The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio "Elijah" Part 2

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.[14]

"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 ma.n.u.scripts 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 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."

[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 146.]

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.[15]

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

[Footnote 15: "Briefwechsel," p. 149. Mendelssohn was born February 3, 1809.]

For nearly seven years the subject of "Elijah" drops out of the Mendelssohn-Schubring correspondence, 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 present you have given up composing oratorios. To this I have no objection; but I would like 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 Mendelssohn'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.[16]

"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 a.s.sistance, and return it soon with plenty of notes in the margin (I mean Scriptural pa.s.sages, etc.). I also enclose your former letters on the subject, as you 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 pa.s.sages 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 a.s.sistance 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 pa.s.s,' 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 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 pa.s.sed with you and yours were more enlivening and cheering than ever so many letters.--Ever your

"FELIX"

[Footnote 16: "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 1845.]

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.][17]

"In oratorios, chorales have produced the most powerful effect on me when they came _after_ other pieces of music [Schubring evidently knew Bach's "Pa.s.sion"]. Dignity, simplicity, n.o.bility, are then most perceptible in these circ.u.mstances. Therefore, it would be better to have no chorales at the beginning.... The overture, picturing a famine, must represent a period of three years...."

[Footnote 17: "Briefwechsel," p. 208.]

Upon the words "Hear the prayer and pet.i.tion of Thy servant, O Lord,"

Schubring remarks: "Here it would be well to have a reference to G.o.d's own promise that He will answer prayer. (Daniel ix., 18; Psalm xxv., 6; Isaiah liv., 10, 7). Then the chorale--'Out of the depths I cry to Thee' (_Aus tiefer Noth_), verses 1 and 4, increasing in intensity.

Pray do not reject this suggestion. There are plenty of praying people who heartily endorse the pet.i.tion of Elijah."

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

[SCHUBRING TO MENDELSSOHN.]

"DESSAU, _February_ 3, 1846.[18]

"... 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."

[Footnote 18: "Briefwechsel," p. 219.]

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

"LEIPZIG, _May_ 23, 1846.[19]

"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 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 pa.s.sages, 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 you 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 a.s.sist me in beautifying the second part also. I have been able to dispense with all historical recitative, and to subst.i.tute 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 G.o.ds do to me, and more also,' etc. (1 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 pa.s.sage; for instance, a duet with the boy, 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 duet and also a chorus in this sense? Then, until verse 15, all is in order; but there a pa.s.sage 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. 'G.o.d is gone up with a shout' (Psalm xlvii., 5) will not do, for it is not the Lord but Elijah who went up; however, 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 pa.s.sages 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 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 II. as a whole is quite settled. It is only such lyrical pa.s.sages (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."

[Footnote 19: _Ibid._, p. 219.]

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

[SCHUBRING TO MENDELSSOHN.]

"DESSAU, _June_ 15, 1846.[20]

"... 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 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.