"And again many thanks,
"F.M.-B."
The following letters from Mendelssohn to Bartholomew, all written in English, may now follow on, seriatim; they lead up to the period of the composer's arrival—for the last time—in England.
"Leipzig, 30 December, 1846.
"My dear Sir,—I send to-day to Mr. Buxton all the pieces which were still wanting in the first part of my 'Elijah.' Wherever I could, I took the words from the English Bible and adapted them as well as I could to the alterations, in order to save you trouble; but, nevertheless, I must ask you to look over all I have done, that no wrong accent or other blunders might remain in it. So, for instance, in the 13 bars which I have added before the chorus 'Blessed are the men,' and which are taken from Psalm cxvi. {12} and Deuteron. vi., 15 {5}, I wrote the German words under the English in case you should prefer the notation as originally composed, and choose to add a word or a syllable here and there in the English version, in order to give it the same rhythm as in German. I should wish this in the passage just quoted, particularly in the beginning of Elijah's answer, 'Du sollst den,' where the two slurred notes 'Thou♩
shalt' are not equally good. But I could not find something else, and I also think that passages like these are best left as in the Bible. In the following chorus, No. 9, there is a curious specimen of the different meaning of the German and English version: the words 'He is gracious,' &c. (or, as you had it, 'they are gracious'), apply, in your version, to the righteous, while in ours they apply to God, and the passage is in our version, 'the light ariseth to the righteous from Him who is gracious, full of compassion,' &c., &c. Now I certainly composed it with this last meaning, and the question is whether you would think it advisable to introduce it, or not. I proposed 'He is' instead of 'they are,' because I thought it could then be understood both ways; but most probably you might hit on something much better still. Instead of 'who delight in His commands,' I preferred 'they ever walk in the ways of peace' only, as more expressive, and I hope you will be of my opinion. I see in the Birmingham book that you quoted the words of this chorus Psalm cvi., 3; but I took them from Psalm cxxviii., 1, and Psalm cxii., 1 and 4, although nearly the same passage occurs in Psalm cvi., 3.
"No. 15 is a piece in which I must again require your friendly assistance. From the time I first sent it away for the Birmingham performance I felt that it should not remain as it stood, with its verses and rimes, the only specimen of a Lutheran Chorale in this old-testamential work.[55] I wanted to have the colour of a Chorale, and I felt that I could not do without it, and yet I did not like to have a Chorale. At last I took those passages from the Psalms which best apply to the situation, and composed them in about the same style and colour, and very glad I was when I found (as I looked into the English Bible) that the beginning went word by word as in German. But after the beginning my joy was soon at an end, and there it is that I must ask you to come to my assistance. The words are taken from Psalm lv., 23 {22}; Psalm cviii., 5 {4}; and Psalm xxv., 3.
"In the chorus No. 16, I added the German words 'Fallt nieder auf euer Angesicht,' in pencil, because I thought that the English translation, 'adoring,' etc., did not express the meaning entirely, nor did it render the rhythm of the German, which is still more to be felt by the bar I have added before the pause. Our 'fallt nieder' means something still more awful, I think, than to 'bow down' or 'to adore'; but query whether it can or should be given in English![56]
"You will also find the Allegro of the Soprano song at the beginning of Part 2 ['Hear ye, Israel'] with the subsequent chorus. I never thought of omitting the Allegro of the song, but wanted to find something (in words and music) better appropriated to make the transition from the slow movement to the Allegro. The Recit. which I now send is taken from Isaiah xlix., 7. Here again the English words went at first perfectly well, but afterwards they would not do at all, and (which is the most essential) their meaning differed greatly. The German means that the Lord speaks 'to the soul that is despised and to the nation that is abhorred by others, and to His servant who is oppressed by tyrants,' and all this made me adopt the words for this Recit., and therefore I wish it to be expressed also in the English version.