Organ Sonata in c, Op. 65 No. 2

Another aspect of Mendelssohn’s quasi-sacred music is his organ music. These sonatas and prelude and fugue sets do not serve any liturgical purpose, but they are most strongly indebted to the works of past masters (especially Bach and Buxtehude) who were both organists and professional Kapellmeisters. Moreover, nearly all organ music was and still is performed in churches. Mendelssohn’s desire to write for the “king of instruments” stemmed from visits to several prominent cathedrals in England. By the time a 20-year-old Mendelssohn made his first trip to London in the fall of 1829, organs and organ music had reached low ebb in popular interest. A general decline in religious observance in post-Enlightenment culture, as well as the ravages of near continuous warfare, facilitated the general state of disrepair affecting instruments throughout Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Mendelssohn wrote about his encounters with shelled-out churches and bullet-ridden pipes that seemed beyond repair. But in London Mendelssohn connected with a group of historically-minded musicians, headed by Samuel Wesley, interested in Bach’s revival and in maintaining the lineage of great organ music. Various, somewhat sporadic compositions for organ followed, though it was not until the winter of 1844-45 that Mendelssohn undertook his long projected set of organ sonatas (published in 1849 as op. 65).
The second sonata, in C minor/major, partakes equally of both new and recycled material. Of its four movements, which progress gradually from an extremely slow Grave to the Allegro moderato finale, only the first two were newly written that winter. The others were put together from Mendelssohn’s own stockpile: the third movement derives from a piece written in Rome in 1831, whereas the fugue finale is lifted from a set of contrapuntal works penned in 1839. Bach’s spirit hangs over the whole work, for instance in the florid counterpoint of the second movement and the tonality and dissonance of the first movement. The sound of Bach’s C-minor Partita no. 2 for keyboard may come to mind, though Mendelssohn certainly had plenty of inspirational models to draw upon.

(c) Jason Stell