Although only seventeen years old at the time when he wrote his Te Deum, MWV B15 in 1826, Mendelssohn had already composed a considerable number of works in various forms, including several sacred pieces.  Largely in part to his family’s wealth and cultural interests, Mendelssohn began composition and music theory lessons in 1819at the age of 10 from Carl Friedrich Zelter. Zelter, through his teacher Fasch, was a third-generation pupil ofJohann Sebastian Bach.  His studies with Zelter completed at the end of 1826. The Te Deum, along with the Octet for strings, op. 20 and the Overture to Midsummer Night’s Dream, op.21 all comprise notable works of this period.

The Te Deum was composed for the Berlin Singakademie, where less emphasis was placed on oratorios than on the performance of sacred, polychoral a capella works. The eight-part Te Deum should be viewed in connection with this strong tradition of polychoral singing, mostly notably the works of Bach, Handel, Palestrina, Schütz and Lotti. The Te Deum gives us hints of these composers who strongly influence Mendelssohn.

The melody of the opening theme is closely related to Handel’s setting of the words “O Lord, in thee have I trusted” in the Utrecht Te Deum.  The continuo line of running eighth notes give movements 1, 5 & 10 an unmistakable baroque character. Other passages are inspired by the Venetian polychoral tradition, for example the descending Sanctus theme in movement 4.  

Of special interest is Mendelssohn’s use of soloists. The eight-part choir is contrasted by a double choir of solo voices, with two movements (6 & 8) for solo vocal quartet reminiscient of the trios from theBach motet Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227. Movement 9, “Salvum fac” dispenses with the soprano voice altogether, rendering an expressive alto solo with subdued accompaniment from tenors and basses.Perhaps the most expressive and unique movement in the Te Deum is movement 11, “Dignare Deus. Constructed on the basis of two “Miserere” motives, all 16 voices sing independently in alternation with soli and chorus. The Te Deum concludes with same music of the imposing opening, this time set to the words “In te, Domine speravi.”

Mendelssohn scholar Barbara Mohn summarizes the impact of the Te Deum: “Written at the end of his apprentice years with Zelter, the Te Deum demonstrates the wide range of music to which Mendelssohn was receptive, his ability to integrate musical styles of the past into his own compositional idiom, but nevertheless attaining a world of expression and sound all his own—an element which was to characterize all his later creative achievements”.

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