"It may seem ungrateful that I write to you just now in this strain, and in a letter which should be all thanks; but it is as I feel at present, and we are far too intimate with each other for me to attempt to hide from you my present mood. You know, don't you, that I am not ungrateful? But I have felt very strongly of late that I need and long for an external impulse to urge me on; no recognition of work done can come up to that; it gives me great pleasure, but it has not the stimulating effect upon me which a suggestion for new work would have."
This letter, which discloses an article of Mendelssohn's artistic creed, is important, because it contains the earliest known reference to the oratorio of "Elijah." The date should be carefully noted, as it shows that Mendelssohn was engaged, more or less, upon his great oratorio for a period of more than ten years before it was given to the world in its finished and published form.
Klingemann does not seem to have been taken with his friend's proposal that he should compile an oratorio libretto, even upon so original a subject for musical treatment as "Og of Bashan." The following letter, written a few weeks before the composer's marriage, contains a request for the "text" of an oratorio as a wedding present—surely a novelty in the way of a nuptial gift.
[Mendelssohn to Klingemann.]
"Leipzig, February 18, 1837.
"... Here comes my request. Do write for me within the next few weeks the text for a Biblical oratorio, so that I can set to and compose it during next summer. The last time we talked about it I mentioned to you two subjects which I like equally well—'St. Peter' or 'Elijah.' What I would like best would be for you to take 'Elijah'—divide the story into two or three parts, write it out in choruses and airs, either in verse or prose of your own; or, compile it from the Psalms and Prophets, with powerful big choruses, and then send it to me. The translation of Handel's oratorios gave you so little trouble that I think you will only require a few evenings, and the will to give them up to it, and my 'text' will be written. You may let it be dramatic like 'Judas Maccabæus,' or epic, or both combined. I am satisfied with anything you do. You need not ask my advice, but just write out what you think best. Then I can compose it at once.
"If you do not care for either of these two subjects, then I am willing to take any other—for instance, 'Saul.' But somehow I think 'Elijah,' and his going up to heaven in the end, would be a most beautiful subject. And if you think of using Bible words, read up Isaiah lx. and lxiii., to the end of the Prophet, and also chapter xl., and Lamentations, and all the Psalms. When you have done this you will easily find the right language. Just think what sort of an oratorio I ought to be able to write at this moment, and such an one send me. It ought to be your wedding present to me; it would be the gift I would value most. Do not refuse my request. Of course, if you are too busy, do not be vexed with me for asking this of you; but do write to me, anyhow, very soon."
Mendelssohn was married at Frankfort, on March 28, 1837. Klingemann evidently did not send a wedding present in the form of an oratorio "text" in time for the ceremony, since Mendelssohn, while on his honeymoon, wrote the following letter to his London friend:—
[Mendelssohn to Klingemann.]
Freiburg, April 30, 1837.