Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/68

 HISTORY OF MENDELSSOHN'S "ELIJAH."

��this work, than for my others — and I only wish it may last so with me.

" Always very truly yours,
 * Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy."

��The music of " Elijah " came to Bartholomew from Mendelssohn in instalments. The English trans- lation was the subject of a long and elaborate correspondence between the composer and his translator in London. Both were unsparing in the labour they bestowed upon the translation. The following letters show that Mendelssohn went through the English version bar by bar, note by note, syllable by syllable, with an attention to detail which might be termed microscopic. These letters, written in Mendelssohn's own English, and the majority of which are now made public for the first time, cannot fail to be of interest.*

A letter from Bartholomew to Mendelssohn may, however, first be quoted, to show the spirit in which the English translator discharged his congenial task.f

Bartholomew quoted in this " History " are now in my possession.
 * With two exceptions, the letters from Mendelssohn to

f I am greatly indebted to Frau Geheimrath Wach, of Leipzig (Mendelssohn's younger daughter), and her daughter, for their kindness in copying the long correspondence on " Elijah " from Bartholomew to Mendelssohn. These letters are still carefully treasured in the "27 large green volumes" in which Mendelssohn " preserved all the letters he received, and stuck them in with his own hands."

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