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EL20 · Show · Elijah

The Lord Passed By

On 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.

1:17 · 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

On Horeb a wind tears down every run, the whole house quakes, fire takes it, and the Lord is in none of them; then, in the dark, one faint point of silver on Porch Front widens into calm light over everything.

The house is a dim night slate throughout, Left and Right never dark. There is no figure for God and none for Elijah: the elements are the scene. The wind is hard white-blue streaks running out from the porch along every run, thicker as the orchestra swells, a great gust sweeping the whole roofline on "God the Lord passed by"; it drops dead in the written silence before "But yet the Lord was not in the tempest", sung unaccompanied while the last dust settles. The earthquake is the house shaking segment against segment: a cracked rock texture on every run pushed back and forth, neighbouring runs out of step, jolted on each chord, never flashing. Then the fire, red to gold to white along everything, rising with "there came a fire" and flaring on every syllable of "But yet the Lord was not in the fire" (sung in octaves) until it collapses into embers on the held note. Each time Porch Front, heaven, stays empty.

Then E major, pianissimo, the house almost dark: "a still small voice", the whole chorus on one B, and at "still" a single faint silver point appears in the middle of Porch Front. It slowly widens along Porch Front, out down the porch runs and over the wings, so that by "onward came the Lord" calm silver light lies over the whole house, which is how EL21 (Holy, Holy, Holy) begins.

The music is Mendelssohn's own: No. 34, transcribed from the Novello octavo vocal score into the_lord_passed_by.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at the marked Allegro molto (minim 100), its fermatas doubled: the wind (bars 1-15), "not in the tempest" (30-35), the sea upheaved (45-47), "not in the earthquake" (64-71), "there came a fire" (74-77) and "not in the fire" to "onward came the Lord" (110-134). The chorus is played on the orchestra (strings with winds and horns, trombones in the octaves of "not in the fire", flutes, clarinets and soft horns on the still small voice), the accompaniment orchestrated from the piano reduction; a production adds the wind, the earthquake's rumble and blows, and the fire's roar, and nothing at all after it.

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 · 1.0 MB.mp3

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