as to be heard
among the whole audience, so that I could sway at pleasure the enormous
orchestra and choir, and also the organ accompaniments. How often I
thought of you during the time! more especially, however, when 'the
sound of abundance of rain' came, and when they sang and played the
final chorus with _furore_, and when, after the close of the first
part, we were obliged to repeat the whole movement. Not less than four
choruses and four airs were encored, and not one single mistake
occurred in the first part; there were some afterwards in the second
part, but even these were but trifling. A young English tenor[6] sang
the last air with such wonderful sweetness that I was obliged to
collect all my energies, not to be affected, and to continue beating
time steadily."

Notwithstanding his delight with the performance, he was not satisfied
with the oratorio as a whole. He made numerous changes and re-wrote
portions of the work,--indeed there was scarcely a movement that was not
retouched. It is interesting to note in this connection that the
beautiful trio, "Lift thine Eyes," was originally a duet, and very
different in character. The first performance of the work in London took
place April 16, 1847, when it was given by the Sacred Harmonic Society.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert were in attendance; and after the
performance the Prince sent to Mendelssohn the score which he had used in
following the music, with the following tribute written in it:--

To the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of corrupted
art, has been able by his genius and science to preserve faithfully,
like another Elijah, the worship of true art, and once more to accustom
our ear, lost in the whirl of an empty play of sounds, to the pure
notes of expressive composition and legitimate harmony; to the great
master who makes us conscious of the unity of his conception through
the whole maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty
raging of the elements.

Written in token of grateful remembrance by

Albert.

Buckingham Palace, April 24, 1847.

The text was mainly compiled from the First Book of Kings, and was
translated, as has been said, by Mr. Bartholomew. Hiller says that the
idea of the oratorio was first suggested by the verse in the nineteenth
chapter, "Behold, the Lord passed by," and that Mendelssohn,