Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/265

MENDELSSOHN. MENDELSSOHN. was born at Hamburg, in the Grosse Michaelisstrasse No. 14 Friday, Feb. 3, 1809. That was at all events a lucky Friday. The family was already well known from Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of Felix, 'The Modern Plato,' whose 'Phädon,' a dialogue upon the immortality of the soul, based on the Phædo of Plato, was translated, long before the birth of his illustrious grandson, into almost every European (and at least one Asiatic) language. Moses was the son of Mendel, a poor Jewish schoolmaster of Dessau, on the Elbe, and was born there Sept. 6, 1729. The name Mendelssohn, i.e. 'son of Mendel,' is the ordinary Jewish, oriental, way of forming a name. Moses migrated at 14 years old to Berlin, settled there in 1762, married Fromet, daughter of Abraham Gugenheim, of Hamburg, had 6 children, 3 sons and 3 daughters, published his Phädon at Berlin in 1767, and died there Jan. 4, 1786. He was a small humpbacked man with a keen eager face, bright eyes, and a humorous mouth. The first peculiarity was traceable in his grandchild Fanny, and the bright eyes were one of Felix's most noticeable characteristics. After the death of Moses his widow left Berlin with Joseph, the eldest son, and returned to her native city.

Abraham, the second son, born Dec. 11, 1776, went to Paris, and in 1803 was cashier to Fould's bank there. In 1804 he resigned this post and went into partnership with his elder brother Joseph; married Dec. 26, 1804, Lea Salomon (born March 15, 1777), of a Jewish family in Berlin, and settled in Hamburg, carrying on his business at the house above mentioned, and having also a house out of town called 'Marten's Mühle.' He remained in Hamburg till 1811, and there were born to him Fanny Cäcilie (Nov. 14, 1805), Jakob Ludwig Felix (Feb. 3, 1809), and Rebecka (April 11, 1811). During the French occupation of Hamburg, life became intolerable, and shortly after Rebecka's birth the whole family escaped in disguise to Berlin, where they started the eminent banking-house, and lived in a large house on the Neue Promenade, in the N.E. quarter of the town, a broad open street or place between the Spree and the Haacksche Markt, with houses on one side only, the other side lying open to a canal with trees, a sufficiently retired spot as late as 1820 for Felix and his friends to play in front of it. There, ten days [App. p.716 "eleven days; the battle lasted from the 16th to the 19th"] after the battle of Leipzig, Abraham's second son and youngest child Paul was born (Oct. 30, 1813). The daughters of Moses Mendelssohn, Dorothea and Henriette, became Catholics. Dorothea married Friedrich von Schlegel, and Henriette was governess to the only daughter of General Sebastiani, afterwards (1847) so unfortunate as the Duchesse de Praslin. The sons remained Jews, but at length Abraham saw that the change was inevitable, and decided to have his children baptised and brought up as Protestant Christians. This decision was taken on the advice and example of his wife's brother, Salomon Bartholdy, to whom also is due the adoption of the name Bartholdy. He himself had taken it, and he urged it on his brother-in-law as a means of distinction from the rest of the family. Salomon was a man of mark. He resided in Rome for some time as Prussian Consul-General; had his villa (Casa Bartholdy) [App. p.716 "on Monte Pincio"] decorated with frescoes, by Veit, Schadow, Cornelius, Overbeck, and Schnorr, collected objects of art, and died there in 1827, leaving his fortune to his sister Lea. He was cast off by his mother