Harrisburg Symphony - Elijah Studyguide

ELIJAH

April 12-13, 2014 Masterworks 6

Welcome to the Concert begins 45 minutes before each Masterworks concert outside section 208 of the Forum Lobby.

Special Thanks to:

Sponsor or the Harrisburg Symphony Musical Chairs Program

Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Op. 70 An Oratorio in Two Parts after Words of the Old Testament The Color Wheel:

Add the color YELLOW to your individual color wheel

Meet the Musician/Guest Artist:

Tenor Soloist, Eric Rieger

Activities:

Elijah Story Puppets

Composer’s Corner:

Felix Mendelssohn

This is no ordinary Masterworks concert. The Harrisburg Symphony will be performing beautiful orchestral music, but they will have company on the stage! A very large chorus of singers and five guest soloists will join the instrumental musicians on stage for Felix Mendelssohn’s great oratorio, Elijah. You will have the opportunity to see the words the vocalists and the choir are singing on the big screen above the orchestra.

Here’s a numbers challenge: Can you count the number of people performing on stage in this concert?

Remember, there are orchestra members playing all types of instruments, there are chorus members, singing on the risers behind the orchestra, and don’t forget the soloists! What’s your count? ________ At each of the seven Masterworks concerts with the Harrisburg Symphony, we have a concert color.

For Masterworks 6, Elijah, we have chosen the color, yellow. “Why yellow?” you may ask. Yellow is the color of sunshine. It symbolizes warmth, energy and hope. And yellow is a cousin of gold, which represents illumination and wisdom. So these symbolic yellow and gold colors actually play a part in the biblical stories about Elijah, the prophet.

Masterworks 6 Glossary: Oratorio: a religious or secular work for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra developed in the Baroque

period, usually presented without staging or scenery.

Elijah: a Hebrew prophet several centuries before Christ whose mission was to destroy the pagan gods introduced by Jezebel, the wife of the Israelite king Ahab.

SATB: Can you guess what these four letters stand for? They are not a word, but each letter stands for

the first letter in another word. The answer is on the last page of this packet of materials!

Libretto: Text of an opera or oratorio, often in poetic form.

2

COMPOSER’S CORNER Felix Mendelssohn was considered a child prodigy, playing and composing music at a very early age.

Mendelssohn is a famous composer and you will probably recognize some of his music. If you have ever been to a wedding, chances are that you will have heard Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ (from A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream) after the bride and groom were announced as married and as they walked down the aisle. The music from Mendelssohn’s Elijah is not as famous as his Wedding March, but it is very beautiful music that reveals a series of stories from the Old Testament about the prophet Elijah.

Elijah is presented in two parts. There is an intermission between the two parts.

ABOUT THE STORY Elijah was a Hebrew prophet several centuries before Christ whose mission was to destroy the pagan cults of Baal introduced into Israel by Jezebel, wife of the Israelite king Ahab. Elijah was the hero of many stories in the Old Testament. He departed from the earth in a chariot of fire, leaving his unfinished work to a young disciple, Elisha. Elijah is a prominent sacred figure in writings and teachings of Christian, Jewish, and Moslem religious people.

If you click on this youtube you will hear one of the most famous arias from Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

As you listen, you can also see many famous images of Elijah that artists have painted and drawn.

Listen to Elijah singing this very sad song to God.

http://tinyurl.com/Famous-Elijah-Arias

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) HOW TO SAY THE NAME:

‘Mendelssohn’ is said like Men-del-son. ‘Felix’ is easy to say.

BORN:

3rd February 1809 in Hamburg, Germany.

DIED:

4th November 1847 in Leipzig, Germany.

BURIED:

Trinity Cemetery in Berlin, Germany.

TYPE OF MUSIC:

Classical music from the romantic period.

A (VERY!) FAMOUS PIECE: Wedding March—from his music for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

SOME GREAT PIECES: Violin Concerto. (See below for a video.)

Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 2.

Symphonies No. 3 (the ‘Scottish’) and No. 4 (the ‘Italian’).

String Quartet No. 6.

The oratorios (pieces for choir and orchestra) ‘St Paul’ and ‘Elijah’.

Six Sonatas, Op. 65 (for organ).

3

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT FELIX MENDELSSOHN • He liked Great Britain and visited frequently. The British at the time also liked Mendelssohn very much.

• He was a good friend of Queen Victoria.

• Queen Victoria chose Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ for her daughter’s wedding. This is why the ‘Wedding March’ is so popular at weddings today! It is normally played when the bride and groom walk out of church. (For the ‘Here Comes the Bride’ piece when the bride enters the church) • His sister, Fanny Mendelssohn, also composed music. In fact, some people think that some of ‘Mendelssohn’s’ music may have been written by her!.

• He was one of the first people to use a baton when conducting. He was the one who brought the idea to Great Britain.

• He was a great fan of Bach. In fact, most people had forgotten about Bach after he died. Mendelssohn brought Bach’s music to everybody’s attention. And people have liked it ever since!

Sometimes vocal soloists perform in costume on beautifully designed sets in operas. An oratorio, such as Elijah, while performed by singers who portray strong emotions, are not costumed. Just for fun, we’ve slipped in a fun costumed opera singer for your coloring pleasure.

4

MEET THE MUSICIAN Our tenor soloist, Eric Rieger, has performed with many orchestras and opera companies throughout the world. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Vocal Performance at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He has had great success performing in numerous countries including Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Ireland as well as across the United States.

Get Mr. Rieger’s autograph here

_________________________________________________________________

Questions you might want to ask Eric Rieger, Tenor Soloist, who portrays Ahab, Obadiah, and also sings other Tenor solos‌

How old were you when you started singing?

Did you sing solos or participate in a choir?

Do you play any instruments?

What is your favorite piece to sing?

5

Activity Center

- Elijah Story Puppets

The words that are sung in Mendelssohn’s Elijah are called the libretto (see glossary). They do not actually tell a story the way you might experience in a movie or a play, but all of the words are inspired by things that happened as recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. Events that are captured in the words in Elijah take place in many different portions of the Old Testament. Remember that this is poetry put to music.

Listen to the music and as the words come up on the screen above the orchestra, chorus, and soloists, you may want to use the stick puppets when one of those particular characters is singing. You may color the puppet figures if you like and then, attach them with glue to sticks. When you hear one of the characters singing, you may hold that stick up, ever so slightly (you don’t want to bother the HERE ARE PICTURE PUPPETS FOR YOU TO COLOR AND CUT OUT AND AFFIX TO people sitting around you by waving STICKS. YOU MAY THEN USE YOUR PUPPETS QUIETLY AT YOUR SEAT DURING THE the puppets).

PERFORMANCE OF ELIJAH TO HELP TELL THE STORY.

The Harrisburg Symphony’s Welcome to the Concert program features a color wheel to go with a full season of seven Masterworks concerts. We welcome you to make your own color wheel and store it with us in the Welcome to the Concert folder OR, if you will only be attending one concert this season, you might wish to add your wheel wedge in the space provided below.

(Actual size pie wedge 1/8th of the pie.)

or

Ten

SATB stands for the four main voice types you will hear in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and in most choral works that include soloists. They are (in order from highest to lowest) Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass.

Elijah’s low voice part, the part written for the voice of Elijah, is actually called “Baritone”, which is in between the Tenor and Bass parts, and still begins with the letter “B”.

Er Rie ic g e r