(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.