Today’s organ and choral music also includes selections by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), whose work has been prominently featured during these Sundays after Epiphany. The grandson of the renowned German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix was a convert to Lutheranism, whose Reformation Symphony of 1830 marked the tercentenary of the Augsburg Confession. He contributed significantly to the revival of interest in the music of Bach, with his festival performance of the Leipzig master’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Mendelssohn’s six organ sonatas are among the staples of the organist’s repertoire, and are among the few significant organ works of the nineteenth century to come from outside France.
In today’s Gospel, the transfigured Jesus is mystically accompanied by Moses and the prophet Elijah. Our anthem is taken from Mendelssohn’s oratorio based on the narrative of Elijah from the first and second Books of Kings. The work was first composed in English and performed in Birmingham, England in 1846. The drama and grandeur of this work were inspired by the great choral oratorios of Bach and Handel, whose music Mendelssohn profoundly admired and sought to preserve in concerts and performing editions. The following uplifting excerpt is sung to a dispirited Elijah by a choir of angels: “He, watching over Israel, slumbers not, nor sleeps. Shouldst thou, walking in grief, languish, he will quicken thee.” [Psalm 121:4, Psalm 138:7]
The Christian tradition of omitting, or ‘burying,’ the Alleluia during Lent is inspired, in part, by Psalm 137, whereby “we hung up our harps” while in exile in Babylon—an image of our annual Lenten exile of spiritual discipline that begins on Ash Wednesday. In our sending hymn, we bid farewell to the Alleluia—symbolized by the processional banner—in anticipation of its ‘resurrection’ again at the Easter Vigil, when we will joyfully proclaim once more, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”
