I have dreamed of for years. What will come of it I
do not know; I do not think it can be performed entire. As it contains
eight distinct parts, one or two may from time to time be given either
in a concert or on the stage."

America was the first country to act on the suggestion of a fragmentary
performance. The first scene was brought forward in New York by Walter
Damrosch at a public rehearsal and concert of the Symphony Society (the
Oratorio Society assisting) on January 18 and 19, 1889. The third scene
was performed by the German Liederkranz, under Reinhold L. Herman, on
January 27 of the same year. The third and fourth scenes were in the
scheme of the Cincinnati Music Festival, Theodore Thomas, conductor, on
May 25,1894.

Each of the eight scenes into which the work is divided deals with an
episode in the life of Israel's lawgiver. In the first scene we have
the incident of the finding of the child in the bulrushes; in the
second occurs the oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptian
taskmasters, the slaying of one of the overseers by Moses, who, till
then regarded as the king's son, now proclaims himself one of the
oppressed race. The third scene discloses Moses protecting Zipporah,
daughter of Jethro, a Midianitish priest, from a band of marauding
Edomites, his acceptance of Jethro's hospitality and the scene of the
burning bush and the proclamation of his mission. Scene IV deals with
the plagues, those of blood, hail, locusts, frogs, and vermin being
delineated in the instrumental introduction to the part, the action
beginning while the land is shrouded in the "thick darkness that might
be felt." The Egyptians call upon Osiris to dispel the darkness, but
are forced at last to appeal to Moses. He demands the liberation of his
people as the price to be paid for the removal of the plague; receiving
a promise from Pharaoh, he utters a prayer ending with "Let there be
light." The result is celebrated in a brilliant choral acclamation of
the returning sun. The scene has a parallel in Rossini's opera. Pharaoh
now equivocates; he will free the sons of Jacob, but not the women,
children, or chattels. Moses threatens punishment in the death of all
of Egypt's first-born, and immediately solo and chorus voices bewail
the new affliction. When the king hears that his son is dead he gives
his consent, and the Israelites depart with an ejaculation of thanks to
Jehovah. The passage of the Red Sea, Miriam's celebration of tha