprising that Mendelssohn deals with that hymn here in the form of chorale variations, a musical structure that at least manages to suggest certain stanza-by-stanza connections between the text and the music. Associated with the chorale text “Brüder sein und dich rufen an” (Your wish is for all of us to pray to you as brothers), the chorale is homophonic in texture and taken at a slower speed than the ensuing variations—almost as if it were to be sung by the congregation (Example 15).
In the first variation, chromatic voice leading and dissonances combined with a harmonically complex transition are all connected with the meaning of the corresponding text passage: “Behüt’ uns, Herr, vor falscher Lehr, das arm verführet Volk bekehr” (Protect us, Lord, from false teachers; please bring Thy pitifully misled people back to Thee) (Example 16).
The exceptional vehemence of the pedal figures in the second variation, ending in an abrupt descent, almost seems to illustrate the text passage in the third stanza: “Des Satans Zorn und groß Gewalt zerbrich, vor ihm dein Kirch erhalt” (Destroy Satan’s wrath and great violence; protect Thy church from him). (Example 17)
The fourth stanza appeals to God, asking Him to “turn around and reorient all flesh and blood, that they once more may obey Thy will.” This is set to music in the third variation in the form of syncopated “echoes” in the right hand, combined with intermittent moments where the music “stays in the rut” of typical figures that seem to revolve around themselves (Example 18).
The final variation (“Give us our daily bread”) illustrates the daily struggles of life reflected in repetitive, ascending figurations that seem to be attempting to “break through” (Example 19).
In the sense of exhortation and consolation or redemption as a prerequisite and consequence of prayer, the fugue (“Help us to put up strong resistance on the right hand and the left”) and the finale (“Redeem us from all evil”) in the parallel major key round off the entire progression to form a sonata (Examples 20 and 21).
The “oratorio” sonata: Number I
In conjunction with the revival performances of J. S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion in 1829 and 1841, Felix Mendelssohn had been able to devote intense study to specific details of oratorio composition. Thus, for instance, the first movement of his first organ sonata features an echo structure reminiscent of similar movements in BWV 244, such as the aria “Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen,” featuring the chorale “So schlafen unsre Sünden ein,” sung by the choir as an echo (Examples 22a and 22b).
In writing his oratorios Paulus and Elijah, Mendelssohn was able to reflect intensely on how biblical subject matter can be adequately set to music. The solutions he chose in Paulus were more lyrical, contemplative, or exhortatory; on the other hand, he worked for a lengthy amount of time on Elijah in parallel with the organ sonatas. In the latter oratorio, the conception was more dramatic, and that tendency influenced the organ sonatas, as we can observe in Sonata Number I. The connections are particularly apparent in the third movement, an “organ recitative” in place of a scherzo movement. It seems to depict a dialogue between soloist and orchestra, directly leading to the final jubilation of the closing choral movement typical of an oratorio. The organ figurations are reminiscent of the orchestration of the chorus that concludes part one of Elijah, depicting water currents that metaphorically calm the needs of the people after the drought (Examples 23a and 23b). The melodious second movement, with its tuneful modesty, likewise recalls specific numbers from Elijah, such as the arioso for contralto “Sei stille dem Herrn.”
However, the sonata’s opening movement is the point where the oratorio concept exerts its most profound influence on Mendelssohn’s conception of transferring sonata form to the organ. The main theme sets in after the introductory chords: its descending fourths are strongly associated with the “theme of the curse” that marks the beginning of Elijah. These intervals thus have a negative connotation. Immediately, however, an opposing force is introduced in the form of an ascending stepwise figure in the pedal that fills out the same interval of the fourth. That same theme reappears as an ascending inversion of the intervals of the fourth in the countertheme to the chorale “Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh’ allzeit” (What my God wills, may that occur at all times), providing contrast in terms of dynamics and key, thus representing “the positive” (Examples 24 and 25a, 25b, and 25c).
When the two themes are combined in the development section, their interaction is depicted as a genuine struggle. The chorale is repeatedly disturbed and permeated by the “negative” main theme, sometimes even abruptly interrupted. On the other hand, the fugato section in the middle of the movement treats the main theme’s inversion in organo pleno (Example 26).
As the chorale is increasingly undermined, Mendelssohn ultimately inverts the functions of the two contrasting themes. The chorale triumphs in the upper parts in full organ over partially chromatic runs in the pedal (Example 27). When the movement’s climax is reached, the theme’s original form and its inversion meet in direct confrontation before the chorale’s content has the final say at the end of the movement (Examples 28a and 28b).
Thus using the dynamically contrasting sonata form as a compositional basis, Mendelssohn created unique music with its own specific theological content. In all post-Bach repertoire, this is perhaps one of the most admirable examples of a composer “preaching with notes.”
The “Voluntary” sonatas: numbers II and V
Mendelssohn was also concerned with fulfilling the publisher’s original purpose, as seen in sonatas II and V. Based on the structure of a voluntary (quoted above), he formed his individual interpretation of the model.
The introductory movement in the second sonata features a chordal-orchestral texture. It is followed by a slow movement that presents solo stops in various manners, ranging from melody in the bass to two-part textures. The fast movement is in two sections: an energetically ascending “Allegro maestoso” introduction, followed by a strict fugue with counterpoint among eighth notes in the middle. By this point, it becomes clear that Mendelssohn has chosen to surpass the narrow confines of the structure of a voluntary.
Even if the fifth sonata’s introductory movement is not entitled “Chorale,” it has all the structural characteristics of such a piece. Here we are reminded of Mendelssohn’s stint as general music director of Prussia, appointed in the fall of 1841 by Friedrich Wilhelm IV to reform church music throughout the kingdom. On that occasion, Mendelssohn wrote new hymn melodies assembled from portions of previous well-known chorales. Thus, the beginning of his fifth organ sonata is reminiscent of “Dir, dir Jehova, will ich singen” (Examples 29a and 29b).
The subsequent “solo” presents the solo stops in an unaccustomed register: in the pedal. One of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries recalled:
I remember the wonderful delicate staccato of the pedal quavers in the second movement of the V. Sonata, which he played upon a single 8-foot stop with the crispness of Dragonetti’s most highly finished pizzicato.16
It is not surprising that the organists and publishers in Britain also tended to see Mendelssohn’s collection of six sonatas as an “organ school,” particularly since pedal playing was often underdeveloped in English organs for lack of a proper pedal keyboard.
The virtuoso final movement combines imitation with figuration and can thus not be simply divided into two sections, as was still possible in the second sonata. Notwithstanding, it is probably in the fifth sonata that Mendelssohn came closest to what his English publisher had in mind.
Summary and outlook
Closer examination and in-depth analysis reveal that Felix Mendelssohn created much more in his Six Organ Sonatas, opus 65, than a work written to fulfill a commission while displaying certain pedagogical ambitions, especially regarding pedal playing. Both in terms of compositional technique and in the combination of words and music, certainly also in the sense of a theological discourse, Mendelssohn laid the foundation for the further developments of organ music in the nineteenth century up to the great cyclical works of Olivier Messiaen, the great twentieth-century composer who also dealt intensely with the theological basis of musical creation.
Each of these sonatas features a thoroughly unique formal concept precisely tailored to the needs and strengths of the organ as a musical instrument. At the same time, Mendelssohn’s references to extramusical content show how questions of theology can also acquire central importance in non-liturgical organ music. In so doing, he prepared the ground for the programmatic works of Julius Reubke and Max Reger, who musically interpreted entire chorale texts in their sonatas and fantasies.
Thanks to Mendelssohn’s substantial contribution to music history in this area, the sonata genre became an integral part of the repertoire of organ music, and a great number of works were written as successors to this endeavor, up to the present day.
Notes
16. Hans Fagius, “The Organ Works of Mendelssohn and Schumann and Their Links to the Classical Tradition,” in Hans Davidsson (ed.), Proceedings of the Göteborg International Organ Academy 1994, Gothenburg 1995, page 344.
