CHAPTER I.
THE LIBRETTO.
Mendelssohn had no sooner completed his first oratorio, "St. Paul," than he began to think about setting another Bible story to music. "St. Paul" was produced at the Lower Rhine Musical Festival, Düsseldorf, May 22, 1836, under the composer's personal direction. Mendelssohn was then twenty-seven years of age. He spent six weeks in the summer of that year at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, as locum tenens for his friend Schelble, the founder of a Choral Society, famous then and now, under the name of the Cäcilien-Verein.
During his temporary residence in the old Hanseatic city, Mendelssohn met Mdlle. Cécile Jeanrenaud, to whom he was betrothed in September. He spent the month of August at Scheveningen for the benefit of the sea-bathing there, and also, as we learn from the "Recollections" of his friend Devrient, to test the strength of his affection for the beautiful Cécile. Although his thoughts naturally and constantly turned towards Frankfort, he did not neglect his beloved art. He wrote the following letter, hitherto unpublished, to his old and attached friend, Carl Klingemann, in London.[1]
[Mendelssohn to Klingemann.]
"The Hague, August 12, 1836.
"... A thousand thanks for all your care, and for the interest you take in the whole affair.[2] It is no doubt important for me that the performance and all the arrangements should be as perfect as possible; therefore, let me thank you for it all once more.
"But I wish you knew what a far greater favour you would confer upon me if, instead of doing so much for my old oratorio, you would write me a new one; and, by so doing, would stir me up to fresh activity, instead of my having to do this myself. When I have finished a composition, that which really gives me pleasure in it is the progress I see in the work, and the hope that it may lead me to attain to greater excellence in the next. Therefore, I long to be rid of all care of the finished work; and I feel as if I could only really thank you, from my heart, if you showed me that you like this oratorio sufficiently to help me to find a new 'text,' and thus encourage me to write another oratorio. If you would only give all the care and thought you now bestow upon 'St. Paul' to an 'Elijah,' or a 'St. Peter,' or even an 'Og of Bashan!'