Mendelssohn composed his Symphony No. 5 in D major ("Reformation"), Op. 107, for the centenary of the Augsburg Protestant Confession. Perhaps less well-known than the third and fourth symphonies, it nevertheless offers much to interest those absorbed by Mendelssohn's rediscovery of the musical past, by his noteworthy religious odyssey, or by the more general confluence of Christianity and musical Romanticism.

In December of 1831 the "Reformation" symphony was to have been played in Paris by the Conservatoire orchestra. The players felt it contained too much counterpoint and was lacking in melody, however, and refused to play it. The work was first performed in Berlin in 1832, but it was not published until 1868. Mendelssohn was not proud of the piece, calling it "a fat, bristly animal" and "a complete misfit."

The symphony seems to suggest a program depicting the evolution toward Protestantism in Germany. Mendelssohn first introduces the "Dresden Amen" (a setting of the word "Amen" by J.G. Naumann [1741-1801] that still appears in hymnals) at the end of the slow introduction to the first movement, and it soon reappears at the close of the development section. (Wagner would use the same melody in Parsifal.) The Finale is based on Martin Luther's Ein feste Burg is unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), and contains a further reference to the "Dresden Amen," which becomes a unifying device.

In the slow introduction to the first movement, the "Dresden Amen" appears twice in the strings, separated by a leaping figure in the woodwinds, and persists until the beginning of the Allegro con fuoco. The Allegro shifts to D minor and begins with an idea similar to a theme from Haydn's Symphony No. 104 which covers the rising fifth of the "Amen" with a leap instead of a scale. The secondary theme is also derived from the "Amen" motive. Mendelssohn ends the sonata-form movement in D minor.

The second movement could not be more different from the first. Resembling band music, the lively scherzo begins with a dotted inversion of the "Amen." A more literal reference occurs in the subdued trio section. The third movement, marked Andante and in G minor, is chiefly for the strings. Fragments of the "Amen" appear in the first violin melody, and the movement closes with a reference to the second theme of the first movement.

Mendelssohn moves without pause from the third movement to the Finale, which begins with an introductory instrumental chorale based on a streamlined version of Ein feste Burg, first appearing in the flute. Marked Allegro vivace, the Finale proper is in sonata form and 6/8 time, featuring a secondary theme that is an inversion of the main theme of the first movement's Allegro con fuoco section. Counterpoint is prominent in the development section, which treats the second verse of Luther's chorale, using it as a cantus firmus. At the end of the raucous coda, Mendelssohn gives a last, loud variant of the chorale for the whole orchestra.

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