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EL06 · Show · Elijah

Before Ahab

Ahab's iron grey comes at Elijah's amber: thou art he that troubleth Israel. Elijah throws it back and sets the challenge, and two altars appear: bronze for Baal on Left, unlit wood on Right.

1:29 · with a spoken intro

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Elijah

EL01The CurseIntro1:15Elijah swears there will be no dew nor rain, and every chord burns his amber further along the roof. Then the overture's fugue drains the colour out of the house, run by run, into dust.EL02Help, Lord!Intro0:55The people cry out in the drought, their candles flaring up the porch toward heaven and guttering back. The harvest falls away in slow golden waves, and their prayer climbs to a sky that stays dark.EL03Rend Your HeartsIntro1:15Obadiah's teal light moves among the people with a promise: seek, and ye shall find. Then the chorus cries that God does not see, and hard red pulses beat from heaven and never reach them.EL04The Angels' ChargeIntro1:21An angel sends Elijah into hiding by the brook Cherith. Then eight silver lights, the double quartet's voices, gather around his amber and go with him the whole way round the house.EL05The Widow's SonIntro1:26A widow's son stops breathing: one small warm light goes out. Elijah prays three times, his amber reaching farther each time, and on the third the light comes back.EL06Before AhabIntro1:29Ahab's iron grey comes at Elijah's amber: thou art he that troubleth Israel. Elijah throws it back and sets the challenge, and two altars appear: bronze for Baal on Left, unlit wood on Right.EL07Baal, We Cry to TheeIntro1:22The priests of Baal call on their god in two choirs around his bronze altar on Left, every cry flaring the run and flinging brass glints toward heaven. Heaven stays dark.EL08Call Him LouderIntro1:30Elijah mocks the priests of Baal: call him louder, perhaps he is asleep. Each taunt is a flick of amber from Right; the priests cry out again, louder and wilder, and nothing answers.EL09Hear and AnswerIntro1:21The priests of Baal call on their god, louder and wilder, flinging bronze light toward heaven. Nothing answers. When the music stops, the whole house freezes and waits.EL10Lord God of AbrahamIntro1:24Elijah calls the people near and prays, his amber breathing slow and steady on Right. Then "Cast thy burden upon the Lord", and warmth spreads evenly across the house.EL11The Fire DescendsIntro1:20Elijah calls on heaven, and fire falls down the porch onto his altar, white to gold to red. The people fall on their faces, then rise as warm light fills the house: the Lord is God.EL12Is Not His Word Like a Fire?Intro1:17Elijah's word comes down like a hammer: amber strokes ring out from Right and strike Baal's bronze altar on Left until it breaks into pieces and goes cold. Then a single silver voice mourns.EL13A Little CloudIntro1:29The youth looks out toward the sea, again and again: there is nothing. Then a little cloud rises at the free end of Right, like a man's hand, and the storm rolls in over the whole house.EL14Thanks Be to GodIntro1:22The rain falls from heaven down every run and washes the drought away. The people's candles burn warm again, and the waters rush along the whole roofline: the end of Part One.EL15Hear Ye, IsraelIntro1:22A silver voice on Porch Front calls to the people: Hear ye, Israel. The chorus answers, be not afraid, and warm light fills the house from the porch outward.EL16The QueenIntro1:23Jezebel's wine spreads from Left through the people: have ye not heard? The chorus cries he shall perish, and woe to him closes in on Elijah's amber on Right.EL17It Is EnoughIntro1:24Obadiah's teal warns him: Jezebel will have his life. Elijah's amber walks the long way round the house to Side and sinks low at its far end: it is enough, O Lord.EL18Lift Thine EyesIntro1:21Elijah sleeps at the far end of Side. Angels camp around him, three cross the house to his side singing, and a wave of silver runs the whole roofline: He slumbers not, nor sleeps.EL19O Rest in the LordIntro1:22The angel wakes Elijah for the road to Horeb and sings him the stillest light in the set: O rest in the Lord. The people's candles return around him, and night falls on the mountain.EL20The Lord Passed ByIntro1:17On Horeb a wind tears along every run, the house quakes, fire takes it, and the Lord is in none of them. Then one faint silver point appears in the dark, and widens over everything.EL21Holy, Holy, HolyIntro1:24The Seraphim cry Holy, holy, holy: silver rises across heaven in layers, the whole house answers, and glory fills all the earth, run by run, until the light gathers into Elijah on Right.EL22The Fiery ChariotIntro1:29Elijah breaks forth like a fire. A chariot of fire gallops in, takes him up, and races the whole house into a whirlwind, leaving it glowing gold.EL23Your Light Break ForthIntro1:20The righteous shine forth, Elijah is promised again, and morning light breaks out of heaven and fills the house to the last Amen.EL24IntermissionIntermission5:00The house waits in the drought, dust ochre, and the rain fills it from both wings toward the porch over five minutes, until it meets in the middle and Elijah begins again.

About this scene

After three years of drought Elijah faces the king, and sets the challenge of the two altars.

The scene opens where the last one ended, the widow and her son on Left, and they fade as Elijah's amber sets out: "As God the Lord of Sabaoth liveth, before whom I stand". With every word he takes he travels the roofline, across the porch, back to his place on Right, where he waits in the dust of the third year.

The orchestra breaks into the Allegro vivace and Ahab comes: an iron grey that pulses with every throb of the strings and advances along the roofline from Left, over the porch, louder and nearer, until it stands at the corner of Right facing the amber, and flashes with the orchestra's last chords. "Art thou Elijah? art thou he that troubleth Israel?": the grey flares with every word. The people take it up, "Thou art Elijah, thou he that troubleth Israel": their candles on Porch Left and Porch Right go grey and beat toward Right. "I never troubled Israel's peace: it is thou, Ahab, and all thy father's house": the amber blazes, the grey falls back up Porch Right and the candles warm again.

Then the challenge. "Rise then, ye priests of Baal; select and slay a bullock, and put no fire": a burnished bronze altar rises on Left, glinting brass, a little more with every word. "And the God who by fire shall answer, let Him be God": at the far end of Right, by Elijah, the other altar appears, unlit wood, dark. The people answer, "Yea, and the God who by fire shall answer, let Him be God", their candles swelling between the two altars, while the grey fades. Porch Front, heaven, stays dark.

The music is Mendelssohn's own: six passages of No. 10, transcribed from the Novello octavo vocal score into before_ahab.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at the marked tempos. Elijah is played on cellos and horns, Ahab on bassoons, the people on strings with woodwinds doubling.

For your own show

Short, bright pieces meant to be watched. The FSEQ (v2, zstd, 40 fps) plays in Falcon Player on a house with the same layout; see About for how it is made.

.fseq · 0.6 MB.mp3

Its spoken intro, to schedule before it: .fseq · .mp3