The choral rehearsals were conducted by Mr. James Stimpson, the chorus-master of the Festival. It was not until after the middle of June, only two months before the Festival, that Mr. Stimpson received the first instalment of the chorus parts. Although these were printed (all the rest of the oratorio was sung and played from MS. copies), the deciphering of them was no easy matter, owing to the many alterations—black, red, and blue ink being freely used to indicate the alterations and re-alterations in the parts. Mr. John Bragg, who sang tenor in the chorus in 1846 and at several Festivals since, relates the following incident in connection with the first rehearsal of "Thanks be to God." Mr. Bragg says: "At the passage beginning 'But the Lord,' which was an entirely new one to choralists, Mr. Stimpson rapped his desk and asked for the separate voice parts one after another. He then compared them with his own MS. copy of the score, and, being evidently puzzled, said 'Well, gentlemen, the voice parts are right, and we must sing it so.' And so it was sung," adds the veteran Mr. Bragg, "then and ever after; and one of the greatest gems in the work shone out for the first time. Great was the enthusiasm of the chorus when they had completed the passage and realised the full effect of this masterly modulation."
Mr. Stimpson had a most arduous task in preparing the choruses in the limited time at his disposal. As late as August 3, twenty-three days before the performance, the arrival of the first two choruses of Part II. was reported, and the last chorus was not received till nine days before the Festival! But the Birmingham singers were on their mettle. They enjoyed rehearsing the work, and they worthily maintained those splendid choral traditions which have so eminently distinguished the Birmingham Musical Festival.
CHAPTER III.
THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
The music of "Elijah" was composed to German words; an English version was therefore necessary. Mendelssohn had no hesitation in assigning the task of making the English translation to Mr. Bartholomew—"the translator par excellence," as he called him—who is so well known as the translator or adaptor of Mendelssohn's "Athalie," "Antigone," "Œdipus," "Lauda Sion," "Walpurgis Night," the Finale to "Loreley," "Christus," and many of his songs and part-songs. Bartholomew also supplied the words of "Hear my Prayer," "which," he says, "its dear and lamented author composed for my paraphrastic version of the 55th Psalm."
