Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/96

 HISTORY OF MENDELSSOHN'S "ELIJAH."

��Henry Lazarus, the eminent clarinettist, related to me a personal incident in connection with this first London rehearsal. Near the end of the chorus " He, watching over Israel," occurs the following instru- mental phrase in the clarinets and flutes — a phrase which is not fully discernible in the pianoforte arrange- ment of the score, and which is practically inaudible at a performance : —

Bar 14 from the end. Clarinets. Flutes (in Sves with Clarinets) added at bar 2.

���slum - bers not

��ms. ..^ *- ■•■ ^z^.

��PP sleeps,

��not, &c.

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��** Mr. Lazarus," said Mendelssohn, " will you kindly make that phrase a little stronger, as I wish it to stand out more prominently? I know I have marked it piano.''' " Of course," added Mr. Lazarus, " I was playing it religiously as marked."

The story that the holding C's for the oboe in No. ig (which accompany " There is nothing ") were inserted by Mendelssohn at the end of the first rehearsal to satisfy Grattan Cooke, the oboeist, is a pure myth. A MS. score of the work, used at Birmingham, and now in the possession of Messrs. Novello, Ewer and Co., shows that these notes were not subsequently added, but formeil part of the ( 7S )

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