" Elijah," probably the finest, and assuredly the most popular, work of its kind which had appeared in the fifty years since Haydn's " Creation," was first performed Aug. 26, 1846, at Birmingham, England, whose festival Mendelssohn had been invited to conduct. The idea of such an oratorio, however, had been born a decade before. While reading his Bible Mendelssohn was struck by the words, " Behold, the Lord passed by," and at once remarked to his friend Hiller that they suggested an oratorio. About this thrilling sentence he afterward drew up the story of " the grandest and most romantic character that Israel ever produced." A letter written to Carl Klingemann at that early date also bears testimony to the fact that " Elijah" had been suggested, but not until 1845 did he begin to work upon it in earnest.
It is difficult to be oblivious to many points of similarity in the lives and natures of Mozart and Mendelssohn, despite the fact that the latter from the first enjoyed wealth. recognition, and success, the other starving for the lack of these. Both were of sweet and winning personality; both precocious; both endowed with delicate fancy and love of the beautiful ; both died before they were forty; one having just finished an immortal Requiem, the other a remarkable Oratorio. Upon both of these works the last particle of strength seems to have been expended, and both reflect a little of " the light that never was on sea or land." Some say the " Elijah " destroyed Mendelssohn. He had worked very hard upon it and the excitement and responsibility attendant upon its first presentation was just as hard to bear, while the shock of his sister Fanny's death came soon after, when he was too feeble to accept it with fortitude.
The first rehearsal of "Elijah " took place Aug. 5, 1846, at Leipsic. After Mendelssohn's arrival in London it was rehearsed at the house of Moscheles, and at Birmingham on August 24, two days before the performance. This took place before six thousand people and was the occasion of one of the greatest ovations ever enjoyed by a musician. The appearance of the composer was greeted with deafening shouts of applause, and the interest and excitement continued unabated to the end.
Its triumph was repeated with even higher luster when it was performed in London April 16, 1847, in Exeter Hall. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort were present to share in the general delight. Afterward Prince Albert sent to Mendelssohn the score book he had used at the performance, upon which he had written a glowing tribute to the Elijah of music who remained loyal to the truth among " the Baal worshipers of corrupted art." Mendelssohn made numerous alterations in the score after his first success. In a letter written to Klingemann, Dec. 6, 1846, he says : " For several days I have been straining all my powers on the `Elijah' and am hoping to make a good end of most of the things I have disliked on the first performance. I have quite done one of the hardest portions, the widow, and you will certainly be content with the alteration, yes, I will say with the improvement." The first German performance of the revised version was given in Hamburg, Oct. 7, 1847.
" Elijah " remains today probably the most dramatic oratorio ever written. It is crowded with stirring incident and with music which claims even the wholly uncultivated ear. It was the composer's desire to be dramatic, and he knew better than many of like mind how to achieve his end. The text is a mosaic of biblical verses taken principally from the First Book of Kings, but having the effect of a vivid, spontaneous story. As before, with ".St. Paul," the text was arranged' by Pastor Julius Schubring, who seems to have advised against the " widow " incident, and Mendelssohn seems at first to have listened to him. The English translation was made by William Bartholomew, who sent it to the composer piecemeal as he worked. While it will be found to differ somewhat from the English Scriptures, he has made it as nearly in accordance with them as the music will permit. The musical character of Elijah is clearly drawn, and Mendelssohn has succeeded in making of him as he hoped to do, "A man strong and zealous, full of bitterness and scorn, the antagonist of the rabble, whether of courtiers or populace, well nigh the antagonist of the world, yet borne aloft on the wings of angels." The incidents chosen from the life of the great prophet will be indicated in what follows :
King Ahab ruled over the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which, like many nations enjoying too great prosperity, had forgotten the Lord. The hopelessness of the situation was increased by the fact that Ahab had espoused Jezebel, the Phoenician princess who established Baal-worship in the land. This voluptuous faith flourished apace and soon there were but seven thousand in the kingdom who had not bowed the knee to Baal; but to Elijah, pondering sadly in the wilderness, it seemed that he alone was faithful.
Suddenly before the dissolute and hostile court, there appears this Elijah, with his shaggy mantle of sheepskin over his shoulders, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and pronounces upon Israel the curse of the drought. With the opening of the story the once arrogant people are beginning to feel the horror of the fast growing drought. The tongues of the infants are parching in their mouths and the older children beg piteously for bread. Obadiah, who " feared the Lord greatly," counsels them to forsake their idols. The popular rage is directed against Elijah, who is suspected to have caused the calamity, and an angel appears to him to tell him to take refuge by Cherith's brook, where he may drink from its waters and be sustained by the bread carried to him by ravens. When these resources are exhausted the angel sends him on to Zarephath, where he abides for a time at the house of a widow. Her son is dying, and at her passionate appeal for help Elijah works a miracle to God's glory by fully restoring him.
When three years have passed the prophet appears again at Ahab's Court and announces the close of the drought. "Art thou Elijah, he that troubleth Israel? " they ask in fierce dislike, and he forcibly reminds them that it was their own sins that brought misery to Israel. With an authority which they do not think to question, so great is the personality of this direct, unaffected man, he summons the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal to meet him on Mt. Carmel and there to put it to the test who is the Lord. Upon the altars erected to Jehovah and to Baal is put the sacrifice. He is the true God who shall send down fire to consume his sacrifice, announces Elijah. Nothing can be more thrilling than the scene. The four hundred and fifty priests cry aloud to their god " from morning even until noon," at first confidently, then with growing doubt, at last in a wild frenzy of disappointment; and always goaded by the matchless sarcasm of Elijah, under which they finally leap upon the altar, cutting themselves with knives. But Elijah calls upon the Lord and the fire descends from heaven and consumes his offering. At the sight the people fall in terror to the ground. Then Elijah orders the false prophets to be taken to Kishon's brook and there slain. The first part of the oratorio concludes with that picturesque episode in which the drought is broken. Elijah prays for rain and sets the youth who attends him to watch the skies. At first he can only report : " The heavens are as brass above me." Finally he describes a cloud no bigger than a man's hand. It grows with fearful rapidity. The tempest roars about them and soon the rain falls in torrents upon the unaccustomed earth. Above the tumult is the voice of the Tishbite crying " Thanks be to God ! " followed by the magnificent chorus of the people.
Part II. begins with moral comment, after which the story is resumed. Again Israel is in danger of forgetting; but Elijah is not indulgent and again he addresses his stinging rebuke to Ahab. The insolent Jezebel incites the mercurial people against the prophet. She recalls many grievances. He destroyed the prophets of Baal; he closed the heavens; and called down a famine upon the land. The conclusion is " He shall perish," and Jezebel, conjuring up the memory of the slain prophets, promises to make Elijah as one of them by the morrow. Warned by Obadiah, Elijah flees to the wilderness where, bitterly oppressed by the faithlessness and hatred of the people he has tried to enlighten, and by the thought that he has failed utterly, he prays for death. Thus weary and dejected he falls asleep under a juniper tree, and into his dreams comes the celestial comfort of the angels. They bid him go on a journey of forty days and nights to Mt. Horeb with the promise of a glory which has come to none but Moses — to be in the actual presence of the Lord. When, his journey accomplished, he waits in awe, a mighty wind shakes the very mountains and breaks the granite cliffs ; an earthquake rends the valleys and upheaves the sea, while about all blazes the lightning. But the Lord is in none of these, but in the still, small voice which came after and whose message none shall know.
After this Elijah walks among men, but is not of them. " He stood up as a fire, and his word burnt as a lamp." And when his work on earth is accomplished, he ascends to heaven in the chariot of fire carried on the wings of the whirlwind.
" Elijah " is from beginning to end a succession of beauties. The task of discriminating and selecting a few, which according to the consensus of opinion are best, seems almost hopeless. Scarcely one of the forty-two numbers but has been eulogized as notable in some high respect. At once Mendelssohn displays his unerring instinct for the dramatic. Before the overture there are four solemn trumpet blasts, and like a prologue to a play Elijah's curse upon the land is pronounced. The overture is expressive of the misery of the people crushed under the double calamity of drought and famine, and culminates in their prayer, the powerful and finely written chorus, " Help, Lord."
The cry of the people, " Lord! bow thine ear," is followed by the duet, Zion spreadeth her hands," after which the narrative becomes very dramatic. Obadiah bids them repent with the touchingly beautiful tenor aria, " If with all your hearts," a favorite alike in cottage and palace. An effective chorus, " Yet doth the Lord see it not," is followed after an intervening recitative by the double quartet of angels which Elijah hears in his dream by Cherith's brook " For he shall give His angels charge over thee," which is one of the loveliest portions of the score.
The widow " Scena " is another proof of Mendelssohn's remarkable dramatic sense and especially is its concluding portion inspired. The chorus " Blessed are the men who fear them," commenting upon and giving meaning to Elijah's miracle, everywhere finds favor. The climax is now reached in the great scene upon Mt. Carmel. After the interesting dialogue in recitative between Elijah and Ahab come the magnificent choruses of the priests of Baal the double chorus, " Baal, we cry to thee; " the second, " Hear our cry, O Baal," and the third, " Hear and Answer Baal," frantically fearful lest the sleeping god will not waken. Upon this ensues Elijah's splendid aria, " Lord God of Abraham," and the angelic quartet, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord," reminiscent of the Bach chorale. The score reaches a high level in the picturesque chorus, " The fire descends from heaven," and Elijah's aria, " Is not his work like a fire?" Probably the most celebrated in the thrilling series of scenes is that of Elijah's invocation of rain, concluding with the splendid chorus which also terminates the first part, " Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land."
The second part, while not as popular as the first, is in many respects quite as fine. One of the most charming of soprano songs is that beginning, "Hear ye, Israel, I am he that comforteth," followed by the chorus "Be not afraid," which is frequently declared to be the greatest of Mendelssohn's choruses. Now comes the scene between the revengeful Sidonian Queen and the people, of which the recitative, "Does Ahab govern," is perhaps most striking. Obadiah's beautiful recitative, " Man of God," is followed by another scene of strength almost equal to that upon Mt. Carmel Elijah's dream in the wilderness. Elijah's plaint "It is enough, O Lord ;" the terzetto of the angels who appear to him under the juniper tree, "Lift thine Eyes ;" and the tender chorus, " He watching over Israel," dwell upon the same high plane. We now arrive at the air, "O rest in the Lord." It is said that Mendelssohn was not quite satisfied with this, and was tempted to destroy it, and certain critics pretend to regret that he did not persist in his purpose. But surely the affection in which this song is held in the hearts of the people, the perennial comfort it carries with it, and the softening tears it has caused to fall are more than excuse for being. An attractive chorus, "He that shall endure," preludes the wonderful scene of the appearance of the Lord to Elijah. Of this Haweis says : " What follows is so unexpected in the elevation of the harmonic temperature, that we have known persons in a state of rapt excitement upon hearing the chorus for the first time break out into a cold sweat at the words, smitten-like tongues of fire, from the rocks, 'But the Lord was not in the tempest.' " The aria following the translation of Elijah, " Then shall the righteous," is one of the songs most warmly enshrined in the heart of the tenor singer. This masterpiece concludes with the beautiful quartet, "O come every one that thirsteth," and the majestic chorus "And then shall your Light."
