Sibling Composers

From left to right: Fanny Mendelssohn’s Prelude in F major was performed at her wedding to Wilhelm Hensel; Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the wedding scene in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream later went on to become a traditional piece played at weddings.

As one looks at the number of celebrated composers who were siblings, I think it is less important to compare them and their works, as it is to celebrate the fact that they all gave us so much wonderful music to study, perform, and share.  

Returning to Fanny Mendelssohn, as I have so often recently, I discovered that she wrote her own wedding march, the Prelude in F major, for her marriage to Wilhelm Hensel. Although she asked her brother Felix to write it, he was unable to do so because of an injury.

Still, Felix would go on to write another very famous wedding march, which he originally composed as incidental music for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The work would go on to gain even more popularity when it was chosen by the daughter of Queen Victoria, the Princess Victoria, for her wedding to Prince Frederick William of Prussia on January 25, 1858.

Listening to both, particularly on a pipe organ, one gets a great sense not just how beautiful and romantic the music is, but also its power and majesty, very fitting for any wedding.

Enjoy!

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