Mendelssohn’s First Composition

Abstract What is Mendelssohn’s first original extant composition? The earliest musical notation in his hand that we know of is that contained in the volume of harmony and counterpoint exercises done under the supervision of Carl Friedrich Zelter. As Larry Todd has indicated in his edition of this volume, the first entries were probably made in August or September 1819, although the advanced nature of the initial exercises in the book suggests that others, no longer extant, would have preceded them, perhaps done on loose sheets or possibly in another exercise book. Certainly Mendelssohn had been receiving tuition from Zelter since at least July 1819, and perhaps earlier. A number of original compositions are to be found amongst the formal exercises in thoroughbass, counterpoint, and canon, but the earliest of these exercises dates from July 1820, by which time there is plenty of evidence of compositions elsewhere.