his protection
by Theseus, who comes to the rescue. In this number the double choirs
unite with magnificent effect in the appeal to the gods ("Dread Power,
that fillest Heaven's high Throne") to defend Theseus in the conflict.
The sixth number ("When the Health and Strength are gone") is a pathetic
description of the blind hero's pitiful condition, and prepares the way
for the powerful choruses in which his impending fate is foreshadowed by
the thunderbolts of Jove which rend the heavens. The eighth and ninth
choruses are full of the mournful spirit of the tragedy itself, and tell
in notes as eloquent as Sophocles' lines of the mysterious disappearance
of the Theban hero, ingulfed in the opening earth, and the sorrowful
lamentations of the daughters for the father whom they had served and
loved so devotedly.

As the Hart Pants.

The music to the Forty-second Psalm, familiarly known by the caption
which forms the title of this sketch, was first performed at the tenth
subscription Gewandhaus concert in Leipsic in 1838, Clara Novello taking
the soprano part. Though not constructed upon the large scale of the
"Hymn of Praise," or even of the "Walpurgis Night," it is a work which is
thoroughly artistic, and just as complete and symmetrical in its way. It
contains seven numbers. After a slow and well-sustained introduction, the
work begins with a chorus ("As the Hart pants after the Water Brooks, so
panteth my soul for Thee, O God") which is a veritable prayer in its
tenderness and expression of passionate longing. After the chorus a
delicate and refined soprano solo ("For my Soul thirsteth for God")
continues the sentiment, first given out in an oboe solo, and then
uttered by the voice in a beautifully melodious adagio. The third number
is a soprano recitative ("My Tears have been my Meat") leading to a
chorus in march time by the sopranos and altos ("For I had gone with the
Multitude; I went with them to the House of God"). Then follows a full
chorus beginning with male voices in unison ("Why, my Soul, art thou cast
down?"), answered by the female voices ("Trust thou in God"). Again the
soprano voice is heard in pathetic recitative ("O my God! my Soul is cast
down within me; all Thy Waves and thy Billows are gone over me"). A
beautiful quartet of male voices with string accompaniment replies: "The
Lord will command His Loving-kindness in the Day-time; and in the Night
His Song shall be with me,