doubt that this is the finest part of the Oratorio: and in order to calm the excitement which it never fails to produce, it is absolutely necessary that the hearer should return for a moment to things of earth, and join in converse with the Sons of the Prophets before he is privileged to hear of the 'Chariot of Fire, and Horses of Fire,' in which the Man of God is taken to receive his reward. Then follows the Peroration including the Tenor Air 'Then shall the Righteous shine,' the Quartet, 'O come, every one that thirsteth,' and the splendid Chorus, 'And then shall your light break forth'—in which is summed up the lesson of the whole: the lesson of faith in the Future, founded on experience of the Past; the lesson of Hope, and Peace, and Joy, which the Composer has striven to impress upon us throughout, and th;it so clearly, that, if we have not learned it, we have learned nothing at all.
Had Mendelssohn lived to complete 'Christus,' it is quite possible that he might have produced a work more perfect than either 'S. Paul,' or 'Elijah.' But, we dare not grieve for the loss of it. For, surely, if it be true, as one of the most judicious of modern German critics has said, that the ultimate purpose of the Oratorio is 'neither to minister to our senses, nor to afford us what we ordinarily understand by the words pleasure and entertainment, but to elevate our souls, to purify our lives, and, so far as Art can conduce to such an end, to strengthen our Faith, and our Devotion towards [1]God,'—surely, if this be the legitimate aim of the great Art-form we are considering, no writer, antient or modern, has ever striven more earnestly to attain it than did Mendelssohn, and the efforts of very few indeed have been blessed with an equal measure of success.
As in our Article Opera, we have thought it desirable to leave the productions of living Composers to the judgment of a future generation of Critics. Had it not been for our firm belief in the justice as well as the expediency of this reservation, we would gladly have found space to discuss the merits and call attention to the designs of 'S. John the Baptist,' 'The Resurrection,' and 'Joseph'; of 'Eli,' and 'Naaman'; of 'S. Cecilia,' and 'S. Peter'; of 'The Light of the World'; of 'S. Polycarp' and 'Hagar'; of Hiller's 'Saul,' and 'Die Zerstörung Jerusalems,' of Rheinthaler's 'Jephtha'; and of many another familiar work, the interest of which lies less in its own individual significance than in the hope it gives that those who are now turning their talents to such excellent account, may, by their life-long earnestness, raise a fabric to which their successors may point with pride as well as pleasure. But since for the present this part of our subject must needs be left in abeyance, it remains only to speak of the beautiful Inspiration bequeathed to posterity by one who has so lately left us that it seems almost sacrilegious to examine his work in the spirit of analytical criticism. Yefc we should lose so much by neglecting to do so, that we have no choice but to proceed to the consideration of the single piece which forms the sum and substance of our Fifteenth Period.
Though, with the characteristic modesty which graced his every action, Sir Sterndale Bennett was content to call 'The Woman of Samaria' a Cantata, it is, to all intents and purposes, an Oratorio in one Part. To wish that it were longer would be a great mistake; for it is exactly what it was meant to be, and fulfils its purpose perfectly. The subject, indeed, would scarcely admit of greater extension. Yet, the work is none the less an Oratorio on that account; for, within the limits dictated by the Evangelist, the treatment of the Narrative is exhaustive. In several respects, the mode of this treatment differs from that adopted by some other great Composers. As might have been expected, we meet, from first to last, with no attempt at dramatic expression. The story is told, by the principal Singers, exactly in the words in which we find it narrated in the Gospel according to S. John; while, from time to time, Choruses, the words of which are selected from other portions of the Sacred Writings, are introduced, for the purpose of assisting the hearer in his meditation upon the lesson taught by the principal subject. In one instance only—'Now we believe'—does the Chorus assist in carrying on the narrative; and, even here, it shows no trace of dramatic expression. The tone of the work is contemplative and devotional throughout; for the most part, deeply and touchingly pathetic, yet never lacking energy, where energy is needed, though the sternest passages are tempered with the exquisite refinement of feeling which is inseparable from the Composer's style, for the simple reason that it was a part of himself. This is very remarkable in the opening Chorale 'Ye Christian People, now rejoice,' founded on the old German melody 'Es ist gewisslich an der [2]Zeit,' in which the bold syncopations in the Melody, and the powerful treatment of the Accompaniment in no wise diminish the effect produced by the perfect finish of the whole. It is to this all-pervading finish that the entire work owes one of its greatest charms. It exhibits itself everywhere, alike in conception and execution; in the reverence with which the Sacred Text is treated, and the perfection with which every bar of Accompaniment is rounded into form; in the minute attention bestowed upon the rhetorical enunciation of the words, and the care shown in the resolution of each passing dissonance—for, how could a man who was never heard to speak a hard word of any one introduce either a false accent, or a 'false relation'? As an instance of the reverence shown to the Text, we may call attention to the fact that Our Lord is never made to sing in His own proper person, but in that of the Evangelist. For example, in the Recitative, No. 10, the Bass Voice sings, 'He said unto her, Woman, believe me.' Bach, himself the most reverent of men, would have assigned the first clauses of the Verse to the Evangelist,
