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EL23 · Show · Elijah

Your Light Break Forth

The righteous shine forth, Elijah is promised again, and morning light breaks out of heaven and fills the house to the last Amen.

1:20 · 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

The end of Elijah. The righteous shine, Malachi's promise that Elijah will come again, and the house filling with morning light to the last Amen.

The scene opens where the chariot left it, the whole house glowing gold, heaven warm on Porch Front and a last ember at the far end of Side, where Elijah went. "Then, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in their heav'nly Father's realm": the tenor's every note sends a warm ring out from the middle of the porch, the people's candles brighten on Porch Left and Porch Right, and on "shine" a sun-warm glow opens across Porch Front.

"Behold, God hath sent Elijah the prophet": a silver voice on Porch Front, flaring with every syllable, and Elijah comes back. His amber leaves heaven, runs down Porch Right toward the street and along Right to his old place, arriving on the forte chord of "prophet". "Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord": the house darkens, a slow red swells from heaven on "dreadful", and falls away to a quiet C major on "Lord".

"And then shall your light break forth as the light of morning": the orchestra's rushing scales throw streaks of light out from the porch to both ends of the house, and morning light breaks out of Porch Front and spreads. "Thou fillest heav'n with glory": heaven blazes. Then the Amen, the bass rising a semitone at a time under it: every step pushes the morning light further out along the roofline, the sopranos' notes glinting on it, until the whole house is full, warm and still, held through the last chord.

The music is Mendelssohn's own: No. 39 bars 1-6, No. 40 to "the day of the Lord", and the first five and last eighteen bars of No. 42, transcribed from the Novello octavo vocal score into your_light_break_forth.musicxml and timed by scripts/score_excerpt.py at the marked tempos. The tenor plays on horns and violas, the soprano on flutes and oboe, the chorus on strings with woodwinds doubling, and the Amen on the full orchestra with the organ Mendelssohn's score has; a production adds a harp as Elijah descends, a timpani roll under "dreadful", a cymbal swell into the light, and timpani under the last Amen.

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 · 1.4 MB.mp3

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