Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/79

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THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

��and could not the following sentence be thus :-

��(and Thy great mer - - cies do re - mem - ber, OLordl or \ Thy gra-cious

��" Then I prefer— ^

��^i'?J|=i^^=iE^E:

��W=W^

��- j g — 9 z

��1^

��like a man's hand!

��Instead of ' His boundless,' I propose to omit the G (the first note), and have instead * for His ' (mercies, &c.), and to add afterwards a note (A), in order to say ' endureth for evermore.' I prefer ' The Lord is above tJmn,^ to * is the highest.'

" I am so very sorry you had that trouble with the words ! And the first portion of the second part, which I sent off before the receipt of your letter, was again written in German characters. But the numbers you receive with this will, I hope, be legible ; and I have made reference to the verses of the Bible, and will continue to do so. With the next packet you will again receive some pieces, and so always on till the whole (at least of the choruses) is in your hands, which I hope shall not last more than a fourthnight {sic). And if there should be something left it would be here or there a solo-piece, which (as it must not be printed) will easily be done and copied in time. You are right, the great question is. Who is to sing the Elijah? — and I am at a loss why I have not yet heard some news respecting this most essential point.

    • My intention was to write no Overture, but to

begin directly with the curse. I thought it so ( 6i )

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