What is Felix Mendelssohn?
[[File:Mendelssohn Bartholdy.jpg|thumb|right|Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirty]] '''Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy''' (born [[Hamburg]] 3 February 1809; died [[Leipzig]] 4 November 1847) was a [[Germany|German]] [[composer]]. His grandfather was the German-Jewish [[philosopher]] [[Moses Mendelssohn]]. He was one of the great composers of the [[Romantic music|Romantic period]]. He loved the music of earlier composers like [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Handel]] and [[Mozart]] and he built on the [[tradition]]s they had made. Mendelssohn was a [[child prodigy]]. He was already composing great music when he was a [[teenager]]. He wrote music for [[orchestra]], [[piano]], [[Organ (music)|organ]] as well as [[chamber music]] and music for singing. His [[violin]] [[concerto]] is one of the most popular concertos ever written and is played by all the famous violinists. Two of his tunes are known by almost everybody: the [[hymn]] tune ''Hark the Herald Angels Sing'', and the ''Wedding March'' which is played so often at the end of [[wedding]]s. == Life == Mendelssohn’s family had plenty of [[money]]. They were also very interested in [[music]], [[literature]], [[painting]] etc. His [[grandfather]] Moses Mendelssohn was famous in German [[national]] literature. His father was a [[bank]]er and his mother came from a family who owned a lot of factories in [[Berlin]]. The young Felix was educated at home by his [[parent]]s. Although the family was [[Jewish]] his parents had Felix [[baptism|baptized]] and his father became a [[Christian]] a few years later. The Mendelssohn family added the name of Bartholdy to their name at this time. Soon Felix was being taught by private [[tutor]]s including Ludwig Berger who taught him the piano. He also learned [[music theory]] and [[Composition (music)|composition]]. He played the piano at a concert when he was nine, and started to compose little plays with music (called a [[Singspiel]] in German). In 1821 he was taken to meet the famous writer [[Goethe]] in [[We