Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/89

 THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

��settle everything when we meet." Bartholomew strongly urged him to retain the now familiar air ; but even at the eleventh hour (at the rehearsal in London) Mendelssohn still wished to delete it from the oratorio. However, the advice of his friends ultimately prevailed, and ** rest in the Lord " was thereby spared the fate of utter oblivion. Mendels- sohn altered the fifth note of the melody (taking it down to C instead of up to G) in order to destroy the supposed "Auld Robin Gray" likeness; but it is amusing to notice that he retained his original note in the coda of the song, where, in two places, the fifth note goes up to G !"

This break in the continuity of the correspondence may afford an opportunity of mentioning a phrase used by Bartholomew in one of his letters to Mendelssohn, which he calls " Irish Echoes." He says: "We must mind that any notation which may be altered shall not affect the band parts. Excuse my naming this. You do not write Irish Echoes — but yet by altering the nota- tion they may inadvertently arise. Lest you should not know what I mean by an ' Irish Echo,' this may explain it. An Irishman, boasting of his countr}', said : ' It had an Echo, which, if you said ' How d'ye do? ' replied, ' Pretty well, I thank you ! ' "

view of this " History," is the identical copy from which " O rest in the Lord" was first sung in public — by Miss M. B. Hawes, at the Birmingham Festival of 1846. The copy, written by Bartholomew, has pencilled alterations in Mendelssohn's own hand.
 * Amongst the MSS. which Miss Mounsey kindly gave me in

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