efore the Court and all the invited celebrities of art and
science. It produced a very great sensation. The deep impression that
the revival of an ancient tragedy could produce in our theatrical life
promised to become an influence; it has purified our musical
atmosphere, and it is certain that to Mendelssohn must be ascribed
great and important merit in the cause.

"Although the learned, of whom each expected the ancient tragedy to be
put upon the stage according to his peculiar conception of it (which
would of course be totally different in every case) might find the
music too modern, too operatic, in fact, not sufficiently philological,
it is undeniable that Mendelssohn's music has made the tragedy of
Sophocles accessible to the sympathies of the general public, without
in any wise violating the spirit and aroma of the poem, but rather
lending it new life and intelligibility."

[31] The passages, "But see, the son of Menoetius comes," etc., and "See,
Haemon appears," etc., are examples.

Oedipus at Colonos.

The story of "Oedipus Tyrannus" is told in this work in connection with
Professor Paine's composition. The "Oedipus at Colonos," to which
Mendelssohn set music, is the continuation of Sophocles' tragedy,
describing the banishment of the blind hero, the loving care of his
daughters, his arrival at Attica, and his death in the gardens of the
Eumenides at Colonos, absolved by the fate which had so cruelly pursued
him.

The music to "Oedipus" was written at the command of the King of Prussia
in 1843, and was first produced at Potsdam, Nov. 1, 1845. It contains a
short introduction and nine choral numbers. The first and second choruses
describe the entrance of Oedipus and Antigone into the grove of the
Eumenides, their discovery by the people, the story of his sorrows which
he relates to them, his meeting with his daughter Ismene, and the arrival
of Theseus the King. The third number is the gem of the work, and is
often given on the concert-stage. The free translation of the text for
this beautiful double chorus is as follows:--

"_Strophe_.--Thou hast come, O stranger, to the seats of this land,
renowned for the steed; to seats the fairest on earth, the chalky
Colonos; where the vocal nightingale, chief abounding, trills her
plaintive note in the green dells, tenanting the dark-hued ivy and the
leafy grove of the god, untrodden, teeming with