Mendelssohn's Elijah

I really hate Romanticism as defined by C.S. Lewis in two senses. First: "'Romanticism' can...mean the indulgence in abnormal, and finally in anti-natural, moods. The macabre is 'romantic,' and so is an interest in torture and a love of death" (Lewis uses Tristan und Isolde as an example of this...stupid liebestod!) and Second: "Egoism and subjectivism are 'romantic.' In this sense the typically 'romantic' books are Werther and Rousseau's Confessions, and the works of Byron and Proust. (Lewis hates them too! I always knew he had good taste!)

However, I am always thinking about Romanticism. It has so defined our culture. Egoism and subjectivism are probably the most ubiquitous philosophies of our day (think self esteem, or those literature classes where everyone said "well, I feel that what really matters in this poem is..." and then ended with their favorite random pet topic...) It's defined what we think of as good poetry, or really as poetry at all.

Maybe I'm always thinking about it because I'm always thinking about Milton. The three longest papers that I've written since starting school were about Milton.

Anyway, this all has nothing (or very little) to do with Mendelssohn's Elijah, except that the oratorio was written in the Romantic era, musically speaking.

Almost all the words in Elijah are taken directly from the Bible. I noticed recently that Elijah says such things as "As God the Lord of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word." Sort of interesting, because it seems to put the responsibility on Elijah--God obviously is the ultimate source of the power, but Elijah is the one choosing whether or not to use it. Later, when he prays to God to send fire from heaven, he says "This day let it be known that thou art the Lord and that I am thy servant...that I have done these things according to thy word." At another time when he asks God to let him die, he says "I have been very jealous for the Lord [but] the children of Israel have broken thy covenant..." Anyway, it just seems to me that there is a lot about Elijah himself. Elijah wants God to vindicate not only Himself, but also Elijah. Maybe I just don't know the prophets well enough, but I don't believe that the focus on self-vindication is so prominent in others.

And here we come to the point: Elijah is an IDEAL character for a Romantic work of art. If you had to write an oratorio, I could not think of a better man!

That's all.