Symphony No.2 in B Flat “Lobgesang”, Op.52 Felix Mendelssohn

1840 was year of the Lieder for Robert Schumann. For his friend Felix Mendelssohn, however, it was when he completed the choral and vocal part of his second symphony. A look at the words sung will reveal that while Beethoven’s 9th was secular, Mendelssohn’s 2nd was religious. Despite the commission we see nothing related to Gutenberg or to printing in the texts – except that it mostly comes from the Christian Bible, one of the first books widely printed.

Some might perceive the ‘symphony’ a cantata of sorts. This is so for 3 reasons. Firstly, the work was to be performed at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas’s Church) in Leipzig – where J. S. Bach, Mendelssohn’s idol, served as Kapellmeister; Bach wrote some 200 cantatas there in his later life at the church and he was buried there as well. Secondly, it was first conceived as a cantata when commissioned for a series of celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg. Most importantly, the work itself is of Scriptural texts and a choral finale – features of the cantata. In any case, Mendelssohn’s inclusion of a 3-movement instrumental and symphonic prelude made it much larger than a mere cantata and so he called it 'A Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Holy Bible, for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra'. Now we call it Lobgesang – Hymn of Praise.

孟德爾頌：降B大調第二號交響曲《頌歌》, 作品 52

一八四○年是舒曼藝術歌曲的巔峰時期，亦是他好友孟德爾頌完成其第二交響樂的詠唱及合唱部份。與貝多芬的第九交響樂的字詞比較，貝多芬的是世俗，孟德爾頌則是聖潔的。雖是委約作品，但內裡並不見任何有關古登保或印刷術關係，唯一關聯的是歌詞大部份出於聖經---第一本廣泛印刷的典籍。

有些人覺得此作品冠以「清唱劇」比「交響樂」更貼切；其一，此作品曾在萊比錫的聖多默大教堂中演出，而這裡則是孟德爾頌的偶像巴哈晚年工作地方，巴哈在此處寫了超過二百首清唱劇，最後亦長眠於此。其二，為慶祝古登保發明印刷術四百周年紀念，委約最初的構思是寫清唱劇。最重要的，此作品中神聖的字詞、合唱為終，全是清唱劇的特色。這首以三個交響序章作引子的龐大清唱劇，孟德爾頌當時予她副題：「一首以聖經為詞，為獨奏、合唱團及樂隊而作的交響清唱劇。」今稱「讚美」交響樂。