Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony, “Reformation”: Commemorating the Protestant Revolution

The Protestant Reformation changed the world forever. Anticipating ideals of the Enlightenment, which swept across Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a revolutionary movement which challenged the authority of the Catholic hierarchy, elevated the sanctity of the individual, and affirmed his direct relationship with God. The 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn chose to celebrate these exalted ideals, not with a choral work, but with a dramatic symphony. Completed in 1830, the …

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