Be thou faithful unto death (St. Paul, Op. 36)

This successful transcription was done by English organist Francis Cunningham Woods (1862-1929).

Woods was an M.A. (Oxon, 1890), Mus.B. (Oxon, 1891), F.R.C.O. Studied at the National Training School, Kensington, London, 1877-80, under Sir Arthur Sullivan and Dr Ebenezer Prout. Organist of Brasenose College, Oxford, 1883-86; organ scholar of Exeter College, Oxford, 1886-95; organist to the Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim, 1891-94; of Highgate School, 1896-. Conducted the Finsbury Choral Association, 1897-1901; music teacher. Composed orchestral music, anthems, services, songs, &c. b. St. Pancras, London, England, Aug. 29th, 1862; d. London, Sep. 21st, 1929.

This "aria" originally for tenor soloist comes from Mendelssohn's oratorio, "Paulus" (St. Paul), which was completed on April 18, 1836, and first performed in Düsseldorf on May 22 of the same year.

The text is given in German and English, and the text for this movement is:

Be thou faithful unto death,
And I will give to thee a crown of life.
Be not afraid, My help is nigh.

Our member "ESchoen" did a fine upload of this earlier today, using a Clarinette as the solo stop.

I've taken a bit more "English approach," where this all "foundation stops," but the color is rich and the solo sings.

At the end, the Solo Concert Flute is hear over the Swell strings.

One note about the score - when this was published, either F. Cunningham Woods, or more likely the publisher made a mistake in terms of the metronome mark, which is given as "quarter note = 88". The correct mark is "EIGHTH note = 88", so, the tempo is TWICE AS SLOW as indicated. :-)

The score is attached below, as well as a painting of Felix Mendelssohn, and two photos of F. Cunningham Woods.