Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/97

 THE FIRST PERFORMANCE.

��original design. Moreover, Mendelssohn would hardly be guilty of the mock-descriptive in allowing the words " There is nothing " to be sung without any accompaniment. And Cooke could not complain that the composer had not given him any oboe solos, after he had played the beautiful oboe obbligato in " For the mountains shall depart," which was doubt- less written by Mendelssohn expressly for Cooke.* The story probably took its origin from the following circumstance, which has been fully told by Dr. E. J. Hopkins. When the vocal score of "Elijah" was first published, Mendelssohn presented a copy to Grattan Cooke, who was a great favourite wath the composer. In this copy Mendelssohn wrote the following inscription : —

��Lent".

�� ��"An Grattan Cooke, 2um freundlichen Andenken. " Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

" London, Frtihling, 1S47."

Mendelssohn knew that Grattan Cooke was fond of a joke, and, as Dr. Hopkins says, the composer's quiet humour is well shown in the above inscription. The length of the note is seven bars of slow time,

• According to the late Mr. J. W. Davison, "Mendelssohn was a long time uncertain whether he should add the oboe part, or limit the score to the string quartet."

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