Mein Gott, warum (Psalm 22)

Mendelssohn occupies an interesting and complex position in the history of German sacred music. For one thing, we often cite him as the chief motivating force behind the original Bach rediscovery, which began when Mendelssohn led a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829. That moment was truly a watershed in the evolving relationship between living composers (and audiences) and music of the past. Though Mendelssohn was hardly alone in feeling such an historical appreciation to be long overdue, he was then and now the most visible figure involved in a project whose significance still resonates today. He had for years been avidly collecting manuscripts of Bach, Schütz, even Palestrina. This was much more than mere antiquarian interest, for Mendelssohn was also a composer of choral works based on sacred texts and looked to the past for guidance. As he put it, “If I have written several pieces of sacred music it is because I needed to do so, in the same way as one sometimes needs to read a certain book, the Bible, for example, or some other, and only that book can satisfy one.”
It must have been slightly ironic for him to be crafting Christian church music given his family’s religious roots. Born into a Jewish family but later converted (as noted above), Felix was called upon in the winter of 1843-44 to supervise Protestant church music throughout the Prussian realm. It was not a position much to his liking, however, and he resigned after only five months. Such circumstances help us date a work like Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 22 very precisely. “Mein Gott, warum hast Du mich verlassen” was written between 13 and 18 February 1844. It includes three movements; additional tempo changes within the movements convey an even more sectional feel. Mendelssohn does his best to resurrect the old psalmody style of solo intonation answered by full chorus. Opening in a stark E minor (an important key for Bach in the Matthew Passion), the first movement only occasionally moves into a brighter tonal realm and ends with an incomplete cadence. The middle movement continues to explore the effect of antiphonal exchange between a solo quartet and the chorus. Mendelssohn inserts some striking chromatic progressions in depicting the psalmist’s debilitated state. Finally both textures—solo recitation and divided choirs—recur in the third movement, which, with the overall progression from minor to major, helps project the psalm’s valedictory tone. Only at the last moment does Mendelssohn recapture the minor color with a modally inflected “Amen” cadence.

(c) Jason Stell