` :Good question. I don't know the work well, either, so scanned the article and found it said the work consisted of three orchestral movements followed by nine vocal ones. This plus the description Mendelssohn gives of the work as ``A Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Holy Bible, for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra`` would make me think he might be following the Beethovenian model, since the choral movement in the Beethoven Ninth would correspond too the ``Cantata`` (?) in the Mendelssohn Second. Anyone else, please feel free to participate.   `