Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix.

sending him some organ pieces and returning the copy of Schubring's libretto for [Friedrich Schneider's oratorio] Bonifacius, thanking him for the latter and for the other manuscripts he had sent him regarding Elijah, but disagreeing about the portrayal of a protagonist like Elijah, who he feels must appear as a dramatic and realistic figure, drawing on the power of the theatre rather than merely being the musical depiction of a religious ideal, and going on to criticize the lack of drama and the pallid characters in Schubring's libretto, asserting the need for something more solid and theatrical throughout (in the best sense), especially for Bonifacius, the pagans and the pagan priests, which seems to flit by him like mere shadows; Mendelssohn apologizes for his trenchant critique of Bonifacius, admits that he has only relatively cool relations with the composer Schneider ("...eine diplomatische Correspondenz..die mir gar nicht geschmeckt hat..."), informing him that he is now returning to "plough up" the "Eliastext" as best he can, and expressing the hope that Schubring will like his organ pieces, which he himself has enjoyed playing; he adds a postscript, signed with an initial, expressing his agreement with Schubring's opinion about diverging from biblical texts



4 pages, 8vo (c.20.5 x 12cms), with emendations by the composer, pencil annotation in another hand at the head of the letter ("N^{o.14"), Leipzig, 6 December 1838, small tear to leading edge}

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"...bei einem solchen Gegenstand wie Elias, eigentlich wie jeder aus dem alten Testament, ausser etwa dem Moses[,] muß das Dramatische vorwalten, wie mir scheint—die Leute lebendig redend u. handelnd eingeführt werden, nicht aber um Gotteswillen ein Tongemälde daraus entstehen, sondern eine recht anschauliche Welt, wie sie im alten Testament in jedem Capital steht...Jetzt mache ich mich selbst wieder an den Eliastext u. ackern ihn um, so gut ich kann; gehts nicht weiter so mußt du wieder helfen..."

This is an important letter in which Mendelssohn lays down the precepts for his dramatic portrayal of Elijah, in one of his greatest masterpieces.  Julius Schubring (1806-1889) was a evangelical Pastor in Dessau and a childhood friend of Mendelssohn, and had supplied him with the libretto for St Paul (1836).  They had corresponded about developing the ideas for Elijah too, but the present letter by Mendelssohn caused a breach in their relations and Schubring withdrew from the project, causing the composer to give up Elijah  for several years—it was finally completed only in 1846 (see J. Sposato, The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition, 2009, page 123).  Friedrich Schneider's oratorio was produced in 1839.