Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/33

 THE LIBRETTO.

��alterations, still the whole thing, by your aid, is now placed on a much firmer footing. With regard to the dramatic element, there still seems to be a diversity of opinion between us. With a subject like * Elijah ' it appears to me that the dramatic element should predominate, as it should in all Old Testament subjects, Moses, perhaps, excepted. The personages should act and speak as if they were living beings — for Heaven's sake let them not be a musical picture, but a real world, such as you find in every chapter of the Old Testament ; and the contemplative and pathetic element, which you desire, ought to be entirely conveyed to our understanding by the words and the mood of the acting personages.

" I am now myself about to set to work again on the ' Elijah,' and to plough away at the soil as best I can ; if I do not get on with it you must come to my aid, and I hope as kindly as ever, and preserve the same regard for your

" Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy."

The following letter is the next from Schubring that is printed ; but it was not written till nearly two months after that from Mendelssohn, just quoted.

[Schubring to Mendelssohn.]

Dessau, February 2, 1839.*

"... Unfortunately I can offer you nothing besides my good [birthday] wishes, though I would willingly have done so. I always thought

• " Briefwechsel,"p. 149. Mendelssohn was born February 3, 1S09. ( 17 )

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