Title: Schilflied (Reed Song)
Artist: Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn and his wife Cécile spent the winter of 1844?5 in the Frankfurt area, where Cécile had been born. While there Mendelssohn made a beautiful copy of a song he had composed in 1842: Schilflied (Reed Song), which sets to music words by Nikolaus Lenau. Not only did he write it out in his best hand, he also illustrated it with a meticulous watercolour which depicts the song?s opening line: ?On the lake?s unruffled surface rests the moon?s fair beam.? It was a present for his friend Henrietta Keyl, the wife of a Frankfurt wine merchant. 

MS. M. Deneke Mendelssohn c. 101