ABSTRACT
Adolf Bernhard Marx first became acquainted with the Mendelssohn family in 1824 and 1825, when Felix was fifteen. By early 1825, Marx was fully integrated into their private circle. The idea that the symphonic genre could be put to use to tell a story—the narrative of a historical event—was explored in Mendelssohn's "Reformation" Symphony, a work, at the time he wrote it, completely unlike his only other full-scale symphony, that in C minor, from 1824. That Marx recounts Herr Mendelssohn's remark—even with protestation—reveals a certain reluctance to deny his paternity of the work. Marx's assessment of Beethoven's explicitly programmatic works is intriguing, not least of all because Marx was one of the many musicians of this period who found Beethoven's Wellington's Victory, the occasional work also known under the name "Battle" Symphony, a great work. Marx praised the way Beethoven had captured the Grundidee of the first poem—the horrifying stillness of a motionless sea.
