er of 1883-84 under Mr. Theodore Thomas's direction, and was one of
the prominent works in his series of festivals in the latter year.

Gounod himself has prefaced the music with an admirably concise
description of the text and its various subjects. Of its general contents
he says:

"This work is a lyrical setting forth of the three great facts on which
depends the existence of the Christian Church. These facts are,--first,
the passion and the death of the Saviour; second, his glorious life on
earth from his resurrection to his ascension; third, the spread of
Christianity in the world through the mission of the Apostles. These
three parts of the present trilogy are preceded by a prologue on the
creation, the fall of our first parents, and the promise of a
redeemer."

The divisions of the work are as follows:--

Prologue.--The Creation.
Part I.--Calvary.
Part II.--From the Resurrection to the Ascension.
Part III.--The Pentecost.

The prologue comprises the Mosaic account of the creation and fall of
man, involving the necessity of divine mediation, the promise of
redemption, and the annunciation of the mystery of the incarnation of the
Holy Virgin. After a brief instrumental introduction, descriptive of
chaos, the tenor Narrator announces the completion of creation in
recitative, followed by a similar declamation from the bass Narrator
announcing the fall of man, the tenor Narrator answering with the
announcement of the Redeemer's advent ("But of the Spotless Lamb"), in
which we have for the first time a genuine Wagnerian _leit motif_, which
runs through the music of the oratorio whenever allusion is made to the
divine atonement. This typical melody is heard nine times,--three times
in the prologue, twice in the scene of the crucifixion, once in our
Saviour's promise to the thieves on the cross, once in his appearance to
the holy women, and twice in the ascension. It is first given out as a
violin solo, and at the close of the tenor recitative is repeated by all
the strings, leading to the mystic chorale, "The Earth is my Possession,"
to be sung by a celestial choir of twenty-eight voices. At its close the
typical melody is introduced in responsive form between flute and
clarinet. To the first, the angelic message of the annunciation, Gounod
has affixed the title, "Ave, gratia plena;" and to the second, the reply
of Mary, "Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum."

The first part includes the march