Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Psalm 95

Larry Todd

The setting of psalms inspired Mendelssohn throughout his compositional career, from the youthful version of Psalm 66 for double female chorus (1822) to the masterly setting of selected verses from Psalm 91 (“Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen”) for double chorus and orchestra in Elijah (1846). Between 1830 and 1843 Mendelssohn’s psalm composition culminated in a series of five major works, which required a variety of solo, choral, and orchestral forces. The first of these, Psalm 115, op. 31, appeared in 1835, and was followed in quick succession by Psalms 42, 95, 114, and 98. Rather like a hybrid of the Bachian cantata and Handelian oratorio, these psalm settings established a genre of sacred music that came to be highly prized during the nineteenth century (regrettably, today they remain among the least performed of Mendelssohn’s sacred music). Robert Schumann, who had already praised the composer of St. Paul as “die Vorrede einer schönen Zukunft” (“the herald of a fair future”), reviewed Psalm 42 enthusiastically as the work in which Mendelssohn had attained the “höchste Stufe, die er als Kirchencomponist, die die

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O! Come let us worship
and kneel before the Lord,
and bow down to him, the Lord our Maker,
come, bow the knee to the Lord.
For he is our God, and we are the flock
of his pasture and the people of his hand.

Come let us sing,
sing to the Lord with gladness!
Come, let us sing and let us rejoice in his strength!
Come to his presence with a song of thanksgiving
and with tuneful rejoicing!
For the Lord is a mighty God
and a mighty ruler over all false idols.

In his hands are all the corners of the earth,
and the strength of the hills is also his.
Come, let us worship and kneel before the Lord!

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Kommt, lasst uns anbeten
und knien vor dem Herrn,
anbeten vor ihm, der uns gemacht hat,
und niederfallen vor ihm.
Denn er ist unser Gott und wir das Volk
seiner Weide und Schafe seiner Hand.

Kommet herzu,
lasst uns dem Herrn frohlocken!
Kommet herzu, und jauchzen dem Hort unsers Heils.
Lasst uns mit Danken vor sein Angesicht kommen,
und mit Psalmen ihm jauchzen!
Denn der Herr ist ein großer Gott
und ein großer König über alle Götter.

Denn in seiner Hand ist, was die Erde bringt,
und die Höhen der Berge sind auch sein.
Kommt, lasst uns beten und knien vor dem Herrn!

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