Mendelssohn describes to his friend Klingemann the 1840 work as "a ‘symphony for chorus and orchestra’… First three symphonic movements, to which 12 choral- and solo- movements are appendaged; the words from the Psalms, and indeed all pieces, vocal and instrumental, are composed in the words ‘Everything which has breath, Praise the Lord’; one understands by this that first the instruments give praise in their own way, and then the chorus and the individual voices."