hn's Gospel. John Sebastian Bach added,
moreover, many well-known chorales in which the people could join, and
these favourite old hymn tunes had the greatest power over the hearts of
the worshippers.

Now we have returned to the period at which we left oratorio, and side
by side with Bach's great Passion music stand up those massive
monuments, the oratorios of Handel, of which so much has been written,
and many of which you all know and love so well. It is worthy of notice,
if only to show how recently (viz., almost halfway through the
eighteenth century) action, and costume, and other accessories were
tolerated in connection with the sacred subjects, to tell you that at
the performance of his first English oratorio, "Esther," at the theatre
in the Haymarket, Handel appended the following note to the playbills:--

"N.B. There will be no acting on the stage," this being called shortly
after "oratorio fashion," even when applied to performances of secular
dramatic subjects which were to be sung, and not acted.

After these great works of Handel, no important oratorio was heard in
England until Haydn's "Creation," in 1798. Then, in the present century,
Spohr followed with his "Crucifixion," "Last Judgment," and "Fall of
Babylon;" and then Mendelssohn, that greatest disciple of Bach, whose
"Elijah" and "St. Paul" quite revived the taste for oratorio, and gave
an impetus to it, which extends to our day.

To end this fragmentary sketch, we may fairly say that oratorio should
contain two important elements:--

I. The narrative form, as subject of the whole work.

II. The didactic and contemplative, as interpolations in soliloquy, or
in chorus of adoration, prayer, and warning.

A third element, the dramatic accessories of costume, scenery, and
action, we have dispensed with, and, I think, happily so.

We find in these days in many nations, including our own dear country,
composers are striving after this highest and noblest ideal; let us pray
they may receive that strength necessary for so great a responsibility.
There is none greater in music, and our hearts tell us that unless a
composer knows and believes himself that the subject which in reverence
he approaches is the truth itself, which he must proclaim and preach as
a conviction of his own--we say that unless he thus incorporates himself
in his work it is but mockery, and the result of it nothingness.

NOTES FOR NOVEMBER.

During this month we get the