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EL18 · Show · Elijah

Lift Thine Eyes

Elijah 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.

1:21 · 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

Elijah asleep under the juniper at the far end of Side; the angels of the Lord encamp around him, three of them cross the house to his side, and a wave of light runs the whole roofline, watching over him.

The scene opens where the last one ended: Elijah's amber sunk low at the free end of Side, the wilderness a dim dust over every run, nothing else lit. He breathes in his sleep. The tenor tells it, "See, now he sleepeth beneath a juniper tree in the wilderness", and on "and there the angels of the Lord encamp round about all them that fear Him" small silver lights are born one by one in heaven, on Porch Front, and drift out to camp all round the house, a ring of watch-fires along every run.

Then the three angels sing, unaccompanied, "Lift thine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh help": three silver lights set out from Porch Front, a little apart, each flaring on its own notes, and cross the house to him, down Porch Left, along Left and out along Side, arriving at his side as the trio closes on "the maker of heaven and earth". On the forte "lift" all three blaze and heaven glows behind them.

The chorus: "He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps". Over the running triplets a slow, steady wave of silver travels the whole roofline from the free end of Right toward him, crest after crest, never a gap, brightening as the sopranos and then the tenors take up the tune; as the last "sleeps" dies it settles into an even glow that keeps watch over every run, which is how EL19 (O Rest in the Lord) begins.

The music is Mendelssohn's own: No. 27's recitative, the first sixteen bars of the trio No. 28 and the first nine of the chorus No. 29, transcribed from the Novello octavo vocal score (the 1870 printing) into lift_thine_eyes.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at the marked tempos. The tenor is played on violas and a horn, the three angels on flute, oboe and clarinet as the plan has them, the chorus on strings with woodwinds doubling, its accompaniment orchestrated from the piano reduction; a production adds a dry desert air under the recitative and a glint of glockenspiel as each angel comes into the camp.

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 · 0.3 MB.mp3

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