One of the nine children of Moses Mendelssohn was Abraham, father of Felix. Thus at the age of sixteen he joined the Society of Friends, dedicated to combating orthodoxy. Many of the members went so far as to have themselves baptized. When the official emancipation of Jews in Germany failed to rid the country of anti-Semitism, Abraham saw no contradiction in protecting his children by having them baptized as Protestants. He even followed the expediency of having himself baptized several years later, but he continued to think of himself as a Jew.
Although Felix was raised a Lutheran, he was proud of his Jewish heritage. Thus he felt no contradiction in basing the sequel to his successful oratorio St. Paul on an Old Testament theme. Actually, he considered a work about Saint Peter before settling on Elijah.
The composer worked intermittently on ideas for an Elijah oratorio over a period of ten years. The impetus to complete the work came in the form of a commission from the Birmingham Music Festival.
Mendelssohn sought the help of various librettists before settling on German theologian Julius Schubring. The librettist also tried to insert passages from the New Testament including a final chorus intended to proclaim the theological unity of the entire Bible , and he tried to convince the composer to use well-known Christian chorales.
Even after the composer rejected these suggestions, Schubring tried to close the oratorio with a trio sung by Peter, John and James.
The differences between composer and librettist went deeper than their orientations toward Old vs. New Testament texts. Schubring saw the work as a pure and uplifting liturgical statement, while Mendelssohn wanted to create music that was at once religious and dramatic. By inserting New Testament passages, the librettist tried to portray Elijah as a forerunner of Christ.
But for Mendelssohn, Elijah was the powerful prophet of Israel. Thus we find the work ending with biblical verses that have nothing to do with Elijah. It is sometimes difficult to tell who is speaking or singing without consulting a written synopsis such as that provided below , since many soloists assume more than one role. Mendelssohn and Schubring agreed to fashion a dramatic work with only a few consistent characters and without narration. For the sense of drama they turned to a series of individual scenes from the Bible.
A translation into English was therefore necessary for the premiere. The first performance of the original German version was given some months after the English premiere. Mendelssohn was in addition scheduled to conduct the oratorio with a chorus of one thousand on November 14, in Vienna. His death ten days before that performance turned it into a grandiose memorial concert.
The work subsequently became extremely popular, particularly in England and America, where it has been performed countless times by amateur as well as professional forces. Bartholomew faced a formidable challenge. Since the Old Testament was known in England through the King James Version of the Bible, he had to remain as faithful as possible to that text.
This brief introduction is followed by the overture, which represents the ravages of the three-year famine on the people of Israel. Yet the composer insisted on preserving the King James translation, in deference to English tastes, rather than alter it to fit the music. The turbulent fugue depicts the tragedy of the curse. In the ensuing plaintive chorus No. After a recitative No. He is protected by a double quartet of angels No. Once the brook dries up, one angel alto recitative tells Elijah to find a widow, who will sustain him until the end of the drought.
In a moving soprano solo No. The prophet entreats God three times. In an almost operatic fashion, the music moves from the plaintive to the triumphant as the boy revives. A pastoral chorus No. The next scene begins with a restatement of the opening plague music. He responds that the people have brought their problems on themselves by worshipping false gods.
Elijah challenges the priests of the god Baal. In a duel of the gods, they pray to Baal No. Elijah mockingly demands that the priests pray louder No. Ironically, Elijah taunts them with the same musical motive they use to implore Baal No. Still there is no answer. When Baal fails to appear and to end the drought, Elijah exhorts the people of Israel to turn their prayers to the one true God No.
Elijah orders the priests of Baal slain No. An alto reproaches those who have forsaken God No. Elijah turns away from the bloodbath to join the people in praying to God No.
Three times he sends a youth to see if rain clouds have appeared. Three times there are none. Finally the boy sees a little cloud in the distance.
By denouncing false gods and accepting the one true God, the people of Israel have been saved. Elijah has led them to their father and hence their salvation. The rains at last come. In the mighty final chorus of Part I No.
Part II of Elijah alternates scenes that further the plot with those that present Bible passages, including sayings of the prophets. The first scene begins with a soprano aria of comfort and dignity No. Elijah accuses the king of having angered God by worshipping Baal. With mounting fury Queen Jezebel tells the people that Elijah must perish because he destroyed the priests of Baal.
She even convinces the Israelites that Elijah was responsible for the famine. The mob chorus goes after Elijah No. Elijah goes into the wilderness, where he longs for death. An unaccompanied trio, sometimes performed by a boychoir, portrays angels comforting the prophet No.
In the emotional climax of the oratorio, Elijah cries out that all his efforts have been in vain. He has failed to make the people of Israel accept God. The angel returns to comfort Elijah, telling him again and again in a beautiful aria to wait for God and not be concerned with evil doers No. The appearance of the Lord is heralded with stunning music which vividly depicts first a tempest, then an earthquake, and finally fire—in none of which can God be found No.
The chorus sings of the holiness of God No. Elijah accepts God. Here ends the story of Elijah. Mendelssohn had originally intended to bring the oratorio to a close here as well, but Schubring convinced him to add an aria No. He was also a very good artist and was widely read.
As a result of his tireless efforts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Leipzig Conservatory, which he founded in , he raised performance standards to new heights and created many opportunities for contemporary composers and performers. In , when he was still only twenty, he conducted the first public performance of the St. He was also a great admirer of the music of Handel and Haydn, whose oratorios he conducted in Leipzig. Mendelssohn visited England many times, where he was received with adulation, feted by the press, and became a great favourite of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Paul , received its premiere at the Lower Rhine Festival in , than he began thinking about a suitable subject for a new oratorio. The idea of one based on the life of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, particularly appealed to him. Paul to an Elijah or a St. Peter or even an Og of Bashan! It was to be another ten years before it came to fruition. The subject of Elijah remained dear to his heart, however, so in he enlisted the help of his old friend, Pastor Julius Schubring, in drafting a libretto.
One more oratorio had been on his agenda: Christus , for which only a few choruses had been completed. Mendelssohn never achieved his dream of writing an opera, one of the few forms not part of his legacy; and, after all, he wrote eight sets of Songs Without Words.
The Chorus has derived great enjoyment from rehearsing and performing this music for your listening pleasure. Nicolas , about another man known for miracles. Aside from the differences in style of the two works— 20th-Century eclectic vs. One commentator notes that most of the kings in these two chronologies were allotted at most a chapter, but Ahab, and Jezebel, his wife, appear in six chapters— simply because this is the story of Elijah, after Moses the greatest hero of Israel.
Jezebel, wife of Ahab, who in B. Now what was the new ideal in music to be — pure instrumental music or music with a literary orientation?
Mendelssohn and his colleagues committed themselves to creating program music, in which the instrumentation is the vehicle for conveying the meaning of words and, ultimately, for expressing what words cannot. Mendelssohn used two musical forms — the chorale and large instrumental works with chorale-like finales — to advance themes of reconciliation and brotherhood.
His selection of Biblical texts for his two great oratorios, St. Paul and Elijah, exemplify his devotion to the task. Mendelssohn began drafting the libretto for Elijah with his friend Pastor Schubring in , but disagreements prevailed and he set it aside. The Birmingham Festival committee asked him for a new oratorio, after having heard him conduct St.
Paul at an earlier festival. The Old Testament story resonated deeply with Mendelssohn. The life of the prophet Elijah epitomized the evolution of Jewish faith from worship of the Babylonian pantheon of idols and myths to worshipping one monotheistic God. Elijah met with God on Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the Torah.
0コメント