The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio "Elijah" Part 8

[_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 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 G.o.d 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 [slur symbol] 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."

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."[40] 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.

[Footnote 40: See the letter to Bartholomew, July 3, 1846, p. 55.]

"O rest in the Lord" has attained such widespread 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 ma.n.u.script of the song, he found that the melody began thus:--

[Music: Sei stille dem Herrn, und warte auf ihn.]

He at once wrote the following letter to Mendelssohn:--

"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 the second proofs of its printed first portion, and made the alterations you suggested--nearly all--one or two remaining for your a.s.sistance 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 feeling which you or your music has inspired within me. And what is your music but yourself?--the incarnation 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'?

[Music: Young Jamie lov'd me well, and ask'd me for his bride, &c.[41]]

"Now compare the aria (_Andante_, without a number) 'Sei stille dem Herrn' ['O 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,[42] 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 10--look at it!--see the close:--

[Music: pound were both for me.]

[Music: Bar 10. _fuhren_.[43]]

"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."

[Footnote 41: Mr. Bartholomew doubtless quoted this and the following example from memory.]

[Footnote 42: Afterwards Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew.]

[Footnote 43: The German words which Mendelssohn _originally_ selected for "O rest in the Lord" were: "Sei stille dem Herrn, und warte auf ihn; der wird dich wohl zum Guten fuhren. Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege, und hoffe auf ihn; der wird dich erretten von allem ubel." He subsequently changed the second and fourth clauses to the more familiar Luther version. (Psalm x.x.xvii., 7, 4, 5, 8.)]

In answer to this letter--which Mendelssohn erroneously considered to be a request to _omit_ the song--came the following reply:--

[MENDELSSOHN TO BARTHOLOMEW.]

[_Written in English._]

"LEIPZIG, _July_ 28, 1846.[44]

"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 your last letter, with the remarks about the song ['O 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 first part) I shall either send or bring 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 17th, and beg you will let us have a grand meeting on the 18th, to settle all the questions and the copies of the solo parts.

"Always yours very truly,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY."

[Footnote 44: 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, 1880. But both MSS. suddenly and mysteriously disappeared at the time, and have not since been found.

See _The Times_, May 15, 1880, p. 13.]

It may perhaps be as well to complete the history of "O rest in the Lord" before proceeding farther, even at the risk of a little repet.i.tion. 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 ident.i.ty, 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 Lord,' we will 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 "O rest in the Lord"

was thereby spared the fate of utter oblivion. Mendelssohn 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![45]

[Footnote 45: 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.]

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 notation 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 country, said: 'It had an Echo, which, if you said 'How d'ye do?' replied, 'Pretty well, I thank you!'"

But to resume the continuation of the letters:--

[MENDELSSOHN TO BARTHOLOMEW.]

[_Written in English._]

"LEIPZIG, _August_ 9, 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 18th, 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 _now_, 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 be done_ before my arrival, you will introduce the following alterations:

"1. After the words of Elijah (the curse), and before the 1st 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.