ld
Father Bach died, and though his name lives, as all great names must
live, the majority of those who speak of him as a master are ignorant
of the works which made him great; they have forgotten, if, indeed,
they ever heard, the sound of the master's voice!'

Here, then, in the apathy manifested in regard to Bach's greatest
works, Mendelssohn found the stimulus that was needed. If only this
state of things could be changed, if only he might be permitted to
show the way to an understanding and appreciation of these priceless
treasures! Towards this great end something, at least, might be
accomplished by the force of example. As we have seen, he knew the
'Passion' music by heart, and he now proceeded to enlist others in a
study of the work. In a short time he had got together sixteen
carefully selected voices, and had arranged for his little choir to
meet once a week at his house for practice. It was a small beginning,
but his own enthusiasm soon infected the rest, and they all grew
deeply earnest in their work--so earnest, indeed, that ere long the
yearning had seized them for a public performance. The Singakademie
maintained a splendid choir of between three hundred and four hundred
voices. If only the director could be induced to allow a trial
performance to be given under Mendelssohn's conducting! Much as he
personally desired such a consummation of their labours, however,
Felix felt convinced that he knew Zelter only too well to indulge any
hopes that he would sanction so great an undertaking. Zelter had no
faith in the idea that public support would be given to a revival of
the 'Passion,' and Felix well knew that nothing would shake him in
this opinion. But this conclusion was strongly opposed by a prominent
member of the Garden-house choir, a young actor-singer named Devrient,
who insisted that Zelter ought to be approached on the subject; and as
he himself had been a pupil of Zelter, and possessed the gift of
eloquence in no small degree, he succeeded in persuading Mendelssohn
to accompany him on a visit to the director's house.

Accordingly, the pair set forth early one morning to brave the old
giant in his den, Mendelssohn haunted by a dread of the manner in
which their proposals would be received, and Devrient, who was to be
spokesman, keeping up a bold front, and assuring his friend that they
would ultimately succeed.

They found Zelter seated at his instrument, with a sheet of
music-paper before him, a