Mendelssohn wrote the music for “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”

Jenny Lind was distraught when Mendelssohn died. She endowed a scholarship in his memory for a promising English composer. The first winner, in 1854, was Arthur Sullivan, age 14 – later of Gilbert & Sullivan fame.

His grandfather was a wise and observant Jew, Moses Mendelssohn. Moses was a hunchback, and when he proposed marriage to a beautiful young woman, she had reservations. So he said to her, when I was born, my future wife was also named. But alas, I was told, she will have a dreadful hunchback. She will become bitter and unhappy. So I prayed, dear lord, give me the hunchback, and let the maiden be well made and agreeable! Upon being told this, she agreed to marry him.