Mendelssohn Memorial by W. Stein, 1892 (recast 2008)
The Thomaskirche (St. Thomas’s Church) is the true gateway to Leipzig, the City of Music. In the year 1212, the establishment of the Augustinian Canons in Leipzig was simultaneously the birth of the Thomanerchor (St. Thomas's Boys Choir).
During the early centuries of the Choir's history, music in the Thomaskirche was restricted to the musical accompaniment of the liturgy in the Mass. The advent of the Reformation in Saxony in 1539, however, was to usher in a new era of sacred music. Music now came to be valued as an integral element of the annunciation in worship, requiring a considerably greater contribution from the Thomanerchor and demanding the composition of a substantial amount of new sacred music from the respective cantor. This was the dawn of the golden epoch of the Thomaskirche, its school and its choir.
Having assumed responsibility for the Thomasschule and Thomanerchor in 1543, the City Council succeeded in appointing a long succession of prominent composers to the office of Thomaskantor (Cantor of St. Thomas’s), the most eminent of all, of course, being Johann Sebastian Bach.
In October 2008, a recast of Werner Stein's Mendelssohn Memorial from 1892, which was destroyed by the Nazi regime, was erected next to the Thomaskirche. Mendelssohn was a great admirer of Bach and provided the decisive impetus for the 19th century renaissance of his music.
Internet:
Thomaskirche Leipzig
Thomanerchor
Wikipedia:
Thomaskirche Leipzig
Thomanerchor
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
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Station 14, ehem. Synagoge Gottschedstraße (liberale Synagoge) / Former Gottschedstraße Synagogue (liberal synagogue) |
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Mendelssohn-Denkmal, Thomaskirche / Mendelssohn Memorial, St. Thomas's Church (Music Trip station 15) |
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Station 1, Standort Geburtshaus Richard Wagner / Site of Richard Wagner's birth house |
