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FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY
At the Age of 26.
From a Pencil Drawing by Mücke, in the possession of Mrs. Victor Benecke.
THE HISTORY
OF
MENDELSSOHN’S ORATORIO
‘ELIJAH’
BY
F.G. EDWARDS.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
SIR GEORGE GROVE, C.B.
London: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited
AND
NOVELLO, EWER AND CO., NEW YORK.
1896.
LONDON:
NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMITED,
PRINTERS.
INTRODUCTION.
I have been asked to say a few words as introduction to this volume,and I do so with pleasure.
To the mass of music-loving people of this country, however, I believethat Mendelssohn requires no introduction. It has been the fashion insome quarters to speak of him slightingly, nay injuriously; but thiswill pass, and he needs no defence—certainly not when "Elijah" is inquestion. In England the oratorio has taken its place, if not on alevel with "The Messiah," very near it; and what more does any work ofmusical art require? Fortunately every additional fact that iselicited about this great composer testifies all the more to hisinsight, to the depth and warmth of his feelings, and to theindefatigable earnestness with which he worked until he had realisedthe entire meaning of his text and expressed it in music to the utmostof his power and with all the dramatic force that it was capable of.The letters now given—many of them for the first time—abound ininstances of this.
The information which my friend Mr. Edwards has so carefully collectedand so clearly stated, the new portrait which is due to the kindnessof Mrs. Victor Benecke, and the fac-simile, will be very welcome;and the book is in my opinion a gain to musical literature, while itforms the fittest symbol to mark the anniversary of the production ofthe greatest oratorio of this century.
George Grove.
Lower Sydenham,
January 27, 1896.
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