Page 221 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

NATIONALISM 1830–1920 219

See also: Great Service 52–53 ■ St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Elijah 170–173 ■ The Ring Cycle 180–187 ■
A Child of Our Time 284–285

The Dream of Gerontius
Gerontius
encounters God
Gerontius and is judged.
awakens in a
place without
time or space.
As life drains Gerontius
from his body, is lowered into the
Gerontius joins The guardian angel lake of Purgatory and
with his assistants of Gerontius takes promised that he will
in prayer. him to the one day reawaken to
judgment throne. God’s glory.

anxieties—and the final swell of of his friend and publisher August time that develops late Romantic
singers and orchestra in the chorus Jaeger, who asked for something operatic style into a choral work,
that exhorts Gerontius to “Go forth more dramatic than the composer’s combines it with resourceful
upon thy journey, Christian soul.” first attempt. The piece ends with orchestral writing, and produces
In Part Two, Gerontius’s soul is the soul being taken in the arms a setting of unusual power.
guided by an angel past demons, of the angel and dipped into the The Dream of Gerontius quickly
who sing a sardonic fugal chorus, soothing waters of Purgatory. transcended the question of
and a choir of angels, whose hymn doctrine that almost denied it
“Praise to the Holiest in the Height” From disaster to success an early performance in Worcester
begins with a dramatic triple forte Due to poorly prepared performers, Cathedral, Cardinal Newman’s
and ends in intricate eight-part The Dream of Gerontius had a words seeming too Catholic for
harmony. This leads toward the disastrous premiere in Birmingham the Anglican Church. Its emotional
climax, a deafening orchestral in 1900. However, after acclaimed force and abiding themes of loss
crescendo as the soul is finally led performances in Germany, the work and hope in the face of death
to judgment. Elgar rewrote this established itself as one of Elgar’s continue to exercise a universal
climactic passage at the insistence masterpieces—a daring work for its appeal to audiences of every faith. ■

Edward Elgar Born in 1857 near Worcester, Although depressed by World
England, where his father owned War I, in 1919 he wrote his
a music shop, Elgar was largely a String Quartet, Piano Quintet,
self-taught musician. As a young and Cello Concerto. After Alice’s
man, he played in orchestras and death in 1920, Elgar composed
gave music lessons, marrying little. He received many honors,
Alice Roberts, one of his pupils, in but his music was out of fashion
1889. She encouraged him to move when he died in 1934.
to London and spend more time
on composition. His breakthrough Other key works
work was Enigma Variations
(1899), after which he wrote a 1899 Enigma Variations
series of large-scale compositions, 1901–1930 Pomp and
including The Apostles (a choral Circumstance Marches
piece), a violin concerto, and two 1905 Introduction and Allegro
symphonies, which brought him for Strings
recognition in Britain and Europe. 1919 Cello Concerto in E minor

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