I’m very fond of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), a contemporary of Joseph Smith. I sometimes find myself reflecting on the injustice and the loss to the world that are represented by his death at the horribly early age (again, like Joseph Smith) of 38. (To make matters worse, he had been in ill health for several years by the time he died.)
In his short life, Mendelssohn gave us such wonderful music — his catalogue lists about 200 works — as the so-called “Scottish Symphony” (the Symphony No. 3 in A minor), the “Overture” and “Incidental Music” to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (including the famous “Wedding March”), the Hebrides Overture, the St. Paul and Elijah oratorios, and the music to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” He was also a pivotal figure in reviving interest in the music of J. S. Bach, who had been virtually forgotten at that time and whose music I also love.
From Elijah, here’s the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “He, Watching Over Israel, Slumbers Not Nor Sleeps”:
I’m always saddened when I think of how much more Mendelssohn could have given us, had he been granted a healthy lifespan of even seventy years.
I’ve reflected on such things before — in my 2012 Deseret News column “Beethoven is a study in hope, healing,” for example (I had no say in the titles back then). I can understand concluding that they’re true, but I simply can’t see how some people can regard atheism and its attendant belief in the final oblivion of death as “good news.”
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Saturday, 6 April 2019, represents the 189th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the sixth anniversary of the death of my mother in law, Ruth M. Stephens. Although, under the circumstances, her death came as a mercy, we miss her deeply. We miss her good humor, her wit, her love of music, her adventurousness, her love of family, her opennness. I think about the coincidence of these two anniversaries, and I can’t help but reflect on how the Resurrection and the Restoration give us hope. I’m aware of others at this very time who are coping with ill-health and with loss. I pray that they will be comforted.
In a letter, Mendelssohn once described death as a place “where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings.”
Amen.
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Something to which I’m very much looking forward to watching on Sunday morning:
“BYU Professor Brings Joseph F. Smith’s Vision of the Dead to Life in New Film”
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This is a very good story:
“The Miracle Behind President Nelson’s Call as an Apostle”
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The annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is only hours away, as I write:
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