Mendelssohn, Arnold 12/26/1855 - 02/19/1933

Arnold Mendelssohn (1855-1933), composer and Protestant church musician, was a great-nephew of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. After breaking off his law studies in 1877, he studied music at the Institute for Church Music and at the Royal Academy in Berlin. In 1880 he became the university music director and organist in Bonn, in 1882 music director in Bielefeld and in 1885 composition teacher at the Conservatory in Cologne. Then in 1891 he was called to Darmstadt as a Hessian church music master and school teacher and changed in 1912 to the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, where Paul Hindemith was one of his students. He wrote three operas and choral works, as well as chamber music. With his sacred choral music began the renewal of Protestant church music.