172
- Its subsequent performance
(in an English translation) in
Liverpool, England, and later in
the US gained him a reputation as
a composer who was sympathetic
to the possibilities of amateurs
performing his works.
Mendelssohn had conducted
St. Paul for the Birmingham
Triennial Music Festival in 1837,
and its organizers requested a new
oratorio for 1846, the year before he
died. The composer at first declined
the invitation but was persuaded to
write Elijah when told that the
festival could provide as many
performers as he requested. Its
premiere featured an orchestra of
125 players and a chorus of 271
singers. The organizers even tried
to engage the famous Swedish
opera singer Jenny Lind, for whom
Mendelssohn had tailored the
soprano part. However, because
this would have been her British
debut, she declined, preferring an
opera to showcase her vocal skills.
Eventually, she sang the soprano
role of Elijah in London in 1848,
after Mendelssohn’s death, in a
charity concert that funded the
Mendelssohn Scholarship, which
still exists today.
Elijah itself has a curious hybrid
quality. Although clearly influenced
by the Baroque and modeled on
the oratorios of Bach and Handel,19TH-CENTURY SACRED CHORAL MUSIC
The prophet summons the Israelites
in the bass recitative “Draw near all ye
people” from the oratorio Elijah. This
page, handwritten by Mendelssohn, is
from an original 1846 score of the work.it still reflects the Early Romantic
period in its colorful orchestration
and subtle lyricism. The chorales
mark structural divisions in the
music, as found in the Bach
Passions. Also, unlike other works
of the period, a surprisingly wide
variety of styles and textures can
be heard, which is reminiscent of
Handel. However, Mendelssohn
also uses innovative forms, such
as including the choir in certain
recitatives for dramatic effect, and
he attempts to bring a sense of
unity to the whole work by linking
movements and using recurring
motifs, both of which were musical
devices of his own era. Of special
interest are the fugues in the
overture and finale, which clearly
demonstrated to the Romantic
generation that this Baroque form
could be revived to great effect.
Elijah was immediately
successful, especially in its English
version, and became a mainstay
of choral concerts throughout the
19th century. Later commentators,
however, often found it too
conventional and considered it a
product of mid-Victorian values.Grand sacred works
While many composers of the
period were not very interested in
choral music, Hector Berlioz created
two of the grandest choral works
in the repertoire. With their
extraordinarily large forces, his
Requiem of 1837 and his Te Deum,
first performed in 1855, are vivid
examples of the excesses of
High Romanticism; the Requiem
requires four off-stage brass
ensembles while the score ofNever before was anything
like this season ... I got
through more music in
two months than in all
the rest of the year.
Felix MendelssohnUS_170-173_Mendelssohn.indd 172 26/03/18 1:01 PM