About the Music: 5/4/08
I Will Wait for the Lord by Felix MendelssohnGerman Romantic composer, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote today's choir anthem, I Will Wait for the Lord. Mendelssohn was a distinguished pianist, conductor, music historian as well as a composer. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies (the Scottish and Italian Symphonies), concerti (the E minor Violin Concerto), oratorios (Elijah), chamber works, solo piano music (Songs Without Words) and choral music. In 1829, he famously conducted a performance of J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion that initiated a renewed interest in J. S. Bach's music. In 1843, with Robert Schumann, Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory.
Today’s anthem is one movement of a larger work, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang (or Hymn of Praise). Mendelssohn composed the Lobgesang in 1840 for Leipzig’s celebration of the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. Mendelssohn also composed another piece for an open air concert for that celebration that is remembered because one tune contained therein is now found in almost all Christian hymnals as Hark, the Herald Angels Sing. Although the celebration of the printing press was the reason for Mendelssohn’s commissioning for the Lobgesang, there is no reference to that in the text; Mendelssohn utilized passages from Psalms, Isaiah, and two of Paul’s Epistles; The central theme, according to Mendelssohn, was “... a kind of universal thanksgiving on the words of the last Psalm [Psalm 150, vs. 6], ‘Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.’” The Lobgesang is also called Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony as its multiple movements contain instrumental pieces, as well as those including soloists and chorus. I Waited for the Lord was composed for two soprano soloists, chorus and orchestra.