composer and conductor, was the composition teacher of the young Felix Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn, Felix). Before age 9 Mendelssohn became Zelter's pupil; and it was through Zelter's discovery of the almost forgotten score of Bach (Bach, Johann Sebastian)'s St. Matthew Passion that Mendelssohn, at 20, conducted a performance of that work, which helped lead to a revival of interest in Bach's music. Zelter set to music some poems of his friend Goethe and composed various sacred and secular vocal works.