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J--\:. 


FELIX  MEKDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY 

At  thk  A(.e  ok  26. 

Fiovt  a  Pencil  Diati'in^  by  Miickc,  in  llie  f'osscssioii  0/  Mrs.  Victor  Benecke. 


WILLIAM  BARTHOLOME.V/.. 
(1793— 1867) 

The  English  Translator  of  Mendelssohn's  "Elijah." 
,     From  the  ori^i7ial  Painting,  now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Harper. 


THE    HISTORY 


OF 


MENDELSSOHN'S  ORATORIO 


'ELIJAH' 


BY 


F.   G.    EDWARDS. 


WITH  AN   INTRODUCTION   BY 

SIR    GEORGE    GROVE,    C.B. 


London:  NOVELLO  AND  COMPANY,  Limited 

AND 

NOVELLO,  EWER  AND  CO.,  NEW  YORK. 
1896. 


LONDON: 

NOVELLO   AND    COMPANY,    LIMITED, 

PRINTERS. 


INTRODUCTION. 


I  HAVE  been  asked  to  say  a  few  words  as  introduction 
to  this  volume,  and  I  do  so  with  pleasure. 

To  the  mass  of  music-loving  people  of  this  country, 
however,  I  believe  that  Mendelssohn  requires  no 
introduction.  It  has  been  the  fashion  in  some 
quarters  to  speak  of  him  slightingly,  nay  injuriously  ; 
but  this  will  pass,  and  he  needs  no  defence — certainly 
not  when  "  Elijah  "  is  in  question.  In  England  the 
oratorio  has  taken  its  place,  if  not  on  a  level  with 
"  The  Messiah,"  very  near  it ;  and  what  more  does 
any  work  of  musical  art  require  ?  Fortunately  every 
additional  fact  that  is  elicited  about  this  great  com- 
poser testifies  all  the  more  to  his  insight,  to  the  depth 
and  warmth  of  his  feelings,  and  to  the  indefatigable 
earnestness  with  which  he  worked  until  he  had 
realised  the  entire  meaning  of  his  text  and  expressed 
it  in  music  to  the  utmost  of  his  power  and  with  all 
the  dramatic  force  that  it  was  capable  of.  The  letters 
now  given — many  of  them  for  the  first  time — abound 
in  instances  of  this. 

The  information  which  my  friend  Mr.  Edwards  has 
so  carefully  collected  and  so  clearly  stated,  the  new 
portrait  which  is  due  to  the  kindness  of  Mrs.  Victor 
Benecke,  and  the  facsimile,  will  be  very  welcome  ; 
and  the  book  is  in  my  opinion  a  gain  to  musical 
literature,  while  it  forms  the  fittest  symbol  to  mark 
the  anniversary  of  the  production  of  the  greatest 
oratorio  of  this  century. 

George  Grove. 

Lower  Sydenham, 

yanuary  27,   1S96. 

(    iii    ) 

M91990 


PREFACE. 


It  is  fifty  years  since  Mendelssohn's  "  Elijah  "  was 
first  performed.  The  place  was  Birmingham  :  the 
date  August  26,  1846.  The  Jubilee  of  this  event 
provides  a  fitting  opportunity  for  presenting  a  history 
of  Mendelssohn's  familiar  oratorio. 

In  compiling  the  following  pages,  I  have  been 
favoured  in  having  had  access  to  much  original 
matter  on  the  subject  of  "  Elijah."  Especially  is 
this  the  case  in  regard  to  the  numerous  letters  from 
Mendelssohn  and  his  correspondents  which  are  here 
made  public  for  the  first  time.  These  letters  are  not 
only  unique  in  the  information  they  convey,  but  they 
form  the  most  interesting  links  in  the  chain  of  this 
"  History."  For  the  rest,  I  have  carefully  kept  in 
view  the  duty  of  the  historian,  which  is — I  take  it — 
that  he  should  tell  his  story  in  as  accurate,  straight- 
forward, and  pleasant  a  manner  as  he  can. 

I  have  to  acknowledge  the  kind  help  of  those  who 
have  so  greatly  facilitated  my  work.  In  addition  to 
those  specially  mentioned  in  the  course  of  the  book, 
I  tender  my  best  thanks  to  Mrs.  Carson  (grand- 
daughter of  the  late  Mr.  Edward  Buxton,  the  former 
proprietor  of  the  business  of  Messrs.  Ewer  &  Co.)  ; 
Dr.  Carl  and  Dr.  Felix  Klingemann ;  Felix 
Moscheles,     Esq.  ;     William     Moore,    Esq.  ;     and 

(      V      ) 


PREFACE. 

especially  to  Professor  Dr.  Julius  Schubring  o. 
Liibeck,  for  their  kindness  in  allowing  me  to  publish 
the  correspondence  which  passed  between  Mendels- 
sohn and  their  respective  relatives.  Except  where  it 
is  otherwise  stated,  the  letters  are  translated  from 
the  German  originals. 

Also  to  Messrs.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  for 
extracts  from  '*  Mendelssohn's  Letters  from  1833  to 
1847 " ;  to  my  friends,  Mr.  Andrew  Deakin,  of 
Birmingham,  and  Mr.  J.  S.  Shedlock,  for  their 
kind  assistance ;  and  in  a  special  degree  to  Mrs. 
Victor  Benecke  (Mendelssohn's  elder  daughter),  who 
has  very  kindly  helped  me  to  obtain  permission  to 
publish  several  letters  relating  to  **  Elijah  "  which 
have  hitherto  been  unknown.  Mrs.  Benecke  has 
also  allowed  the  portrait  of  her  father,  which  forms 
the  frontispiece  to  this  book,  to  be  published.  It 
was  taken  in  1835,  and  is  here  reproduced  for  the 
first  time. 

My  thanks  are  specially  due  to  Miss  Mounsey 
(formerly  Miss  Elizabeth  Mounsey),  without  whose 
invaluable  co-operation  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible for  me  to  write  this  "  History"  with  any 
approach  to  completeness.  Miss  Mounsey  enabled 
me  to  acquire,  three  years  ago,  the  originals  of 
fourteen  letters  on  the  subject  of  the  English 
translation  of  "  Elijah,"  written  by  Mendelssohn 
to  her  brother-in-law,  the  late  Mr.  W^illiam 
Bartholomew.  She  subsequently  placed  in  my 
possession  a  collection  of  MS.  copies,  parts,  &c.,  of 
the  oratorio,  which  were  made  for  the  production 
of  the  work  at  Birmingham,  in  1846.  These  sheets, 
(    vi    ) 


PREFACE. 

with  the  exception  of  some  engraved  chorus  parts, 
are  all  in  Mr.  Bartholomew's  handwriting,  but  they 
also  contain  several  alterations  written  by  Mendels- 
sohn himself.  Some  of  them  possess  additional 
interest  from  the  fact  that  they  are  the  actual  copies 
from  which  the  soloists  sang  at  the  first  performance. 
Not  only  am  I  greatly  indebted  to  my  good  friend 
Miss  Mounsey  for  these  manuscripts  and  a  copy  of 
the  original  word-book  of  1846,  but  also  for  her 
encouragement  and  the  kindly  interest  she  has 
taken  in  this  "  History,"  from  the  time  I  first 
mentioned  it  to  her  to  that  of  its  completion. 

My  last  word  is  one  of  gratitude  to  Sir  George 
Grove  for  his  kindness  in  contributing  an  Intro- 
duction. 

F.  G.  E. 

Hampstead, 

February,  1896. 


(    vii    ) 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 
The  Libretto i 

CHAPTER  II. 
Birmingham       28 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  English  Translation  ...       ^ 48 

CHAPTER   IV. 
The  First  Performance      76 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Revised  Oratorio         97 


Index       i35 


(    ix    ) 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PACE 

Portrait  of  Mendelssohn Frontispiece. 

Portrait  of  Mr.  Joseph  Moore 30 

Portrait  of  Mr.  Wm.  Bartholomew      48 

Portrait  of  Madame  Caradori-Allan 88 

Portrait  of  Herr  Joseph  Staudigl       96 

Fac-simile  of  Mendelssohn's  Metronomic  Times  for 

"Elijah" 125 

Fac-simile  of  a  Letter  from  Mendelssohn  to  Wm. 
Bartholomew       142 


(    «    ) 


THE    HISTORY    OF 
MENDELSSOHN'S    "ELIJAH." 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    LIBRETTO. 

Mendelssohn  had  no  sooner  completed  his  first 
oratorio,  "  St.  Paul,"  than  he  began  to  think  about 
setting  another  Bible  story  to  music.  "  St.  Paul  " 
was  produced  at  the  Lower  Rhine  Musical  Festival, 
Diisseldorf,  May  22,  1836,  under  the  composer's 
personal  direction.  Mendelssohn  was  then  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age.  He  spent  six  weeks  in  the 
summer  of  that  year  at  Frankfort-on-the-Maine,  as 
loctmi  tenens  for  his  friend  Schelble,  the  founder  of 
a  Choral  Society,  famous  then  and  now,  under  the 
name  of  the  Cacilien-Verein. 

During  his  temporary  residence  in  the  old 
Hanseatic  city,  Mendelssohn  met  Mdlle.  Cecile 
Jeanrenaud,  to  whom  he  was  betrothed  in  September. 
He  spent  the  month  of  August  at  Scheveningen  for 
the  benefit  of  the  sea-bathing  there,  and  also,  as  we 
(    I    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•ELIJAH." 

learn  from  the  **  Recollections  "  of  his  friend  Devrient, 
to  test  the  strength  of  his  affection  for  the  beautiful 
C^cile.  Although  his  thoughts  naturally  and  con- 
stantly turned  towards  Frankfort,  he  did  not  neglect 
his  beloved  art.  He  wrote  the  following  letter, 
hitherto  unpublished,  to  his  old  and  attached  friend, 
Carl  Klingemann,  in  London.* 

[Mendelssohn  to  Klingemann. J 

"The  Hague,  August  12,  1836. 

,  ,  "  .  .  .  A  thousand  thanks  for  all  your  care, 
a'nd  .'.or  '.he  interest  you  take  in  the  whole  affair.!  It 
ip,  po  doubt  important  for  me  that  the  performance 
.'anil  all  tna  airangements  should  be  as  perfect  as 
possible  ;  therefore,  let  me  thank  you  for  it  all  once 
more. 

"  But  I  wish  you  knew  what  a  far  greater  favour 
you  would  confer  upon  me  if,  instead  of.  doing  so 
much  for  my  old  oratorio,  you  would  write  me  a  new 
one ;  and,  by  so  doing,  would  stir  me  up  to  fresh 
activity,  instead  of  my  having  to  do  this  myself. 
When  I  have  finished  a  composition,  that  which 
really  gives  me  pleasure  in  it  is  the  progress  I  see 

*  Carl  Klingemann  (1798 — 1862)  was  for  upwards  of  thirty  years 
resident  in  London  as  Secretary  to  the  Hanoverian  Legation.  "  He 
was,"  says  Sir  George  Grove,  "  a  man  of  great  cultivation,  con- 
siderable literary  power,  and  very  rare  judgment  in  music."  He 
wrote  the  libretto  of  Mendelssohn's  operetta  known  as  "  Son  and 
Stranger";  and  nine  of  Mendelssohn's  songs  are  set  to  words  by 
Klingemann. 

+  The  proposed   performance  of  "St.   Paul  "  at  the  Liverpool 
Musical  Festival,  where  it  was  given  for  the  first  time  in  England, 
under  the  direction  of  Sir  George  Smart,  October  7,  1S36. 
(     2     ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


in  the  work,  and  the  hope  that  it  may  lead  me  to 
attain  to  greater  excellence  in  the  next.  Therefore, 
I  long  to  be  rid  of  all  care  of  the  finished  work  ;  and 
I  feel  as  if  I  could  only  really  thank  you,  from  my 
heart,  if  you  showed  me  that  you  like  this  oratorio 
sufficiently  to  help  me  to  find  a  new  '  text,'  and  thus 
encourage  me  to  write  another  oratorio.  If  you 
would  only  give  all  the  care  and  thought  you  now 
bestow  upon  '  St.  Paul  '  to  an  *  Elijah,'  or  a  *  St. 
Peter,'  or  even  an  '  Og  of  Bashan  ! ' 

"  It  may  seem  ungrateful  that  I  write  to  you  just 
now  in  this  strain,  and  in  a  letter  which  should  be  all 
thanks ;  but  it  is  as  I  feel  at  present,  and  we  are  far 
too  intimate  with  each  other  for  me  to  attempt  to  hide 
from  you  my  present  mood.  You  know,  don't  you, 
that  I  am  not  ungrateful  ?  But  I  have  felt  very 
strongly  of  late  that  I  need  and  long  for  an  external 
impulse  to  urge  me  on  ;  no  recognition  of  work  done 
can  come  up  to  that  ;  it  gives  me  great  pleasure,  but 
it  has  not  the  stimulating  effect  upon  me  which  a 
suggestion  for  new  work  would  have." 

This  letter,  which  discloses  an  article  of  Mendels- 
sohn's artistic  creed,  is  important,  because  it  contains 
the  earliest  known  reference  to  the  oratorio  of 
"  Elijah."  The  date  should  be  carefully  noted,  as  it 
shows  that  Mendelssohn  was  engaged,  more  or  less, 
upon  his  great  oratorio  for  a  period  of  more  than  ten 
years  before  it  was  given  to  the  world  in  its  finished 
and  published  form. 

Klingemann  does  not  seem  to  have  been  taken  with 
his  friend's  proposal  that  he  should  compile  an 
(    3    ) 


HISTORY   OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "  ELIJAH." 

oratorio  libretto,  even  upon  so  original  a  subject  for 
musical  treatment  as  "  Og  of  Bashan."  The  following 
letter,  written  a  few  weeks  before  the  composer's 
marriage,  contains  a  request  for  the  "  text  "  of  an 
oratorio  as  a  wedding  present — surely  a  novelty  in 
the  way  of  a  nuptial  gift. 

[Mendelssohn  to  Klingemann.] 

"  Leipzig,  February  i8,  1837. 
"...  Here  comes  my  request.  Do  write 
for  me  within  the  next  few  weeks  the  text  for  a 
Biblical  oratorio,  so  that  I  can  set  to  and  compose  it 
during  next  summer.  The  last  time  we  talked  about 
it  I  mentioned  to  you  two  subjects  which  I  like 
equally  well — *  St.  Peter  '  or  '  Elijah.'  What  I 
would  like  best  would  be  for  you  to  take  *  Elijah  ' — 
divide  the  story  into  two  or  three  parts,  write  it  out 
in  choruses  and  airs,  either  in  verse  or  prose  of  your 
own ;  or,  compile  it  from  the  Psalms  and  Prophets, 
with  powerful  big  choruses,  and  then  send  it  to  me. 
The  translation  of  Handel's  oratorios  gave  you  so 
little  trouble  that  I  think  you  will  only  require  a  few 
evenings,  and  the  will  to  give  them  up  to  it,  and  my 
*  text '  will  be  written.  You  may  let  it  be  dramatic 
like  *  Judas  Maccabaeus,'  or  epic,  or  both  combined. 
I  am  satisfied  with  anything  you  do.  You  need  not 
ask  my  advice,  but  just  write  out  what  you  think 
best.     Then  I  can  compose  it  at  once. 

"  If   you   do    not    care  for    either   of    these  two 

subjects,  then  I  am  willing  to  take  any  other — for 

instance,   *  Saul.'     But  somehow  I   think  '  Elijah,' 

and  his  going  up  to  heaven  in  the  end,  would  be 

(    4    ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


a  most  beautiful  subject.  And  if  you  think  of  using 
Bible  words,  read  up  Isaiah  Ix.  and  Ixiii.,  to  the  end 
of  the  Prophet,  and  also  chapter  xl.,  and  Lamenta- 
tions, and  all  the  Psalms.  When  you  have  done  this 
you  will  easily  find  the  right  language.  Just  think 
what  sort  of  an  oratorio  I  ought  to  be  able  to  write 
at  this  moment,  and  such  an  one  send  me.  It  ought 
to  be  your  wedding  present  to  me  ;  it  would  be  the 
gift  I  would  value  most.  Do  not  refuse  my  request. 
Of  course,  if  you  are  too  busy,  do  not  be  vexed  with 
me  for  asking  this  of  you ;  but  do  write  to  me, 
anyhow,  very  soon." 

Mendelssohn  was  married  at  Frankfort,  on  March 
28,  1837.  Klingemann  evidently  did  not  send  a 
wedding  present  in  the  form  of  an  oratorio  "  text " 
in  time  for  the  ceremony,  since  Mendelssohn,  while 
on  his  honeymoon,  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his 
London  friend  : — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Klingemann.] 

Freiburg,  April  30,  1837. 

"...  Will  you  soon  be  able  to  fulfil  your 
promise  about  '  Elijah  '  ?  Forgive  my  pressing  you 
thus  for  an  answer.  It  is  not  my  fault ;  it  is  the 
fault  of  circumstances.  It  seems  to  me  more  and 
more  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  anyone  can  make  a 
lasting  impression  by  one  single  work — it  ought  to  be 
done  steadily,  uninterruptedly,  by  progressive 
writings.  Out  of  these  the  best  will  eventually 
stand  forth,  if  all  are  conceived  in  an  earnest  spirit. 
Therefore,  I  want  to  write  some  more  sacred  music 

(    5    ) 


HISTORY  OF  ^fENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

soon,  especially  as  I  see  no  chance  of  bein^  able  to 
compose  an  opera.  Perhaps  this  is  as  well,  for  it 
seems  to  me  as  if  all  the  German  theatres  were  at 
the  present  moment  in  such  bad  condition,  that  one 
cannot  reckon  on  a  good  performance  anywhere,  and 
therefore  there  may  yet  be  a  few  years'  time  before 
me,  and  I  may  do  it  all  the  better  then  ;  for  that  I 
must  write  operas  is  an  idea  I  cannot  give  up.  The 
choral  societies,  on  the  other  hand,  are  just  now 
good,  and  long  for  new  music ;  and  I  should  like 
to  give  them  something  that  would  please  me  better 
than  my  '  St.  Paul '  does.  Do  help  me  to  this, 
and  send  me  a  new  oratorio  *  text.'  " 

In  the  autumn  of  his  marriage  year,  Mendelssohn 
paid  his  fifth  visit  to  England,  in  fulfilment  of  an 
engagement  to  conduct  his  *  St.  Paul '  at  the  Bir- 
mingham Musical  Festival  of  1837,  at  which  he 
also  played  the  pianoforte  and  organ.  He  stayed  (in 
London)  at  Klingemann's,  4,  Hobart  Place,  Eaton 
Square.  The  house,  which  still  stands,  is  opposite 
St.  Peter's  Church.  During  this  visit  Mendelssohn 
spent  two  whole  mornings  with  his  host  on  the 
"  plan  "  of  an  oratorio  of  "  Elijah."  This  "  plan," 
or  "  sketch,"  was  left  with  Klingemann  for  him  to 
develop  and  to  put  "into  verse."  A  few  months 
afterwards  he  received  the  following  letter  :  — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Klingemann.] 

Leipzig,  January  9,  1838. 

"...     Over  all  this  chatting  I  am  forgetting 
a  very  important  affair.       I  received   last  week  by 
post  a  parcel  (which  cost  me  nearly  los.  for  postage), 
(    6    ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


containing   an    English    '  text  '    for   an    oratorio    of 

*  Elijah,'  which  was  sent  to  me  by  a  Mr.  Charles 
Greville  (i8,  Vineyards,  Bath,  Somersetshire),  in  the 
name  of  the  poet,  with  a  strange  letter.  Do  you 
know  this  gentleman,  or  the  name  of  the  poet,. 
J.  Barry,  a  clergyman  ?  I  have  never  heard  of  them. 
.  .  .  I  should  like  to  know  how  they  fixed  on 
'Elijah,' and  on  this  way  of  treating  the  subject,  which 
certainly  resembl.'s  our 'sketch' very  closely.  .  .  . 
They  have  already  dedicated  their  '  Elijah  '  to  the 
Duchess  of  Kent,  and  no  doubt  will  make  much  ado 
about  it ;  and  if  I  do  not  compose  it,  Neukomm,  or 
some  one  else  may  do  so.  Therefore — you  see  what 
is  coming — I  beg  you  for  two  things  :  ist,  make  our 

*  sketch  '  into  verse  and  send  it  to  me  at  once  (you 
may  take  Bible  words  to  help  you,  or  whatever  you 
like),  so  that  I  may  compose  it  forthwith  ;  and 
secondly,  send  me,  in  any  case  (even  if  you  will  not 
comply  with  No.  i),  our  'plan'  or  'sketch,'  as  we 
made  it  when  last  we  met  (with  all  remarks)  copied,. 
and  write  to  me  at  the  same  time." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Barry's  libretto  of  "  Elijah,"  above 
referred  to,  was  not  published  till  i86g.  A  copy  of 
the  little  book,  now  "out  of  print,"  is  before  me.  Its 
title  is  : — 

"  Elijah,  or  the  Baalim  in  Israel  :  a  Metrical 
Libretto,  in  four  parts,  dedicated  in  the  year  1838,  by 
express  permission,  to  Her  late  Royal  Highness  the 
Duchess  of  Kent.  By  the  late  Rev.  James  Barry, 
M.A.,  curate  of  Bratton  Clovelly,  Devonshire.  Oxford 
and  London  :  James  Parker  &  Co.,  iS6g." 
(    7    ) 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


The  Preface,  signed  "  E.  S.  B.  B.,"  states  :— 

"  The  following  production,  illustrating  the  chief  incidents  oi 
Ahab's  reign,  was  submitted  in  the  year  1837  to  Felix 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  as  a  theme  for  one  or  more  sacred 
oratorios.  His  famous,  '  Elijah,'  which  since  then  has  taken 
its  place  among  the  masterpieces  of  Handel,  Haydn,  and 
Beethoven,  had  not  been  given  to  the  world  ;  but  on  returning 
this  manuscript  to  its  Author,  Mendelssohn  announced  his 
engagement  on  the  same  great  subject,  adding,  that  although 
this  work  possessed  both  literary  and  poetical  merit,  it  was  in 
his  opinion  too  long  for  an  Oratorio,  but  might  well  be  published 
as  a  Metrical  Libretto.  But  for  this  disappointment,  a  public 
having  little  leisure  for  songs  without  music,  might  yet,  in  the 
pauses  of  their  enthusiasm,  after  hearing  the  '  Elijah,'  have  let 
fall  some  crumbs  of  approbation  on  a  poem  in  which  the 
immortal  part  of  Mendelssohn  had  found  a  channel  for  his 
farewell  inspirations. 

"...  The  manuscript  was  laid  aside  for  nearly 
twelve  years,  when,  in  January,  1849,  he  [the  author]  again 
took  it  up,  resolving  to  publish  it  in  the  form  suggested  by 
Mendelssohn  ;  but  his  death  intervened  to  prevent  it,  and  again 
it  was  laid  aside.  .  .  .  More  than  thirty  years  have  thus 
elapsed  since  this  Libretto  underwent  the  favourable  criticism 
of  Mendelssohn  .  .  .  and  after  much  consideration,  the 
Author's  children  have  at  length  ventured  to  offer  to  the  public, 
♦  Elijah,'  or  the  Baalim  in  Israel.     .     .     ."* 

The  receipt  of  Mr.  Barry's  libretto  put  Mendels- 
sohn on  his  mettle,  and  he  became  very  anxious  as 

*  The  Rev.  James  Barry,  M.A.,  who  seems  to  have  been  curate  at 
Bratton  Clovelly  for  only  a  few  months,  died  in  April,  1849,  aged 
forty-two,  at  the  Parsonage  there,  and  was  buried  in  the  centre  of 
the  chancel  of  the  church.  I  am  indebted  to  the  Rev.  Edward 
Seymour,  M.A.,  the  present  rector  of  Bratton  Clovelly,  for  this 
information.  Strangely  enough,  Mr.  Barry's  libretto  begins  with 
the  familiar  Recitative:  "As  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liveth,  before 
whom  I  stand,  there  shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  accord- 
ing to  my  word." 

(    s    ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


to  the  fate  of  his  projected  oratorio  (of  "Elijah"). 
Klingemann,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  con- 
sidered the  matter  as  being  of  such  paramount 
importance.  His  reply  to  Mendelssohn's  letter  of 
January  g  could  not  have  been  very  reassuring 
to  the  composer,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
following  letter : — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Klingemann.] 

"  Leipzig,  February  9,  1838. 

**  You  say  in  your  letter  that  .  .  .  you  are 
now  intending  to  become  poetical  (as  you  express  it), 
but  you  need  to  live  to  be  a  hundred  years  old  for  it. 
If  I  now  therefore  ask  you,  when  you  can  send  me  a 
worked-out  copy  of  our  '  plan,'  do  not  see  in  the 
question  an  overhearing  reminder.  I  am  just  now 
in  such  good  working  trim,  and  I  must  work  for 
the  next  few  years  with  a  will  and  get  on.  I  have 
responsibilities  now,  and  also  a  great  longing  for 
work,  and  I  think  I  could  write  an  oratorio  within  a 
year.  My  new  Psalm,*  which  we  tried  for  the  first 
time  the  day  before  yesterday,  and  which  pleases  me 
more  than  any  other  church  music  of  mine,  proves  to 
me  that  I  am  right ;  for  I  wrote  five  new  numbers  for 
it  quite  lately,  which  makes  it  sound  now  as  I  wanted 
it  to  sound.  The  opera  libretto — if  I  get  it — will 
not  be  ready  before  the  middle  of  the  summer.  I 
should  like  to  have  a  new  oratorio  for  the  Diisseldorf 
Festival  in  1839  •  •  •  therefore,  for  all  these 
reasons,  I  must  ask  you  :  when  could  you  send  it  (the 
*  sketch  ')    to   me  ?      And   if  other  occupations,   or 

*  Probably  "  As  the  hart  pants." 

(    9    )  B  2 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   ••ELIJAH.' 


annoyance  at  my  repeated  requests,  or  any  other 
reason,  prevent  you  from  complying  with  my  wish, 
do  please  send  me,  by  return  of  post,  a  copy  of  our 
*  sketch  '  of  the  oratorio,  and  tell  me  whether  I  am  to 
leave  you  in  peace  about  the  matter,  so  that  I  know 
where  I  am.  Only  I  must  set  to  work  soon  ;  that 
you  will  understand." 

After  one  or  two  more  letters  had  passed  between 
Mendelssohn  and  Klingemann,  the  latter  returned 
to  the  composer  the  "  sketch  "  they  had  made  together 
in  London  in  the  autumn  of  1837,  and  henceforth 
"  Elijah,"  except  in  a  casual  way,  drops  out  of  their 
correspondence. 

Mendelssohn  then  sought  the  aid  of  his  intimate 
friend  and  the  companion  of  his  boyhood,  the  Rev. 
Julius  Schubring,  D.D.,  Rector  of  St.  George's 
Church,  Dessau — the  same  friend  who  has  recorded 
some  delightful  reminiscences  of  the  composer  in  his 
youthful  days,*  and  who  rendered  him  valuable 
service  in  the  preparation  of  the  "book"  of  "  St. 
"  Paul."  The  interesting  correspondence  between 
Mendelssohn  and  Schubring  on  the  subject  of  oratorio 
libretti  has  been  published  (in  German),  edited  by 
Professor  Dr.  Julius  Schubring,  the  son  of  Mendels- 
sohn's clerical  friend. t 

*  "  Daheim  "  (Leipzig)  for  1866,  No.  26.  English  translation  in 
Musical  World,  May  12  and  ig,  1866. 

f  The  full  title  of  the  book  is  :  "  Briefwechsel  zwischen  Felix 
Mendelssohn  Bartholdy  und  Julius  Schubring,  zugleich  ein  Beitrag 
zur  Geschichte  und  Theorle  des  Oratoriums  Herausgegeben  von 
Prof  Dr.  Jul.  Schubring,  Direktor  des  Kath.irineums  zu  Liibeck. 
Leipzig  :  Verlag  von  Duncker  und  Humblot  1S92." 
(     10     ) 


THE    LIBRETTO. 


Mendelssohn,  having  at  last  received  the  "sketch" 
from  Klingemann,  showed  it  to  his  friend  Schubring, 
who  was  staying  with  the  composer  at  Leipzig. 
The  following  letter  gives  Schubring's  views  on  the 
said  "  sketch  "  :— 

[Schubring  to  Mendelssohn.] 

"  Dessau,  October  28,  1838.* 
*'  At  last  I  must  make  a  start.  I  wanted  to 
write  to  you  the  first  week  after  my  visit,  but  when  I 
thought  of  what  you  had  entrusted  to  me,  and  to 
which  I  had  done  nothing,  I  felt  ashamed  ;  therefore 
the  manuscriptt  became  somewhat  odious  to  me.  I 
took  it  up  three  or  four  times,  but  either  some  of  the 
sheets — large  and  small — had  got  mixed,  or  I  could 
not  make  out  the  abbreviations  ;  and  then  again  I 
was  often  interrupted  by  other  work.  I  was  afraid  I 
should  have  to  send  it  back  to  you  untouched.  But 
yesterday  the  light  suddenly  dawned  upon  me  and  I 
understood  everything  at  once — the  whole  and  also 
the  details.  I  see  at  the  same  time  that  there  is 
still  much  to  be  done,  and  therefore  I  write  at  once 
to-day  to  ask  if  you  can  let  me  keep  the  MS.  a  little 
longer." 

[The  letter  then  goes  on  to  make  suggestions  for 
the  "text,"  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  reproduce 
here.] 

To  the  above  communication  Mendelssohn  replied 
in  a  letter  which  has  hitherto  been  quoted  as  being 

*  "  Brief wechsel,"  p.  124. 

t  This  refers  to  Klingemann's  "sketch"  for  "Elijah,"  London, 
September,  1837. 

(     "     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 

the  earliest  mention  of  "  Elijah  "  in  the  Mendelssohn 
correspondence. 

[Mendelssohn  to  Schubring.] 

"  Leipzig,  November  2,  1838.* 

"  Dear  Schubring, — Many,  many  thanks  for  your 
letter,  which  I  received  the  day  before  yesterday, 
and  for  the  parcel,  which  came  to-day.  You  again 
render  me  an  essential  service,  and  I  feel  most 
grateful  to  you.  How  can  you  ask  whether  I 
wish  you  to  proceed  in  the  same  way  ?  When  all  is 
so  well  put  together,  I  have  almost  nothing  to  do 
but  to  write  music  for  the  words.  I  ought  to  have 
previously  told  you  that  the  sheets  you  took  away 
with  you  are  by  no  means  to  be  regarded  as  contain- 
ing a  mature  design,  but  as  a  mere  combination  of 
the  materials  I  had  before  me  for  the  purpose  of 
eventually  forming  a  plan.  So  the  omission  of  the 
passage  of  the  widow,  and  also  of  the  raven,  is 
decidedly  most  advisable ;  and  also  the  abridgment 
of  the  whole  commencement,  in  order  that  the  main 
points  may  be  dwelt  upon  to  one's  heart's  content. 
I  would  urgently  entreat  you  to  proceed  with  your 
work,  so  far  as  your  time  and  leisure  will  permit, 
and  soon  to  send  me  the  continuation  of  the  first 
part,  wliich  ought  now  to  be  considerable,  from 
where  you  left  off.  Rest  assured  that,  as  I  already 
told  you,  you  will  earn  my  most  sincere  gratitude. 

"  You  say  that  at  first  you  could  not  make  any- 
thing of  the  subject,  but  that  a  sudden  light  dawned 
upon  you.     I  figured  to  myself  Elijah  as  a  thorough 
•"  Brief wechsel,"  p.   134. 
(     i^    ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


prophet,  such  as  we  might  again  require  in  our  own 
day — energetic  and  zealous,  but  also  stern,  wrathful, 
and  gloomy  ;  a  striking  contrast  to  the  court  rabble 
and  popular  rabble — in  fact,  in  opposition  to  the 
whole  world,  and  yet  borne  on  angels'  wings.  Is 
this  the  inference  you  also  draw  from  the  subject, 
and  is  this  the  sense  in  which  }ou  conceived  an 
affection  for  it  ?  I  am  most  anxious  to  do  full  justice 
to  the  dramatic  element,  and,  as  you  sa}',  no  epic 
narrative  must  be  introduced.  I  am  glad  to  learn  that 
you  are  searching  out  the  always  heart-affecting  sense 
of  the  Scriptural  words  ;  but  if  I  might  make  one 
observation,  it  is  that  I  would  fain  see  the  dramatic 
element  more  prominent,  as  well  as  more  exuberant 
and  defined — appeal  and  rejoinder,  question  and 
answer,  sudden  interruptions,  etc.,  etc.  Not  that  it 
disturbs  me  that  Elijah,  for  example,  first  speaks  of 
assembling  the  people,  then  forthwith  addresses 
them — such  liberties  are  the  natural  privileges  of 
a  composition  such  as  an  oratorio ;  but  I  should  like 
to  have  the  representation  itself  as  spirited  as 
possible ;  for  instance,  it  annoys  me  that  Elijah 
does  not  reply  to  Ahab's  words,  No.  i6,  till  No. 
i8,  various  other  speeches  and  a  chorus  intervening. 
I  should  like  to  have  had  an  instant  and  eager 
rejoinder,  etc.,  etc. 

"  But  we  are  no  doubt  likely  to  agree  about  this; 
and  I  would  only  entreat  you,  when  you  resume  your 
work,  to  think  of  this  wish  of  mine.  Above  all,  accept 
my  thanks  for  your  kindness,  and  write  to  me  soon 
on  the  same  subject. — Ever  yours, 

"  Felix  M.-B." 
(    13    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 


Schubrinj:^  sent  to  Mendelssohn  another  "  plan," 
for  Part  I.,  dated  "  Reformationsfest  [October  31], 
1838,"  accompanying  it  with  the  following  (selected) 
•observations*:  — 

[SCHUBRING    TO    MENDELSSOHN.] 

"  I  have  sought  throughout— although  it  is  not 
always  possible — to  introduce  pieces,  not  merely 
■suitable  to  the  particular  situation  in  question,  but 
such  as  might  awaken  an  echo  in  the  hearts  of  the 
hearers — as,  for  instance,  this  aria  ['  If  with  all 
your  hearts'] .  I  have  noticed  that  in  \our  '  St.  Paul,' 
for  example,  such  numbers  have  excited  the  most 
interest.  ...  In  oratorios  it  does  no  iiarm  if 
you  exaggerate  the  dramatic  effect :  on  tlic  contrary. 
it  seems  to  me  necessar}-.  ...  I  think  it  will 
•often  occur  to  you,  as  it  does  to  me,  to  marvel  at 
the  manifold  tilings  wliich  can  be  found  in  the 
Bible." 

In  the  letter!  ("  Dessau,  November  i,  1S38  ") 
which  accompanied  the  new  "  plan,"  Schubring 
remarks  : — 

"...  I  fear  the  first  part  will  be  too  rich, 
•or  rather  the  second  part  too  poor.  I  confess  I  ha\e 
some  misgivings  about  the  second.  As  it  now  stands 
it  is  far  from  pleasing  me.  If  not  unreasonable,  I 
would  propose  to  bring  in  the  rain  scene  at  the 
beginning  of  the  second  part,  and  something  could 
certainly  be  found  to  replace  it  in  the  first  part. 

*  "  Briefwechsel.  '  p.  u.).  ]  Ibid.,  p.  137. 

(     M     ) 


THE   LIBRETTO. 


"  What  I  feared  and  wrote  to  you  about,  has  really 
come  to  pass  ;  and  the  thing  is  becoming  too  objective 
— an  interesting,  even  thrilHng  picture,  but  far  from 
edifying  the  heart  of  the  listener.      All  the  curses, 
the  scenes  of  the  sacrifice  and  the  rain,  Jezebel,  etc., 
in  all  this  there  is  nothing  which  now-a-days  would 
come  from  the  heart,  and  therefore  nothing  which 
would  go  to  the  heart.      Pieces  in  your  '  St.  Paul,' 
like  the  aria  in  B  minor  ['Consume  them  all'],  or 
choruses,  '  Ihr  Manner  von  Israel  helfet  '  [No.  38,  in 
the  English  edition] ,  etc.,  are  certainly  fine  and  charac- 
teristic ;  but  they  are  interesting  rather  than  edifying. 
You  will  probably  never  hear  people  singing  that  aria 
at  the  pianoforte  for  their  pleasure ;  but  the  second  and 
third  arias  in  *  St.  Paul,'  or  that  for  tenor  towards  the 
close   ['Be  thou  faithful  unto  death'],  they  are  for 
everybody.     There  are  many  more  passages  in  *  St. 
Paul '  of  general  interest  than  there  are  in  this  '  text ' 
in  its  present  form.     Therefore  you  must  carefully 
consider  whether  this  time  you  prefer  to  turn  away 
from    Church   music    {i.e.,    music    which    refreshes, 
consoles)  and  create  a  tone-picture  after  the  manner 
of    the   *  Blocksberg- Cantata.'*     If    not,    we   must 
diligently  set  to  work  to  keep  down  the  dramatic,  and 
raise  the  sacred  element,  and  alwa3-s  aim  at  this. 
Perhaps  it  will  suffice  to  lead  back  from  the  second 
part  to  the  effect  of  the  rain  scene  in  the  first.   I  expect 
that  will  be  very  fine.      It  can  only  be  surpassed  by 
bringing  out  prominently  Elijah's  meaning  (significa- 
tion) for  the  New  Covenant,  as  the  forerunner  of  the 
Messiah,  pointing  towards  His  coming,  and  such  like. 
*  Mendelssohn's  setting  of  Goethe's  "  Walpurgis  Night." 
(     15     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

"  All  this  lies  in  the  future,  and  at  present  I 
am  waiting  until  you  have  written  to  me  about 
the  first  part.  Therefore,  let  me  conclude  for  the 
present — not  my  thoughts  of  you,  but  my  letter,  and 
soon  gladden  me  again  with  something — not  to  do — 
but  to  enjoy.  Good-bye.  N.B. — The  third  letter  to 
you  this  week  !  " 

Schubring  sent  to  Mendelssohn  a  draft  sketch  for 
Part  II.  on  November  17,  1838,*  saying  :  — 

"  Before  I  set  to  work  I  should  like  to  know  your 
idea  of  the  matter.  For  the  rest,  I  am  more  and 
more  convinced  that  you  will  have  to  supply  the 
principal  part  of  the  text  yourself.  How  is  one  to 
know  what  is  running  through  your  mind  on  this  or 
that  occasion  ?  Therefore  the  words  are  only  set 
down  as  hints,  suggesting  what  might  be  written." 

Mendelssohn  replied  to  Schubring  in  words  which 
show  that  there  was  some  difference  of  opinion 
between  them  as  to  the  /'  plan "  of  the  oratorio. 
Here  is  the  composer's  letter  : — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Schubring,] 

•'  Leipzig,  December  6,  1838.! 

*'  Dear  Schubring, — Along  with  this  you  will 
receive  the  organ  pieces  and  *  Bonifacius,'  which  I 
also  enclose.  Thank  you  much  for  the  letter  and  for 
the  manuscripts  you  have  from  time  to  time  sent  me 
for  *  Elijah  ' ;  they  are  of  the  greatest  possible  use  to 
me,  and  although  I  may  here  and  there  make  some 

•  "  Briefwechsel,"  p.  140  f  Ibid.,  p    146. 

<     16     ) 


THE   LIBRETTO. 


alterations,  still  the  whole  thing,  by  your  aid,  is  now 
placed  on  a  much  firmer  footing.  With  regard  to  the 
dramatic  element,  there  still  seems  to  be  a  diversity 
of  opinion  between  us.  With  a  subject  like  *  Elijah  ' 
it  appears  to  me  that  the  dramatic  element  should 
predominate,  as  it  should  in  all  Old  Testament 
subjects,  Moses,  perhaps,  excepted.  The  personages 
should  act  and  speak  as  if  they  were  living  beings — 
for  Heaven's  sake  let  them  not  be  a  musical  picture, 
but  a  real  world,  such  as  you  find  in  every  chapter  of 
the  Old  Testament ;  and  the  contemplative  and 
pathetic  element,  which  you  desire,  ought  to  be 
entirely  conveyed  to  our  understanding  by  the  words 
and  the  mood  of  the  acting  personages. 

"  I  am  now  myself  about  to  set  to  work  again  on 
the  '  Elijah,'  and  to  plough  away  at  the  soil  as  best  I 
can  ;  if  I  do  not  get  on  with  it  you  must  come  to  my 
aid,  and  I  hope  as  kindly  as  ever,  and  preserve  the 
same  regard  for  your 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

The  following  letter  is  the  next  from  Schubring 
that  is  printed ;  but  it  was  not  written  till  nearly  two 
months  after  that  from  Mendelssohn,  just  quoted. 

[Schubring  to  Mendelssohn.] 

Dessau,  February  2,  1839.* 

"...  Unfortunately  I  can  offer  you 
nothing  besides  my  good  [birthday]  wishes,  though 
I  would  willingly  have  done  so.     I  always  thought 

•  "  Briefwechsel,"p.  149.    Mendelssohn  was  born  February  3, 1S09. 
(     17    ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   " ELIJAH." 

that  the  '  Elijah  '  would  turn  out  all  right,  but  it  will 
not,  and  you  must  seek  help  elsewhere.  At  a  distance 
I  seemed  to  have  thought  out  the  subject  quite  nicely; 
but  whenever  I  come  to  it  at  close  quarters  I  cannot 
clearly  distinguish  the  separate  figures.  Elijah  is 
in  the  society  of  the  angels  ;  he  is  in  good  company, 
leave  him  there.  It  is  unbecoming  for  men  to  drive 
away  the  angels.  I  have  held  to  one  point  where  the 
Lord  Himself  ought  to  or  could  speak  to  Elijah.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  as  Elijah  appeared  to  Christ  on 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  (Matthew  xvii.),  so 
Christ  might  come  to  Elijah,  transfigure  him,  and 
show  him  from  afar  the  streams  of  peace,  which  flow 
over  the  heavenly  Canaan.  These  three  personages 
— Christ,  Elijah,  and  the  heavenly  choir  of  angels — 
might  suffice,  with  suitable  dramatic  alteration,  to 
transform  the  earth  into  heaven,  until  the  removal 
of  Elijah.  But  you  well  know  how  sluggishly  my 
poetical  vein  flows ;  how,  here  and  there,  with  great 
effort  I  manage  to  gather  a  few  crumbs  together,  but 
then  I  get  no  farther.  Unless  I  am  in  the  pulpit — 
where  the  Lord  usually  helps  me  joyfully  to  honour 
Him  by  my  preaching — the  creative  power  fails  me 
utterly." 

For  nearly  seven  years  the  subject  of  "  Elijah  " 
drops  out  of  the  Mendelssohn-Scluibring  correspon- 
dence, except  two  unimportant  references.  In  a  letter 
to  Mendelssohn,  dated  January  17,  1840,  Schubring 
says  :  "  How  about  '  Elijah  '  ?  Have  you  quite  put 
him  aside?"  And  on  November  10  of  the  same 
year :  "  You  have  told  my  brother  that  for  the 
(    18    ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


present  you  have  given  up  composing  oratorios.  To 
this  I  have  no  objection  ;  but  I  would  Hke  to  see 
something  else — sonatas,  for  instance,  not  short 
pieces." 

It  seems  to  be  quite  evident  that  the  subject  of 
**  Elijah  "  was  lying  more  or  less  fallow  in  Men- 
delssohn's mind  for  six  years  (1839 — 1845).  There 
are,  it  is  true,  two  casual  references  to  the  oratorio. 
To  Moscheles,  Mendelssohn  wrote:  "A  new 
oratorio,  too,  I  have  begun  ;  but  how  it  is  to  end, 
and  what  is  to  come  in  the  middle.  Heaven  only 
knows."  And  to  Klingemann  :  "  I  have  thought 
anew  seriously  of  *  Elijah.'  Perhaps  I  shall  attack 
him  now."  But  it  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1845, 
when  he  received  the  invitation  from  Birmingham 
(see  the  next  chapter),  that  Mendelssohn,  to  use  his 
own  words,  "  again  began  to  plough  up  the  soil." 
He  was  then  glad  to  seek  fresh  help  from  Schubring 
in  the  technicalities  of  the  "  text,"  which  he  did  in 
the  following  letter  to  his  clerical  friend: — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Schubring.] 

"  Leipzig,  December  16,  1845." 
"  My  dear  Schubring, — I  now  send  you,  according 
to  your  permission,  the  text  of  *  Elijah,'  so  far  as  it 
goes.  I  do  beg  of  you  to  give  me  your  best 
assistance,  and  return  it  soon  with  plenty  of  notes 
in  the  margin  (I  mean  Scriptural  passages,  etc.).  I 
also  enclose  your  former  letters  on  the  subject,  as  you 

*  "  Briefwechsel,"  p.  204.  The  date  of  the  letter  is  wrongly  given 
in  Lady  Wallace's  translation  of  the  "Letters"  (p.  294)  as  1842, 
instead  of  1S45. 

(     19    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

wished,  and  have  taken  them  out  of  the  book  in 
which  they  were.  They  must,  however,  be  replaced, 
so  do  not  forget  to  send  them  back  to  me.  In 
the  very  first  of  these  letters  (at  the  bottom  of  the 
first  page),  you  probably  allude  to  the  chief  difficulty 
of  the  text,  and  the  very  point  in  which  it  is  still 
most  deficient — universally  accepted  and  impressive 
words  and  thoughts ;  for  of  course  it  is  not  my 
intention  to  compose  what  you  call  '  a  Biblical 
Walpurgis  Night.'  I  have  endeavoured  to  obviate 
this  deficiency  by  the  passages  written  in  Roman 
letters;  but  there  is  still  something  wanting,  even  to 
complete  these,  and  to  obtain  suitable  comprehensive 
words  for  the  subject.  This,  then,  is  the  first  point  to 
which  I  wish  to  direct  your  attention,  and  where  your 
assistance  is  very  necessary.  Secondly,  in  the 
*  dramatic  '  arrangement.  I  cannot  endure  the  half 
operatic  style  of  most  of  the  oratorio  words  (where 
recourse  is  had  to  common  figures — as,  for  example, 
an  Israelite,  a  maiden,  Hannah,  Micaiah,  and  others; 
and  where,  instead  of  saying  '  this  and  that  is  come 
to  pass,'  they  are  made  to  say,  'Alas !  I  see  this  and 
that  happening').  I  consider  this  very  weak,  and 
will  not  follow  such  a  precedent.  However,  the 
everlasting  "he  spake,"  etc.,  is  also  not  right.  Both 
of  these  are  avoided  in  the  text ;  but  this  part  still 
remains  its  weakest  point. 

"Will  you  consider,  too,  whether  it  is  justifiable 
that  no  other  dramatic  figure  besides  Elijah  appears? 
I  think  it  is.  He  ought,  however,  at  the  close,  at 
his  ascension  to  heaven,  to  have  something  to  say 
(or  to  sing).    Can  you  find  appropriate  words  for  this 

(      20     ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


purpose  ?  The  second  part,  moreover,  especially 
towards  the  end,  is  still  in  a  very  unfinished 
condition.  I  have  not  as  yet  got  a  final  chorus; 
what  would  you  advise  it  to  be  ?  Pray  study  the 
whole  carefully,  and  write  in  the  margin  a  great 
many  beautiful  arias,  reflections,  pithy  sentences, 
choruses,  and  all  sorts  of  things,  and  let  me  have 
them  as  soon  as  possible. 

"  Speaking  is  a  very  different  thing  from  writing. 
The  few  minutes  I  lately  passed  with  you  and  yours 
were  more  enlivening  and  cheering  than  ever  so 
many  letters. — Ever  your 

"  Felix  M.-B." 

Early  in  January,  1846,  Mendelssohn  and  Schubring 
met,  and  the  plan  of  the  oratorio  was  doubtless  fully 
discussed  between  them.  Soon  after  his  return  to 
Dessau,  Schubring  returned  Mendelssohn's  MS.  of 
the  "  sketch,"  to  which  he  had  added  a  number 
of  comments  and  suggestions.  This  "sketch"  and 
its  annotations  are  too  long  to  be  inserted  here,  but 
an  extract  or  two  may  be  quoted. 

[Schubring  to  Mendelssohn.]* 

*'  In  oratorios,  chorales  have  produced  the  most 
powerful  effect  on  me  when  they  came  after  other 
pieces  of  music  [Schubring  evidently  knew  Bach's 
"Passion"].  Dignity,  simplicity,  nobility,  are  then 
most  perceptible  in  these  circumstances.     Therefore, 

•   "  Briefvvechsel,"  p.  208. 
(     21     ) 


HISTORY  OF  ME^IDELSSOH>:'S  "ELIJAH." 


it  would  be  better  to  have  no  chorales  at  the  begin- 
ning. .  .  .  The  overture,  picturing  a  famine,  must 
represent  a  period  of  three  years.     .     .     ." 

Upon  the  words  "  Hear  the  prayer  and  petition  of 
Thy  servant,  O  Lord,"  Schubring  remarks  :  "  Here 
it  would  be  well  to  have  a  reference  to  God's  own 
promise  that  He  will  answer  prayer.  (Daniel  ix.,  i8 ; 
Psalm  XXV.,  6;  Isaiah  liv.,  lo,  7).  Then  the  chorale 
— *  Out  of  the  depths  I  cry  to  Thee '  (Aus  tiefer  Noth), 
verses  i  and  4,  increasing  in  intensity.  Pray  do  not 
reject  this  suggestion.  There  are  plenty  of  praying 
people  who  heartily  endorse  the  petition  of  Elijah." 

Schubring's  continued  interest  in  the  oratorio  is 
shown  in  the  following  letter  : — 

[Schubring  to  Mendelssohn.] 

"  Dessau,  February  3,  1846.='' 
**  ...  I  am  curious  to  know  how  you  are 
getting  on  with  '  Elijah.'  I  must  confess  that  I  am 
getting  more  and  more  interested  in  it,  and  greatly 
look  forward  to  it.  Be  sure  and  keep  well  at  it.  If 
some  things  in  the  text  do  not  please  you,  they  will 
come  right  in  their  proper  time." 

In  May  (1846),  only  three  months  before  the  ora- 
torio was  performed  at  Birmingham,  Mendelssohn 
again  sought  the  aid  of  Schubring.     He  wrote  : — 

"  Leipzig,  May  23,  1846.! 
"  Dear  Schubring, — Once  more  I  must  trouble  you 
about  '  Elijah ' ;  I  hope  it  is  for  the  last  time,  and  I 
also  hope  that  you  will  at  some  future  day  derive 

•  "  Briufwechsel,"  p.  219.  t  /'"'/•.  P   -19- 

(     ^~     ) 


THE  LIBRETTO. 


enjoyment  from  it  ;  and  how  glad  I  should  be  if  this 
were  to  be  the  case  !  I  have  now  quite  finished  the 
first  part,  and  six  or  eight  numbers  of  the  second  are 
already  written  down.  In  various  places,  however, 
in  the  second  part  I  require  a  choice  of  really  fine 
Scriptural  passages,  and  I  do  beg  of  you  to  send 
them  to  me  !  I  set  off  to-night  for  the  Rhine,  so 
there  is  no  hurry  about  them  ;  but  in  three  weeks  I 
return  here,  and  then  I  purpose  forthwith  to  take  up 
the  work  and  complete  it.  Therefore,  I  beseech  3'ou 
earnestly  to  send  me  by  that  time  a  rich  harvest  of  fine 
Bible  texts.  You  cannot  believe  how  much  you  have 
helped  me  in  the  first  part ;  this  I  will  tell  you  more 
fully  when  we  meet.  On  this  very  account  I  entreat 
you  to  assist  me  in  beautifying  the  second  part  also. 
I  have  been  able  to  dispense  with  all  historical 
recitative,  and  to  substitute  individual  persons ;  and 
I  have  always  introduced  an  angel,  or  a  chorus  of 
angels,  instead  of  the  Lord.  By  that  means  the 
first  part,  and  the  largest  half  of  the  second,  are  finely 
rounded  off.  Now,  however,  the  second  part  begins 
with  the  words  of  the  Queen,  '  So  let  the  gods  do  to  me, 
and  more  also,'  etc.  (i  Kings  xix.,  2) ;  and  the  next 
words  about  which  I  feel  secure  are  those  in  the  scene 
in  the  wilderness  (same  chapter,  4th  and  following 
verses) ;  but  between  these  I  want,  first,  something 
more  particularly  characteristic  of  the  persecution 
of  the  prophet ;  for  example,  I  should  like  to  have  a 
couple  of  choruses  against  him  to  describe  the  people 
in  their  fickleness  and  their  rising  in  opposition  to 
him  ;  secondly,  a  representation  of  the  third  verse  of 
the  same  passage ;  for  instance,  a  duet  with  the  boy, 
(    23    )  c 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S    "ELIJAH." 

who  might  use  the  words  of  Ruth,  '  Where  thou 
goest,  I  will  go,'  etc.  But  what  is  Elijah  to  say 
before  and  after  this  ?  and  what  could  the  chorus  say  ? 
Can  you  furnish  me  with,  first,  a  duct  and  also  a 
chorus  in  this  sense?  Then,  until  verse  15,  all  is 
in  order ;  but  there  a  passage  is  wanted  for  Elijah, 
something  to  this  effect :  *  Lord,  as  Thou  wilt,  be 
it  unto  me  '  (this  is  not  in  the  Bible,  I  believe  ?)  ;  for 
I  wish  that  after  the  manifestation  of  the  Lord,  he 
should  announce  his  entire  submission,  and  after 
all  this  despondency  declare  himself  to  be  entirely 
resigned  and  eager  to  do  his  duty.  I  am  in  want,  too, 
of  some  words  for  him  to  say  at,  or  before,  or  even 
after,  his  ascension,  and  also  some  words  for  the 
chorus.  The  chorus  sing  the  ascension  historically 
with  the  words  from  2  Kings  ii.,  11,  but  then  there 
ought  to  be  a  couple  of  very  solemn  choruses.  *  God- 
is  gone  up  with  a  shout '  (Psalm  xlvii.,  5)  will  not  do, 
for  it  is  not  the  Lord  but  Elijah  who  went  up  ;  how- 
ever, something  of  that  sort.  At  the  close,  I  should 
wish  to  hear  Elijah's  voice  once  more. 

"  (May  Elisha  sing  soprano  ?  or  is  this  inadmissible, 
as  in  the  same  chapter  he  is  described  as  a  '  bald 
head  '  ?  Seriously  speaking,  must  he  appear  at  the 
ascension  as  a  prophet,  or  can  he  do  so  still  as  a 
youth  ?) 

"  Lastly,  the  passages  which  you  have  sent  for  the 
close  of  the  whole  (especially  the  trio  between  Peter, 
John,  and  James)  are  too  historical  and  too  far 
removed  from  the  grouping  of  the  (Old  Testament) 
story  ;  I  could,  however,  manage  to  get  over  this 
difficulty  by  composing  a  chorus,  instead  of  a  trio  to 
(    24    ) 


THE   LIBRETTO. 


these  words.  It  can  easily  be  done,  and  I  think  that 
I  shall  probably  do  it.  I  return  you  the  sheets  that 
you  may  have  every  necessary  information,  but  pray 
send  them  back  to  me.  You  will  see  from  the  sheets 
that  the  outline  of  Part  11.  as  a  whole  is  quite  settled. 
It  is  only  such  lyrical  passages  (from  which  arias, 
duets,  etc.,  could  be  composed)  which  I  still  require, 
especially  towards  the  end.  Therefore,  pray  get 
your  large  Concordance,  look  up  the  references,  and 
again  bestow  upon  me  some  of  your  time,  that  when 
I  return  three  weeks  hence  at  latest,  let  me  find  your 
answer.     Continue  your  regard  for  your 

"Felix." 

To  the  foregoing,  Schubring  replied  in  a  long  letter, 
from  which  the  following  is  an  extract : — 

[Schubring  to   Mendelssohn.] 

"  Dessau,  June  15,  1846.* 

**     .     .  I  want  to  put  down  a  few  thoughts 

concerning  the  close  of  the  oratorio.  I  see  most 
distinctly  that  the  oratorio  can  have  no  other  than 
a  New  Testament  ending ;  the  Old  Testament 
(Malachi)  and  also  the  New  Testament  demand  this 
in  terms  of  the  most  definite  kind.  Elijah  must  help 
to  transform  the  old  into  the  new  covenant — that 
gives  him  his  great  historical  importance.  Let 
Handel  in  his  Old  Testament  oratorios  move  within 
this  narrow  circle — personages  like  Saul,  etc.,  have 
no  further  meaning;  but  with  Elijah,  with  you,  and  in 
our  day,  it  must  be  otherwise.    Therefore,  I  think  the 

*  "  Briefwechsel,"  p.  222. 

(     25     )  C  2 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 


sense  of  the  ending  must  remain  essentially  as  I  have 
suggested — the  words  themselves  are  immaterial. 

"  Your  enquiry  whether  Elisha  may  sing  soprano 
is  comical.  Such  a  question  should  not  be  put  by 
one  who  has  set  Christ's  words  for  a  chorus.*  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  at  that  time  Elisha  was  no  more 
a  child.  The  word  Knabe  {Knappe)  is  to  be  under- 
stood as  referring  to  service,  not  to  youth,  like  o  T^aic  in 
classical  Greek.  One  who  ploughs  with  twelve  yoke 
of  oxen  (i  Kings  xix.,  19)  is  no  child.  Do  you  know 
any  passage  where  Elisha  is  called  a  boy  ?  I  think 
there  is  none.  The  first  reference  to  him  is  in 
I  Kings  xix.,  19  [?  16] . 

"  I  earnestly  hope  that  some  of  these  suggestions 
may  suit  you,  so  that  the  work  can  get  on.  The 
news  that  Part  I.  is  already  finished  has  given  me 
great  joy." 

A  short  letter  (August  8, 1S46),  in  which  Schubring 
sends  Mendelssohn  a  further  suggestion,  completes 
the  "  Elijah  "  correspondence  between  the  composer 
and  his  clerical  friend. 

Schubring,  in  his  pleasant  **  Reminiscences " 
already  referred  to  (p.  10),  thus  speaks  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  composer  in  compiling  the  book 
of  "  St.  Paul,"  Mendelssohn's  first  oratorio  : — 

"  Subsequently  to  1832,  we  frequently  discussed 
the  subject  of  oratorio  'texts.'  With  regard  to  '  St. 
Paul,'  a  considerable  amount  of  preliminary  labour 

•  The  reference   is  to   "St.   Paul,"   in   which,   at    Schubring's 
suggestion,    Mendelssohn   has   set   the  words,    "  Saul,   Saul,  why 
persecutest  thou  Me  ?  "  for  four-part  female  chorus. 
(    26    ) 


THE   LIBRETTO. 


had  been  got  through  before  I  knew  anything  about 
it.  At  Mendelssohn's  request  I  undertook  a  certain 
further  amount  of  work  of  a  subordinate  kind,  such 
as  connecting  and  introducing  suitable  passages 
and  arias.  .  .  .  He  always  proved  himself  a 
thoughtful  artist,  and  strove  to  obtain  a  clear  appre- 
ciation of  each  separate  point — such,  for  instance,  as 
the  admissibility  of  the  chorale,  of  the  narrative, 
recitatives,  etc.  He  rejected,  also,  much  that  was 
suggested,  being  so  well  acquainted  with  his  Bible, 
that  he  obtained  a  great  deal  of  valuable  material 
himself.  He  was,  however,  extremely  grateful  for 
any  assistance." 

These  words  apply,  though  in  a  larger  measure, 
to  the  part  which  Mendelssohn  took  in  preparing  the 
libretto  of  his  second  oratorio,  "  Elijah."  Attention 
is  specially  directed  to  the  fact  that,  notwithstanding 
the  foregoing  correspondence  between  the  composer, 
Klingemann,  and  Schubring,  Mendelssohn — while 
availing  himself  of  the  help  his  friends  were  willing 
to  give  him — accepted  nothing  without  the  most 
careful  scrutiny.  The  following  extract,  from 
Ferdinand  Hiller's  "  Recollections  of  Mendelssohn  " 
(Macmillan),  may  fitly  conclude  this  chapter. 

"  One  evening,"  says  Hiller,  "  I  found  Felix  deep 
in  the  Bible.  '  Listen,'  he  said ;  and  then  he  read  to 
me  in  a  gentle  and  agitated  voice  the  passage  from 
the  first  Book  of  Kings,  beginning  at  the  words,  'And 
behold,  the  Lord  passed  by.'  *  Would  not  that  be 
splendid  for  an  oratorio? '  he  exclaimed." 

(    27    ) 


CHAPTER   II. 


BIRMINGHAM. 

Mendelssohn  does  not  seem  to  have  done  anything 
with  the  music  of  "  Ehjah "  until  1845.  The 
Committee  of  the  Birmingham  Musical  Festival 
were  then  making  arrangements  for  their  approaching 
triennial  music  meeting,  to  be  held  in  1846. 

The  history  of  the  Birmingham  IMusical  Festival, 
which  dates  back  to  1768,  is  full  of  interest.  The 
artistic  excellence  of  the  Festival,  and  the  enterprise 
which  has  also  so  long  distinguished  it,  have  earned 
for  this  great  music-meeting  a  European  reputa- 
tion. Charity,  in  one  of  its  best  forms — the  relief  of 
the  sick  and  suffering  poor — has  been  richly  sustained 
by  the  benefactions,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
the  munificent  sum  of  £"132,000,  which  the  Festivals 
have  brought  into  the  treasury  of  the  Birmingham 
General  Hospital. 

Mendelssohn  loved  England  and  the  English 
people.  He  was  never  happier  than  when  visiting 
this  country,  and  Birmingham  had  a  warm  corner  in 
his  heart.  His  receptions  at  the  Festivals  of  1837 
and  1840,  when  he  conducted  respectively  his 
■**  St.  Paul  "  and  the  "  Hymn  of  Praise,"  were  most 
(    28    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


cordial,  and  highly  gratifying  to  him.  It  was  there- 
fore quite  natural  that  the  Festival  Committee 
should  look  to  Mendelssohn  for  the  composition  of  z 
work  which,  in  all  probability,  would  give  distinction 
to  their  Festival ;  and,  that  they  should,  if  possible, 
secure,  as  an  extra  attraction,  the  presence  of  the 
composer  as  Conductor.  The  previous  chapter  shows 
that  "  Elijah "  had  occupied  Mendelssohn's  mind 
for  many  years  previous  to  1846 ;  therefore,  it  can 
scarcely  be  said  that  he  composed  the  oratorio 
"  expressly  for  Birmingham,"  as  is  commonly  stated 
and  generally  supposed.  But,  considering  the  com- 
poser's early  death  (in  1847),  it  may  reasonably  be 
assumed  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  Birmingham 
Festival  of  1846,  Mendelssohn's  oratorio  of  "Elijah" 
would  never  have  been  given  to  the  world. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Birmingham  Festival  Com- 
mittee, held  June  11,  1845,  the  following  resolution 
was  carried — doubtless  ncm.  con. : — 

"  That  it  appears  to  this  Committee  desirable  that 
the  services  of  Dr.  Mendelssohn  be  obtained  to  act 
as  Conductor  at  the  next  Festival ;  and  that  he  be 
requested  to  consider  whether  he  can  provide  a  new 
oratorio,  or  other  music,  for  the  occasion." 

This  resolution  was  communicated  to  the  composer 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Moore  (1766 — iS5i),the  indefatigable 
manager  of  the  Festivals  from  1802  till  his  death. 
Mr.  Moore  not  only  caused  the  noble  Town  Hall  to  be 
erected  (in  1834),  but  spared  no  exertions  to  raise  the 
Birmingham  music-meetings  to  their  present  exalted 
position  in  the  realm  of  music.  Mr.  ]\Ioore,  who  had 
early  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Mendelssohn 
(    29    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH. 


family  in  Berlin,  became  very  intimate  with  Felix, 
who  was  always  Mr.  Moore's  guest  during  his  visits 
to  Birmingham. 

Here  is  Mendelssohn's  reply  to  the  Committee's 
invitation  : — 

[To  Joseph  Moore,  Esq.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"  Frankfort,  July  24,  1845. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Have  many  thanks  for  your  very 
kind  and  welcome  letter,  which  I  received  a  few  days 
ago,  and  pray  tell  the  members  of  the  Committee  for 
the  next  Festival  how  truly  indebted  I  feel  to  them 
for  the  honour  they  have  done  me  in  inviting  me  to 
come  over  to  their  meeting  next  year. 

"  I  hope  nothing  shall  prevent  me  to  accept  of  so 
flattering  and  honourable  an  invitation,  and  beg  to 
thank  the  Committee  and  yourself,  my  dear  Sir,  most 
sincerely  for  it. 

"  You  know  with  how  great  a  pleasure  I  have 
always  visited  your  country  ;  the  prospect  of  doing 
so  again  affords  always  a  true  gratification  to  me, 
and  your  kind  and  hospitable  invitation  greatly  adds 
to  the  pleasure  I  may  thus  anticipate.  I  have  only 
to  wish,  then,  that  nothing  may  occur  to  picvent  me 
from  accepting  so  much  kindness  ;  for  it  is  indeed  a 
long  time — more  than  a  year — for  settling  any  plans. 
Pray  let  me  know  at  what  time  you  would  wish  to 
have  a  positive  and  decided  answer — I  mean  at  what 
time  30U  would  consider  my  answer  as  an  engagement, 
which  could  not  be  altered  on  any  account  ;  and  let 
me  also  know  what  you  mean  in  saying  that  I  am  to 
(    30    ) 


JOSEPH   MOORE 
(1766 — 1S51) 

Manager  of  the  Birmingham  Musical  Festivals. 


BIRMINGHAM. 


assist  you  in  selecting  music,  conducting  and  direct- 
ing as  much  as  possible.  As  for  selecting,  of  course 
I  shall  be  most  happy  to  offer  any  advice  which  may 
be  asked  ;  but  do  you  mean  that  I  should  have  to 
conduct  all  the  performances,  or  the  greater  part  of 
them  ?  This,  I  fear,  would  be  a  task  above  my 
powers ;  but  before  I  can  say  anything  more  on 
this  subject,  pray  explain  me  what  your  meaning 
is,  and  name  the  period  about  which  I  asked  you 
before. 

"  Since  some  time  I  have  begun  an  oratorio,*  and 
hope  I  shall  be  able  to  bring  it  out  for  the  first  time 
at  your  Festival ;  but  it  is  still  a  mere  beginning,  and 
I  cannot  yet  give  you  any  promise  as  to  my  finishing 
it  in  time. 

"  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Webbt  some  months  ago,  to 
tell  him  that  I  had  already  begun  to  work  on  another 
subject,  and  that  I  could  not  avail  myself  of  his  poem 
for  that  reason,  much  as  I  regretted  it.  If  my 
oratorio  should  be  ready  in  time  (as  I  hope  it  will), 
there  would  be  no  occasion  for  any  other  things  of 
mine  at  the  morning  performances ;  but  if  I  should 
not  be  able  to  finish  it,  I  have  several  other  things 
of  mine  which  I  could  propose  in  its  stead,  either  fo 
the  morning  or  evening  concerts. 

"  The  '  (Edipus  '  (which  is  to  be  performed  next 
month  at  Potsdam)  will  scarcely  do  for  any  concert, 
I  am  afraid  ;  but,  as  I  said,  I  have  other  things, 

*  "  Elijah.'' 

t  The  Rev.  John  Webb,  M.A.  (1776 — 1869^  often  referred  to  as 

"  the  friend  of  the  charity  "—i.e.,  the  Birmingham  General  Hospital. 

He  submitted  to  Mendelssohn  the   text  of    an   oratorio,    entitled 

"Rachel  in  Ramah,"  which  is  the  "poem"  referred  to  in  this  letter. 

(     31     ) 


HISTORY   OF  ^fENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH" 

"  I  hear  with  much  pleasure  that  you  still  go  on  with 
improvements  in  your  splendid  organ ;  but  if  I  shall 
play  it  with  pleasure,  I  must  have  a  lighter  touch,  and 
broader  keys  in  the  pedals  than  what  I  found  there 
last  year  [?  time] .  I  am  sure  the  pedals  from  C 
up  to  D  {two  octaves  and  a  note)  are  quite  enough, 
and  it  could  then  be  contrived  that  the  keys  have  the 
breadth  which  feet  and  boots  usually  require.  And 
as  for  the  heavy  touch,  I  am  sure  that  I  admired  your 
organist  very  much  who  was  able  to  play  a  Fugue  on 
them.  I  am  afraid  I  would  not  have  strength  enough 
to  do  so,  without  a  very  long  previous  practice. 
Perhaps  you  may  speak  to  Mr.  Hill  [the  builder  of 
the  organ]  of  these  observations,  and  hear  what  he 
says  to  them. 

•  •••••••• 

"  Believe  me  always,  very  truly  yours, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

On  August  26  (exactly  a  year  before  "Elijah"  was 
first  performed)  the  Orchestral  Committee  resolved 
to  recommend  to  the  Musical  Committee  "That  Dr. 
Mendelssohn  Bartholdy  be  requested  to  compose 
a  performance  {sic)  for  the  Wednesday  morning,  and 
to  conduct  all  the  morning  performances."  The 
Musical  Committee  at  once  adopted  this  recommen- 
dation, and  communicated  its  purport  to  Mendelssohn, 
who  replied  as  follows  : — 

[To  Joseph  Mooke,  Esq.] 

{Written  in  English.]  "  Leipzig,  October  19,  1845. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  received  your  first  letter  after  an 

absence  of  a  few  weeks,  and  should  have  answered  it 

(    32    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


long  ago,  for  you  know  with  how  much  pleasure  I 
read  it,  and  how  truly  indebted  I  felt  to  you  and  the 
Committee  for  continuing  your  very  kind  feeling 
towards  me !  But  I  was  uncertain  which  answer  I 
had  to  give  to  some  of  the  most  important  points, 
and  this  uncertainty  is  still  the  same  ;  yet  I  must 
write,  as  I  receive  to-day  your  second  letter,  which 
shows  your  wish  to  have  an  immediate  answer. 

"  The  principal  point  about  which  I  am  uncertain 
is  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  have  my  new  oratorio 
ready  in  time  for  your  Festival,  There  would  have 
been  no  doubt  of  it,  had  I  been  able  to  continue 
my  work  quietly  at  Frankfort,  as  I  began  it.  But 
now  there  are  so  many  businesses  here,  at  Dresden, 
and  at  Berlin,  which  took  up  all  my  leisure  time 
during  the  last  months,  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  go 
on  with  it.  If  the  businesses  continue  as  they  have 
begun  (which,  however,  I  hope  they  will  not),  I  shall 
not  be  able  to  finish  my  oratorio  in  time.  If  they  do 
not  continue,  I  shall  finish  it  in  time.  But  during 
this  uncertainty  I  am  not  able  to  make  an  engage- 
ment as  to  the  first  performance  of  this  work. 

"  The  second  point  is  that  I  am  afraid  I  shall  not 
be  strong  enough  to  go  through  the  office  of  being 
sole  conductor  of  the  morning  performances  at  such 
a  Festival  as  yours  is.  In  former  years  I  had  only 
to  conduct  my  compositions,  not  the  other  pieces  of 
your  programme  ;  and  yet  I  recollect  how  excited  and 
fatigued  I  always  felt  after  the  Festival  was  over. 
Therefore,  I  hesitate  to  accept  of  the  honour  which 
you  intend  doing  me,  and  which  I  fear  I  should  not 
be  able  to  go  through,  although  I  sincerely  wished  it. 
(    33    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   ••ELIJAH." 

**  The  question  now  is  whether  you  would  want 
me  yet  (to  come  to  the  Festival  without  having 
a  certainty  as  to  these  two  points,  and  even  with 
the  possibility  of  my  answering  them  at  last  in  the 
negative),  or  whether  you  consider  them  as  so 
essential  that  the  whole  idea  of  my  coming  over 
(much  as  I  would  regret  it)  must  be  given  up  with 
them. 

"  I  beg  you  will  give  me  an  answer  to  this 
question  as  soon  as  you  conveniently  can.  If  the 
first  should  be  the  case  (and  I  hope  you  fully  know 
how  glad  I  should  be  to  see  you  again,  and  to  come), 
I  would  set  at  work  as  hard  as  I  could  whenever  any 
leisure  is  left  me  to  finish  my  new  piece;  and  at  any 
rate  I  should  propose  several  others  (although  not  sa 
extensive  ones)  for  the  morning  performances.  But 
if  the  second  should  be  the  case,  I  sincerely  hope  and 
trust  you  would  be  convinced  of  my  deep  regret,  and 
would  allow  me  another  year  to  enjoy  of  an  honour 
and  a  treat  which  I  should  have  been  obliged  to  give 
up  so  much  against  my  wishes  this  time.  Be  it  as  it 
may,  I  beg  you  will  present  my  best  and  most 
sincere  thanks  to  the  Committee,  and  I  beg  you  will 
think  of  me,  m}-  dear  Sir,  as  of  one  who  shall 
always  feel  true  gratitude  and  thankfulness  for  all  the 
kindness  and  friendship  you  have  shown  to  him  ! 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  Felix  MENDELSSOIIiN-BARTHOLDV." 

Mendelssohn  then  set  vigorously  to  work  at  the 
music.     Miss   Dolb}-,  afterwards   Madame  Sainton- 
(    34     ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


Dolby,  made  her  first  appearance  at  the  Leipzig 
Gewandhaus  Concerts,  for  which  she  had  been 
engaged  by  Mendelssohn,  on  October  25,  1845  ;  and 
she  records  the  progress  of  the  new  oratorio  in  the 
following  anecdote.  "  We  were  dining,"  she  says, 
"at  Dr.  Hartel's,  and  were  all  seated  at  the  table. 
The  guests  included  Dr.  and  Madame  Schumann  ; 
but  Mendelssohn,  who  was  also  invited,  came  late. 
A  vacant  place  had  been  left  for  him  by  my  side.  He 
arrived  after  the  soup  had  been  served,  and  excused 
himself  by  saying  he  had  been  very  busy  with  his 
oratorio ;  and  then  turning  to  me  he  said,  *  I  have 
sketched  the  bass  part,  and  now  for  the  contralto.' 
'  Oh  !  '  I  exclaimed,  '  do  tell  me  what  that  will  be 
like,  because  I  am  specially  interested  in  that  part.' 
*  Never  fear,'  he  answered,  '  it  will  suit  you  very 
well,  for  it  is  a  true  woman's  part — half  an  angel, 
half  a  devil.'  I  did  not  know  whether  to  take  that 
as  a  compliment,  but  we  had  a  good  laugh  over  it."* 
Shortly  afterwards  Jenny  Lind  also  made  her  first 
appearance  at  the  Gewandhaus  ;  and  it  may  here  be 
mentioned  that  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that 
Mendelssohn  wrote  the  soprano  part  of  his  "  Elijah  " 
expressly  for  the  "  Swedish  Nightingale."  It  is 
stated  in  the  "  Memoir"  of  Jenny  Lind  that  amongst 
the  beautiful  notes  of  her  splendid  voice,  "  the  upper 
F  sharp  possessed  an  irresistible  charm  "  for  Mendels- 
sohn. He  often  spoke  of  it  with  admiration,  and 
fully  remembered  that  "  wonderful  F  sharp,"  when 

*  In  case  the  point  of  Mendelssohn's  joke  should  be  missed  by 
anyone,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  contralto  singer  in  "  Elijah" 
takes  the  parts  of  both  the  Angel  and  Jezebel,  the  Queen. 
(     35     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHW'S    •'ELIJAH." 

he  was  writing  the  soprano  part  of  his  "  EHjah." 
"  He  used  it  with  striking  effect,  as  the  initial  note 
of  the  first  phrase  in  '  Hear  ye,  Israel,'  and  in  many 
other  passages,  in  which  it  rings  like  a  trumpet-call 
throughout  the  air."*  This  will  account  for 
Mendelssohn's  having  set  '*  Hear  ye,  Israel,"  in  the 
keys  of  B  minor  and  B  major — the  dominant  note  of 
which,  and  the  predominating  note  of  the  air,  is  the 
said  "  F  sharp." 

Mendelssohn  definitely  accepted  the  invitation  of 
the  Birmingham  Committee  in  the  following  letter, 
which,  however,  still  left  the  new  oratorio  an  **  open 
question  "  : — 

[To  Joseph  Moore,  Esq.] 

[Written  in  English. \ 

"  Leipzig,  December  ii,  1845. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Many  thanks  for  your  very  kind 
letter.  I  have  now  made  up  my  mind  to  come  to 
Birmingham  in  August  ;  but  I  wish  to  conduct  only 
my  own  music,  as  in  former  years,  and  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  other  parts  of  the  programme.  I 
cannot  yet  give  any  promise  as  to  my  new  oratorio  ; 
but  in  a  month  or  two  I  shall  be  able  to  tell  you  for 
certain  whether,  and  when,  I  can  send  it.  If  I 
cannot,  I  would  try  to  propose  something  else  of  my 
new  music.  You  want  something,  whether  new  or 
old,  for  the  Friday  :  would  the  '  Walpurgisnacht '  do 
for  it  ?  I  conducted  it  only  once  in  England,  at  the 
last  Philharmonic,  1844,  and  they  seemed  to  like  it 

•  "  Memoir  of  Madame  Jenny  Lind-Goldschmidt."     By  H.  Scott 
HollandandW.  S.  Rockstro.  London:  John  Murray(r89i).  II.p.  243. 
(    36    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


then.  Or  would  the  music  to  the  *  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream  '  be  the  thing  ?  My  Symphony  in  A 
minor,  about  which  you  questioned  me  in  one  of 
your  former  letters,  lasts  about  thirty-five  to  forty 
minutes. 

"And  if  3'ou  can  have  Jenny  Lind  for  the  Festival, 
by  all  means  have  her,  for  we  have  now  no  singer  on 
the  Continent  who  is  to  be  compared  to  her.  But 
although  she  has  no  fixed  engagement,  neither  at 
Berlin  nor  elsewhere,  I  fear  it  will  be  difficult  to  make 
her  come,  as  they  are  all  mad  about  her,  and  force 
her  into  more  engagements  than  she  can  accept. 
And  Pischek  would  also  be  the  man,  I  am  sure!  But 
he  is  known  already  in  England  ;  and  if  you  get  Jenny 
Lind,  it  will  be  such  a  novelty  at  the  same  time,  and 
will  give  a  new  character  to  the  Festival.  Now, 
before  all,  I  hope  that  these  lines  may  find  you  in 
better  health,  that  your  indisposition  will  be  forgotten 
long  before  they  arrive,  and  that  I  may  meet  you 
again  in  perfect  strength  and  happiness. 


"Yours  very  truly, 
Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


The  Committee  at  once  acted  upon  Mendelssohn's 
suggestion  that  Jenny  Lind  should  be  invited  to  sing; 
and  at  their  meeting  on  December  26  resolved — 
"That  Mr.  Moore  be  requested  to  use  his  endeavours 
to  engage  Jenny  Lind,  and  impress  upon  Mendelssohn 
the  importance  of  completing  his  new  oratorio." 
Moore  evidently  asked  Mendelssohn  to  be  the 
{    37    ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

negotiator  between  the  Committee  and  Jenny  Lind, 
judging  from  the  following  letter  :  — 

[To  Joseph  Moore,  Esq.] 

[Written  in  Ettglish.] 

"  Leipzig,  January  15,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Yesterday  I  received  your  letter 

of  the  7th,  and  answer  it  as  early  as  I  can.     My 

oratorio  is  in  progress,  and  becomes  every  day  more 

developed  ;  but  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  finish  it 

in  time  for  your  preparations  is  another  question, 

which  I  sh.all  not  be  able  to  answer  positively  before 

two  months  are  elapsed.     It  will  then  be  the  middle 

of  March,  more  than  five  months  before  the  period  of 

your  Festival,  and  if  I  should  fail  in  my  efforts  of 

ending  my  work  in  time   (which  I  fully  hope  and 

trust  to  do),  there  will  be  ample  time  for  you  to 

make  it  up  by  something  else.     Your  question  about 

Jenny  Lind  is  very  important  to  the  success  of  the 

Festival,  as  I  consider  her,  without   hesitation,  as 

the  first  singer  of  the  day,  and  perhaps  of  many  days 

to   come.      But    I    am    not   able   to   undertake    the 

negotiation  which  your  chairman  would  entrust  me 

with,  as  I  know  how  much  she  is  surrounded  with 

engagements  of  all  sorts,  and  how  little  likely  it  is 

that  I  could  get  anything  like  a  positive  answer  from 

her,  unless  a  formal  application  from  the  Committee 

had  previously  been  made  to  her.     It  is  by  no  means 

certain  that  such  an  application  would  be  successful, 

but   at   any   rate  I  think  it  the  only  way,  if  there  is 

one.     When   you    formally  wrote   to  me   about   the 

same  subject,  I  was  at  Berlin,  and  spoke  to  her  about 

(    38   ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


it,  but  then  she  said  she  should  not  go  to  England, 
she  had  declined  it  already  twice,  it  was  quite 
impossible,  etc.,  etc. ;  so  that  I  am  sure  that 
she  will  not  come  to  London  at  least  (for  I  did  not 
make  any  direct  enquiries  about  Birmingham  and 
the  Festival  at  that  time).  When  you  have  determined 
what  you  will  do,  and  if  you  have  written,  or  if 
another  (perhaps  at  Berlin)  has  negotiated  for  you, 
pray  let  me  know  of  it,  and  I  could  then,  perhaps, 
be  of  some  use  in  removing  some  difficulties  which 
might  still  arise,  and  in  persuading  her  to  accept  the 
Festival,  which  I  should  be  most  happy  to  do.  But 
at  present,  I  am  afraid,  by  beginning  to  talk  or 
correspond  with  Jenny  Lind  about  this  subject,  I 
would  do  your  cause  no  good,  and  I  therefore  beg  to 
be  excused. 

"  Truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


Nothing  daunted,  the  Committee  at  their  next 
meeting  (January  30,  1S46)  instructed  Moore  to 
ask  Moscheles  (who  had  been  appointed  Conductor- 
in-chief  of  the  Festival)  to  use  his  influence  with 
Jenny  Lind.  Although  a  good  deal  of  pressure 
seems  to  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  her  to 
visit  Birmingham  for  the  purpose  of  singing  in  the 
first  performance  of  "  Elijah,"  it  was  of  no  avail. 
The  reason  of  Jenny  Lind's  inability  to  come  to 
England  at  that  time  may  be  traced  to  her  fear 
of  Mr.  Alfred  Bunn,  the  opera  manager.  Those 
who  wish  to  follow  the  circumstances  of  that 
(    39    )  D 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S    -  ELIJAH." 

unpleasant  episode  in  the  great  singer's  career  will 
find  the  story  fully  told  in  the  chapter  headed 
"  The  Bunn  Contract,"  in  Messrs.  Holland  and 
Rockstro's  "  Memoir  of  Jenny  Lind-Goldschmidt," 
Vol.  I.,  pp.  228  and  290;  also  Vol.  II.,  pp.  39  and  19S. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  composition  made  slow 
progress,  and  the  fate  of  the  oratorio  was  decidedly 
precarious.  On  April  20,  four  months  before  the 
Festival,  Mendelssohn  wrote  to  Moscheles  suggesting 
that  "  Athalie  "  should  be  an  alternative  to  "  Elijah." 
To  Hauser,  of  Vienna,  he  wrote:  "  I  sit,  over  both 
my  ears,  in  my  '  Elijah,'  and  if  it  only  turns  out  half 
as  good  as  I  often  think  it  will,  I  shall  be  glad 
indeed!  The  first  part  will  be  quite  finished  within 
the  next  few  days,  and  a  goodly  portion  of  the 
second  part  also.  I  like  nothing  more  than  to  spend 
the  whole  day  in  writing  the  notes  down,  and  I 
often  come  so  late  to  dinner  that  the  children 
come  to  my  room  to  fetch  me,  and  drag  me  out  by 
main  force."* 

Writing  to  Moscheles,  Mendelssohn  says  :  *'  I 
absolutely  require  a  first-rate  high  baritone.  Can 
such  an  one  be  found?"  Again:  "If,  after  all,  there 
is  no  baritone  to  be  got,  the  whole  thing  falls  to  the 
ground."  To  Jenny  Lind:  "Sometimes,  in  my  room, 
I  have  jumped  up  to  the  ceiling  when  it  seemed  to 
promise  so  very  well.  (Indeed,  I  shall  be  but  too 
glad  if  it  turns  out  only  half  as  good  as  it  now 
appears  to  me.)  But  I  am  getting  a  little  confused, 
through  writing  down,  during  the  last  few  weeks,  the 
immense  number  of  notes  that  I  previously  had  in  my 

•  "  Memcii  of  Madame  Jenny  Lind-Goldschmidt,"  I.,  402. 
(    40    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


head,  and  working  them  now  and  then  upon  the 
paper  into  a  piece,  though  not  quite  in  the  proper 
order,  one  after  another."*  To  Devrient :  "  I  am 
working  day  and  night  at  my  new  oratorio  to  send  to 
England,  otherwise  it  will  not  be  in  time."  To  his 
sister  Fanny:  *'  I  am  more  driven  than  ever,  as  an 
immense  piece  of  *  Elijah  '  is  not  yet  copied,  whilst 
the  first  part  is  already  in  rehearsal  in  England. 
.  .  .  The  first  thing  to-morrow  morning  I  shall 
shut  myself  up,  and  decline  to  budge  till  '  Elijah  '  is 
finished,  which  may  not  be  for  another  three  weeks, 
and  that  I  also  swear  by  my  beard." 

The  anxiety  of  the  Birmingham  Committee  was 
somewhat  relieved  by  the  receipt  of  the  following 
letter  from  the  composer  :  — 

[To  Joseph   Moore,   Esq.] 

\  Written  in  English.] 

"  Leipzig,  May  8,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  write  these  lines  to  inform  you 
that  I  intend  to  send  the  whole  of  the  first  part  of 
my  oratorio  to  Mr.  Moscheles  in  the  course  of  the 
next  fortnight.  It  is  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
two  ;  the  choruses  from  the  second  part  will  be  in 
England  towards  the  beginning  of  July,  and  the  rest 
of  the  whole  in  the  middle  of  that  month.  All  this, 
Deo  volente. 

*'  I  wish  Mr.  Bartholomew,  in  London,  who  has 
translated  several  other  vocal  pieces  of  mine,  would 
undertake  also  this  ;  and  I  wish  he  might  take  advice 
•  "  Memoir  of  Madame  Jenny  Lind-Goldschmidt,"  L,  392. 

(      41      )  D   2 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

of  my  friend,  Mr.  Klingemann,  who  understands  both 
languages  thoroughly,  and  who  understands  my 
music  better  than  both  languages. 

"  The  most  essential  condition  for  my  oratorio  is 
a  most  excellent  barytone  singer — a  man  like 
Pischek,  or  Staudigl,  or  Oberhofer.  Will  you  have 
such  am.. 

[Here  the  letter  is  torn  away,  and  concluded  in  a 
lady's  handwriting,  thus :] 

"  Believe  me  always  yours  truly, 
**  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

The  summer  of  1846  was  very  hot,  and  Mendels- 
sohn often  became  exhausted  overthe  close  application 
which  he  gave  to  his  work.  "  I  have  lived  the  life  of  a 
marmot,"  he  writes,  but  he  kept  his  time.  The 
complete  Part  I.  was  despatched  from  Leipzig 
on  May  23.  He  was  then  interrupted  in  the  process 
of  composition  for  three  weeks  by  having  to 
conduct  the  Lower  Rhine  Musical  Festival  at  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  (May  31  to  June  2)  ;*  then  a  Soiree  at 
Diisseldorf ;  after  that  the  production  of  his  "  Lauda 
Sion,"  at  Liege,  on  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  June 
II  ;  and  finally  a  great  Choral  Festival  at  Cologne — 
"an  enormous  '  Sangerfest,'  "  he  writes,  of  "  nearly 
2,000  men,  which  I  have  also  to  direct."  For  this 
Mendelssohn     had     composed     a     Festgesang     on 

•  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Mendelssohn  omitted  the  two 
"redundant  bars"  in  the  Scherzo  of  Beethoven's  C  minor  Sym- 
phony. See  Sir  George  Grove's  forthcoming  work  on  "  Beethoven," 
and  the  chapter  on  the  C  minor  Symphony;  also  the  "  Dictionary 
of  Music  and  Musicians,"  Vol  II.,  2S8a. 
(    42    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


Schiller's    "An    die   Kunstler "    ("To   the    Sons  of 
Art"),  Op.  68. 

On  his  return  to  Leipzig,  Mendelssohn  heard  that 
some  members  of  the  Philharmonic  band,  who  had 
been  discourteous  to  him  during  his  previous  visit  to 
London,  were  not  to  be  engaged  for  the  Birmingham 
Festival.  He  at  once  wrote  off  to  Moscheles  in  the 
following  emphatic  terms  : — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Moscheles.] 

Leipzig,  Jutte  26,  1846.* 

"  My  dear  Friend, — The  occasion  of  these  lines  is 
a  passage  in  Mr.  Moore's  letter,  in  which  he  says  : 
'  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  Philharmonic  band  are 
engaged  [for  Birmingham]  ;  a  few  only  are  left  out 
who  made  themselves  unpleasant  when  you  were 
there.'! 

"  Now,  I  strongly  object  to  this  restriction  ;  and 
as  I  fancy  you  can  exercise  your  authority  in  the 
matter,  I  address  my  protest  to  you,  and  beg  you  10 
communicate  it  to  Mr.  Moore.  There  is  nothing  I 
hate  more  than  the  reviving  of  bygone  disputes ;  it 
is  bad  enough  that  they  should  have  occurred.  This 
one  of  the  Philharmonic  is,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
dead  and  buried,  and  must  on  no  account  have  any 
influence  on  the  selection  made  for  the  Birmingham 
Festival.  If  men  are  to  be  rejected  because  they 
are  incompetent,  that  is  not  my  business  and  I  have 
nothing  to  say  in  the  matter;  but  if  it  is  because 

*  From  "Letters  of  Mendelssohn  to  L  and  C.  Moscheles,"  by 
Felix  Moscheles  (Triibner),  p.  274. 

f  At  a  Philharmonic  rehearsal  in  1844. 
(     43     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MESDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

'  they  made  themselves  unpleasant  when  I  was 
there,*  I  consider  that  an  injustice,  against  which  I 
protest.  Any  further  disturbance  on  the  part  of  these 
gentlemen,  I  am  sure,  is  not  to  be  feared.  That  at 
least  is  my  belief,  shared  probably  by  all  concerned. 
So  you  will  sincerely  oblige  me  by  having  the  selection 
made  exactly  as  if  I  were  not  coming  to  England. 
The  only  consideration  that  can  be  shown  me  is  not 
to  take  me  into  consideration  at  all.  You  will  do 
me  a  favour  by  putting  this  very  strongly  to  Mr. 
Moore,  and  requesting  him  to  let  the  matter  drop. 
If  my  wishes  are  to  be  complied  with,  the  incident 
must  herewith  end.  Should  it  be  otherwise,  I  shall 
write  a  dozen  letters  in  protest  against  what 
1  should  consider  a  spirit  of  vindictiveness.  Excuse 
all  this. — Ever  yours, 

"Felix." 

Two  months  before  the  performance  Mendelssohn 
reports  that  "an  immense  piece  of  '  Elijah'  is  not 
yet  copied  "  ;  and  he  writes  to  Moscheles  to  the 
effect  that  as  the  touch  of  the  Birmingham  organ 
was  so  very  heavy  the  last  time  he  played,  he 
would  not  play  one  of  his  Sonatas  at  the  Festival 
until  he  had  first  tried  the  organ ;  also  that  when 
*'  St.  Paul "  was  given  in  1837,  it  was  followed 
by  a  selection  from  Handel's  Oratorios.  *'  I 
much  disapproved  of  this,"  he  says,  "and  trust  it 
is  not  to  be  the  case  this  time."  He  further 
adds  that  "  Elijah "  will  take  two  hours  in  per- 
formance ;  and  that  if  there  must  be  something 
added  to  occupy  the  orthodox  three  hours,  it  should 
(    44    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


be  a  short  complete  work :  "  but,  however  this 
may  be,"  he  says,  "  don't  let  us  have  a  ragout  after- 
wards." 

Meanwhile  the  Birmingham  Committee  were 
completing  their  arrangements.  The  fee  paid  to 
Mendelssohn  for  his  attendance  at  the  Festival  was 
200  guineas.  Madame  Caradori-Allan  (the  soprano) 
received  a  similar  amount.  Other  fees  were : — 
Staudigl  (the  original  Elijah),  150  guineas ;  John 
Braham  (then  sixty-eight  years  old),  for  one  morning 
performance  ("The  Messiah"), ^50 ;  Dr.  Gauntlett,  as 
solo  organist  and  organist  in  "  Elijah,"  ^30.  Cooke 
and  Willy,  violinists,  (leaders),  £40  and  ;{"2o 
respectively;  Dando,  violinist,  ;£"ii  ;  thirty-eight 
chorus-singers  from  London,  £6  each,  instead  of  £'/, 
as  at  the  previous  Festival,  the  difference  being  a 
free  railway  ticket. 

The  Committee  had  some  financial  difficulty  with 
the  "  Italian  Party,"  which  seemed  to  be  an  indis- 
pensable and  expensive  feature  of  these  Festivals. 
Mario,  when  treating  for  himself,  doubled  his  former 
terms !  Mr.  Beale,  the  agent  of  the  "  Italian 
Party,"  asked  for  Grisi,  380  guineas  ;  Mario,  320  ; 
Lablache,  75;  and  Benedict,  50;  making  a  total  of 
825  guineas  for  the  three  singers  and  their  accom- 
panist. This  amount  alarmed  the  Committee,  who 
resolved:  "That  these  exorbitant  terms  be  rejected, 
and  that,  the  services  of  Benedict  not  being  required, 
an  offer  of  ;if700  be  made  for  the  other  three." 
The  fee  of  ;^ioo  paid  to  Moscheles  as  Conductor- 
in-chief  of  the  Festival,  and  that  of  £"210  to 
Mendelssohn,  cannot  be  considered  exorbitant, 
(    45    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•  ELIJAH.' 


when  compared  with  the  amounts  paid  to  the  solo 
vocalists. 

The  choral  rehearsals  were  conducted  by  Mr. 
James  Stimpson,  the  chorus-master  of  the  Festival. 
It  was  not  until  after  the  middle  of  June,  only  two 
months  before  the  Festival,  that  Mr.  Stimpson 
received  the  first  instalment  of  the  chorus  parts. 
Although  these  were  printed  (all  the  rest  of  the 
oratorio  was  sung  and  played  from  MS.  copies),  the 
deciphering  of  them  was  no.  easy  matter,  owing  to 
the  many  alterations — black,  red,  and  blue  ink  being 
freely  used  to  indicate  the  alterations  and  re-altera- 
tions in  the  parts.  Mr.  John  Bragg,  who  sang  tenor 
in  the  chorus  in  1846  and  at  several  Festivals  since, 
relates  the  following  incident  in  connection  with  the 
first  rehearsal  of  "  Thanks  be  to  God."  Mr.  Bragg 
says  :  "  At  the  passage  beginning  *  But  the  Lord,' 
which  was  an  entirely  new  one  to  choralists,  Mr. 
Stimpson  rapped  his  desk  and  asked  for  the  separate 
voice  parts  one  after  another.  He  then  compared 
them  with  his  own  MS.  copy  of  the  score,  and,  being 
evidently  puzzled,  said  'Well,  gentlemen,  the  voice 
parts  are  right,  and  we  must  sing  it  so.'  And  so  it 
was  sung,"  adds  the  veteran  Mr,  Bragg,  "then  and 
ever  after;  and  one  of  the  greatest  gems  in  the  work 
shone  out  for  the  first  time.  Great  was  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  chorus  when  they  had  completed 
the  passage  and  realised  the  full  effect  of  this 
masterly  modulation." 

Mr.  Stimpson  had  a  most  arduous  task  in  prepar- 
ing the  choruses  in  the  limited  time  at  his  disposal. 
As  late  as  August  3,  twenty-three  days  before  the 
(    4(3    ) 


BIRMINGHAM. 


performance,  the  arrival  of  the  first  two  choruses  of 
Part  II.  was  reported,  and  the  last  chorus  was  not 
received  till  nine  days  before  the  Festival  !  But 
the  Birmingham  singers  were  on  their  mettle.  They 
enjoyed  rehearsing  the  work,  and  they  worthily 
maintained  those  splendid  choral  traditions  which 
have  so  eminently  distinguished  the  Birmingham 
Musical  Festival. 


(    47    ) 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  ENGLISH  TRANSLATION. 

The  music  of  "  Elijah  "  was  composed  to  German 
words  ;  an  English  version  was  therefore  necessary. 
Mendelssohn  had  no  hesitation  in  assigning  the  task 
of  making  the  English  translation  to  Mr.  Bartholomew 
— "  the  translator /)a;'  excellence,'"  as  he  called  him — 
who  is  so  well  known  as  the  translator  or  adaptor  of 
Mendelssohn's  "  Athalie,"  **  Antigone,"  "  CEdipus," 
"  Lauda  Sion,"  "  Walpurgis  Night,"  the  Finale  to 
**  Loreley,"  "  Christus,"  and  many  of  his  songs  and 
part-songs.  Bartholomew  also  supplied  the  words 
of  "  Hear  my  Prayer,"  "  which,"  he  says,  "  its  dear 
and  lamented  author  composed  for  my  paraphrastic 
version  of  the  55th  Psalm." 

William  Bartholomew  (1793 — 1867)  was  "  a  man 
of  many  accomplishments — chemist,  violin  player, 
and  excellent  flower  painter."  In  1841  he  submitted 
to  Mendelssohn  the  libretto  of  a  fairy  opera,  entitled 
"  Christmas  Night's  Dream  "  ;  and  in  this  way  an 
acquaintance  commenced  which  developed  into  a 
{    48    ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


close  friendship  between  the  two  men — a  friendship 
severed  only  by  death. 

Here  is  Mendelssohn's  first  letter  to  Bartholomew 
on  the  subject  of  "  Elijah." 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"  Leipzig,  May  ii,  1846.* 

**  My  dear  Sir, — Many  thanks  for  your  kind  letter 
of  the  4th,  to  which  I  hasten  to  reply,  and  to  tell 
you  that  the  oratorio  for  the  Birmingham  Festival 
is  not  the  '  Athalie  '  (nor  the  *  CEdipus,'  of  course), 
but  a  much  greater,  and  (to  me)  more  important  work 
than  both  together ;  that  it  is  not  quite  yet  finished, 
but  that  I  write  continually  to  finish  it  in  time ;  and 
that  I  intend  sending  over  the  first  part  (the  longest  of 
the  two  it  will  have)  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  or 
twelve  days.  I  asked  Mr.  Moore  from  Birmingham 
to  have  it  translated  by  you,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he 
will  communicate  with  you  about  it  as  soon  as  he 
gets  my  letter,  which  I  wrote  four  or  five  days  ago ; 
and  I  beg  you  will  be  good  enough,  if  you  can  undertake 
it,  to  try  to  find  some  leisure  time  towards  the  end 
of  this  month,  that  the  Choral  parts  with  English 
words  may  be  as  soon  as  possible  in  the  hands  of  the 
Chorus  singers.  And  pray  give  it  your  best  English 
words,  for  till  now  I  feel  so  much  more  interest  in 

*  The  original  autograph  of  this  letter  is  now  in  the  Library 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Music.     The  "  important  work  "  referred  to 
in  the  letter  is,  of  course,  the  oratorio  of  "  Elijah." 
(    49    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


this  work,  than  for  my  others — and  I  only  wish  it 
may  last  so  with  me. 

"  Always  very  truly  yours, 
**  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


The  music  of  "  Elijah  "  came  to  Bartholomew  from 
Mendelssohn  in  instalments.  The  English  trans- 
lation was  the  subject  of  a  long  and  elaborate 
correspondence  between  the  composer  and  his 
translator  in  London.  Both  were  unsparing  in 
the  labour  they  bestowed  upon  the  translation. 
The  following  letters  show  that  Mendelssohn  went 
through  the  English  version  bar  by  bar,  note  by  note, 
syllable  by  syllable,  with  an  attention  to  detail  which 
might  be  termed  microscopic.  These  letters,  written 
in  Mendelssohn's  own  English,  and  the  majority  of 
which  are  now  made  public  for  the  first  time,  cannot 
fail  to  be  of  interest.* 

A  letter  from  Bartholomew  to  Mendelssohn  may, 
however,  first  be  quoted,  to  show  the  spirit  in  which 
the  English  translator  discharged  his  congenial 
task.f 

*  With  two  exceptions,  the  letters  from  Mendelssohn  to 
Bartholomew  quoted  in  this  "  History  "  are  now  in  my  possession. 

f  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Frau  Geheimrath  Wach,  of  Leipzig 
(Mendelssohn's  younger  daughter),  and  her  daughter,  for  their 
kindness  in  copying  the  long  correspondence  on  "  Elijah  "  from 
Bartholomew  to  Mendelssohn.  These  letters  are  still  carefully 
treasured  in  the  "27  large  green  volumes"  in  which  Mendelssohn 
"  preserved  all  the  letters  he  received,  and  stuck  them  in  with  his 
own  hands." 

(     50    ) 


THE    ENGLISH    TRANSLATION. 


[Bartholomew  to   Mendelssohn.] 
"  2,  Walcot  Place, 

"  Hackney,  London,  June  23,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  have  at  last,  after  toiling  day 
and  night,  got  through  the  first  portion  of  your  noble 
oratorio.  I  wish  I  could  render  words  more  worthy 
of  such  music.  My  endeavour  has  been  to  keep 
them  as  scriptural  as  possible  ;  and  in  order  that  you 
may  be  able  to  judge  how  far  I  have  succeeded,  do 
me  the  favour  to  refer  to  the  verses  notified  in  an 
English  version  of  the  Bible.  When  the  second 
part,  or  the  parts  of  that,  as  they  are  completed,  are 
sent,  I  hope  we  shall  have  the  words  in  the  score 
written  in  letters  which  are  readable  to  us.  I  know 
not  how  so  bad  a  scribe  as  he  who  penned  the  libretto 
could  have  been  found ;  words,  nay  even  sentences 
were  omitted,  and  words  changed  :  leben  was  written 
for  beten,  and  there  were  no  references  to  where  the 
verses  might  be  seen  in  '  The  Book.'  All  these 
caused  me  much  perplexity,  trouble,  and,  what  is 
worse  than  all,  loss  of  time.  These,  too,  enhanced 
by  my  journeys  to  Hobart  Place,  and  the  necessity  of 
copying  by  my  own  hand  all  the  vocal  portion  of  the 
score  for  the  engravers,  and  those  parts  which  you 
will  receive  through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Buxton  for 
your  perusal  and  decision,  have  rendered  my  toil, 
although  a  labour  of  love,  incessant.  The  choral 
portions  will  this  day  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
engravers  ;  and  I  trust  you  will  send  by  every  packet 
each  of  the  pieces  yet  forthcoming — one  at  a  time — 
(    5x    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•  ELIJAH." 


never  mind  how  short,  for  the  time  is  short — and  I 
want  all  the  time  to  enable  me  to  do  it  as  well  as 
I  can.  And  the  choralists  want  all  the  time  to  rehearse 
it  as  often  as  they  can,  for  the  more  often  it  is 
rehearsed  the  better. 

"  No.  6  wants  the  time  ;  and  I  hope  you  will  have 
time  to  write  an  overture,  or  introduction,  unless  you 
expressly  design  there  shall  be  none.  I  understand 
they  (the  Birmingham  Directors)  have  engaged 
Staudigl,  I  hope  with  the  intention  of  giving  him 
the  Prophet's  part,  although  it  is  reported  here  that 
Phillips  is  to  sing  it.  Much  will  depend  on  who 
sings  it  [the  oratorio]  so  far  as  the  soloists  are 
concerned  ;  but  the  choruses  !  they  will  be  the  main 
feature,  and  the  glory  of  their  composer.  The  Baal 
Priests'  choruses  are  wrought  to  a  climax  truly 
sublime.  Go  on,  my  dear  Sir,  go  on  !  until  you  soar 
with  your  *  Elijah '  on  the  returning  lire  to  the 
height  from  which  he  called  it  down ! 

*'  Your  grateful  and  obliged 

"  W.  Bartholomew." 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[WritUn  in  English.] 

"  Leipzig,  July  3,  1846.* 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Many,  many  thanks  for  your 
kind  letter  and  for  your  translation  of  the  first  part 
of  Elijah.     I   can  but  write  in  great   haste,   else  I 

*  This  letter  is  reproduced  \n  facsimile  at  the  end  of  this  book. 
(     52    ) 


iilE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


would  try  to  say  more,  and  to  thank  you  better  for  all 
your  kindness.  But  I  will  do  so  in  person,  and 
meanwhile  I  merely  say — I  thank  you  most  heartily, 
most  sincerely,  and  I  hasten  to  answer  your 
questions. 

"  Those  words  in  the  choruses  which  you  or  I  may 
now  or  hereafter  object  to,  might,  I  hope,  still  be  altered 
in  pencil  or  ink  in  the  parts,  if  already  printed  ;  for  if  an 
improvement  can  be  made,  it  must  never  be  omitted 
because  the  printing  should  be  finished.  A  little 
more  trouble  will  be  amply  repaid  by  a  little  improve- 
ment !  And  as  for  the  Solo  Parts,  they  must  not  be 
printed  at  all  for  the  Festival,  but  only  written  out 
(copied),  and  can  only  be  printed  together  with  the 
pianoforte  arrangement,  and  after  the  performance. 
For  these  accordingly  we  have  time  till  then,  to  alter 
and  improve.  Pray  let  Mr.  Buxton  [Ewer  and  Co., 
the  English  publishers]  read  all  this  ! 

"  No.  I.  I  wish  to  keep  this  if  possible  as  in  the 
English  Bible  version  ;  therefore  I  propose*  : — 


m 


^ 


u=-^ m^ 


there  shall    not    be    dew  nor  rain  these  years,     not         dew      nor  rain  &c. 

'*  No.  5,  at  the  end,  I  propose  to  say  *  and  in  our 
affliction  He  comforteth  us,'  and  to  slur  from  D  to  E 

*  In  order  to  make  the  musical  examples  in  the  following  letters 
more  intelligible  to  the  general  reader,  and  easier  of  reference  to  the 
printed  score,  I  have  added  clefs  and  key  signatures  where  Mendels- 
sohn did  not  think  it  necessary  to  insert  them  when  writing  to 
Bartholomew.  The  figures  in  brackets  refer  to  the  present  numbers 
in  Novello's  Edition  of  the  Oratorio. 
(    53     ) 


HISTORY   OF   MENDELSSOHN'S    "ELIJAH." 

flat,  because  I  prefer  to  have  the  word  af/?jction  on 
the  G  flat.* 


•  This  No.  5  was  the  original  form  of  the  tenor  Recitative  (now 
No.  3),  "Ye  people,  rend  your  hearts."  Before  the  Birmingham 
performance  Mendelssohn  re-wrote  it,  making  it  much  shorter  (10 
bars  instead  of  17)  and  less  elaborate,  and  in  the  form  in  which  it  is 
now  sung.  The  concluding  bars  of  the  original  are  here  appended, 
with  the  two  versions  of  the  words,  to  show  the  force  of  Mendels- 
sohn's suggested  alteration  : — 

Tenor  Solo. 

Bar  16  of  original  Regit. 


Aria. 

A  ndante  tranquillo. 


The  words  of  this  Recit.,  as  originally  written  by  Bartholomew, 
were:  "Ye  people,  rend  your  hearts,  and  not  your  garments,  for 
your  transgressions ;  even  as  Elijah  hath  sealed  the  heavens 
through  the  word  of  God. 

"1  therefore  say  to  ye,  Forsake  your  idols,  return  to  God  ;  for  He 
is  ever  enduring  in  goodness  ;  repenting  of  the  evil.     He  turnetb 
our  sorrow  to  gladness,  and  He  comforteth  us  in  affliction." 
(     54     > 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


"  No.  6  [3] .  The  time  is  Andante  iranquillo.  The 
first  words  are  from  Jerem.  xxix.,  13.  And  the 
following  from  Job  xxiii.,  3,  and  I  wish  to  keep  these 
last  literally :  *  Oh,  that  I  knew  {shirred)  where  I 
might  find  Him,  that  (added  note,  as  you  also  have) 
I  might  c'ome  even  to  His  seat '  (or  '  presence,' 
perhaps,  if  the  two  notes  shall  not  be  slurred.)*  And 
before  the  first  subject  and  the  first  words  return, 
the  notes  may  be  altered  thus  : — 


that   I      knew,  where     I  might  find        Him.     Ifwithall,  &c. 


"  In  No.  7  [5] ,  I  prefer  your  first  idea,  '  for  He  is 
Lord  and  God,'  to  the  two  others  which  you 
propose ;  and  I  wish  you  would  have  the  '  He,'  &c., 
inserted  still  in  the  choral  parts. 

"  No.  8  [6] ,  I  prefer  an  alteration  in  the  notes, 
and  to  keep  the  words  : — 


as  also- 


P 


;^-==l5-J- 


'^- 


S^iec 


and     hide    thy-self      by    the  brook  Che-rith. 


^ 


i^ — 1 ^ir=sir: 


and     thou  shalt  drink     of      the  brook. 


ini^: 


1 — ^ — ^ — ' — « 

and      I     have  com-raand  -  ed  the     ra  -  vens  to   feed  thee,  &c. 


♦  Bartholomew  originally  had  these  words:  "Ah!  could  I  find 
Him ;  and  at  His  footstool  bow  before  His  presence." 

(    55    )  B 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

"  No.  9  [7] .  Pray  let  the  beginning  stand  as  in  the 
Bible,  viz. : — 


!=:(•= 


3^ 


For    He  shall  give  His      an 


gels      charge     o  -  ver     thee. 


and  if  the  end  '  and  thus  harm  thee  '  can  be  spared, 
and  it  can  finish  with  the  words  '  against  a  stone,' 
I  should  like  it  better. 

"  No.  10  [between  7  and  8] ,  in  the  middle  I  propose 
again  to  alter  the  notes  in  order  to  keep  the  Bible 
version  : — 


-    bide.      Be    -  hold  ..     I  have  commanded       a  wid-ow    wo-man  there  to   stu  ■ 


tain  thee,    and   thou  shall  want  nothing,      nor  she  and  her  house,  x\xio\ig'b,SK. 

"No.  II*  [8].  Again  the  same  (bar  16,  &c.)  :— 


W. 


m^^^- 


^ 


and 


his     sick  -   ness      is 


that  there    is       no 


^^^^^m 


breath  . 

and  then- 


left 


in      him. 


1^ 


^^^ 


rtr 


1 — r 


art  thou  come  to    call   my    sin, 


to    call    my    sin  to   re  -  mem    - 


^P^ 


±zz 


brance,    to    slay       my       son,       to       slay,       to 


slay 


my  son  ? 


•  Mendelssohn  K'^eatly  altered  the  "Widow"  scene  before  the 
oratorio  was  published. 

(    56    ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


and  at  the  end  :  *  there  is  no  breath,  no  breath  left  ia 
him,'  instead  of  *  exhausted,'  etc. 

Elijah. 


Then  again:—    ^ix__C^^^ 


give    me    thy 


And  instead  of  '  that  he  again  may  live,'  I  should 
prefer  always  as  you  have  at  the  end,  '  that  he  again 
may  praise  Thee.'  Again  the  music  should  be  altered 
for  the  Bible  version's  sake  in  this : — 


Wilt  thou  in-deed  show  won  -ders  to    the  dead? 

In  the  following  Allegro  agitato,  I  prefer  *  thy 
prayer '  to  '  thy  petition,'  and  beg  you  will  alter  the 
notes  accordingly. 

"  No.  12  [9]  .*  Is  it  as  scriptural  to  say  *  the  men  ' 
as  'the  man  '?  And  if  not,  could  not  the  sentence 
be  'Blessed  is  the  man  who  fears  Him,  who  delights,' 
and  so  on  ?  And  what  do  you  like  better :  the 
amplification,  '  light  shining  over  them,'  or  to  say 
instead  of  these  words,  '  to  the  upright,'  and  to  slur 
the  two  notes  thus  : — 


through  dark-ness     ris  -  eth    light,    light    to    the    up      -      right. 

Pray  do  it  a.s  y oil  think  best. 

"At  the  beginning  of  No.  13  [10],  I  should  wish  to 
have  the  same  words  as  in  No.  i,  viz.:  'before  whom 

*  The  music  of  this  chorus  {"  Blessed  are  the  men")  was  after- 
wards much  altered. 

(    57     )  E  2 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


I  stand,'  instead  of  '  I  tell  thee  truly.'     And  instead 
of  '  that  the  rain  may  fall,'  etc.,  I  should  propose  : — 


It: 


W^ 


and    God     will    send    rain      a  -  gain     up  -  on         the   earth. 

which  is  more  according  to  the  Bible.  I  prefer  *  Let 
him  be  God  '  to  '  He  shall  be  God  '  (which  you  have 
added  in  pencil).  Instead  of  '  I,  even  I  alone  stand 
here  among  you,'  I  propose  the  alteration  : 


W^=^^=f^^^^^^^^^^ 


I,       e  -  ven      I,     on   -  ly      re-main,  &c. 


I  prefer  '  Invoke  your  forest  gods,'  etc.,  as  you  do. 

"  In  No.  15  [11] ,  is  not  the  accent  extirpate  a  wrong 
one  ?  The  syllable  tir  will  always  be  the  first  in  the 
bar  and  the  strongest,  with  a  marked  accent. 


"No.  16.  [12]  W. 


zane- 


*ZTf- 


or      he    is    pur-su    -  in§ 


r^ 


and  then—  ^^-^=g=^--g^=^^^— 


or,  per  -  ad  -  venture. 


"  In  No.  18  [13] ,  could  not  the  words  '  with  lancets 
cut  yourselves  after  your  manner '  be  kept  ? 


"No.  20.  [14]  5^Hr= 

peo  -  pie       that       I     have  done  these  things 


-I* gr 


^-=^- 


-1= 


!zSS=^ 


ac-cord-ing     to        Thy  word! 


O  hear    me     Lord,  &c. 

(     5S     ) 


O     hear       me,      Lord,  &c. 


THE  ENGLISH  TRANSLATION. 


"I  prefer  'and  let  their  hearts  again  be  turned,'  as 
you  do. 

"In  No.  22  [i6],  could  not  the  end  be:  'and 
we  shall  have  no  other  god  before  Him,'  or  'the 
Lord '  (from  Exodus  xx.,  3)  ?  Then  instead  of  '  let 
not  a  prophet,'  I  propose  : 


-(•-      -!•-• 


m 


:^=:jnrr^=r» 


*^ 


3<==t= 


|^__-_ii 


^=^ 


--tzz 


and  let    not     one       of   them      es  -  cape    ye: 


bring  them,&c. 


"  In  No.  23  [iS],  I  prefer  *  thee  '  &c.,  to  the  other 
version,  according  to  your  remarks.  But  the  end  I 
wish  thus  : — 


$ 


=*=*= 


Woe      un  -   to  them, 


m 


:^s=r5i 


un  -  to  them. 


"No.. 24.   [19]    ^^^^ 


-e- 


^ 


O      Lord,    Thou  hast     o  -  ver  - 


=*r=S«=is=pr 


*^^ 


:J2=5=!S 


^8i^ 


thrown   Thine  en  -  e-mies,  and  destroy 'd  them! 


Now      look  on  us,  &c. 


Then  I  wish  the  following  notes  altered  : — 


Elijah. 


Go    up    now,      child,      and  look    to-ward  the    sea.       Has  my 


prayer       been  heard    by     the     Lord? 
(     59     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH. 


I   also  prefer  'the  heavens  are  as   brass' — a   note 
might  be  added.     Then  afterwards  I  propose  : — 


fe£=^ 


u^r 


-^^^ 


clos-ed    up,     be- cause  they  have  sinn'd,  ,  .    have  sin-  lud  against  Thee 

And  afterwards  if  *  and  turn  from  their  sin  '  seems 
preferable  to  you,  a  note  might  be  added  to  keep  the 
words  as  in  the  Bible.  In  the  following  sentence  it 
sounds  to  me  more  scriptural  to  leave  the  words  as 
in  2  Chronicles  vi.,  27  : — 


.fe 


1 


Then     hear  from  heav'n,   and    for    -    give   ,   . 

Then  I  wish  the  notes  altered  thus  : — 

— g-  r--r 


the 


M:^^ 


^ 


r=r- 


:5=zc 


-^=^ 


Go        up        a-  gain,  and  still      look     towards    the      sea. 

Then  also  *  the  earth  is  as  iron.'     And  then  would 
you  like  this  : — 


^B^ 


-(»—?- 


There     is      a    sound 


of      a  -  bun  -  dance    of        rain. 


If  possible  I  should  wish  to  have  omitted  *  I 
implore  Thee,'  which  does  not  sound  as  scriptural  to 
me.  If  I  am  wrong,  pray  leave  it;  but  if  not,  the 
words  *  to  my  prayer '  might  be  repeated  instead  of 
them.     The  following  is  Psalm  xxviii.,  i : — 


Un-to  Tbee  Will  I  cry, 


Lord,  my  rock : 
(    Co    ) 


be  not  si  •  lent  to   me. 


THE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


and  could  not  the  following  sentence  be  thus  :- 


(and  Thy  great     mer    -      -    cies    do     re  -  mem  -  ber,     OLordl 
or  \  Thy  gra-cious 


"  Then  I  prefer—  ^ 


^i'?J|=i^^=iE^E: 


W=W^ 


-jg — 9z 


1^ 


like     a    man's     hand! 


Instead  of  '  His  boundless,'  I  propose  to  omit  the  G 
(the  first  note),  and  have  instead  *  for  His  '  (mercies, 
&c.),  and  to  add  afterwards  a  note  (A),  in  order  to 
say  '  endureth  for  evermore.'  I  prefer  '  The  Lord 
is  above  tJmn,^  to  *  is  the  highest.' 

"  I  am  so  very  sorry  you  had  that  trouble  with  the 
words  !  And  the  first  portion  of  the  second  part, 
which  I  sent  off  before  the  receipt  of  your  letter, 
was  again  written  in  German  characters.  But  the 
numbers  you  receive  with  this  will,  I  hope,  be  legible ; 
and  I  have  made  reference  to  the  verses  of  the  Bible, 
and  will  continue  to  do  so.  With  the  next  packet 
you  will  again  receive  some  pieces,  and  so  always  on 
till  the  whole  (at  least  of  the  choruses)  is  in  your 
hands,  which  I  hope  shall  not  last  more  than  a 
fourthnight  {sic).  And  if  there  should  be  something 
left  it  would  be  here  or  there  a  solo-piece,  which  (as 
it  must  not  be  printed)  will  easily  be  done  and  copied 
in  time.  You  are  right,  the  great  question  is.  Who  is 
to  sing  the  Elijah  ? — and  I  am  at  a  loss  why  I 
have  not  yet  heard  some  news  respecting  this  most 
essential  point. 

**  My  intention  was  to  write  no  Overture,  but  to 
begin  directly  with  the  curse.  I  thought  it  so 
(   6i    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


energetic.  But  I  will  certainly  think  of  what  you 
say  about  an  Introduction,  although  I  am  afraid  it 
would  be  a  difficult  task,  and  do  not  know  exactly 
what  it  should  or  could  mean  before  that  curse. 
And  after  it  (I  first  thought  to  write  the  Overture 
after  it),  the  chorus  must  immediately  come  in. 
Now  once  more  excuse  the  haste  and  accept  the 
thanks  of 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

**  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

In  regard  to  the  Overture,  referred  to  at  the  end 
of  the  foregoing  (very  long)  letter,  it  may  be  interest- 
ing to  quote  an  extract  from  one  of  Bartholomew's 
letters  to  Mendelssohn  : — 

*'  I  have  maturely  considered,  and,  with  Mr. 
K[lingemann],  think  it  will  be  a  new  feature,  and 
a  fine  one,  to  announce  the  curse.  No.  i.  Then  let 
an  Introductory-movement  be  played,  expressive, 
descriptive  of  the  misery  of  famine — for  the  chorus  ^I 
always  thought)  comes  so  very  quickh-  and  suddenly 
after  the  curse,  that  there  seems  to  elapse  no  time  to 
produce  its  results." 

It  seems  evident  that  Mendelssohn  was  indebted 
to  Bartholomew  for  the  suggestion  of  an  Overture  to 
"  Elijah."  That  Mendelssohn  accomplished  what  he 
calls  his  "difficult  task"  we  know  full  well,  and 
Bartholomew  must  have  felt  quite  satisfied  when 
the  composer  wrote  to  him  and  said,  "  I  have  written 
an  Overture,  and  a  long  one." 
(    62    ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"Leipzig,  iSth  July,  1846. 

**  My  dear  Sir, — I  received  yours  of  the  9th. 
And  many  thanks  again!  And  you  copy  yourself 
the  solo  parts  !  Whatever  your  reason  may  be,  I  feel 
what  an  obligation  you  confer  upon  me. 

'*  Now  I  go  on  with  my  remarks  about  those 
pieces  of  the  second  part  which  you  sent  me  the 
translation  of,  vi2. :  Nos.  ^^,  34,  and  35.  By-the-bye : 
No.  33  will  be  altered  and  another  Recit.  (for  a 
Soprano)  comes  in  its  stead  with  the  next  parcel  ; 
but  the  words  are  the  same,  and  your  translation 
will  go  quite  as  well  to  the  new  Recit. 

*'  In  No.  34  I  again  wish  to  alter  the  notes  in 
order  to  keep  the  English  scriptural  version.  And  it 
seems  to  me  so  important  that  this  should  be  done 
that  I  hope  it  is  time  still  to  make  the  alteration  in 
all  the  choral  parts.  The  beginning  I  wish  altered 
thus: — 


And    be  -  hold,    the      Lord    passed    by. 

or,  if  *  passed'  must  have  two  syllables  : — 


^=£^ 


Lord  pass  -  ed 


The  end  of  the  first  phrase  *  as  He  approached  '  is 

not  quite  agreeable  to  me ;  could  you  not  find  four 

syllables  instead  of  them   (making  the  two  slurred 

(    63    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   ••ELIJAH." 

notes  single  ones) — e.g.,   *  as  the  Lord  drew  near ' 
(don't  laugh),  or  something  in  which  the  accent  on  the 
last  syllable  is  strong  and  decided ! 
"Then  comes  : — 


m 


But      the      Lord    was        not      in      the     tem    -     pest. 

Then  again :  '  And  behold,  the  Lord  passed  by.' 
And  at  the  end  again,  '  But  the  Lord  was  not  in  the 
earthquake.'  Also  the  third  time  :  *  But  the  Lord 
was  not  in  the  fire.* 


P^ii 


Then— 


But    the    Lord,  &c. 


m^^^^^^^^ 


And       af  -  ter  the   fire  there  came     a      still     small     voice.    . 

(here  I  think  it  is  quite  necessary  to  keep  the 
scriptural  expression  at  least  at  the  beginning  !)  And 
then  perhaps  :  *  And  in  that  voice  the  Lord  came 
unto  him.' 

"  The  instrumental  parts  are  all  copied  here,  and 
I  bring  them  with  me.  Excuse  the  haste  of  these 
lines. — Always  yours  very  truly, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"  Leipzig,  July  21,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — After  I  had  sent  off  my  last  letter 
to  you  in  the  morning,  yours  of  the  14th  arrived  in 
the  evening.     I  hasten  to  answer  it,  and  will  send 
(    64   ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


the   metronomes  in  a  few  days,  when  the  last  two 
pieces  of  the  second  part  will  come. 

*'  You  receive  to-day  all  the  pieces  that  were  still 
wanting  in  the  2nd  part,  and  only  the  Nos.  36,  37, 
38,  and  39  are  now  to  come,  and  will  be  sent  off  in  a 
few  days  (two  of  them  are  but  short  recitatives),  so 
that  I  hope  everything  is  now  safe  with  regard  to 
rehearsals,  &c.,  &c. 

**  I  am  quite  of  your  opinion,  that  accent  is  the 
thing,  and  I  much  prefer  the  alteration  of  a  few 
notes  to  a  bad  accent.  So  I  hope  you  left  '  Be 
not  afraid,  saith  God  the  Lord,  be  not  afraid,  for  I  am 
near,'  which  seems  to  me  much  better  than  the 
other.  At  any  rate,  I  hope  to  stay  6  or  8  or  10  days 
in  London  before  the  Festival. 

**  In  the  song,  *  O  rest  in  the  Lord  '  {Sei  stille  dem 
Herrn),  I  beg  you  will  adopt  something  like  the 
words  of  Ps.  37,  V.  4,  instead  of  the  words  *  and  He 
will  ever  keep  the  righteous '  !  *  and  He  shall  give 
thee'  does  very  well  with  the  notes;  and  there  is 
only  another  expression,  instead  of  '  the  desires  of 
thy  heart,'  necessary  to  make  it  fit  the  music  and 
everything.  And  instead  of  the  end  '  He  will  defend 
thee,'  &c.,  I  should  prefer  also  Ps.  37,  v.  8,  perhaps 
so  :  *  and  cease  from  anger,  and  fret  not  thyself ' ;  or, 
*  and  cease  from  anger  and  forsake  the  wrath,' 
which  will  do  with  the  alteration  of  one  or  two  notes 
being  not  slurred  instead  of  slurred,  and  vice  versa. 

"  And  pray  let  always  accent  go  first,  especially  in 
the  Choruses  !     And  Songs  !     And  Recitatives ! 
"  Always  yours  very  truly, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 
(  65  ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   " ELIJAH." 

Mendelssohn's  request  for  a  good  verbal  accent 
throughout  the  whole  translation  of  his  oratorio  is 
frequently  expressed  in  these  letters.  No  less 
anxious  was  he  to  retain,  as  nearly  as  possible,  the 
familiar  words  of  the  English  Bible,  in  preference  to 
introducing  new  wordings  of  well-known  texts — e.g.^ 
"  Oh  !  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him."*  And 
when  this  was  not  practicable,  he  would  often  alter 
the  notes  in  order  to  gain  his  desired  end.  It  is 
evident  from  these  letters  that  Mendelssohn  knew 
the  English  Bible  well. 

**  0  rest  in  the  Lord  "  has  attained  such  wide- 
spread popularity  that  it  will  come  as  a  surprise  to 
many  to  learn  that,  before  the  first  performance, 
Mendelssohn  decided  to  eliminate  this  favourite  air 
from  his  oratorio.  When  Bartholomew  received  the 
manuscript  of  the  song,  he  found  that  the  melody 
began  thus  : — 


Sei   stil  -  le    dem  Herrn,  und  war  -  te    auf    ihn. 

He  at    once  wrote  the  following  letter  to   Men- 
delssohn : — 

"2,  Walcot  Place,  Hackney, 
'^  July  20,  1846. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Sir,  having  done  all  I  can 
with  'Elijah,'  as  much  as  I  have  of  it — having 
corrected  and  revised  tlie  second  proofs  of  its  printed 
first  portion,  and  made  the  alterations  you  suggested 
— nearly  all — one  or  two  remaining  for  your  assistance 

•  See  the  letter  to  Bartholomew,  July  3,  1S46,  p.  55. 
(     66    ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


to  complete — I  am  about  to  take  a  great  liberty  with 
you,  and  the  impulse  which  prompts  it — be  it  offensive 
or  not — you  must  place  to  the  account  of  the  feelin<; 
which  you  or  your  music  has  inspired  within  me. 
And  what  is  your  music  but  yourself? —  the  incar- 
nation of  your  spirit,  made  material  by  creation,  and 
thus  apparent — apparent  through  the  agency  of  the 
body  ! 

"  Do  you  know  a  Scotch  air,  called  'Robin  Gray'? 


Young  Ja  -  mie  lov'd  me      well,       and    ask'd  me     for     his     bride,  fi:c.* 

Now  compare  the  aria  {Andante,  without  a 
number)  '  Sei  stille  dem  Herrn  '  ['  0  rest  in  the 
Lord ']  with  it.  You  may,  perhaps,  see  nothing 
semblant  in  the  two;  but  so  much  warranty  have  I 
for  thinking  that  there  is,  that  when  Buxton — who 
brought  it  to  me  while  I  was  with  Miss  Mounsey,t 
examining  some  of  the  proofs  of  your  '  Elijah ' — heard 
her,  at  his  request,  try  it  over — I  being  engaged  at 
the  table  copying — he  said  :  '  Why  that's  like  "  Robin 
Gray"!  I  thought  so,  ere  the  above  phrase  was 
completed,  and  Miss  Mounsey  agreed  with  our 
opinions.  I  said  nothing  more  then,  but  when  I 
returned  home  I  looked  at  it  again,  and  at  bar  lo — 
look  at  it  ! — see  the  close  :-- 

•  Mr.    Bartholomew   doubtless   quoted   this   and    the   following 
example  from  memory. 

■)■  Afterwards  Mrs.  Mounsey  Bartholomew. 
(    67     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•ELIJAH." 

Bar  10. 

pound  were  both    for      me.  /uh      -      ren.    • 

Other  distinct  features  may  be  traced,  but  these 
two  are  enough  to  give  it  the  stamp  of  at  least  an 
imitation,  which  if  you  intend  it  to  be,  I  have 
nothing  further  to  say  on  the  subject;  except  that  it 
will  lay  you  open  to  the  impertinence  of  the  saucy 
boys  of  the  musical  press,  one  of  whom  has  had 
the  audacity  to  accuse  you  of  copying,  borrowing, 
making  your  own,  the  ideas  of  the  little  man  of 
the  party ! 


"  Enough  of  this.  Place  what  I  have  said  to  the 
right  side  of  my  friendly  account  in  your  ledger  lines  ! 
If  you  alter  the  notation  of  the  song,  bring  or  send 
me  another  score  of  it,  and  I  will  take  care  to  place 
this  one  only  in  your  own  hands.  Mr.  Klingemann 
thought  I  ought  to  tell  you  of  the  coincidence,  I 
having  mentioned  it  to  him." 

In  answer  to  this  letter — which  I^Iendelssohn 
erroneously  considered  to  be  a  request  to  omit  the 
song — came  the  following  reply : — 

•  The  German  words  which  Mendelssohn  orif^inally  selected  for 
"  O  rest  in  the  Lord  "  wore  :  "  Sei  stille  dem  Herrn,  und  warte  auf 
ihn ;  dor  wird  dich  wohl  zum  Guten  fiihren.  Befiehl  dem  Herrn 
deine  Wege,  und  hofle  auf  ihn  ;  der  wird  dich  erretten  von  allem 
Dbel."  He  aubseiiuently  chanj^ed  the  second  and  fourth  clauses 
to  the  more  familiar  Luther  version.  (Psalm  x.x.wii.,  7,  4,  5,  S.) 
(    68    ) 


THE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"Leipzig,  July  2S,  1846.* 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Here  are  the  metronomes,  which 
I  beg  you  will  give  the  director  of  the  choruses  ;  but 
tell  him  that  I  cannot  promise  they  will  be  exactly 
the  same,  but  nearly  so,  I  think. 

**  Many  thanks  for  5'our  last  letter,  with  the 
remarks  about  the  song  ['  0  rest  in  the  Lord  '] .  I 
do  not  recollect  having  heard  the  Scotch  ballad  to 
which  you  allude,  and  certainly  did  not  think  of  it, 
and  did  not  choose  to  imitate  it ;  but  as  mine  is  a 
song  to  which  I  always  had  an  objection  (of  another 
kind),  and  as  the  ballad  seems  much  known,  and  the 
likeness  very  striking,  and  before  all,  as  you  wish  it, 
I  shall  leave  it  out  altogether  (I  think),  and  have 
altered  the  two  last  bars  of  the  preceding  recitative, 
so  that  the  chorus  in  F  may  follow  it  immediately. 
Perhaps  I  shall  bring  another  song  in  its  stead,  but 
I  doubt  it,  and  even  believe  it  to  be  an  improvement 
if  it  is  left  out. 

'*  You  receive  here  Nos.  36,  38,  and  39.  The  only 
piece  which  is  not  now  in  your  hands  is  No.  37,  a  song 
of  Elijah  ['  For  the  mountains  shall  depart '].  And 
this  (and  perhaps  one  song  to  be  introduced  in  the 

*  The  original  autograph  of  this  letter,  together  with  a  MS.  copy 
of  "  O  rest  in  the  Lord,"  also  in  Mendelssohn's  own  hand,  were 
personally  presented  by  the  late  Mrs.  Mounsey  Bartholomew  to  the 
Guildhall  Library,  in  May,  18S0.  But  both  MSS.  suddenly  and 
mysteriously  disappeared  at  the  time,  and  have  not  since  been 
found.  See  The  Times,  May  15,  1880,  p.  13. 
(    69    ) 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH. 


first  part)  I  shall  either  send  or  brin,s^  myself,  for 
they  will  require  only  few  words,  and  it  will  be  plenty 
of  time  to  copy  the  vocal  parts,  and  the  instrumental 
ones  I  bring  over  with  me.  I  hope  to  be  in  London 
on  the  i/th,  and  beg  you  will  let  us  have  a  grand 
meeting  on  the  iSth,  to  settle  all  the  questions  and 
the  copies  of  the  solo  parts. 

"  Always  yours  very  truly, 
"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. 


It  may  perhaps  be  as  well  to  complete  the  history 
of  "  0  rest  in  the  Lord"  before  proceeding  farther, 
even  at  the  risk  of  a  little  repetition.  Mendelssohn 
does  not  seem  to  have  liked  the  implied  plagiarism 
of  "  Auld  Robin  Gray,"  although  he  says  he  had 
an  "  objection"  to  his  song  "  O  rest  in  the  Lord  " 
"  of  another  kind."  He  repeated  his  request  that  it 
"  must  be  left  out  "  (see  next  letter).  Bartholomew, 
however,  wrote  to  him  saying  :  "  Why  omit  the  song 
'  O  rest,'  when  merely  a  note  or  two  of  the  melody 
being  changed  would  completely  obliterate  the 
identity,  and  I  think  not  spoil  the  song  as  a  whole  ? 
If  you  omit  it,  and  especially  upon  such  a  reason 
as  my  hint  may  have  afforded,  I  shall  be  very  much 
pained." 

This     last     sentence     must     have     so     touched 

Mendelssohn's   feelings  that  he  somewhat    relented 

from  his  former  decision.    He  wrote  to  Bartholomew : 

"  About   the   song   '  O   rest    in    the  Loid,'    we    will 

(    70    ) 


THE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


settle  everything  when  we  meet."  Bartholomew 
strongly  urged  him  to  retain  the  now  familiar  air ; 
but  even  at  the  eleventh  hour  (at  the  rehearsal  in 
London)  Mendelssohn  still  wished  to  delete  it  from 
the  oratorio.  However,  the  advice  of  his  friends 
ultimately  prevailed,  and  **  0  rest  in  the  Lord  "  was 
thereby  spared  the  fate  of  utter  oblivion.  Mendels- 
sohn altered  the  fifth  note  of  the  melody  (taking  it 
down  to  C  instead  of  up  to  G)  in  order  to  destroy  the 
supposed  "Auld  Robin  Gray"  likeness;  but  it  is 
amusing  to  notice  that  he  retained  his  original  note  in 
the  coda  of  the  song,  where,  in  two  places,  the  fifth 
note  goes  up  to  G  !" 

This  break  in  the  continuity  of  the  correspondence 
may  afford  an  opportunity  of  mentioning  a  phrase 
used  by  Bartholomew  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
Mendelssohn,  which  he  calls  "  Irish  Echoes." 
He  says:  "We  must  mind  that  any  notation 
which  may  be  altered  shall  not  affect  the  band 
parts.  Excuse  my  naming  this.  You  do  not 
write  Irish  Echoes — but  yet  by  altering  the  nota- 
tion they  may  inadvertently  arise.  Lest  you  should 
not  know  what  I  mean  by  an  '  Irish  Echo,'  this 
may  explain  it.  An  Irishman,  boasting  of  his 
countr}',  said :  '  It  had  an  Echo,  which,  if  you 
said  '  How  d'ye  do  ?  '  replied,  '  Pretty  well,  I  thank 
you  !  ' " 

*  Amongst  the  MSS.  which  Miss  Mounsey  kindly  gave  me  in 
view  of  this  "  History,"  is  the  identical  copy  from  which  "  O 
rest  in  the  Lord"  was  first  sung  in  public — by  Miss  M.  B.  Hawes, 
at  the  Birmingham  Festival  of  1846.  The  copy,  written  by 
Bartholomew,  has  pencilled  alterations  in  Mendelssohn's  own 
hand. 

(    71     )  P 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

But  to  resume  the  continuation  of  the  letters : — 

[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

•'Leipzig,  August  g,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  write  these  lines  merely  to  tell 
you  that  I  hope  to  see  and  speak  to  you  on  the  17th 
or  leth,  and  to  ask  you  to  defer  the  printing  of  the 
■  words  of  '  Elijah  '  in  the  books  till  after  my  arrival  if 
possible.  Moscheles  writes  they  want  to  print  the 
books  noit>,  but  I  really  think  that  a  week  beforehand 
is  early  enough.  However,  as  I  do  not  know  how 
these  things  are  managed  in  England,  I  beg  that  if 
it  must  he  done  before  my  arrival,  you  will  introduce 
the  following  alterations : 

"  I.  After  the  words  of  Elijah  (the  curse),  and 
before  the  ist  chorus,  I  should  like  to  have  in  the 
books  '  Introduction,'  or  *  Overture,'  or  some  word 
like  this,  to  let  people  know  that  an  Overture  is 
coming  before  the  chorus — for  I  have  written  one, 
and  a  long  one. 

"  2.  The  song  '  Sei  stille  dem  Herrn  '  ['  O  rest  in 
the  Lord  ']  must  be  left  out. 

"  3.  The  second  part  of  No.  41,  *  Er  wird  offnen  die 
Augen  der  Blinden,'  must  also  be  left  out;  so  that 
from  the  words  *  und  der  Furcht  des  Herrn  '  [*  and 
of  the  fear  of  the  Lord  ']  it  goes  immediately  to  the 
quartett  in  B  flat  '  \\' ohlan,  denn  '  [*  O  come,  every- 
one that  thirsteth  '] .  Pray  let  the  choral  people  at 
Birmingham  know  this  directly ;  it  will  spare  them 
much  time,  as  the  Alia  breve  is  not  easy,  and  as  I 
(    72    ) 


THE  ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


am  sure  I  will  not  let  it  stand.  Of  course  the  whoL 
beginning  of  No.  41,  '  Aber  einer  erscheint,  &c.  ;  der 
wird  des  Herrn  Namen,'  must  stand  and  not  be 
omitted;  merely  from  the  Alia  breve,  and  from  the 
ist  introduction  of  the  words  *  Er  wird  offnen,'  is  to 
be  left  out.* 

"  Pray  excuse  all  this  trouble ;  and  let  me  thank 
you  in  person  for  all  the  hard  work  you  have  had  on 
my  account. 

*'  Always  very  truly  yours, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


[Mendelssohn  to  Bartholomew.] 

[Written  in  English.] 

"  Leipzig,  August  10,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — In  the  letter  I  wrote  to  you 
yesterday  I  foro^ot  to  mention  the  words  of  the  song 
which  I  bring   with  me  (the  No.  ^y  which   is  still 

*  This  section  of  the  chorus  (No.  41),  which  Mendelssohn 
rejected  almost  at  the  eleventh  hour,  was  a  somewhat  extended 
movement  in  D,  eighty-si.\  bars  long.  It  started  with  the  following, 
subject  in  the  soprano  : 

A  lla  breve  moderato. 

S0PR.\N0. 


He     shall 


pen,  shall  o  -    pen  the  blind  eyes,     and      He  shall 


^^ife^i^g^^gi 


-7^    B^--^=^ 


bring  the     pri-son-ers    from  the       pri  -    son;     and  them  that  sit,  that 


f 


1^— -=^ 


in        dark  -  ness     out  of       the 

(  73  ) 


son       house.   . 
F   2 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  '•  ELIJAH." 


wanting  in  your  score)  in  case  it  should  be  indispens- 
able to  have  the  books  printed  before  my  arrival. 
They  are  from  Isaiah  liv.,  lo,  and  I  find  that 
the  English  words  will  apply  literally  to  my  music  ; 
so  I  beg  you  will  let  No.  37  stand  thus  in  the  English 
version  :  No.  37,  Arioso  (Elijah).  '  For  the  mountains 
shall  depart  and  the  hills  be  removed  ;  but  Thy  kind- 
ness shall  not  depart  from  me,  neither  shall  the 
covenant  of  Thy  peace  be  removed,' 

"  Excuse  my  negligence  and  the  two  letters. 

"  Always  yours  very  truly, 
"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 
"  who  hopes  to  see  you  this  day  week." 

"  P,S, — I  re-open  this  letter  because  I  receive  this 
moment  yours  of  the  4th. — Many,  many  thanks  for 
all  the  trouble  you  take.  I  shall  bring  an  organ  part 
if  possible;  and  be  sure  that  I  shall  not  be  dissatisfied 
with  any  thing  you  may  have  done  under  your  respon- 
sibility ;  I  know  you  too  well  for  that.  The  synopsis 
of  the  second  part  is  quite  right,  and  with  the 
addition  of  No.  37  (as  above)  it  is  all  in  order.  I  am 
certain  our  conference  will  not  be  half  so  difficult 
as  you  anticipate,  and  in  a  few  hours  w-e  will 
have  settled  everything.  Can  we  meet  on  the 
i8th  at  Mr.  Klingemann's  ?  About  the  song,  'O 
rest  in  the  Lord,'  we  will  settle  everything  when  we 
meet." 

Mendelssohn     and     Bartholomew    dul}'     met     in 
London,  and  the   "everything"  included  numerous 
finishing  touches  and  alterations,  both  in  regard  to 
(    74    ) 


THE   ENGLISH   TRANSLATION. 


the  English  words  and  the  music.  The  corres- 
pondence between  the  two  men  was  only  temporarily 
suspended.  It  was  renewed,  with  all  its  old 
characteristics,  when  **  Elijah  "  was  under  revision  ; 
and  the  subsequent  letters  from  Mendelssohn  to  his 
English  translator  will  be  found  in  Chapter  V. — 
**  The  Revised  Oratorio." 


f    75   ) 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 

Mendelssohn  arrived  in  London  on  August  17  or 
18  (1846),  and  again  stayed  with  Klingemann,  at 
4,  Hobart  Place,  Eaton  Square.  A  pianoforte  rehear- 
sal of  the  vocal  solos  of  "Elijah  "was  held  on  the  19th 
(Wednesday),  at  Moscheles's  house,  3,  Chester  Place, 
Regent's  Park.  Mendelssohn  commenced  the  rehear- 
sal by  playingthe  Overture  from  memory,  to  the  delight 
and  admiration  of  those  who  heard  it.  The  lady 
vocalists  gave  the  composer  some  trouble.  The 
soprano  requested  him  to  transpose  "  Hear  ye,  Israel," 
a  whole  tone  down,  and  to  make  certain  changes  to 
suit  her  particular  style  !  "  It  was  not  a  lady's 
song,"  she  said.  Mendelssohn  resisted  with  studied 
politeness,  and  said,  "  I  intended  this  song  for  the 
principal  soprano ;  if  you  do  not  like  it  I  will  ask 
the  Committee  to  give  it  to  some  other  vocalist." 
Afterwards,  when  alone  with  Moscheles,  he  most 
unreservedly  expressed  himself  as  to  the  "  coolness 
of  such  suggestions." 

When  "  O  rest  in  the  Lord"  was  tried  over,  the 
singer  was  anxious  to  introduce  a  long  shake  (on  D) 
at  the  close  !     "  No,"  said  the  composer,  **  I  have 
{    76   ) 


THE  FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


kept  that  for  my  orchestra,"  and  he  then  archly 
played  the  familiar  shake,  which  is  given  to  the  fliute 
in  the  orchestral  accompaniment.  He  was  still 
doubtful,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  whether  he 
should  not  withdraw  "  O  rest  in  the  Lord."  "  It 
is  too  sweet,"  he  said.  His  friends  urged  him 
at  least  to  try  its  effect,  and  ultimately  their  advice 
was  accepted.  Mr.  Charles  Lockey,  the  young 
tenor  singer,  immediately  won  the  composer's 
golden  opinion,  and  Mendelssohn  was  more  than 
satisfied  with  his  beautiful  and  sympathetic  voice  at 
the  first  performance.  The  tenor  solos  had  been 
previously  assigned  to  Mr.  J.  W.  Hobbs,  who 
generously  relinquished  them  in  favour  of  the 
younger  singer.  The  soloists  had  to  sing  from  MS. 
copies  which  contained  only  the  vocal  melody  and 
bass  of  the  accompaniment.  These  copies,  neatly 
written  by  Bartholomew  on  oblong-folio  music- 
paper,  contain  several  alterations  in  Mendelssohn's 
own  hand. 

The  orchestral  parts  had  been  previously  tried 
over  and  corrected  at  Leipzig  ;  the  way  was 
therefore  made  smooth  for  the  band  rehearsals 
in  London.  These  rehearsals  took  place  at  the 
Hanover  Square  Rooms  on  the  Thursday  and  Friday 
preceding  the  Festival.  "  Mendelssohn,"  records  the 
late  Mr.  Rockstro,  "  looked  very  worn  and  nervous ; 
yet  he  would  suffer  no  one  to  relieve  him,  even  in  the 
scrutiny  of  the  orchestral  parts,  which  he  himself 
spread  out  on  some  benches  beneath  the  windows  on 
the  left-hand  side  of  the  room,  and  insisted  upon 
sorting  out  and  examining  for  himself."  The  late 
(    77    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


Henry  Lazarus,  the  eminent  clarinettist,  related  to 
me  a  personal  incident  in  connection  with  this  first 
London  rehearsal.  Near  the  end  of  the  chorus  "  He, 
watching  over  Israel,"  occurs  the  following  instru- 
mental phrase  in  the  clarinets  and  flutes — a  phrase 
which  is  not  fully  discernible  in  the  pianoforte  arrange- 
ment of  the  score,  and  which  is  practically  inaudible 
at  a  performance  : — 

Bar  14  from  the  end. 
Clarinets.  Flutes  (in  Sves  with  Clarinets)  added  at  bar  2. 


slum      -      bers     not 


ms.  ..^  *-  ■•■    ^z^. 


PP  sleeps, 


not,  &c. 


-F 


**  Mr.  Lazarus,"  said  Mendelssohn,  "  will  you  kindly 
make  that  phrase  a  little  stronger,  as  I  wish  it  to 
stand  out  more  prominently  ?  I  know  I  have  marked 
it  piano.'''  "  Of  course,"  added  Mr.  Lazarus,  "  I  was 
playing  it  religiously  as  marked." 

The  story  that  the  holding  C's  for  the  oboe  in  No. 
ig  (which  accompany  "  There  is  nothing ")  were 
inserted  by  Mendelssohn  at  the  end  of  the  first 
rehearsal  to  satisfy  Grattan  Cooke,  the  oboeist,  is  a 
pure  myth.  A  MS.  score  of  the  work,  used  at 
Birmingham,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  Messrs. 
Novello,  Ewer  and  Co.,  shows  that  these  notes  were 
not  subsequently  added,  but  formeil  part  of  the 
(   7S    ) 


THE   FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


original  design.  Moreover,  Mendelssohn  would 
hardly  be  guilty  of  the  mock-descriptive  in  allowing 
the  words  "  There  is  nothing  "  to  be  sung  without 
any  accompaniment.  And  Cooke  could  not  complain 
that  the  composer  had  not  given  him  any  oboe  solos, 
after  he  had  played  the  beautiful  oboe  obbligato  in 
"  For  the  mountains  shall  depart,"  which  was  doubt- 
less written  by  Mendelssohn  expressly  for  Cooke.* 
The  story  probably  took  its  origin  from  the  following 
circumstance,  which  has  been  fully  told  by  Dr.  E.  J. 
Hopkins.  When  the  vocal  score  of  "Elijah"  was 
first  published,  Mendelssohn  presented  a  copy  to 
Grattan  Cooke,  who  was  a  great  favourite  wath  the 
composer.  In  this  copy  Mendelssohn  wrote  the 
following  inscription  : — 


Lent". 


"An  Grattan  Cooke,  2um  freundlichen  Andenken. 
"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. 

"  London,  Frtihling,  1S47." 

Mendelssohn  knew  that  Grattan  Cooke  was  fond 
of  a  joke,  and,  as  Dr.  Hopkins  says,  the  composer's 
quiet  humour  is  well  shown  in  the  above  inscription. 
The  length  of  the  note  is  seven  bars  of  slow  time, 

•  According  to  the  late  Mr.  J.  W.  Davison,  "Mendelssohn  was  a 
long  time  uncertain  whether  he  should  add  the  oboe  part,  or  limit 
the  score  to  the  string  quartet." 

(    79    ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   '•  ELIJAH." 


the  last  of  which  is  not  only  indefinitely  prolonged  by 
a  pause,  but  has  in  addition  a  crescendo  and  diminuendo 
mark.  "  Any  oboeist,"  observes  the  Temple  organist, 
"  who  would  dare  to  try  and  sustain  that  note  as 
directed  would,  before  bringing  it  to  a  termination, 
himself  cease  to  exist !  "* 

"  Elijah  "  was  honoured  with  the  novelty  of  a 
preliminary  analytical  notice  in  The  Times  of  Monday, 
August  24,  1846,  two  days  before  the  first  perform- 
ance. This  article,  two  columns  in  length,  was  one 
of  the  earliest  contributions  of  the  late  J.  W. 
Davison,  on  his  joining  the  staff  of  The  Times,  of 
which  paper  he  was  for  many  years  the  musical 
critic. 

Euston  station  presented  an  animated  scene  on 
the  Sunda\'  afternoon  preceding  the  Festival,  when  a 
special  train,  which  left  London  at  2  p.m.,  conve\-ed 
Mendelssohn,  the  solo  singers,  the  band,  the  London 
contingent  of  the  chorus,  and  the  "  Gentlemen  of  the 
Press"  to  Birmingham. 

Monday  morning  was  set  apart  for  a  full  rehearsal 
of  "  Elijah "  in  the  Town  Hall,  which  is  thus 
described  in  the  Birmingham  Journal : — 

Mendelssohn  was  received  by  the  performers  with  great 
enthusiasm,  renewed  again  and  again,  as  his  lithe  and  pdit 

•  As  a  specimen  of  Grattan  Cooke's  humour,  the  following 
incident  was  related  to  me  by  a  veteran  musician  who  was  a  fellow- 
student  of  the  witty  oboeist  at  the  Royal  Academy  of  Music.  At 
one  of  the  early  rehearsals  of  Mendelssohn's  "  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream  "  Overture,  Cooke  was  missed  from  his  place  in  the  orchestra, 
and  was  soon  afterwards  seen  walking  up  the  room  carrying  a 
ladder.  "  What  on  earth  have  you  got  that  for  ?  "  he  was  asked. 
Cooke  replied  :  "  He's  written  the  notes  so  tremendously  high,  that 
I've  brought  a  ladder  to  get  up  to  them  I  " 
(    80    ) 


THE    FIRST   PERFORMANCE. 


figure   bent   in    acknowledgment   of    these   spontaneous   and 
gratifying   tributes  to   his    genius,    personal    affability,    and 

kindness His  manner,  both  in  the  orchestra  and  in 

private,  is  exceedingly  pleasing.  His  smile  is  winning,  and 
occasionally,  when  addressing  a  friendly  correction  to  the 
band  or  choir,  full  of  comic  expression.  He  talks  German 
with  great  volubility  and  animation,  and  speaks  English 
remarkably  well.  He  possesses  a  remarkable  power  over  the 
performers,  moulding  them  to  his  will,  and  though  rigidly 
strict  in  exacting  the  nicest  precision,  he  does  it  in  a  manner 
irresistible — actually  laughing  them  into  perfection.  Some  of 
his  remarks  are  exceedingly  humorous.  In  the  Overture  to 
the  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "  [played  at  the  Festival], 
the  gradations  of  sound  were  not  well  preserved  ;  a  rattle  of 
his  bdt'jH  on  the  music-stand  brings  the  band  to  a  dead  halt. 
"Gentlemen,"  says  Mendelssohn,  "that  won't  do.  All 
fortissimo,  all  pianissimo,  no  piano !  A  little  piano  between, 
if  you  please.  Must  have  piano,  gentlemen;  when  you  come 
to  fortissimo,  do  as  you  like."  All  this  is  expressed  with 
animation  and  good  humour,  and  a  roar  of  laughter  over, 
the  band  tries  again,  and  a  smile  playing  on  the  expressive 
features  of  the  conductor,  attests  the  power  of  his  pleasantly 
administered  corrective.  ...  At  its  conclusion  the  whole 
band  and  chorus  broke  into  a  torrent  of  enthusiastic  acclama- 
tion. After  the  oratorio  had  been  rehearsed,  Mendelssohn 
expressed  himself  highly  pleased  with  the  manner  in  which 
the  performers  had  rendered  his  work,  and  complimented  them 
on  their  extraordinary  efficiency. 


As  Moscheles,  the  Conductor-in-chief  of  the 
Festival,  was  unwell,  Mendelssohn  conducted  the 
evening  rehearsal  for  him.  At  Mendelssohn's  request 
the  usual  Tuesday  evening  concert  was  given  up  for 
an  extra  rehearsal  of  "  Elijah."  "  After  the  rehear- 
sal," says  Mrs.  Moscheles, "  I  helped  Mr.  Bartholomew 
in  correcting  the  '  text,'  and  so  we  went  on  till  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning." 

(    8i    ) 


HISTORY   OF   MENDELSSOHN'S  "  ELIJAH." 

The  band  and  chorus  for  the  Festival  consisted 
of  396  performers.  The  band,  mostly  of  the 
Philharmonic  and  the  Opera  orchestras,  numbered 
125  players — 93  strings  and  double  wood-wind. 
The  chorus,  including  a  contingent  of  62  from 
London,  totalled  271,  distributed  thus  :  sopranos, 
79  ;  altos  (all  male  voices,  "  bearded  altos,"  as 
Mendelssohn  called  them),  60 ;  tenors,  60 ;  and 
basses,  72. 

The  principal  vocalists  in  "Elijah"  were  Madame 
Caradori-Allan,  Miss  Maria  B.  Hawes,  Mr.  Charles 
Lockey,  and  Herr  Staudigl ;  the  subordinate  parts 
were  filled  by  the  Misses  Williams  (who  sang  the  duet 
"  Lift  thine  eyes,"  now  the  trio).  Miss  Bassano,  Mr.  J. 
W.  Hobbs,  Mr.  Henry  Phillips,  and  Mr.  Machin. 
Dr.  Gauntlett  was  sp2cially  engaged  to  play  the 
organ  in  the  new  oratorio.  Mr.  James  Stimpson  was 
the  chorus  -  master  and  official  organist  of  the 
Festival. 

The  first  performance  of  "  Elijah  "  took  place  in 
the  Birmingham  Town  Hall,  on  Wednesday  morning, 
August  26, 1846.  Benedict  thus  describes  the  scene  : 
"  The  noble  Town  Hall  was  crowded  at  an  early 
liour  of  that  forenoon  with  a  brilliant  and  eagerly- 
expectant  audience.  It  was  an  anxious  and  solemn 
moment.  Every  eye  had  long  been  directed  towards 
the  conductor's  desk,  when,  at  half-past  eleven  o'clock, 
a  deafening  shout  from  the  band  and  chorus  announced 
the  approach  of  the  great  composer.  The  reception 
he  met  with  from  the  assembled  thousands  on 
stepping  into  his  place  was  absolutely  overwhelming; 
(    82    ) 


THE   FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


whilst  the  sun,  emerging  at  that  moment,  seemed 
to  illumine  the  vast  edifice  in  honour  of  the 
bright  and  pure  being  who  stood  there  the  idol  of  all 
beholders." 

The  new  oratorio  was  received  with  extraordinary 
enthusiasm,  and  the  composer's  expectations  of  his 
work  were  more  than  realised.  The  Times  said : 
"The  last  note  of  *  Elijah  '  was  drowned  in  a  long- 
continued  unanimous  volley  of  plaudits,  vociferous 
and  deafening.  It  was  as  though  enthusiasm,  long- 
checked,  had  suddenly  burst  its  bonds  and  filled  the 
air  with  shouts  of  exultation.  Mendelssohn,  evi- 
dently overpowered,  bowed  his  acknowledgments, 
and  quickly  descended  from  his  position  in  the 
conductor's  rostrum ;  but  he  was  compelled  to 
appear  again,  amidst  renewed  cheers  and  huzzas. 
Never  was  there  a  more  complete  triumph — never  a 
more  thorough  and  speedy  recognition  of  a  great 
work  of  art." 

Eight  numbers  were  encored  :  "  If  with  all  your 
hearts,"  "  Baal,  we  cry  to  thee,"  "  Regard  Thy 
servant's  prayer"  (now  "Cast  thy  burden"), 
"Thanks  be  to  God,"  "He,  watching  over  Israel," 
"  O  rest  in  the  Lord,"  "  For  the  mountains 
shall  depart,"  and  "0  1  every  one  that  thirsteth." 
Herr  Staudigl  gave  a  majestic  and  ideal  rendering  of 
the  music  of  the  Prophet.  In  the  opinion  of  the 
late  Mr.  Stimpson,  who  spoke  from  forty  years' 
experience  of  the  Birmingham  Festivals,  Staudigl's 
interpretation  of  the  bass  part  has  never  yet  been 
equalled.  The  junior  tenor  of  the  Festival,  Mr. 
Charles  Lockey,  fairly  won  his  laurels.  He  sang  his 
(    83    ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


two  songs  "  deliciously,"  says  a  critic  ;  the  first,  "  If 
with  all  your  hearts,"  was  encored,  and  "the  smile 
upon  Mendelssohn's  face  while  it  was  being  sung 
showed  how  much  he  was  pleased  with  the  chaste 
execution  of  this  young  tenor."  The  soprano  and 
contralto  soloists  failed  to  satisfy  Mendelssohn. 

No  small  measure  of  the  success  of  the  per- 
formance was  due  to  Mr.  Stimpson,  the  un- 
wearied chorus-master.  At  its  conclusion  Mendels- 
sohn took  him  by  both  hands  and  said  :  "  What 
can  I  give  you  in  return  for  what  you  have 
done  for  my  work  ?  "  The  composer  was  delighted 
with  the  manner  in  which  the  band  and  chorus  had 
rendered  his  music ;  and  an  old  member  of  the  band 
records  "  the  eagerness  with  v>'hich  Mendelssohn 
shook  hands  with  all  who  could  get  near  him  in 
the  artists'  room,  thanking  them  warmly  for  the 
performance."  A  veteran  member  of  the  choir, 
speaking  from  the  recollections  and  experiences 
of  more  than  fifty  years,  says  of  Mendelssohn's 
appearance  and  conducting:  "It  was  one  of  the 
most  impressive  memories  I  have  in  matters 
musical." 

Before  going  into  the  Hall,  Mendelssohn  saiJ 
to  Chorley,  the  musical  critic  of  the  Athencvuni : 
"Now  stick  your  claws  into  my  book.  Don't  tell  me 
what  you  like,  but  tell  me  what  you  chii't  like." 
After  the  performance,  he  said  in  his  merriest 
manner  to  Chorley :  "  Come,  and  I  will  show  you 
the  prettiest  walk  in  Birmingham."  He  then  led 
the  critic  and  other  friends  to  the  banks  of  the 
canal,  bordered  by  coal  and  cinder  heaps.  There, 
(    S4    ) 


THE   FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


on  the  towing-path  between  the  bridges,  they  walked 
for  more  than  an  hour  discussing  the  new  oratorio. 
According  to  the  late  Mr.  Moore,  it  was  then  and 
there,  amidst  the  scenery  of  the  cinder  heaps,  that  a 
sudden  thought  struck  Mendelssohn  to  change  "Lift 
thine  eyes  "  from  a  duet  into  a  trio. 

Shortly  after  this  "prettiest  walk  in  Birmingham," 
Mendelssohn  poured  out  his  delighted  feelings  to  his 
brother  Paul  in  the  following  letter  : — 


[To  Paul  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.] 

"Birmingham,  August  26   [Pay],  1846. 

"  My  dear  Brother, — From  the  very  first  you  took 
so  kind  an  interest  in  my  '  Elijah,'  and  thus  inspired 
me  with  so  much  energy  and  courage  for  its  com- 
pletion, that  I  must  write  to  tell  you  all  about  its 
first  performance  yesterday.  No  work  of  mine  ever 
went  so  admirably  the  first  time  of  execution,  or  was 
received  with  such  enthusiasm,  by  both  the  musicians 
and  the  audience,  as  this  oratorio.  It  was  quite 
evident,  at  the  first  rehearsal  in  London,  that  they 
liked  it,  and  liked  to  sing  and  to  play  it ;  but  I  own  I 
was  far  from  anticipating  that  it  would  acquire  such 
fresh  vigour  and  '  go  '  in  it  at  the  performance.  If 
you  had  only  been  there  !  During  the  whole  two 
hours  and  a  half  that  it  lasted,  the  two  thousand 
people  in  the  large  hall,  and  the  large  orchestra,  were 
all  so  fully  intent  on  the  one  object  in  question,  that 
not  the  slightest  sound  was  to  be  heard  among  the 
whole  audience,  so  that  I  could  sway  at  pleasure  the 
(    85    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 

enormous  orchestra  and  choir,  and  also  the  organ 
accompaniment.  How  often  I  thought  of  you  during 
the  time  !  More  especially,  however,  when  the 
*  sound  of  abundance  of  rain  '  came,  and  when  they 
sang  the  final  chorus  wiih  furore,  and  when,  after  the 
close  of  the  first  part,  we  were  obliged  to  repeat  the 
whole  movement  ['Thanks  be  to  God '] .  Not  less 
than  four  choruses  and  four  airs  were  encored,  and 
not  one  single  mistake  occurred  in  the  whole  of  the 
first  part  ;  there  were  some  afterwards  in  the  second 
part,  but  even  these  were  but  trifling.  A  young 
English  tenor*  sang  the  last  air  ['  Then  shall  the 
righteous  shine  forth  ']  so  beautifully,  that  I  was 
obliged  to  collect  all  my  energies  so  as  not  to  be 
affected,  and  to  continue  beating  time  steadily.  As 
I  said,  if  you  had  only  been  there  !  " 

In  a  letter  written  from  London  (August  31,  1S46) 
to  Frau  Livia  Frege,  of  Leipzig — a  gifted  amateur 
singer  with  a  very  lovely  and  high  soprano  voice — 
Mendelssohn  said  : — 

"  You  have  always  shown  so  much  kind  interest 
in  my  '  Elijah,'  that  I  look  upon  it  as  a  duty  to 
write  to  you  after  its  performance,  and  to  give  }-ou  an 
account  of  it.  If  this  should  weary  you,  you  have 
only  yourself  to  blame  ;  for  why  did  you  allow  me  to 
come  to  you  with  the  score  under  m}-  arm,  and  play 
to  you  those  parts  that  were  half  completed,  and  why 
did  you  sing  so  much  of  it  to  me  at  sight  ?  You 
really  ought  to  have  felt  it  a  duty  to  travel  with  me  to 

*  Mr.  Charles  Lockey. 
(     S6     ) 


THE   FIRST   PERFORMANCE. 

Birmingham  ;  for  one  ought  not  to  make  people's 
mouths  water  and  make  them  feel  dissatisfied  with 
their  condition  where  one  cannot  help  them  ;  and  it 
was  just  the  solo  soprano  part  I  found  there  in  a 
most  helpless  and  lamentable  state.  But  there  was 
so  much  that  was  good  by  way  of  compensation  that, 
on  the  whole,  I  bring  back  a  very  pleasant  impression, 
and  I  often  thought  that  you  also  would  have  taken 
pleasure  in  it. 

"  The  rich,  full  sounds  of  the  orchestra  and  the 
huge  organ,  combined  with  the  powerful  voices  of 
the  chorus,  who  sang  with  sincere  enthusiasm  ;  the 
wonderful  resonance  in  the  huge  grand  hall ;  an 
admirable  English  tenor;  Staudigl,  too,  who  took  all 
possible  pains,  and  whose  talents  and  powers  you 
already  well  know ;  some  very  good  second  soprano 
and  contralto  solo  singers;  all  executing  the  music 
with  special  zest  and  the  utmost  fire  and  spirit,  doing 
justice  not  only  to  the  loudest  passages,  but  also 
to  the  softest  pianos  in  a  manner  which  I  never 
before  heard  from  such  masses;  and,  in  addition,  an 
impressionable,  kindly,  hushed,  and  enthusiastic 
audience — now  still  as  mice,  now  exultant — all  this 
is  indeed  sufficient  good  fortune  for  a  first  perform- 
ance. In  fact,  I  never  in  my  life  heard  a  better,  or 
I  may  say  one  as  good;  and  I  almost  doubt  whether 
I  shall  ever  again  hear  one  equal  to  it,  because 
there  were  so  many  favourable  combinations  on  this 
occasion. 

"With  so  much  light  the  shadows  were  not  absent, 
and  the  worsi  was  the  soprano  part.  It  was  all  so 
pretty,  so  pleasing,  so  elegant,  at  the  same  time  so 
(    87    )  G 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•ELIJAH." 


flat,  SO  heartless,  so  unintelligent,  so  soulless,  that 
the  music  acquired  a  sort  of  amiable  expression  about 
which  I  could  go  mad  even  to-day  when  I  think  of  it. 
The  alto  had  not  enough  voice  to  fill  the  hall  .  .  . 
but  her  rendering  was  musical  and  intelligent,  which 
to  me  makes  it  far  more  easy  to  put  up  with  than 
want  of  voice.  Nothing  is  so  unpleasant  to  my  taste 
as  such  cold,  heartless  coquetry  in  music.  It  is  so 
unmusical  in  itself,  and  yet  it  is  often  made  the  basis 
of  singing  and  playing — making  music,  in  fact." 

To  Jenny  Lind,  Mendelssohn  wrote  : — 

"  The  performance  of  my  '  Elijah  '  was  the  best 
performance  that  I  ever  heard  of  any  one  of  my 
compositions.  There  was  so  much  go  and  swing  in 
the  way  in  which  the  people  played,  and  sang,  and 
listened.     I  wish  you  had  been  there." 

The  opinions  of  the  professional  critic  and  the 
composer  have  been  given  ;  the  impressions  of  a 
cultured  amateur  in  the  audience  may  therefore 
appropriately  follow.  The  subjoined  extract  is  from 
a  letter  written  by  the  late  Mrs.  Samuel  Bache,  of 
Birmingham  (mother  of  those  gifted  musicians, 
Francis  Edward  and  Walter  Bache),  to  her  nephew, 
Mr.  Russell  Martineau,  M.A.,  in  which  she  gives  a 
full  account  of  the  Festival  :  — 

••  Edgbaston,  Scpteviher  4,  1S46. 

"     .     .     .     .     ^^'ednesday  morning  *  Elijah '  was 
performed,    and    of    this    I    cannot    exaggerate   my 
(    88    ) 


•■W 


*;«' 


'1^ 


MADAME   CARADORI-ALLAN 
(1800—1865) 

The  original  soprano  in  Mendelssohn's  "  Elijah. 


THE   FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


reverential  admiration.  The  old  admirers  of  Handel, 
who  always  crowd  to  *  The  Messiah,'  which  they  must 
not  miss  whatever  else  they  give  up,  would  be  shocked 
to  hear  anyone  confess  a  greater,  a  more  refined  and 
spiritual  influence  exercised  by  Mendelssohn  over 
the  mind  and  heart ;  but  to  me  it  is  so  undoubtedly, 
v.'hether  in  part  from  too  great  familiarity  lessening 
the  impression  in  Handel's  case,  I  am  not  quite 
sure.  I  think  it  is  that  Mendelssohn's  whole  nature 
is  profoundly  educated  ;  that  his  adaptation  of  the 
music  to  the  meaning  is  not  of  that  broad  unmistak- 
able kind  which  even  an  uneducated  ear  can 
comprehend,  but  is  of  that  refined  and  far-reaching 
nature  which  carries  along  with  it  in  fullest 
sympathy,  mind,  heart,  and  soul,  be  they  cultivated 
ever  so  highly.  If  I  could  send  you  my  scheme 
[word-book]  of  *  Elijah  '  with  my  own  remarks,  you 
would  at  once  see  what  I  mean ;  one  instance  must 
suffice  now — the  Widow  entreating  Elijah's  '  help  ' 
for  her  sick  son  receives  this  answer,  *  Give  me  thy 
son.'  Then  follows  his  prayer  for  God's  help  that 
he  again  may  live.  The  *  Give  me  thy  son  '  expressed 
all  that  religious  reliance,  that  confidence  in  power 
from  above  which  already  assured  the  prayer's 
fulfilment  ;  and  Staudigl  being  Elijah,  Mendelssohn's 
every  intention  was  carried  out.  Then  the  contrast 
between  the  '  Baal  music '  and  Elijah's  and  the 
Israelites'  prayers  and  adoration  is  finely  and  truly 
maintained.  To  select  beauties  where  the  whole  is 
so  perfect  seems  nearly  impossible.  There  is  one 
song  deep  in  my  heart,  like  '  the  Lord  is  mindful  of 
His  own  '  from  '  Paul,'  which  I  should  call  the  song 
(    89    )  G  2 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


of  the  oratorio — namely,  the  angel's  comfort  to 
Elijah  in  his  despondency,  '  O  rest  in  the  Lord,  wait 
patiently  for  Him,  and  He  shall  give  thee  thine  heart's 
desires,'  &c.  And  one  quartett  of  surpassing  power 
and  beauty,  viz.,  *0!  every  one  that  thirsteth.' 
The  choruses  I  consider  quite  uncommonly  impres- 
sive ;  no  noise,  all  music  and  meaning,  and  some  of, 
almost  unparalleled  power  and  grandeur.  Such  a 
triumphant  first  performance  has,  I  should  think, 
seldom  been  known. 


**  And  where  was  your  cousin  Edward  [Bache]  all 
the  time  ?  He  was  in  the  orchestra,  very  near  his 
old  master,  Mr.  [Alfred]  Mellon,  and  our  kind  friend 
Mr.  Flersheim,  and  thus  had  the  great  advantage 
and  enjoyment  of  hearing  nearly  all  the  performances 
and  taking  his  part  on  the  violin ;  it  has  been  a  great 
stimulus  to  him  and  an  encouragement."  * 

At  the  same  time  Mrs.  Bache  wrote  to  her  sister, 
Mrs.  Martineau,  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  James 
Martineau,  as  follows  : — 

"  Let  me  tell  you  that  Mendelssohn's  noble 
oratorio  of  '  Elijah '  was  even  more  than  I  had 
expected,  and  I  had  t'(:/_)' great  expectations.  To  see 
him  conducting  was  worth  anything.      He  seemed 

•  F.  Edward  Bache  was  then  a  boy  of  thirteen.  His  name 
does  not  appear  in  the  othcial  Hst  of  the  Band;  but  Mr.  Andrew 
Deakin's  recollection  of  the  event  confirms  the  statement  in  Mrs. 
Bache's  letter. 

(    90    ) 


THE  FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


inspired,  and  might  well  be  forgiven  for  something  of 
self-reverence,  though  he  looked  all  humility  ;  and 
when  he  came  down  from  his  chair  when  it  was  all 
over,  he  seemed  all  unstrung  as  if  he  could  no  more. 
The  interest  that  invests  that  man  is  quite  inexpres- 
sible, and  indeed  I  never  felt,  as  I  have  done 
throughout  this  week's  Festival,  the  greatness  of  a 
truly  great  composer ;  what  are  all  the  performers 
compared  with  him  !  "  * 

In  a  letter  (*'  Leipzig,  September  28,  1846  "),  written 
in  English,  to  his  Birmingham  host,  Mr.  Joseph 
Moore,  Mendelssohn  said  : — 

**  I  have  now  returned  home,  found  all  my  family 
as  well  as  I  might  have  wished,  and,  while  I  think 
over  the  events  of  this  last  journey,  I  cannot  help 
addressing  these  few  lines  to  you  in  order  to  express 
once  more  the  most  sincere  and  most  heartfelt 
thanks  for  your  very  kind  reception,  and  for  the 
friendship  you  have  again  shown  to  me  during  my 
stay  at  your  house.  Indeed,  the  first  performance  of 
my  '  Elijah  '  exceeded  all  the  wishes  which  a 
composer  may  feel  at  such  an  important  moment, 
and  the  evident  good-will  of  all  the  artists  in  the 
orchestra,  as  well  as  the  kindness  with  which  the 
audience  received  the  work,  will  be  as  long  as  I  live 
a  source  of  grateful  recollection.     And  yet  it  seems 

*  I  am  much  indebted  to  Mr.  Russell  Martineau,  and  the 
surviving  members  of  Mrs.  Bache's  family,  for  their  kind  permission 
to  use  these  interesting  extracts. 

(    91     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

to  me  that  I  should  not  have  enjoyed  so  great  a  treat 
as  thoroughly  and  intensely  as  I  did,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  your  kindness  and  continued  friendship,  and 
for  the  comfortable  home  which  you  offered  to  me 
during  those  days  of  excitement.  Our  quiet  morning 
and  evening  conversations  with  Mr.  Ayrton  and 
Mr.  Webb  are  to  my  mind  quite  connected  with 
the  performances  at  the  Town  Hall,  and  form  an 
important  part  of  my  Musical  Festival  at  Birming- 
ham ;  and  while  I  should  certainly  never  have  assisted 
at  one  of  them  if  it  had  not  been  for  our  very  old 
acquaintance,  and  while  I  accordingly  owe  to  you 
the  whole  of  the  treat  which  this  first  performance  of 
*  Elijah'  afforded  me,  I  must  at  the  same  time  thank 
you  no  less  heartily  and  sincerely  for  the  quiet  and 
comfortable  stay,  and  the  friendly  reception  at  your 
house,  which  enhanced  all  those  pleasures  so  con- 
siderably. That  your  health  may  now  be  quite 
restored  again  after  the  fatigues  you  have  undergone, 
and  that  we  may  soon  meet  again  (either  in  your 
country,  or  once  more  in  mine),  and  that  you  will 
continue  the  same  kindness  and  friendship  which  you 
have  now  shown  to  me,  and  which  I  always  met  with 
from  you  since  so  many  years,  is  the  most  earnest 
wish  and  hope  of 

**  Yours  very  truly  and  gratefully, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


In  spite  of  Mendelssohn's  protest,  "  Elijah  "  was 
immediately  followed    by  two  Italian  "  selections  " 
(   92    ) 


THE  FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


and  a  Handel  chorus  !  If  the  Committee  tried 
their  skill  at  providing  an  anti-climax,  they  admir- 
ably succeeded. 

At  the  concluding  concert,  on  Friday  morning, 
the  final  chorus  of  Handel's  "  Zadok  the  Priest  " 
was  set  down  for  performance.  Almost  at  the  last 
minute  it  was  found  that  there  was  no  music 
for  the  preceding  Recitative  printed  in  the  word- 
book.* The  Committee  were  in  a  fix,  and  then  they 
suddenly  thought  that  Mendelssohn  might  be  able  to 
help  them  in  their  hour  of  need.  He  was  sitting  in  the 
Vice-President's  gallery,  enjoying  the  performance, 
when  the  chairman  of  the  Orchestral  Committee,  the 
late  Mr.  J.  F.  Ledsam,  went  to  him  and  stated  their 
difficulty,  Mendelssohn  at  once  proceeded  to  the 
ante-room,  and,  in  a  few  minutes,  composed  a  recita- 
tive for  tenor  solo,  with  accompaniment  for  strings 
and  two  trumpets.  The  parts  were  expeditiously 
copied  by  the  indefatigable  Goodwin,  and  the  whole 
recitative  was  performed  prima  vista  by  Mr.  Lockey, 
a  quintet  of  strings,  and  the  two  trumpet  players. 
The  audience  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the  cir- 
cumstance of  this  impromptu  composition,  and 
doubtless  thought  that  they  were  listening  to  music 
by  Handel. 

Through  the  kindness  of  the  late  Dr.  W.  A. 
Barrett  and  Messrs.  Goodwin  and  Tabb,  it  is  possible 

•  The  words  of  this  Recitative,  probably  written  by  the  Rev. 
John  Webb,  first  appeared  in  the  word-book  of  the  1S37  Festival, 
just  after  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria.  They  supplanted  those 
beginning  "  When  King  David  was  old,"  first  sung  in  1820.  These 
new  (Victorian)  words  were  also  used  at  the  Festival  of  1840,  but 
not  in  1843. 

(     93     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 

to   give    the    score,    together    with    Mendelssohn's 
felicitous  postscript  : — 


Regit.  Tenor. 


^5^ 


-I *— 


i:^EP^S^- 


'53^5E$E^ 


The  Lord  God    Al-might-y,         who    or- der-tth  all  things  in 


^=3^=5==^ 


iinzT^^rfc 


-* — r- 


-w -^ 


--it=:i 


5=5=?= 


>--  ■^-<^-===r — f-^g: 


hea-ven    and   on   earth,   hath      a  -  noint- ed  His  hand- maid,      to     be 


It  ^ 


^^Jl 


:=S= 


^ 


^•-J=S 


ru  -  ler     o-verthe  na-tions,       to    glad  -  den  the  hearts,  the  heartsof  His 


P' 


"^JjE 


Trumpets 


(     94     ) 


THE   FIRST  PERFORMANCE. 


Pi^l 


-M 


P^^^^^^^^= 


And  let   all  the  peo-ple  rejoice,      rejoice  and  say. 


^±S 


la^^-feT- 


l_9     ' 


31 


f- 


[Chorus — "  God  save  the  Queen."] 

"  Composed  expressly  for  this  Festival,  and  for  Mr. 
Lockey,  with  many  thanks  for — 


E^SES 


r^ 


zto 


r- — I — :  and  for  ^[|gr. 


"  by  me, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. 
"  Birmingham,  August  28,  1846." 

Mendelssohn  left  Birmingham  the  same  day  and 
came  to  London,  "  where,"  he  says,  "  my  only 
important  business  was  a  '  fish  dinner'  at  Lovegrove's 
at  Blackwall ;  after  which  I  stayed  four  days  at 
Ramsgate  for  sea  air,  and  ate  crabs,  and  enjoyed 
myself  with  the  Beneckes."  The  late  Mrs.  Benecke, 
for  whom  Mendelssohn  had  a  particular  affection, 
remembered  that  he  was  in  most  cheerful  and 
excellent  spirits  during  his  visit  at  the  seaside,  and 
that  he  often  referred  with  great  satisfaction  to  the 
first  performance  of  his  "  Elijah."  Although  his 
stay  at  Ramsgate  was  so  short,  he  there  began  to 
write  out  the  pianoforte  arrangement  of  the  oratorio, 
and  worked  at  it  several  hours  daily. 
(    95    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

The  Festival  Committee,  at  their  meeting  imme- 
diately after  the  Festival  (August  29),  passed  the 
following  resolution  : — 

"  That  this  Committee,  deeply  impressed  by  the 
unprecedented  success  of  the  oratorio  of  *  Elijah,' 
written  for  this  Festival,  do  return  their  very  cordial 
and  grateful  thanks  to  Dr.  Felix  Mendelssohn- 
Bartholdy  for  a  Composition  in  which  the  most 
consummate  musical  knowledge  and  the  highest 
intellectual  conceptions  are  displayed;  a  Composition 
which  will  soon  be  universally  known,  and  not  only 
add  to  the  fame,  already  so  great,  of  the  Author,  but 
tend  to  exalt  the  art  which  he  professes,  and  on 
which  his  genius  and  judgment  reflect  so  much 
honour." 


(   96    ) 


HERR  JOSEPH    STAUDIGL 

(1807- iS6i) 

The  original  Elijah  in  Mendelssohn's  Oratoric. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE   REVISED    ORATORIO. 

Mendelssohn,  upon  his  return  to  Leipzig,  was  much 
exhausted  after  the  severe  strain  of  composing,  and 
the  exertion  connected  with  the  production  of 
"  Elijah,"  But,  although  he  led  "  a  vegetable 
existence,  doing  nothing  the  whole  day  but  eat  and 
sleep  and  take  walks,"  he  very  soon  began  to  work 
at  the  revision  of  his  new  oratorio.  It  has  been 
shown  that  Mendelssohn  had  to  write  against 
time  in  order  to  complete  his  oratorio  for  the 
Birmingham  Festival  ;  and  after — if  not  before,  or 
during — the  first  performance  he  discovered  numerous 
instances  in  which  the  work  could  be  greatly  improved. 
He  told  Mr.  Bartholomew  that  he  should  make  many 
alterations,  and  he  did.  In  a  letter  to  Klingemann, 
j  dated  December  6,  1846,  Mendelssohn  says  : — 

'*  I  have  again  begun  to  work  with  all  my  might 
at  my  *  Elijah,'  and  hope  to  amend  the  greater  part 
of  what  I  thought  deficient  at  the  first  performance. 
I  have  quite  completed  one  of  the  most  difficult  parts 
(the  Widow);  and  I  am  sure  you  will  be  satisfied  with 
the  alterations  which  I  may  call  improvemenis. 
(    97    ) 


HISTORY   OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "  ELIJAH." 


'  Elijah  '  has  become  far  more  impressive  and  solemn 
here.  I  missed  that  in  my  first  version  and  was 
annoyed  by  this  want ;  but,  unfortunately,  I  never  find 
out  such  things  till  afterwards,  and  till  I  have  im- 
proved them.  I  hope,  too,  to  hit  upon  the  true  sense 
of  other  passages  that  we  have  discussed  together.  I 
shall  most  seriously  revise  all  that  I  did  not  deem 
satisfactory;  and  I  hope  to  see  the  whole  completely 
finished  within  a  few  weeks,  so  as  to  be  able  to  set  to 
work  on  something  new.  The  parts  that  I  have 
already  remodelled  prove  to  me  again  that  I  am  right 
not  to  rest  till  such  work  is  as  good  as  it  is  in  my 
power  to  make  it ;  even  though  very  few  people  care 
to  hear  about  such  things,  or  notice  them,  and  even 
though  they  take  very  much  time  ;  yet  the  impression 
such  passages,  if  really  better,  produce  in  themselves 
and  on  the  whole  work,  is  such  a  different  one,  that 
I  feel  I  cannot  leave  them  as  they  no\V  stand." 

In  a  letter  to  his  English  publisher,  Mr.  Buxton 
(Ewer  &  Co.),  Mendelssohn  calls  this  habit  of  con- 
stant alteration  a  "  dreadful  disease,"  from  which  he 
suffered  chronically  and  severely.  He  says  :  "  I  was 
sorry  to  see  that  you  will  have  to  make  so  many 
alterations  in  the  choral  parts  ;  but  I  think  I  told  you 
before,  that  I  was  subject  to  this  dreadful  disease  of 
altering  as  long  as  I  did  not  feel  my  conscience  quite 
at  rest,  and  therefore  I  could  not  help  it,  and  }ou 
must  bear  it  patiently."  In  the  same  letter  (written 
in  English)  he  sa3s:  — "  I  did  what  I  could  to 
reconcile  myself  to  the  idea  of  adding  a  few  bars  to 
the  Overture  to  make  it  a  separate  piece,  and  give  it 
(    98    ) 


THE   REVISED  ORATORIO. 


a  conclusion  ;  but,  I  assure  you,  it  is  impossible.  I 
tried  hard  to  do  what  you  want,  in  order  to  show  my 
goodwill — but  I  could  not  find  an  end,  and  I  am  sure 
there  is  none  to  be  found." 

The  chief  alterations  (to  quote  from  Sir  George 
Grove's  invaluable  article  "  Mendelssohn,"  in  his 
"Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,"  II.,  289) 
were : — 

"  The  chorus  '  Help,  Lord  !  '  (No.  i),  much 
changed  :  the  end  of  the  double  quartett  (No.  7), 
re-written :  the  scene  with  the  Widow  (No.  8),  entirely 
re-cast  and  much  extended  :  the  chorus  '  Blessed  are 
the  men  '  (No.  g),  re-scored  :  the  words  of  the  quartett 

*  Cast  thy  burden  '  (No.  15),  new  :  the  soprano  air 

*  Hear  ye  '  (No.  21),  added  to  and  re-constructed  :  in 
the  Jezebel  scene  a  new  chorus,  '  Woe  to  him  '  (No. 
24),  in  place  of  a  suppressed  one,  '  Do  unto  him  as 
he  hath  done,'  and  the  recitative  '  Man  of  God  ' 
added :  the  trio  '  Lift  thine  eyes  '  (No.  28)  was 
originally  a  duet,  quite  different :  Obadiah's  recita- 
tive and  air  (No.  25)  are  new :  the  chorus  '  Go,  return,' 
and  Elijah's  answer  (No.  36)  are  also  new.  The 
last  chorus  (No.  42)  is  entirely  re-written  to  fresh 
words,  the  text  having  formerly  been  '  Unto  Him  that 
is  abundantly  able,'  etc.  The  omissions  are  chiefly  a 
movement  of  95  [86]  bars,  alia  breve,  to  the  words 
'  He  shall  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,'  which  formed 
the  second  part  of  the  chorus  'But  thus  saiththe  Lord' 
(No.  41),  and  a  recitative  for  tenor,  *  Elijah  is  come 
already  ;  and  yet  they  have  known  him  not ;  but  have 
done  unto  him  whatsoever  they  listed,'  with  which 

(    99    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

Part  II.  of  the  oratorio  originally  opened.  In 
addition  to  these  more  prominent  alterations,  there  is 
hardly  a  movement  throughout  the  work  which  has 
not  been  more  or  less  worked  upon." 

The  phrase  of  four  bars  (instrumental)  at  the  end 
of  "  Man  of  God  "  (No.  25),  and  leading  into  "  It  is 
enough,"  was  an  afterthought,  and,  like  the  overture, 
was  due  to  the  English  translator.  Bartholomew 
made  the  suggestion — a  hint,  it  may  be  called,  but 
a  very  interesting  one — in  the  following  words : 
"  Elijah — '  Tarry  here,  my  servant,  and  I  will  go  a 
day's  journey  into  the  wilderness.'  What  if  an 
instrumental  interlude  (short)  gave  time  for  the 
journey  ?  and  then,  spent  with  fatigue,  he  might, 
from  very  weariness,  say,  *  It  is  enough  ! '  " 

Another  interesting  instance  of  Mendelssohn's 
afterthoughts  is  that  near  the  end  of  the  last  Baal 
chorus,  where  the  sustained  and  piercing  cry  of  the 
sopranos  and  altos  was  not  originally  re-echoed  by 
the  tenors  and  basses  : — 


J  N     ^.  '^ 

Hear    and      an     -     swer. 


The  above  impressive  response  to  the  entreaty  of  the 
female  voices  is  inserted,  in  Bartholomew's  writing, 
in  a  proof  copy  of  the  oratorio,  now  in  my  possession. 
Its  appropriateness  is  unquestionable  ;  yet  it  was 
not  in  the  original  version. 

The  Sacred  Harmonic  Society,  who,  in  1S37,  ^'''^^ 
enrolled  Mendelssohn  as  a  member,  and  had  presented 
(    100    ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


him  with  a  silver  snuff-box,*  were  very  Jin Jcioiis'tc^  be'^ 
the  first  to  perform  the  revised  oratorio.  Within  a 
month  of  the  Birmingham  performance,  the  Secretary 
addressed  to  Mendelssohn  a  long  letter,  in  which  (i) 
the  Society  congratulated  the  composer  upon  the 
success  of  his  new  work,  (2)  asked  that  they  might 
have  the  honour  of  giving  the  first  performance  of  the 
revised  version  before  a  London  audience,  and  (3) 
that,  if  possible,  Mendelssohn  should  himself  con- 
duct the  said  performance.  Here  is  Mendelssohn's 
reply  :— 

To  T.  Brewer,  Esq.,  Hon.  Sec.  to  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society, 
Exeter  Hall,  London. 

[Written  in  English.] 

*'  Leipzig,  October  7,  1846. 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  beg  to  express  my  best  thanks  for 
the  letter  dated  September  24,  and  it  gives  me  much 
pleasure  that  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society  will 
undertake  the  first  performance  of  my  'Elijah' 
before  a  London  Audience.  I  beg  to  thank  the 
Committee  most  sincerely  for  their  flattering  inten- 
tion, and  of  course  should  be  most  happy  to  conduct 

*  This  silver  snuff-box,  which  cost  nine  guineas,  bore  upon  it  the 
following  inscription : — 

"  Presented  to 

Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 

by  the 

Sacred  Harmonic  Society,  London, 

on  the  occasion  of 

his  attendance  at  their  performance  of  his  oratorio 

'  St.  Paul,' 

at  Exeter  Hall,  on  the  12th  day  of  September,  1837." 

(     loi     ) 


•-  HISTURY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

'tha  wcrk.ir»}^e]f  on  such  an  occasion,  if  I  can  come 
to  London  in  April  next.  I  hope  and  trust  that 
I  may  have  that  pleasure,  and  that  nothing  may 
prevent  me  from  doing  so.  But  I  am  still  doubtful, 
and  cannot  give  a  positive  promise  as  far  as  regards 
my  coming  over  ;  and  as  for  the  parts  which  you  wish 
to  have  as  soon  as  possible,  I  shall  speak  to  the 
Editor  [publisher]  of  them,  Mr.  Buxton,  who,  I  hear, 
is  expected  shortly  in  Leipzig,  and  will  ask  him 
to  let  you  have  them  as  soon  as  they  can  be  ready. 

"With  many  thanks  to  yourself  and  the  Society, 
believe  me,  dear  Sir,  your  very  obedient  servant, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

Before  the  receipt  of  the  Sacred  Harmonic 
Society's  invitation,  Mendelssohn  must  have  begun 
the  work  of  revision,  as  the  following  letter  to 
Bartholomew  (dated  exactly  a  month  after  the 
Birmingham  performance)  will  show:  — 

\\Vritt6n  in  English,  and  on  a  sheet  of  music-paper.] 

"  Leipzig,  September  26,  1846. 

"  Dear  Mr.  Bartholomew, — Many  thanks  for  your 
new  alterations  which  you  made  to  meet  my  wishes. 
I  decidedly  prefer  the  second  version  of  the  beginning 
of  No.  41  :  *  But  the  Lord  from  the  north  hath  raised 
one!'  (this  is  very  good),  but  at  the  last  bar  before 
the  Andante  I  cannot  approve  of — 


«i^ 


I.J. 


\—-  instead  of 


Indeed  these  two  long  notes  are  ncccss.iry,  tor  the 

(     i02     ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


development  of  the  whole  phrase,  as  I  intended  it. 
Now,  could  you  not  say  'call  His  name,'  instead 
of  'call  upon  His  name? '  Then  the  chief  difficulty 
would  be  removed.  And  perhaps  would  it  be 
possible  to  leave  out  *  of  the  sun,'  and  only  say 
*  from  the  rising  '  (this  is  done  very  often,  at  least  in 
our  German  Bible)  ?  Then  the  second  passage 
would  also  stand  nearly  as  with  the  German 
words : — 


shall     call 


His     Name. 


**  The  rest  of  the  Andante  con  nioto  suits  my  music 
now  very  well  in  the  alteration,  as  you  wrote  it  out, 
but  I  should  prefer  there  the  first,  and  in  the  begin- 
ning {Andante  sostenuto)  the  second  version.  And 
why  not?  So  the  Andante  con  moto  might  begin: 
'  But  the  Lord  hath  upraised  one,  the  Lord,'  etc. 
But  if  this  is  against  your  conscience,  leave  here 
also  the  second  version.  For  the  beginning  is  much 
more  important. 

*'  I  prefer : 


He      shall     call 


up  -  on  His  Name,  &c. 


"  In  No.  38  I  should  prefer :  '  his  words  appeared 
like  burning  torches  ' — I  am  so  obstinate  about  the 
torches  because  they  account  for  the  F  minor  character 
(    103    )  H 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


which  I  gave  to  that  beginning  more  than  any  other 
word  could  possibly  do.* 

"  As  for  *  the  transgressor,'  etc.,  I  may  possibly 
send  another  piece  instead  of  the  one  which  now 
stands,  and  therefore  we  will  settle  the  translation 
hereafter. 


"In  No.  34  I  prefer: — 


hold,       OoU     the 


and  afterwards- 


i=^. 


But 


yet       the 


and  likewise- 


But     yet    the 


for  1  should  not  like  to  place  the  word  *  God  '  on  so 
short  a  note,  and  in  such  a  rhythm,  while  the  word 
yet  is  just  as  light  and  insignificant  as  will  do  on 
such  a  note. 

*'  And  again  many  thanks, 

"F.  M.-B." 

The  following  letters  from  Mendelssohn  to  Bar- 
tholomew, all  written  in  English,  may  now  follow  on. 


•  Bartholomew  had  rendered  the  German  words  "und  sein  Wort 
brannte  wie  eine  Fackel "  as  "  his  words  appeared  as  light  in 
darkness."  The  Enghsh  Apocrypha  (Ecclesiasticus  xlviii.,  i)  has, 
"his  word  burned  like  a  lamp."  It  is  very  difficult  to  fathom  a 
composer's  mind ;  but  what  can  be  the  connection  between 
"torches  "  and  the  key  of  F  minor?  Strangely  enough  the  source 
of  these  words  (and  also  of  No.  24)  has  always  been  wrongly  given 
as  Ecclesiastcs,  instead  of  Ecclesiast/c«j.  This  mistake  has  been 
continued  for  fifty  years  ! 

(     104     ) 


THE  REVISED   ORATORIO. 


seriatim  ;  they  lead  up  to  the  period  of  the  composer's 
arrival — for  the  last  time — in  England. 

"  Leipzig,  30  December,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  send  to-day  to  Mr,  Buxton  all 
the  pieces  which  were  still  wanting  in  the  first  part  of 
my  '  Elijah.'  Wherever  I  could,  I  took  the  words 
from  the  English  Bible  and  adapted  them  as  well  as 
I  could  to  the  alterations,  in  order  to  save  you 
trouble  ;  but,  nevertheless,  I  must  ask  you  to  look 
over  all  I  have  done,  that  no  wrong  accent  or  other 
blunders  might  remain  in  it.  So,  for  instance,  in 
the  13  bars  which  I  have  added  before  the  chorus 
*  Blessed  are  the  men,'  and  which  are  taken  from 
Psalm  cxvi.  [12]  and  Deuteron.  vi.,  15  [5] ,  I  wrote  the 
German  words  under  the  English  in  case  you  should 
prefer  the  notation  as  originally  composed,  and  choose 
to  add  a  word  or  a  syllable  here  and  there  in  the 
English  version,  in  order  to  give  it  the  same  rhythm 
as  in  German.  I  should  wish  this  in  the  passage 
just  quoted,  particularly  in  the  beginning  of  Elijah's 
answer,  '  Du  sollst  den,'  where  the  two  slurred 
notes  *  Thou  J  shalt '  are  not  equally  good.  But  I 
could  not  find  something  else,  and  I  also  think  that 
passages  like  these  are  best  left  as  in  the  Bible.  In 
the  following  chorus.  No.  g,  there  is  a  curious 
specimen  of  the  different  meaning  of  the  German  and 
English  version  :  the  words  '  He  is  gracious,'  &c.  (or, 
as  you  had  it,  ^  they  are  gracious'),  apply,  in  your 
version,  to  the  righteous,  while  in  ours  they  apply  to 
God,  and  the  passage  is  in  our  version,  'the  light 
ariseth  to  the  righteous  from  Him  who  is  gracious, 
(    105    )  H  2 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S    "  ELIJAH." 

full  of  compassion,'  &c.,  &c.  Now  I  certainly 
composed  it  with  this  last  meaning,  and  the  question 
is  whether  you  would  think  it  advisable  to  introduce 
it,  or  not.  I  proposed  '  He  is  '  instead  of  '  they  are,* 
because  I  thought  it  could  then  be  understood  both 
ways  ;  but  most  probably  you  might  hit  on  something 
much  better  still.  Instead  of  'who  delight  in  His 
commands,'  I  preferred  *  they  ever  walk  in  the  ways 
of  peace  '  only,  as  more  expressive,  and  I  hope  you 
will  be  of  my  opinion.  I  see  in  the  Birmingham 
book  that  you  quoted  the  words  of  this  chorus  Psalm 
cvi.,  3  ;  but  I  took  them  from  Psalm  cxxviii.,  i,  and 
Psalm  cxii.,  i  and  4,  although  nearly  the  same 
passage  occurs  in  Psalm  cvi.,  3. 

"  No.  15  is  a  piece  in  which  I  must  again  require 
your  friendly  assistance.  From  the  time  I  iirst  sent 
it  away  for  the  Birmingham  performance  I  felt  that 
it  should  not  remain  as  it  stood,  with  its  verses  and 
rimes,  the  only  specimen  of  a  Lutheran  Chorale  in 
this  old-testamential  work.*  I  wanted  to  have  the 
colour  of  a  Chorale,  and  I  felt  that  I  could  not  do 
without  it,  and  yet  I  did  not  like  to  have  a  Chorale. 

*  The  words  of  the  Quartet,  as  sung  at  Birmingham,  were  : — 

"  Regard  Thy  servant's  prayer, 
While  angels  bow  before  Thee, 
And  worlds  around  Thy  throne 
In  strains  of  praise  adore  Thee. 
O,  help  him  in  his  need, 
Thy  gracious  ear  accord — 
Jehovah  Sabaotb, 
Creator,  God,  and  Lord!" 

They   were  changed    to   the   now   familiar    "Cast   thy    burden." 
The   music    was   also   altered,  but   its  quartet-chorale    form   and 
slender  accompaniment  were  retained. 
(     106    ) 


THE  REVISED   ORATORIO. 


At  last  I  took  those  passages  from  the  Psalms  which 
best  apply  to  the  situation,  and  composed  them 
in  about  the  same  style  and  colour,  and  very  glad  I 
was  when  I  found  (as  I  looked  into  the  English  Bible) 
that  the  beginning  went  word  byword  as  in  German. 
But  after  the  beginning  my  joy  was  soon  at  an  end, 
and  there  it  is  that  I  must  ask  you  to  come  to  my 
assistance.  The  words  are  taken  from  Psalm  Iv.,  23 
[22];  Psalm  cviii.,  5  [4];  and  Psalm  xxv.,  3. 
*'  In  the  chorus  No.  16,  I  added  the  German  words 

*  Fallt  nieder  auf  euer  Angesicht,'  in  pencil,  because  I 
thought  that  the  English  translation,  *  adoring,'  etc., 
did  not  express  the  meaning  entirely,  nor  did  it  render 
the  rhythm  of  the  German,  which  is  still  more  to  be 
felt  by  the  bar  I  have  added  before  the  pause.     Our 

*  fallt  nieder '  means  something  still  more  awful,  I 
think,  than  to  *  bow  down  '  or  *  to  adore  '  ;  but  query 
whether  it  can  or  should  be  given  in  English  !* 

"You  will  also  find  the  Allegro  of  the  Soprano  song 
at  the  beginning  of  Part  2  ['  Hear  ye,  Israel  ']  with 
the  subsequent  chorus.     I  never  thought  of  omitting 


•  The  original  English  words  in  No.  i6  (Chorus)  were  : — 
"  Bow  down,  bow  down  !  on  your  faces  fall  adoring  !  '     They  are 
now   "  Before  Him,    upon   your   faces    fall."     The  music    of  this 
number  was   also   much  altered.     The  impressive  phrase,   "upon 
your  faces  fall,"  just  before  the  Chorale,  was  originally  : — 


a  -  dor-ing, 


a-dor-ing!       The    Lord  is    God,  &c. 


(     107     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   ••ELIJAH." 

the  Allegro  of  the  song,  but  wanted  to  find  something 
(in  words  and  music)  better  appropriated  to  make 
the  transition  from  the  slow  movement  to  the  Allegro. 
The  Recit.  which  I  now  send  is  taken  from  Isaiah 
xlix.,  7.  Here  again  the  English  words  went  at  first 
perfectly  well,  but  afterwards  they  would  not  do  at 
all,  and  (which  is  the  most  essential)  their  meaning 
differed  greatly.  The  German  means  that  the  Lord 
speaks  '  to  the  soul  that  is  despised  and  to  the 
nation  that  is  abhorred  by  others,  and  to  His  servant 
who  is  oppressed  by  tyrants,'  and  all  this  made  me 
adopt  the  words  for  this  Recit.,  and  therefore  I  wish 
it  to  be  expressed  also  in  the  English  version. 

"  And  besides  all  this  you  will  find  here  and  there 
little  deviations  from  your  words,  where  I  have  been 
forced  into  them  by  my  alterations ;  and  therefore  I 
beg  you  will  look  over  the  whole,  that  nothing  might 
be  in  it  of  which  you  did  not  approve. 

"  I  owe  you  still  many  thanks  for  several  very, 
very  kind  letters,  and  indeed  would  have  written  long 
ago  had  it  not  been  for  a  sea  of  tedious  and  compli- 
cated businesses  with  which  they  overload  me  here. 
I  could  not  avail  myself  of  the  whole  of  the  amplifi- 
cation which  you  proposed  for  the  Widow's  part, 
although  I  adopted  several  of  your  quotations  in  that 
passage  ;  but  I  was  not  able  to  give  it  the  extent  you 
proposed ;  for  although  I  very  often  feel  the  urgent 
necessity  of  altering  the  details  (of  which  you  now  see 
so  many  instances),  I  can  but  very  seldom  bring  myself 
to  a  deviation  from  the  whole  original  plan  ;  and  I 
even  make  those  alterations  almost  everywhere  in 
order  to  keep  more  faithfully  to  the  object  I  had 
(    108    ) 


THE  REVISED   ORATORIO. 


first  in  view.  And  on  that  account  I  could  not  make 
the  whole  of  this  passage  more  prominent,  although 
I  always  wish  to  do  as  you  advise. 

"  Of  course  'commandments  '  must  be  left  in  the 
soprano  song,  instead  of  '  commands,'  if  you  do  not 
approve  of  the  latter.  Do  )'ou  like  my  way  of  getting 
rid  of  '  to  slay,  to  slay  my  son  ?  '* 

"  And  many,  many  thanks  for  the  trouble  you  have 
taken  with  the  *  Sons  of  Art.'  I  am  afraid  the 
thing  is  only  fit  for  a  German  musical  men-festival, 
and  that  it  is  impos'feible  to  give  it  any  effect  in 
another  language  and  at  other  occasions ;  but 
whatever  can  be  done  with  it  has  indeed  been  done 
by  you.  And  so  I  end  as  I  began  with  thanks  and 
thanks. 

**  Very  truly  yours, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


"Leipzig,  January  20,  1847. 

'*  My  dear  Mr.  Bartholomew, — A  happy  new  year 
to  you  (although  it  is  rather  old  already),  and  many, 
many  thanks  for  your  kind  and  precious  letter ! 
Indeed,  nobody  could  have  written  it  but  you,  and 
nobody  could  have  taken  so  much  trouble  with  my 
choruses  to  the  'Athalie'  but  you,  and  to  nobody 
could  I  feel  so  sincerely  and  heartily  indebted  but  to 
you.  Have  many,  many  thanks,  my  dear  Sir,  and  be 
sure  that  you  confer  all  these  obligations  to  one  who 

*  Mr.  Bartholomew  writes  "  yes  "  on  the  original  letter. 
(     109    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

knows   how   to  value   them,   and  who  will    always 
remain  thankful  to  you  ! 

"  The  second  part  of  '  Elijah  '  will  in  very  short 
time  be  in  Mr.  Buxton's  [Ewer  &  Co.]  hands.  And 
now,  my  dear  Sir,  let  me  repeat  to  you  my  heartfelt 
thanks  for  all  you  did  again  for  me  when  they 
performed  the  '  Athalie '  choruses,*  and  for  your 
interesting  report  of  all  the  proceedings  before  and 
during  that  performance,  and  for  all  the  kindness 
and  friendship  which  you  always  show  me. 

"  Always  very  truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

"  L[eipzig],  February  2nd,  1S47. 

"  P.S. — This  letter  has  been  detained  till  to-day, 
when  I  send  a  great  parcel  to  Mr.  Buxton. 

"  Now  I  must  add  a  few  things  about  the  second 
part  of  '  Elijah,'  which  I  send  to-day.  In  the  Recit. 
No.  33,  *  Hear  me  speedily,  0  Lord,'  I  have  altered 
the  beginning  of  the  words  thus  : — 


Herr,   es  wird    Nacht     um  mich  !  Sei    du  nicht  fer  -  ne  !  Ver-birgdein,&c. 
I  Kings,  xix.,  9.  Ps.  xxii.,  12,  20. 

Pray  alter  the  English  words  accordingly,  and  look 
that  the  following  alterations  are  made  in  the  music 

•  Performed,  with  the  original  French  words  and  Mendelssohn's 
music,   before   the   Queen,  and  at   the  instigation  of  the   Prince 
Consort,  at  Windsor  Castle,  on  New  Year's  Day,  1S47.     This  was 
the  first  performance  of  "  Athalie  "  in  England. 
(     iio    ) 


THE  REVISED   ORATORIO. 


of  that  same  Recitative  :  bar  16  (accompaniment)  is 
to  be  thus  : — 


w 


-J 


'-^='=^ 


Bar  22  (accompaniment)  is  to  be  thus  : — 

m 


Lento, 
ten. 


=^ 


PP  , 


Bar  24  the  voice  is  to  be  thus  : — 


$ 


:^=Sl: 


m 


face     must  be  veil  -    ed. 

and  bar  27  (the  last)  is  to  be  thus  in  the  voice 


for     He  draw-eth  near. 

"  Pray  give  your  attention  to  all  such  passages  of 
the  words  which  I  wrote  in  pencil  in  the  arrangement. 
I  think  they  will  all  require  a  new  translation,  or  a 
modification  of  the  old  one.  I  always  added  the 
quotations.  There  are  also  some  different  (and  I  am 
sure)  better  words  in  No.  21  where  I  could  not  write 
them  in  pencil,  but  you  will  easily  see  and  I  hope 
adopt  and  adapt  them.  It  is  in  the  slow  movement, 
the  passage  of  Isaiah  liii.,  i,  *  Aber  wer  glaubt  uns'rer 
(    "I    ) 


HISTORY  OF  MEXDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

Predigt  ? '  ['  Who  hath  believed  our  report  ? '] ,  and 
in  the  Allegro,  instead  of  'Wake  up,  Jerusalem,'  etc., 
the  direct  appeal  to  Elijah,  '  Weiche  nicht,  denn  ich 
bin  dcin  Gott,  ich  starke  dich  ! '  ['Be  not  afraid,  for  I 
am  thy  God,  I  will  strengthen  thee.'] ,  Isaiah  xli.,  lo, 
from  which  also  the  following  chorus  ['  Be  not 
afraid']  is  taken.* 

"  I  hope  the  scene  with  the  Queen  and  people 
[No.  23]  will  now  offer  less  difficulties  to  you,  as 
the  *  Er  ist  des  Todes  schuldig '  ['  He  is  worthy  to 
die  ']  occurs  but  once  ;  and  5'ou  will  also  see  that  I 
took  your  hint  about  their  seeking  Elijah,  &c.,  &c. 

"In  the  Terzetto,  No.  28  ['Lift  thine  eyes'], 
w>thout  accompaniment,  there  might  perhaps  be  an 
occasion  for  altering  the  words,  although  they  are 
exactly  the  same  as  they  were  in  the  Duet ;  but  I  do 
not  think  the  beginning  would  do  well  with  the 
English  words  of  the  Duet  A 

*  It  may  be  interesting  to  give  the  original  English  words  (as 
sung  at  Birmingham)  of  this  well-known  air. 

Adagio. — "  Hear  ye,  Israel ;  hear  what  the  Lord  speaketh  :  '  Ah  ! 
had'st  thou  heeded  my  commandments  ! '  He  to  His  people  calleth ; 
yet  they  regard  not  His  voice,  nor  will  they  obey  His  call. 

Recit. — Yet  to  the  righteous,  saith  the  Lord,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel; 

Allegro — I,  I  am  he  that  comforteth,  and  ye  are  mine.  Wake  up, 
arise,  Jerusalem  !  Say,  who  art  thou  that  despairest,  and  forgettest 
the  Lord  thy  Maker ;  who  hath  stretched  forth  the  heavens,  and 
laid  the  earth's  foundations  ?     Wake  up,  arise,  Jerusalem  !  " 

f  "  Lift  thine  eyes"  was  originally  written  as  a  duet  for  soprano 
and  contralto,  and  in  this  form  it  was  sung  at  Birmingham  by  the 
Misses  Williams.  Mendelssohn,  according  to  the  late  Mr.  Lazarus, 
was  very  desirous  that  there  should  be  no  bre.ik  between  the  trio, 
"  Lift  thine  eyes,"  and  the  succeeding  chorus,  "  He,  watching  over 
Israel."  His  special  direction  at  the  end  of  the  trio,  "  Attacca, 
No.  29,"  shows  the  importance  he  attached  to  the  connecting  of 
these  two  numbers — the  trio  and  the  chorus  of  angels. 

(      "2      ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


"  And  I  write  over  the  Chorus  '  But,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  have  raised  one,'  the  German  word  '  Schluss- 
Gesang ' — including  this  Chorus,  the  following 
Quartett,  and  the  last  Chorus.  Could  you  find  an 
English  word  which  might  be  applied  as  well  ?  It 
must  not  be  Finale,  because  that  reminds  me  of  an 
Opera;  and  it  must  not  be  *  Final  Chorus,'  because 
it  shall  mean  two  Choruses  and  a  Quartett ;  but  I 
should  like  to  have  some  word  at  the  head  of  those 
three  pieces,  to  show  clearly  my  idea  of  their  connec- 
tion, and  also  as  a  kind  of  '  Epilogue  '  contrasted  with 
the  'Prologue,'  or  'Introduction'  before  the  Overture. 

"And  excuse  and  pardon  the  trouble,  and  always 
and  ever  believe  me, 

**  Yours  very  truly  and  gratefully, 

*'  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

"  Leipzig,  8th  February,  1847. 

"  Dear  Sir, — I  receive  your  letter  of  the  2nd  at  the 
moment  when  I  send  the  Orchestra  parts  of  the  ist 
Part  of  '  Elijah '  to  Simrock,  and  the  last  chorus  to 
Mr.  Buxton,  so  I  really  answer  by  return  of  post. 

"  Recit.  *  Now  Cherith's  brook,'  bar  9,  I  do  not 
quite  like  your  two  slurs  at  the  end  ;  and  as  you  do 
not  like  my  notation,  what  if  we  tried  a  third  mode  ? 


viz.  : — 


da^ 


nei-ther  shall  the    cruse      of     oil         fail,  .  . 


Now  adopt  which  you  like  of  the  three.     Bar  13,  I 
prefer  yours. 

(     "3     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


"  I  do  not  speak  of  bar  26  and  bar  38  of  No.  8, 
because  Mr.  Buxton  will  have  informed  you  that 
I  am  going  to  send  a  new  song  for  the  Widow,  and 
that  therefore  the  whole  No.  8  must  be  postponed 
till  then.  I  hope  it  will  follow  soon  after  this  letter, 
and  then  I  will  not  teaze  you  any  more  about  this 
'  Elijah.'  Bars  83,  95,  114,  123  as  you  propose.  Bar 
151,  as  you  like  both  ways,  I  should  prefer  mine;  bar 
155,  yours.  Bar  157,  I  do  not  like  the  two  B's 
and  two  C's  on  the  words  '  render  to  the '  ;  could  it 

not  be  : — 

W  hat    shall    I      ren  -  der     to      the 

or,  if  you  object  to  this,  it  must  be  at  least — 


f 


=i(=5l= 


but  I  confess  that  I  do  not  like  the  quavers,  if  they 
can  be  got  rid  of.  The  following  bars,  and  bar  161, 
&c.,  as  j'OK  have  them. 

No.  9,  Chorus,  bar  10,  I  cannot  approve  of  the 
twice  F  [sharp]  in  the  Soprano,  although  I  quite 
acknowledge  the  truth  of  your  observation.  But  I 
propose  instead  : — 


-^^■.-T m^ 


:t5=!c: 


m. 


Biess  -  ed    I 


are 
are 


\he  men 
.    thwy 


If  you    dislike    this,    pray    propose    another   mode ; 
but   the    soprano   cannot    have   the   two   F    [sharps] 
wlnle  the  tenor  also  has  them. 
(    "4    ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


"  Bar  14  as  you  have  it.     Instead  of  your  and  my 
bar  13,  I  propose  : — 


men who      fear    .     .     Him. 

Bars    18,    19,    20,  &c.,  as  you  have.     Bar  15  also. 
And  44,  and  45,  also. 

"  No.  ig.  Recit.  For  the  end  I  prefer  by  far : 
'  The  Lord  our  God  alone  can  do  these  things.' 
But  in  reading  over  these  words  I  wonder  whether 
the  word  '  Gentiles '  cannot  be  objected  to  ?  Can  one 
say  of  Baal  that  he  is  an  idol  of  the  '  Gentiles '  ? 
Indeed,  Jeremiah  seems  to  use  the  word  in  that  sense, 
but  do  we  not  use  it  exclusively  in  another  sense  ? 
If  not,  so  much  better.  Pray  answer  to  this,  and 
excuse  the  hasty  lines. 

"  Always  very  truly  yours, 
*•  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


"  Leipzig,  Sth  February,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  send  you  with  these  lines  the 
last  Chorus  of  '  Elijah.'  Now  I  have  only  the  song 
which  is  to  come  in  at  the  beginning  of  No.  8  [the 
Widow  scene] ,  and  as  soon  as  that  will  be  finished  I 
will  not  teaze  you  any  more  about  alterations  and  all 
that,  for  you  have  now  the  whole  work  in  hand. 
But  pray  do  not  forget  to  postpone  the  engraving  of 
No.  8  until  I  send  you  that  song.  All  the  rest  may 
be  forthwith  engraved. 

(     "5     ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

"  While  I  wrote  the  alterations  in  the  Chorus 
No.  40  [41]  (in  my  last  letter)  I  forgot  to  write  that 
there  is  also  one  in  the  accompaniment  of  that 
passage.  So  please  to  correct  bars  47,  48,  and  49 
(they  are  the  last  but  two  of  the  last  page  but  one  of 
that  Chorus)  thus  : — 


^ 


.^^^^-^-- 


?SE 


'4=^ 


^-^- 


wt 


"  As  for  the  story  of  the  opera,*  my  friend  Klinge- 
mann  will  tell  you  all  about  it,  as  I  have  written  it 
at  length  to  him,  and  I  am  so  overloaded  with 
Leipzig  music,  and  with  letters,  and  with  all  sorts 
of  things,  that  you  must  excuse  me  if  I  refer  you  to 
him,  and  cannot  repeat  again  what  I  wrote  about 
that  story. 

"  Always  very  truly  yours, 

**  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. 

"  P.S. — I  am  now  almost  sure  that  I  shall  be  able 
to  leave  here  on  the  6th  of  April,  and  to  conduct  in 
London  my  '  Elijah'  on  the  i6th,  &c.  I  shall  tlien 
leave  on  the  30th  (as  you  suggested)  and  go  to 
Switzerland;  and  if  Mr.  Mitchell  )jntsi  have  me  and 
the  *  Athalie  '  in  July,  I  shall  come  back  in  July  ;  if 
not  I  will  stay  at  Vevay  the  whole  summer,  and 
compose  away  ! " 

*  The  opera  of  "The  Tempest,  "  which  Mr.  Luniley,  in  his  opera 
prospectus  of  1847,  announced  as  ha\in,s;  been  "expressly  composed 
for  Her  Majesty's  Theatre,"  by  Mendelssohn. 
(     "6    ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


•'  Leipzig,  17  February,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  write  these  lines  merely  to 
thank  you  for  yours  dated  February  9th,  and  to  tell 
you  that  I  agree  with  all  the  different  remarks  you 
therein  make  about  the  wording  of  the  translation 
{including  *  commandments '  instead  of  '  commands,' 
&c.).  And  I  hope  you  will  have  received  the  MS. 
of  Part  II.  soon  after  you  wrote,  for  I  sent  it  off 
on  the  2nd,  with  the  exception  of  the  Final  Chorus, 
which  I  sent  a  few  days  later.  I  daresay  everything 
will  now  be  safely  in  your  and  Mr.  Buxton's  hands, 
and  now  I  may  begin  to  think  of  something  else, 
which  indeed  I  have  not  been  able  to  do  all  the  time 
since,  with  this  Oratorio,  nearly  but  not  entirely 
finished,  weighing  on  my  mind. 

"  Always  very  truly  yours, 
*'  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

"  Leipzig,  February  25,  1847. 
**  My  dear  Sir, — I  prefer* — 


>  ji   28  29  n  u    35 


::=then  : 


^dt^^iz^—^z^- 


Who   hath  be-liev-ed    our   re-port  -    veal  -  ed         to 

It  must  be — 


=S^^^^^^  and  no^- ^f  i^^^S 


be  not  a-fraid,    be  be  not  a  - 

which  will  not  do  for  the  quickness  of  the  move- 
ment. 

•  The  music  examples  in  this  letter  refer  to  the  Soprano  air 
"  Hear  ye,  Israel,"  No.  21. 

(     "7    ) 


HISTORY  OF   MENDELSSOHN'S   '•ELIJAH." 

"  Bar  89  is  impossible  as  you  propose,  because 
on  the  fljj  and  gfll,  &c.,  there  must  be  no  words  pro- 
nounced ;  they  mnst  be  slurred  notes,  as  in  the 
German  wording,  and  moreover  they  must  be  sung 
on  a  good  syllable  (no  "  u,"  or  "  0,"  or,  &c.)-  So 
I  should  propose  : — 


the    Lord,  will  strengthen  thee!' 


And  at  any  rate  pray  let  the  notes  he  slurred,  because 
it  is  essential  to  the  whole  of  the  song.  The  same 
also  when  the  passage  is  repeated,  bar  140. 


148 

.|*j. __ 

Bar  148  must  be  so —  S^f-^F^^^gr— r- 

I  A4i li 1 


J^ 


for 


thy 


All  those  passages  I  do  not  mention  here  are  quite 
excellent  in  the  way  you  propose.  Add  a  note  for 
the  s&vved  him  and  worshipped  him.  You  are  quite 
welcome  to  it.f 

"  You  see  that  I  really  answer  by  return  of  post,  for 
yesterday  evening  your  letter  came,  and  this  morning 
this  leaves.  But  I  do  not  understand  why  there  is 
such  a  hurry  about  the  Pianoforte  arrangement  being 
finished,  and  why  you  say  there  is  hardly  time  to 

*  Bartholomew  had  written : 


Be       not        a    -    fraid,  . .       for  I  will  strength  -  en  thee  I 

f  Rartholomew  did  not  add  the  note  after  all.     See  No.  23,  "  The 
Lord  hath  exalted  thee,"  bar  15,  to  which  this  refers. 

(     "8    ) 


THE    REVISED    ORATORIO. 


wait  my  reply.  For  you  know  that  it  cannot  be 
published  a  day  before  Simrock  has  also  done  it,  and 
that  will  take  much  time  still.  However,  I  make 
haste  answering,  and  shall  also  do  so  with  your  next. 
I  do  not  think  that  I  shall  be  able  to  be  in  London 
before  the  13th  April.  But  I  am  sure  that  is  early 
enough,  for  I  am  sure  everything  which  you  take  in 

hand  is  right. 

**  Always  yours  truly, 

*'  Felix  Mendelssohn." 

"  Leipzig,  March  3,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — I  have  just  received  your  letter  of 
the  24th,  and  hasten  to  reply.  I  like  all  the  passages 
of  the  translation  you  send  me  with  but  two 
exceptions.  In  No.  30,  *  that  Thou  would'st  please 
destroy  me '  sounds  so  odd  to  me — is  it  scriptural  ? 
If  it  is,  I  have  no  objection,  but  if  not,  pray  substitute 
something  else.  And  then  in  the  new  No.  8  [the 
widow  scene]  — the  words  from  Psalm  vi.  which  you 
hesitated  to  adopt  are,  of  course,  out  of  the  ques- 
tion; but  I  also  object  to  the  second  part  of  the 
sentence  which  you  propose  to  add  to  the  words  of 
Psalm  xxxviii.  [6] ,  viz. :  '  I  water  my  couch,'  etc. 
[Psalm  vi.,  6.] — I  do  dislike  this  so  very  much,  and 
it  is  so  poetical  in  the  German  version.  So  if  you 
could  substitute  something  in  which  no  *  watering  of 
the  couch '  occurred,  but  which  gave  the  idea  of  the 
tears,  of  the  night,  of  all  that  in  its  purity. 
Pray  try  1 

"  But  what  is  this  ?  Does  Staudigl  not  come  ?  Mr. 
Buxton  told  me  last  autumn  he  was  sure  to  be  there. 
(    119    )  1 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S  "ELIJAH." 

I  heard  it  since  from  all  sides.  And  now  he  does  not 
come?  What  is  to  become  of  my  'Elijah'  then? 
/  can«o/ write  to  Staudigl  and  persuade  him  to  come, 
but  I  really  do  not  know  how  the  performance  could 
match  that  of  Birmingham  without  him — indeed  I  do 
not  know  how  it  could  go.  Of  course  Lockey  would 
be  quite  sufficient  for  all  the  Tenor  solos !  But 
Staudigl !  That  word  of  yours  has  given  me  a  great 
deal  to  think  of. 

"Always  very  sincerely  and  gratefully  yours, 
*'  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 

"  Leipzig,  March  lo,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Sir, — Many  thanks  for  your  letter  of  the 
ist.  I  really  do  not  know  what  a  synopsis  of  the 
oratorio  should  be  good  for — on  the  other  hand,  I  do 
not  see  the  harm  it  could  do — and,  therefore,  leave  it 
to  you  to  decide  this  point  as  you  think  best.  I 
shall  send  you  the  metronomes  in  a  few  days ;  the 
organ  part  I  do  not  forget. 

"  But  tell  me,  should  the  whole  series  of  per- 
formances not  be  better  postponed  till  nntumn  ? 
What  with  your  uncertainty  about  Staudigl,  and 
with  all  this  uproar  in  London  about  the  two  opera 
parties,  and  with  Jenny  Lind  coming  or  not  coming, 
and  with  the  '  Tempest '  or  not  the  *  Tempest,'  and 
with  the  difficulty  you  and  Mr.  Buxton  have  to  make 
the  parts  ready — would  not  such  a  delay  be  beneficial 
to  all  of  us,  especially  to  the  old  prophet  himself  ?  Not 
to  me  certainly,  who  like  to  shake  my  English  friends 
by  the  hand  the  sooner  the  better — but  to  all  others  ? 
{    120    ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


"  And  now  many  thanks  for  your  friendly  advice  in 
the  opera  affair.  Some  time  before  you  wrote  your 
letter  to  me,  I  had  already  informed  Mr.  Lumley 
that  I  should  not  be  able  to  produce  an  opera  of  the 
'  Tempest '  in  the  season  1847  ;  and,  according  to  the 
advice  my  friend  Klingemann  gave  me  some  days 
before  your  letter  came,  I  have  since  again  written 
to  Mr.  Lumley  (about  the  same  words  as  you 
suggest),  have  asked  Klingemann  to  take  care  of 
seeing  the  letter  safely  delivered,  and  have  sent  to 
him  a  duplicate  of  it.  So  that  the  whole  of  your 
advice,  the  same  which  my  friend  Kl.  gave,  has 
been  followed  literally,  and  I  should  be  very  glad  if 
thus  the  affair  would  come  to  an  end.  Of  this  I 
think  I  may  be  sure,  that  Mr.  Lumley  will  not 
continue  his  advertisements  of  my  opera  after  he 
heard  that  I  had  taken  the  resolution  not  to  write 
the  '  Tempest  '  for  the  season  1847. 

"  And  now  forgive  this  dry  letter,  and  believe  me, 
yours  very  truly, 

"  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." 


Reading  between  the  lines  of  the  last-quoted  letter, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  Mendelssohn  was  much  annoyed 
at  the  public  announcements,  made  by  Mr.  Lumley 
in  his  opera  prospectus  of  1S47,  to  the  effect  that 
"  The  celebrated  Dr.  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 
will  likewise  visit  England,  and  produce  an  Opera 
expressly  composed  for  Her  Majesty's  Theatre,  the 
Libretto,  founded  on  '  The  Tempest '  of  Shakespeare, 
{    121    )  12 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   •'ELIJAH." 

written  by  Scribe."  These  advertisements  were,  to 
say  the  least,  very  premature,  as  Mendelssohn  had 
not  only  disapproved  of  parts  of  the  libretto,  but 
had  not  written  a  note  of  the  music!  The  sugges- 
tion contained  in  the  above  letter  that  he  (Mendels- 
sohn) should  postpone  his  visit  till  the  autumn, 
must  have  caused  some  consternation  amongst  his 
London  friends,  especially  as  all  arrangements  had 
been  made  for  the  various  performances  of  the 
revised  oratorio,  which  were  to  be  given  under 
his  own  personal  direction.  Bartholomew — ever 
resourceful  and  indefatigable — at  once  wrote  the 
following  letter  to  the  composer  : — 

•'  2,  Walcot  Place,  Hackney,  March  19,  1847. 

*'  My  dear  Sir, — Yours  of  the  loth  came  to  hand 
last  night,  and  in  reply  to  it  I  can  tell  you  twenty 
reasons  why  you  should  come,  and  not  one  why  you 
should  not  come.  Upon  the  faith  of  your  letter,  which 
Buxton  has  been  obliged  to  quote  from  in  order  to 
prove  his  warranty  to  treat  for  your  coming  with  the 
Committee  at  Exeter  Hall,  he  has  made  the  engage- 
ment for  you  with  them,  and  they  have  made  their 
engagements  with  others  for  April  i6th  and  23rd  ; 
and,  I  think,  the  28th.  The  Manchester  Hargreaves 
Society  h?.ve  fixed  their  date  for  one  of  the  inter- 
vening days  and  advertised  it.  .  .  .  Everybody 
is  now  in  town  expecting  you  and  anxious  to  hail 
your  appearance.  Nobody  will  be  in  town  in  the 
autumn.  (Is  that  a  reason  why  you  should  come 
then  ?)  If  you  don't  come,  '  Elijah  '  would  go — for 
go  it  must — but  I  mean  it  won't  go  well.  .  .  . 
(    122    ) 


THE   REVISED    ORATORIO. 


"You  have  no  idea  how  they  are  inundated  with 
enquiries  at  Newgate  Street  [Ewer  &  Co.'s]  as  to 

when    'Elijah'   will    be    published 

God  bless  you,  dear  Sir! 

*'  W.  Bartholomew." 

Whatever  influence  this  letter  from  Bartholomew 
may  have  had  upon  its  recipient,  and  doubtless 
others  wrote  in  the  same  strain,  Mendelssohn  duly 
came  to  London — alas  !  for  the  last  time — at  the 
beginning  of  April,  1847,  the  year  in  which  he  died. 

The  first  performance  of  the  revised  version  of 
**  Elijah  " — the  form  in  which  we  now  know  the 
oratorio — took  place,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Sacred  Harmonic  Society,  at  Exeter  Hall,  London, 
on  Friday,  April  16,  1847,  conducted  by  the  composer. 
Miss  Birch,  Miss  Dolby  (afterwards  Madame 
Sainton-Dolby),  and  Mr.  Henry  Phillips  replaced 
Madame  Caradori-Allan,  Miss  Hawes,  and  Herr 
Staudigl,  who  had  "  created  "  their  respective  parts 
at  Birmingham.  "  Lockey  would  be  quite  sufficient 
for  all  the  tenor  solos,"  wrote  Mendelssohn,  and  so 
he  proved  to  be. 

Madame  Sainton-Dolby  records :  "  After  I  had 
sung  '  0  rest  in  the  Lord,'  Mendelssohn  turned  to 
me  with  tears  in  his  eyes  and  said,  with  his  bright 
frankness  of  manner,  '  Thank  you  from  my  heart, 
Miss  Dolby.'  I  shall  never  forget  that  look  of  bright- 
ness." Mr.  W.  H.  Cummings,  then  a  chorister  of 
the  Temple  Church,  sang  alto  in  the  chorus  at  the 
first  London  performance.  He  and  some  other  boys 
were  asked  to  help,  as  the  alto  part  lay  rather  high 
(    123    ) 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 

for  men's  voices.*  Master  Cummings,  as  he  was 
then,  sat  in  the  front  row  of  the  altos,  and  his 
enthusiastic  singing  attracted  the  notice  of  Mendels- 
sohn, who  asked  the  Temple  chorister  his  name, 
which  he  wrote  on  one  of  his  (Mendelssohn's)  visiting 
cards,  and  gave  to  the  youthful  singer. 

The  first  London  performance  was  not  without 
some  humour.  The  Times  said :  "  Mr.  Perry,  the 
leader,  was  constantly  beating  time  with  his  fiddle- 
stick in  such  a  manner  as  to  obstruct  tlje  views  of 
the  Conductor  and  confuse  the  attention  of  the 
instrumentalists."  t  A  Frenchman,  seated  on  the 
orchestra  behind  the  chorus,  was  so  excited  with 
the  performance  that,  at  the  close,  he  effusively 
embraced  Mendelssohn  and  tried  to  kiss  him  ! 

Three  other  performances  were  given  in  Exeter 
Hall,  and  under  the  same  auspices,  on  the  23rd, 
28th,  and  30th  of  the  same  month  (April),  and  were 
conducted  by   Mendelssohn.      These  four   concerts 

*  The  alto  part  in  oratorio  choruses  was  always  sung  in  England 
by  men's  voices  (counter-tenors).  It  was  not  till  the  following  year 
(1S48)  that  some  ladies  were  admitted  into  the  alto  division  of  the 
chorus  at  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society.  The  change  was  made 
when  Costa  began  his  reign  as  Conductor  of  the  Society.  Costa 
introduced  a  similar  innovation  at  the  Birmingham  Festival  of  1S49, 
the  first  he  conducted,  and  the  first  after  the  production  of 
"  Elijah."  The  male  altos,  however,  g-reatly  predominated  on  that 
occasion.  The  numbers  were — ladies,  17 ;  gentlemen,  59.  At  this 
Festival  Mario  sang  "  Then  shall  the  righteous,"  which  he  finished 
on  the  upper  A  flat ! 

t  Mr.  George  Perry  ("leader"  of  the  Sacred  Harmonip  Society 
from  its  foundation  in  1832)  was  also  the  composer  of  an  oratorio, 
entitled  "  Elijah,  and  the  Priests  of  Baal,"  which  was  first 
performed  at  the  Concert  Room,  St.  George's  Bridge,  Norwich, 
on  March  12,  1819. 

{     124    ) 


Facsimile  of  Metronomic  times  for  "  Elijah"  in  Mendelssohn's  hand-writing.  The  note, 
signed  "  11'.  B."  is  in  the  hand-writing  of  William  Bartholomew.  Slightly  reduced 
from  the  original,  in  the  possession  of  F.  G.  Edwards. 

—    Z       !^  =.     loo 

—  M   J  -  /^ 

CUiXj         (J  /O 

_     jl  ::,4     I2C 

Jo.  ^  ■  }  ^  qC  ' 

M.az  J  J lu    u>Ui  CU.  J ^  138 

—  £y  J  =  /:e^ 

^  OZ  }^  Co  (    125    ) 


^-  ^M     o    =     loo 

~  3ff  J ^   y(3 
-  ^  J  =.  8o 


(     126     ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATO'.llO. 


attracted  crowded  audiences,  and  brought  into  the 
exchequer  of  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society  a  clear 
profit  of  £z^6. 

The  second  performance  (April  23)  was  honoured 
by  the  presence  of  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  Consort. 
What  the  Prince  felt  on  that  occasion  found  graceful 
expression  in  the  following  tribute  to  Mendelssohn's 
genius,  which  he  wrote  in  the  book  of  words  he  had 
used  at  the  concert : — 

**  To  the  Noble  Artist  who,  surrounded  by  the 
Baal-worship  of  debased  art,  has  been  able,  by  his 
genius  and  science,  to  preserve  faithfully,  like  another 
Elijah,  the  worship  of  true  art,  and  once  more  to 
accustom  our  ear,  amid  the  whirl  of  empty,  frivolous 
sounds,  to  the  pure  tones  of  sympathetic  feeling 
and  legitimate  harmony  :  to  the  Great  Master,  who 
makes  us  conscious  of  the  unity  of  his  conception, 
through  the  whole  maze  of  his  creation,  from  the  soft 
whispering  to  the  mighty  raging  of  the  elements. 

"  Inscribed  in  grateful  remembrance  by 

"  Albert. 

"  Buckingham  Palace,  April  24,  1S47." 

The  original  of  this  is  now  in  the  possession  of 
Frau  Wach,  of  Leipzig,  Mendelssohn's  younger 
daughter.  In  the  few  hours  which  elapsed  between 
its  receipt  from  the  Palace  and  its  presentation  to 
Mendelssohn,  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society  had  a 
facsimile  copy  made,  which  was  carefully  sealed  up. 
When  the  news  arrived  of  Mendelssohn's  premature 
death,  the  Prince  Consort  at  once  gave  permission 
for  this  copy  to  be  lithographed  and  circulated. 
{    127    ) 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   '•ELIJAH." 


The  following  extract  from  the  1847  Report  of  the 
Sacred  Harmonic  Society  records  the  presentation  of 
the  above  "  compliment  "  to  Mendelssohn  : — 

"  Both  Her  Majesty  and  Prince  Albert  were 
graciously  pleased  to  express  their  gratification  at  the 
Performance,  and  the  attention  paid  to  them  ;  and 
the  Prince  a  few  days  afterwards  condescendingly 
inscribed  in  a  Book  of  the  Words  of  the  Oratorio,  an 
elegant  compliment  to  Dr.  Mendelssohn,  in  his 
native  tongue,  which  was  handed  to  him  on  the 
morning  of  his  departure  from  England,  by  a  deputa- 
tion from  your  Committee,  and  received  by  him  with 
marked  feelings  of  pleasure  and  gratitude. 

**  It  cannot  be  described  how  deeply  gratified 
Mendelssohn  was  on  the  presentation  to  him  of  this 
affectionate  token  of  sympathy.  His  rapturous 
exclamations  of  delight,  as  over  and  over  again  he 
read  each  word  of  the  inscription,  his  repeated 
expression  of  fears  of  his  inability  adequately  to 
acknowledge  this  touching  mark  of  appreciation, 
were  again  and  again  renewed."* 

Mendelssohn  also  conducted  performances  of  the 
revised   work   at    ^Manchester    (Hargreaves   Choral 

•  "  The  Sacred  Harmonic  Society  :  a  Thirty-five  Years'  Retro- 
spect, by  Robert  K.  Bowley,  Treasurer.  Privately  printed.  1867." 
Mr.  Bowley  was  one  of  the  deputation  of  two  officers  of  the  Society 
who  waited  upon  Mendelssohn  to  present  him  with  the  Prince 
Consort's  "  affectionate  token  of  sympathy."  He  was  one  of  the 
oldest  members  of  the  Sacred  Harmonic  Society,  and  subsequently 
became  Librarian,  and  then  Treasurer.  In  185S  he  became 
General  Manager  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  which  ortice  he  retained 
till  his  death  in  1870.  He  also  originated  and  carried  out  the  Handel 
Festivals. 

(     12S     ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


Society)  on  April  20,  and  at  Birminj]jham,  April  27 — 
a  total  of  six  performances,  conducted  by  the  com- 
poser, within  a  fortnight.  At  Birmingham,  where 
*'  Elijah"  was  given  for  Mr.  Stimpson's  "  benefit," 
Mendelssohn  not  only  refused  to  take  any  fee,  but  also 
declined  to  accept  his  travelling  expenses — thus  he 
generously  showed  his  appreciation  of  Stimpson's 
invaluable  services  at  the  initial  performance  in  1846. 
'*  Elijah  "  was  published  in  Germany  by  Simrock, 
Bonn;  and  in  England  by  Messrs.  Ewer  &  Co.,  who 
for  some  years  previously  had  been  Mendelssohn's  sole 
publishers  in  this  country.  The  then  proprietor  of  the 
firm  of  Ewer  &  Co.  was  Mr.  Edward  Buxton,  wlwse 
real  business  was  that  of  a  wool-broker,  and  who 
"  had  only  taken  to  music  publishing  for  his  attach- 
ment to  the  art."  The  relations  between  the  com- 
poser and  his  English  publisher  were  of  the  most 
cordial  nature.  "  Whatever  you  write,  Dr.  Mendels- 
sohn," said  Mr.  Buxton,  "  I  will  publish,  and  pay 
you  any  terms  you  like  to  ask."  Here  was  an  ideal 
publisher,  from  a  composer's  point  of  view.  Mr. 
Buxton  had  no  reason  to  regret  his  words ;  and  that 
Mendelssohn  fully  appreciated  his  publisher's  gene- 
rous offer,  is  abundantly  shown  in  the  "terms"  he 
mentioned  for  the  English  copyrights  of  his  composi- 
tions.* 

*  It  may  be  of  interest  to  give  the  "  terms"  quoted  by  Mendelssohn 
for  the  English  copyrights  of  some  of  his  works.  The  informa- 
tion is  derived  from  original  letters  from  the  composer  to  Buxton. 
The  D  minor  Trio,  lo  guineas.  Books  4  and  5  of  the  "  Lieder  ohne 
Worte,''  15  guineas  each;  Book  6,  24  guineas.  "17  Variations 
Serieuses,"  8  guineas.  "Festgesang"  (which  includes  the  familiar 
tune  now  associated  with  "Hark!  the  herald  angels  sing"), 
(     129     ) 


HISTORY  OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   ••ELIJAH." 

Mendelssohn  cannot  be  accused  of  being  "  hard  " 
or  "grasping"  in  negotiating  with  his  pubHsher. 
The  following  letter  shows  the  spirit  in  which  he 
made  his  proposals  for  the  publication  of  "  Elijah  " 
in  England.  It  is  written  (in  English)  to  Buxton, 
and  dated  '*  April  22,  1846  "  : — 

"  I  must  beg  you  to  tell  me  the  price  which  you 
could  give  for  the  copyright  of  such  a  work.  /  do 
not  fix  the  price,  because  I  wish  on  such  an  occasion 
that  neither  you  nor  I  should  be  the  loser;  you  must 
know  the  sale  of  such  works,  and  may  thereby  form 
an  opinion.  Indeed,  /  should  not  be  able  to  name 
any  sum  for  myself,  and  make  conditions  which 
would  appear  unpleasant  to  you ;  but  as  on  the 
other  hand  I  have  been  asked  from  England  by 
different  persons  for  the  copyright  of  such  a  work, 
I  must  think  that  it  may  also  have  value  for  the 
publisher  there,  and  you  may  easily  form  an  opinion 

4  guineas.  "Scotch  Symphony"  (pianoforte  arrangement),  £20. 
Sonata  for  pianoforte  and  cello  in  D,  12  guineas.  Six  four-part 
Songs,  Op.  59  (which  includes  "  O  hills  !  O  vales  !"  the  "  Hunting 
Song,"  &c.),  10  guineas.  "  Scherzo,  Notturno,  and  Wedding  March  " 
(from  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "),  pianoforte  duet  arrangement, 
15  guineas  ;  the  whole  work,  "  consisting  of  9  other  pieces  (except 
the  Overture)  would  be  the  same  again  as  those  3."  Violin 
Concerto  and  "  Hear  my  prayer,"  "  20  guineas  for  both  together." 
C  minor  Trio  and  Te  Deum  in  A,  £^0. 

In  these  letters  from  Mendelssohn  to  Buxton  there  are  such 
apologetic  phrases,  in  regard  to  the  prices  named  by  the  composer, 
as,  "which  I  hope  will  be  convenient  to  you,"  and  "I  hope  it  will 
not  be  inconvenient  to  you,  which  I  beg  you  will  tell  me  sincerely." 
Mendelssohn  also  thanks  Mr.  Buxton  for  his  "  very  good  and  kind 
intentions"  towards  him.  In  sending  the  MS.  of  "The  Garland" 
(words  by  Thomas  Moore),  he  says,  "  which  you  may  publish  if 
you  like,  and  pay  for  it  whatever  you  like." 
(     X30    ) 


THE   REVISED   ORATORIO. 


of  this ;  therefore  I  beg  you  will  let  me  know  your 
answer  as  soon  as  you  can." 

Mendelssohn  wrote  to  Moscheles  for  his  advice  on 
the  subject  of  the  "terms"  for  the  English  copyright 
of  "  Elijah."     Here  is  Moscheles's  reply  : — 

**I  quite  feel  the  responsibility  of  advising  you  in 
the  matter ;  for  if  fifty  years  hence  it  is  said, 
'  Mendelssohn  received  only  so  many  pounds  sterling 
for  this  grandest  of  works,  this  inexhaustible  mine  of 
wealth  to  the  editor  [publisher] ,  and  that  at  the 
suggestion  of  Moscheles,  my  ashes  will  be  dis- 
turbed in  their  rest.  Well,  well,  you  will  nod  your 
venerable  head,  and  say,  'Never  mind;  Moscheles 
meant  well.' 

**  You  do  not  say  what  other  offers  you  had,  besides 
that  from  Buxton.  I  think  you  will  find  him  straight- 
forward in  his  dealings,  and  ready  to  recognise  that 
the  market  value  of  your  productions  is  constantly 
increasing.  So  I  should  say  you  might  ask  £"50 
more  than  you  did  for  the  '  Hymn  of  Praise.' 
[Moscheles  had  probably  forgotten  the  amount,  £2^, 
that  Mendelssohn  received  for  the  English  copy- 
right'of  his  *  Hymn  of  Praise.']  One  point  to  take 
into  consideration  is  whether  this  work  is  richer  than 
the  other  in  solos,  these  being  a  better  source  of 
income  to  the  publisher  than  choruses."* 

Mendelssohn  received  250  guineas  for  the  English 
copyright  of  "  Elijah."     Shortly  after  the  composer's 

*  "  Letters  of  Mendelssohn  to  Moscheles,"  by  Felix  Moscheles, 
p.  272. 

(     131     ) 


HISTORY   OF  MENDELSSOHN'S   "ELIJAH." 


death,  Mr.  Buxton  voluntarily  sent  to  Frau 
Mendelssohn  an  additional  sum  of  ;^ioo  for 
"  Elijah,"  which  she  gracefully  acknowledged  in 
the  following  extract : — 

**  I  hesitated  a  moment  whether  I  ought  to 
accept  the  £ioo  which  you  sent  me ;  but  then  I 
remembered  the  great  pleasure  it  had  given  my 
husband  when  Mr.  Simrock  sent  him  an  additional 
sum  for  his  *  St.  Paul,'  on  account  of  the  success  the 
oratorio  had  had.  Why  should  I  not  feel  a  similar 
pleasure  in  hearing  that  his  last  work  is  being  so 
fully  appreciated  in  England  ?  I  thank  you  there- 
fore that  you  think  of  us  by  sending  this  money  as  a 
proof  of  the  success  of  '  Elijah.' 

"Berlin  (Spring,  1849)." 

The  work  was  published  in  June,  1S47,  as  Op.  70. 
The  lowest  price  of  the  first  English  edition — 
"  Pianoforte  score,  with  portrait  on  steel  of  the 
composer  " — was  thirty-six  shillings  !  An  octavo 
edition  did  not  appear  till  five  years  later  (1852)  : 
price  ten  shillings.  A  tonic  sol-fa  edition,  published 
"by  subscription"  ("not  less  than  250  subscribers"), 
was  issued  in  1866. 

The  prosperity  of  "  Elijah  "  was  at  once  assured. 
The  work  bore  upon  it  the  imprint  of  success.  It 
immediately  shot  into  the  front  rank  of  popularity,  a 
position  which  it  has  steadily  maintained  even  unto 
this  day. 

The  story  has  now  been  told.  Six  months  after 
the  strains  of  "  Elijah  "  had  died  awa}-  in  Exeter 
{    132    ) 


THE  REVISED  ORATORIO. 


Hall,  the  genius-brain  that  had  conceived  that  noble 
work  was  for  ever  calmed  in  death. 

(Mendelssohn  died  at  Leipzig,  November  4,  1847, 
in  his  thirty-ninth  year.) 

A  memorable  performance  of  "  Elijah  "  was  given 
by  Jenny  Lind  in  Exeter  Hall,  December  15,  1S4S, 
in  aid  of  the  Mendelssohn  Scholarship  Fund. 
This  performance,  which  Mr.  Otto  Goldschmidt 
happily  terms  the  "  corner-stone  of  the  Fund,"  was 
a  triumphant  success. 

No  more  fitting  conclusion  to  this  **  History"  could 
be  found  than  the  words  of  Jenny  Lind,  who,  in  writing 
to  the  composer's  widow  on  her  irreparable  loss,  said  : 
"  His  '  Elijah  '  is  sublime!  In  my  opinion  he  never 
wrote  anything  finer ;  and  assuredly  could  not  have 
written  anything  loftier  in  the  future !  With  what 
solemnity  we  all  stood  there  (to  perform  it)  ;  and 
with  what  love  do  the  people  still  speak  of  him!  " 

To  this  tribute  of  reverence  from  one  great  artist 
to  the  memory  of  another,  I  venture  to  subscribe  a 
fervent  "Amen." 


(    133    ) 


.  .( 


INDEX. 


Aix-la-Chapelle 

••  As  the  hart  pants" 

•'Athalie"       

*'  Auld  Robin  Gray  "... 
Ayrton,  Wm 

Baal  choruses 

Bach,  J.  S 

Bache  family,  The     ... 

Barrett,  W.  A. 

Barry,  Rev.  J.... 

Bartholomew,  W.  (and  letters  to) 

Bassano,  Miss... 

Beethoven 

"  Behold,  God  the  Lord  " 

Benecke,  Mrs 

Benedict 

Birch,  Miss      

Birmingham  Musical  Festival 
Birmingham  yournal... 
"  Blessed  are  the  men  " 

Bowley,  R.  K 

Bragg,  Mr.  John 

Braham,  John 

Brewer,  T 

Buxton,  E.  (see  also  Ewer  &  Co.)  51 

Caradori-Allan,  Madame 

"  Cast  thy  burden  " 

Chorley,  H.  F. 


42 

...gnote 

40,  48  et  seq.,  109  et  seq.,  116 

67  et  seq. 

92 

52.  83,  100 

21 
88  ei  seq. 

93 

7  et  seq. 

41,  48  et  seq.,  8r,  97  et  seq. 

82 

42  tiote 

63,  104 

95 

45.  82 

123 

...  6,  rg,  22,  28  ei  seq. 

80 

57,  99i  105,  114 

128  note 

46 

45 

100 

53,  67,  98,  102,  no,  129  et  seq. 

45.  82,  87,  123 

83,  96,  99,  106 

-  84 

(     135     )  K 


INDEX. 

Cologne  Festival        42 

Cooke,  Grattan  78 

Cooke,  Tom 45 

Costa 124  ;io<c 

Cummings,  Mr.  W.  H 123 

Dando,  J.  H.  B 45 

Davison,  J.  W.  79  note,  80 

Deakin,  Mr.  Andrew gonote 

Devrient,  E 2,  41 

Dolby,  Madame  Sainton      34,  123 

Diisseldorf       ...         ...         i,  9 

Ewer  &  Co.  (see  also  Buxton)         98,123    12()  ct  seq. 

Exeter  Hall      122  ct  seq.,  132 

"Festgesang"  i2g  note 

"  For  the  mountains  ■'  69,74,79,83 

Four-part  songs         1^0  note 

Frankfort  ^  i,  5,  33 

Frege,  Frau 86 

"  Garland,"  The         ...         ....         ...         ...         ...         ...         130  note 

Gauntlett,  Dr.  45,  82 

Goodwin  and  Tabb,  Messrs.  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       93 

Grisi      ...       45 

Grove,  Sir  George      2  note,  42  note,  gg 

Guildhall  Library       ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  69  note 

Hartel,  Dr.      ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...       35 

Handel,  and  Handel  Festivals        25,  44,  89,  93,  128  nott 

"Hark!  the  herald  angels  sing  "   ...         iig  note 

Hauser...         ...         40 

Hawes,  Miss  M.  B 71  note,  82,  88,  123 

"  Hear  my  prayer  " ...         48,  i30«o/^ 

"  Hear  ye,  Israel  "     ...         ...         ...         ...  36,99,107,111,117 

Hensel,  Fanny  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       41 

"  He,  watching  over  Israel "  ••■         ...         ...         ...  78,83 

Hillcr,  F 27 

(     130     ) 


INDEX. 

Hobbs,  J.  W 77,  82 

Hopkins,  Dr.  E.  J 79 

*' Hymn  of  Praise '' 28,131 

"  If  with  all  your  hearts  "     55.84 

"Irish  echoes"  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         •■•       71 

"  It  is  enough  "         100 

Jeanrenaud,  Mdile.  Cecile     ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         i 

"  Judas  Maccabaaus "  4 

Klingemann,  Carl  (and  letters  to) — 

2  et  scq.,  5  ct  seq.,  11,  ig,  42,  62,  68,  74,  76,  97,  121 

Lablache         ...         45 

"  Lauda  Sion "  ...         ..42,48 

Lazarus,  H 78,  112  note 

Ledsam,  J.  F 93 

"  Lieder  ohne  WorLe "         ...         ...         •••         •••         ...        129  note 

Liege 42 

"  Lift  thine  eyes '■'      82,85,99,112 

Lind,  Jenny     ...         ...         ...  35,  37  «<  s^^.,  40,  84,  88,  120,  133 

Liverpool  Musical  Festival  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...2  note 

Lockey,  Mr.  Charles 77,  82,  83,  86  note,  93,  120,  123 

Lower  Rhine  Musical  Festivals      ...         ...  1,42 

Lumley,  Mr ii6note,  121 

Machin 82 

Manchester  (Hargreaves  Society)  ...         ...         ...         ...        122,  128 

Mario z^^,  12^  note 

Martineau,  Mr.  Russell        88,  90 

Mellon,  Alfred  90 

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,  Paul         85 

"Messiah" 89 

"  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "       37,  80  note,  Si,  129  note 

Mitchell,  Mr 116  note 

Moore,  Joseph  (and  letters  to)         29  <?<  s^f?.,  44,  49,  85,  91 

Moscheles  (and  letters  to)    ...         •••         19,  39,  40,  43,  45,  76,  81,  131 
Mounsey,  Miss  ...         ...         ...         ...         ...         ...  71  note 

Mounsey-Bartholomew,  Mrs.  67,  69  note 

(     137     ) 


INDEX. 


Novello,  Ewer  &  Co.,  Messrs. 

Oberhofer         ...         ...         ... 

"  O  come,  every  one  " 
"  CEdipus  at  Colonos  " 

"  Og  of  Bashan  1 "      

"  O  rest  in  the  Lord  " 

Organ  (and  Organ  Sonatas)... 

Overture  ("  Elijah  ")  ... 

Perry,  George... 
Philharmonic  Society 
Phillips,  Henry 

Pischek  ...         

Prince  Consort,  The  ... 
Psalm  42  (Mendelssohn's)    ... 

Queen,  The 

"Rachel  in  Ramah  " 

Ramsgate 

Recit.  in  the  style  of  Handel 

Rockstro,  W.  S 

Royal  College  of  Music 


78 

42 

72.  83,  90 

31.49 

3.4 

65  et  seq.,  72,  74,  76,  83,  90 

32.44 

61,  62,  72,  76 

124 

43.  82 

52,82,  123 

37.42 

.„         no  )iote,  127 

gnote 

93  note,  no  Jioie,  127 

31  note 

95 

94 

77 

^g  note 


Sacred  Harmonic  Society     100  et  seq.,  122  et  seq. 

"St.  Paul"      I  et  seq.,6,  10,  14,  15,  26,  28,  44,  loi  tiote,  132 


"St.  Peter" 

"Saul" 

Schelble 

Schubring,  Pastor  (and  letters  to)  ... 
Schumann  and  Madame  Schumann 
"  Scotch  Symphony  " 

Scribe 

Simrock 

Smart,  Sir  George 

"  Son  and  Stranger  "... 

Sonata,  Pianoforte  and  Cello,  in  D... 

"Sons  of  Art"  

(     138 


3.4 

4.  25 

I 

,.io  et  seq.,  26 

35 

.  37,  128  twte 

...     122 

"9.  127,  133 

2  note 

2  note 

130  note 

43,  109 


INDEX. 

Staudigl  ^2,^c„s2,S2etseq.,iigetseq. 

Stimpson,  J 46,  82  et  seq.,  129 

"Tempest,"  Opera  of  the 116  note.  120  et  seq. 

Terms  for  copyrights i2getseq. 

"  Thanks  be  to  God "  .„.         ...         „         46,83,86 

"Then  shall  the  righteous"  86,  12^  note 

"  There  is  nothing  " t         7^ 

"Torches"     io3 

Trios  (D  minor  and  C  minor)  127,  130  notes 

"  Variations  Serieuses "        »• 129  note 

Wach,  Frau  Geheimrath 50  note,  127 

"  Walpurgis  Night  " 15  "o'«.  20,  36,  48 

Webb,  Rev.  John       31,  92,  93  noie 

"  Widow  scene  "       56,  89,  97,  99,  108,  114,  115,  119 

Williams,  the  Misses 82,  112  note 

Willy.  J.  T 45 

'•Zadok  the  priest" 93 


(     139    ) 


Facsimile  of  a  letter  written  by  Mendelssohn 
to  William  Bartholomew,  the  English  translator  of 
"Elijah,''  in  whose  hand-writing  are  the  annotations 
on  the  letter.  Re-produced,  full  size,  from  the 
original  in  the  possession  of  F.  G.  Edwards. 


\    142    ) 


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