Hear Ye, Israel

About this scene

The second part opens with a voice from heaven calling to the people, and the chorus answers.

The scene opens where the first part ended: the rain has come, a calm blue over the whole house, the people's candles warm on Porch Left and Porch Right, Elijah's amber at his place on Right and a faint silver on Porch Front. In the Adagio's introduction the rain ebbs to a hush and heaven brightens a little with each of the orchestra's sforzandos.

Then the soprano: "Hear ye, Israel! Hear what the Lord speaketh". Her voice is silver on Porch Front, a point that swells with every note and widens as the line climbs, and at the start of each phrase a silver call runs from the back of the porch down Porch Left and Porch Right toward the street, where the people are; their candles lift as it reaches them. On "Oh, hadst thou heeded my commandments" the silver dims and the call falls short.

"Be not afraid, saith God the Lord": the chorus breaks in, forte, and warm light fills the house from the porch outward. The sopranos and altos flare on Porch Left, the tenors and basses on Porch Right, every syllable a beat of gold, and the warmth spreads out over Left, Right and Side, a little farther with every "thy help is near", until the whole house stands in full warm light on the last chord, held. Elijah's amber stays on Right through it all.

The music is Mendelssohn's own: No. 21's Adagio to "hear what the Lord speaketh:" and the first twenty bars of No. 22, transcribed from the Novello octavo vocal score into hear_ye_israel.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at the marked tempos. The soprano is played on flutes and an oboe, the chorus on strings with woodwinds doubling and horns on the long notes, over an organ-pedal G on basses and tuba.