FOOTNOTES
[1] Carl Klingemann (1798-1862) was for upwards of thirty years resident in London as Secretary to the Hanoverian Legation. "He was," says Sir George Grove, "a man of great cultivation, considerable literary power, and very rare judgment in music." He wrote the libretto of Mendelssohn's operetta known as "Son and Stranger"; and nine of Mendelssohn's songs are set to words by Klingemann.
[2] The proposed performance of "St. Paul" at the Liverpool Musical Festival, where it was given for the first time in England, under the direction of Sir George Smart, October 7, 1836.
[3] The Rev. James Barry, M.A., who seems to have been curate at Bratton Clovelly for only a few months, died in April, 1849, aged forty-two, at the Parsonage there, and was buried in the centre of the chancel of the church. I am indebted to the Rev. Edward Seymour, M.A., the present rector of Bratton Clovelly, for this information. Strangely enough, Mr. Barry's libretto begins with the familiar Recitative: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."
[4] Probably "As the hart pants."
[5] "Daheim" (Leipzig) for 1866, No. 26. English translation in Musical World, May 12 and 19, 1866.
[6] The full title of the book is: "Briefwechsel zwischen Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und Julius Schubring, zugleich ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Theorie des Oratoriums. Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Jul. Schubring, Direktor des Katharineums zu Lübeck. Leipzig: Verlag von Duncker und Humblot. 1892."
[7] "Briefwechsel," p. 124.
[8] This refers to Klingemann's "sketch" for "Elijah," London, September, 1837.
[9] "Briefwechsel," p. 134.
[10] "Briefwechsel," p. 129.
[11] Ibid., p. 137.
[12] Mendelssohn's setting of Goethe's "Walpurgis Night."
[13] "Briefwechsel," p. 140.
[14] Ibid., p. 146.
[15] "Briefwechsel," p. 149. Mendelssohn was born February 3, 1809.
[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.
[17] "Briefwechsel," p. 208.
[18] "Briefwechsel," p. 219.
[19] Ibid., p. 219.
[20] "Briefwechsel," p. 222.
[21] The reference is to "St. Paul," in which, at Schubring's suggestion, Mendelssohn has set the words, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" for four-part female chorus.
[22] "Elijah."
[23] The Rev. John Webb, M.A. (1776-1869), often referred to as "the friend of the charity"—i.e., the Birmingham General Hospital. He submitted to Mendelssohn the text of an oratorio, entitled "Rachel in Ramah," which is the "poem" referred to in this letter.
[24] In case the point of Mendelssohn's joke should be missed by anyone, it must be remembered that the contralto singer in "Elijah" takes the parts of both the Angel and Jezebel, the Queen.
[25] "Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt." By H. Scott Holland and W.S. Rockstro. London: John Murray (1891). II., p. 243.
[26] "Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt," I., 402.
[27] "Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt," I., 392.
[28] It was on this occasion that Mendelssohn omitted the two "redundant bars" in the Scherzo of Beethoven's C minor Symphony. See Sir George Grove's forthcoming work on "Beethoven," and the chapter on the C minor Symphony; also the "Dictionary of Music and Musicians," Vol. II., 288a.
[29] From "Letters of Mendelssohn to I. and C. Moscheles," by Felix Moscheles (Trübner), p. 274.
[30] At a Philharmonic rehearsal in 1844.
[31] The original autograph of this letter is now in the Library of the Royal College of Music. The "important work" referred to in the letter is, of course, the oratorio of "Elijah."
[32] With two exceptions, the letters from Mendelssohn to Bartholomew quoted in this "History" are now in my possession.
[33] I am greatly indebted to Frau Geheimrath Wach, of Leipzig (Mendelssohn's younger daughter), and her daughter, for their kindness in copying the long correspondence on "Elijah" from Bartholomew to Mendelssohn. These letters are still carefully treasured in the "27 large green volumes" in which Mendelssohn "preserved all the letters he received, and stuck them in with his own hands."
[34] This letter is reproduced in [fac-simile] at the end of this book.
[35] In order to make the musical examples in the following letters more intelligible to the general reader, and easier of reference to the printed score, I have added clefs and key signatures where Mendelssohn did not think it necessary to insert them when writing to Bartholomew. The figures in brackets refer to the present numbers in Novello's Edition of the Oratorio.
[36] This No. 5 was the original form of the tenor Recitative (now No. 3), "Ye people, rend your hearts." Before the Birmingham performance Mendelssohn re-wrote it, making it much shorter (10 bars instead of 17) and less elaborate, and in the form in which it is now sung. The concluding bars of the original are here appended, with the two versions of the words, to show the force of Mendelssohn's suggested alteration:—
The words of this Recit., as originally written by Bartholomew, were: "Ye people, rend your hearts, and not your garments, for your transgressions; even as Elijah hath sealed the heavens through the word of God.
"I therefore say to ye, Forsake your idols, return to God; for He is ever enduring in goodness; repenting of the evil. He turneth our sorrow to gladness, and He comforteth us in affliction."
[37] Bartholomew originally had these words: "Ah! could I find Him; and at His footstool bow before His presence."
[38] Mendelssohn greatly altered the "Widow" scene before the oratorio was published.
[39] The music of this chorus ("Blessed are the men") was afterwards much altered.
[40] See the [letter] to Bartholomew, July 3, 1846, [p. 55].
[41] Mr. Bartholomew doubtless quoted this and the following example from memory.
[42] Afterwards Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew.
[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 führen. Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege, und hoffe auf ihn; der wird dich erretten von allem Übel." He subsequently changed the second and fourth clauses to the more familiar Luther version. (Psalm xxxvii., 7, 4, 5, 8.)
[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.
[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.
[46] This section of the chorus (No. 41), which Mendelssohn rejected almost at the eleventh hour, was a somewhat extended movement in D, eighty-six bars long. It started with the following subject in the soprano:
[[Listen]]
[47] According to the late Mr. J.W. Davison, "Mendelssohn was a long time uncertain whether he should add the oboe part, or limit the score to the string quartet."
[48] As a specimen of Grattan Cooke's humour, the following incident was related to me by a veteran musician who was a fellow-student of the witty oboeist at the Royal Academy of Music. At one of the early rehearsals of Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" Overture, Cooke was missed from his place in the orchestra, and was soon afterwards seen walking up the room carrying a ladder. "What on earth have you got that for?" he was asked. Cooke replied: "He's written the notes so tremendously high, that I've brought a ladder to get up to them!"
[49] Mr. Charles Lockey.
[50] F. Edward Bache was then a boy of thirteen. His name does not appear in the official list of the Band; but Mr. Andrew Deakin's recollection of the event confirms the statement in Mrs. Bache's letter.
[51] I am much indebted to Mr. Russell Martineau, and the surviving members of Mrs. Bache's family, for their kind permission to use these interesting extracts.
[52] The words of this Recitative, probably written by the Rev. John Webb, first appeared in the word-book of the 1837 Festival, just after the accession of Queen Victoria. They supplanted those beginning "When King David was old," first sung in 1820. These new (Victorian) words were also used at the Festival of 1840, but not in 1843.
[53] This silver snuff-box, which cost nine guineas, bore upon it the following inscription:—
"Presented to
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
by the
Sacred Harmonic Society, London,
on the occasion of
his attendance at their performance of his oratorio
'St. Paul,'
at Exeter Hall, on the 12th day of September, 1837."
[54] Bartholomew had rendered the German words "und sein Wort brannte wie eine Fackel" as "his words appeared as light in darkness." The English Apocrypha (Ecclesiasticus xlviii., 1) has, "his word burned like a lamp." It is very difficult to fathom a composer's mind; but what can be the connection between "torches" and the key of F minor? Strangely enough the source of these words (and also of No. 24) has always been wrongly given as Ecclesiastes, instead of Ecclesiasticus. This mistake has been continued for fifty years!
[55] The words of the Quartet, as sung at Birmingham, were:—
| "Regard Thy servant's prayer, While angels bow before Thee, And worlds around Thy throne In strains of praise adore Thee. O, help him in his need, Thy gracious ear accord— Jehovah Sabaoth, Creator, God, and Lord!" |
They were changed to the now familiar "Cast thy burden." The music was also altered, but its quartet-chorale form and slender accompaniment were retained.
[56] The original English words in No. 16 (Chorus) were:—
"Bow down, bow down! on your faces fall adoring!" They are now "Before Him, upon your faces fall." The music of this number was also much altered. The impressive phrase, "upon your faces fall," just before the Chorale, was originally:—
[57] Mr. Bartholomew writes "yes" on the original letter.
[58] Performed, with the original French words and Mendelssohn's music, before the Queen, and at the instigation of the Prince Consort, at Windsor Castle, on New Year's Day, 1847. This was the first performance of "Athalie" in England.
[59] It may be interesting to give the original English words (as sung at Birmingham) of this well-known air.
Adagio.—"Hear ye, Israel; hear what the Lord speaketh: 'Ah! had'st thou heeded my commandments!' He to His people calleth; yet they regard not His voice, nor will they obey His call.
Recit.—Yet to the righteous, saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel;
Allegro.—I, I am he that comforteth, and ye are mine. Wake up, arise, Jerusalem! Say, who art thou that despairest, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker; who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the earth's foundations? Wake up, arise, Jerusalem!"
[60] "Lift thine eyes" was originally written as a duet for soprano and contralto, and in this form it was sung at Birmingham by the Misses Williams. Mendelssohn, according to the late Mr. Lazarus, was very desirous that there should be no break between the trio, "Lift thine eyes," and the succeeding chorus, "He, watching over Israel." His special direction at the end of the trio, "Attacca, No. 29," shows the importance he attached to the connecting of these two numbers—the trio and the chorus of angels.
[61] The opera of "The Tempest," which Mr. Lumley, in his opera prospectus of 1847, announced as having been "expressly composed for Her Majesty's Theatre," by Mendelssohn.
[62] The music examples in this letter refer to the Soprano air "Hear ye, Israel," No. 21.
[63] Bartholomew had written:
[[Listen]]
[64] Bartholomew did not add the note after all. See No. 23, "The Lord hath exalted thee," bar 15, to which this refers.
[65] The alto part in oratorio choruses was always sung in England by men's voices (counter-tenors). It was not till the following year (1848) that some ladies were admitted into the alto division of the chorus at the Sacred Harmonic Society. The change was made when Costa began his reign as Conductor of the Society. Costa introduced a similar innovation at the Birmingham Festival of 1849, the first he conducted, and the first after the production of "Elijah." The male altos, however, greatly predominated on that occasion. The numbers were—ladies, 17; gentlemen, 59. At this Festival Mario sang "Then shall the righteous," which he finished on the upper A flat!
[66] Mr. George Perry ("leader" of the Sacred Harmonic Society from its foundation in 1832) was also the composer of an oratorio, entitled "Elijah, and the Priests of Baal," which was first performed at the Concert Room, St. George's Bridge, Norwich, on March 12, 1819.
[67] "The Sacred Harmonic Society: a Thirty-five Years' Retrospect, by Robert K. Bowley, Treasurer. Privately printed. 1867." Mr. Bowley was one of the deputation of two officers of the Society who waited upon Mendelssohn to present him with the Prince Consort's "affectionate token of sympathy." He was one of the oldest members of the Sacred Harmonic Society, and subsequently became Librarian, and then Treasurer. In 1858 he became General Manager of the Crystal Palace, which office he retained till his death in 1870. He also originated and carried out the Handel Festivals.
[68] It may be of interest to give the "terms" quoted by Mendelssohn for the English copyrights of some of his works. The information is derived from original letters from the composer to Buxton. The D minor Trio, 10 guineas. Books 4 and 5 of the "Lieder ohne Worte," 15 guineas each; Book 6, 24 guineas. "17 Variations Sérieuses," 8 guineas. "Festgesang" (which includes the familiar tune now associated with "Hark! the herald angels sing"), 4 guineas. "Scotch Symphony" (pianoforte arrangement), £20. Sonata for pianoforte and cello in D, 12 guineas. Six four-part Songs, Op. 59 (which includes "O hills! O vales!" the "Hunting Song," &c.), 10 guineas. "Scherzo, Notturno, and Wedding March" (from "Midsummer Night's Dream"), pianoforte duet arrangement, 15 guineas; the whole work, "consisting of 9 other pieces (except the Overture) would be the same again as those 3." Violin Concerto and "Hear my prayer," "20 guineas for both together." C minor Trio and Te Deum in A, £30.
In these letters from Mendelssohn to Buxton there are such apologetic phrases, in regard to the prices named by the composer, as, "which I hope will be convenient to you," and "I hope it will not be inconvenient to you, which I beg you will tell me sincerely." Mendelssohn also thanks Mr. Buxton for his "very good and kind intentions" towards him. In sending the MS. of "The Garland" (words by Thomas Moore), he says, "which you may publish if you like, and pay for it whatever you like."
[69] "Letters of Mendelssohn to Moscheles," by Felix Moscheles, p. 272.