In June, 1841, the King of Saxony invited Mendelssohn to become his Capellmeister. Frederick William IV. of Prussia had made him a similar offer about the same time. He accepted the latter and removed to Berlin, and the first duty imposed upon him by the King was the composition of music to the "Antigone" of Sophocles. With the assistance of the poet Tieck, who helped arrange the text, the work was accomplished in the short space of eleven days, and was given on the Potsdam Court stage October 28, to a private audience. It was first performed in public at Leipsic, March 5, 1842. It is written for male chorus and orchestra, and includes seven numbers; namely, 1. Introduction and maestoso ("Strahl des Helios schönstes Licht"); 2. Andante con moto ("Vieles Gewaltige lebt"); 3. Moderato ("Ihr Seligen deren"); 4. Adagio ("O Eros, Allsieger im Kampf"); 5. Recitative and chorus ("Noch toset des Sturmes Gewalt"); 6. Allegro maestoso ("Vielnamiger! Wonn' und Stolz"); 7. Andante alla marcia ("Hier Kommt er ja selbst"). The following extracts will give a comprehensive view of this powerful and felicitous music. Lampadius, writing of the first public performance, says:-- "On the 5th of March the 'Antigone' of Sophocles, translated by Donner and set to music by Mendelssohn, was brought out at the Leipsic theatre before a full audience. The composer directed, and was received with great applause. The music indeed was not antique, if to be so it must be played on the {syrinx}, the {salpinx}, and the {phorminx}, or if the composer must confine himself to that Greek type of melody and harmony of which all we know is that it was extremely simple, and, according to our ideas, meagre; but it was antique completely, in its being filled with the fire of the tragedy and making its spirit intelligible to us moderns, strengthening the meaning of the words, and giving a running musical commentary on them.... With us at Leipsic, as indeed everywhere, the Eros Chorus, with its solemn awe in the presence of the divine omnipotence of love, and the Bacchus Chorus, which, swinging the thyrsus, celebrates the praise of the Theban maiden's son in joyous strains, as well as the melodramatic passages, where Antigone enters, wailing, the chamber where her dead lover lay, and whither Creon has borne in his son's corpse, had an imposing effect. The impression of the whole piece, taken by itself, was very powerful. With amazement our modern world realized the sublimity of the ancient tragic muse, and recognized the 'great, gigantic fate which exalts man while grinding him to powder.'" Devrient, the director of the opera at Carlsruhe, in his "Recollections of Mendelssohn," has left a delightful sketch of the composition of the work. He says:--