"HEAR MY PRAYER"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 122, 19 November 1931, Page 11

"HEAR MY PRAYER"

MENDELSSOHN'S MOTET AN HISTORIC RECORD By T. Lindsay Buick, F.R.Hist.S. Late in June, 1927, there was released in New Zealand an H.M.V. gramophone record which mado history. It was a recording caught by chance at the Temple Church, ono of London's most famous sanctuaries modestly tucked away between tho surging traffic of Fleet street and turgid waters of old Father Thames. Here, in this quaint round chapel, with its beautifully proportioned pillars surmounted by graceful Gothic arches, assembled centuries ago the Knights of the Cross on crusade bent, and here the sculptured effigies of some of the most famous of them may still be scon reclining upon the stone-paved floor. The warlike spirit of the crusaders is, however, a phase which fortunately has passed out of the life of the Temple Church, and to-day it is more celebrated for its musical services than for its glittering helmets and its waving banners. THE ANTHEMS OF PEACE. The songs of war have been superceded by the anthems of peace, in the singing of which Mr. Thalben Ball and his choir have attained a reputation which has made the Temple Church one of the most cherished musical shrines in London. This, then, was the reason why the peripatetic recording van of the Gramophone Company one day drew up beside the chapel wrall while the choir was at practice, and without prior arrangement it was agreed that a record should be made of the musical number then under rehearsal. This happened to be the lovely motet by Mendelssohn, "Hear My Prayer," for soprano solo and chorus, and the soloist of the day happened to be Master E. Lough. Probably because the incident was unpremeditated, and was not burdened by the strain of anticipation, the recording was a wonderful success. So much so that ere long Master Lough was one of the world's best known and most ardently admired singers. My point to-day is not, however, so much the success of Master Lough as it is the fact that this spontaneous recording brought into the homes of tha people—high and low—a piece of musio the beauty of which few of the present generation had ever dreamed of or even, suspected. In 1926 "Hear My Prayer," though nearly a century old, was unknown to the masses; to-day, thanks to Master Lough and the Temple Church choir, it has circled the globe, and is heard in the four corners of the earth. A BEAUTIFUL MOTET. This beautiful motet was composed by Mendelssohn in 1844, at the suggestion of aa Englishman, William Bartholomew, whose business was that of a scientific chemist, but whose recreation was music. Both men were of a deeply religious spirit, which in Mendelssohn found expression in the linking of sacred words to sublime sounds, and in Bartholomew it found vent in hymn-writing and in paraphrasing Scriptural passages for musical adaptation. In the exercise of this talent he found a fertile field in the Psalms, those poetic outpourings to God, so ardently spiritual in character, and so catholia in conception that they still hold the high position they have ever held in the services not only of the Jewish, but of the Christian Church. In obedience to his poetic urge, William Bartholomew late in 1843 took the first eight verses of the 55th Psalm, and while preserving their spirit gave them poetic form, and sent them to Mendelssohn in Germany, with a request that he might set them to appropriate music. To Mendelssohn this was a labour- of love, for there was the double incentive, his affection for Bartholomew, and his desire ever to assist the cause of religion. The benign effect of this dual influence is at once manifest in the beauty of his work, which at first was written with only an organ accompaniment, but later was, at the instance of Joseph Robinson, of Dublin, scored for the orchestra. A KING'S TRIBULATIONS. It is not difficult to believe that the peculiar pathos of this particular Psalm would deeply appeal to the sentimentality of Mendelssohn, for it is one of the most human of all the Psalms. Though criticism has left the question of the authorship and date of some of 'the Psalms in doubt, the 55th can, I think, safely be attributed to David, and the time set down as that of Absalom's rebellion. This period was one of intense anxiety for the king, who had not only to suffer the disobedience of his much-loved son, but he had also to experience the defection of his trusted friend Achitophel, whom he describes as a man his own equal, his guide, and his acquaintance. "We took sweet counsel together," he says, "and «-alked unto the house of God in comany." Achitophel w^as thus one of David's close friends, a confidant such as a king seeks, and without whom even a king is poor indeed. The revolt of Absalom, the treachery of his confidential adviser, the disruption of his kiugdom, the endangering of his own life, were among the tribulations overwhelming David at this moment, and they may be said to have inspired this inexpressibly pathetic outpouring of his spirit, revealing with poignant clarity the state of his heart in the day of his deepest distress and trouble. Tired of the pomp of power and State, vexed by the perversity of his people, outraged at his betrayal by his friends, he cries aloud: "Oh, had I wings like a dove, I would fly and be at rest. I would wander far off, and remain in tho wilderness." He would hasten his escape from the windy storm and tempest. That, however, was not possible to him, but in his extremity the fugitive monarch found another refuge. "As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice." It is this incident in the life of King David, and it is this theme of prayer and supplication, that William Bartholomew selected for his poetic paraphrase,; adding to it something of his own:— Hear my prayer, 0 God; incline thine ear! Thyself from my petition do not hide. _ Take heed to me. Hear how in prayer I mourn to Thee. Without Thee all is dark, t have no guide. THE BOY SOPRANO. These and the accompanying words of Bartholomew's selection set to Mendelssohn's music will be sung by Mastei; Lex Macdonald, a remarkable boy soprano who hails from Duuedin, at the entertainment to be given by the AVellington Harmonic Society at the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall on Saturday evening next. Thus and then will bo afforded the public of Wellington an opportunity of becoming more intimately acquainted with one of our most beautiful pieces of sacred music, and the charm of it will even be heightened by its being blended with the novelty of hearing the solo sung by that musical rarity in New Zealand, a true and accomplished boy soprano.