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The apostles
Peter, James and John, had been fishing all night, and they had
caught nothing. Our Lord told them to let down their nets, and this
they did. The catch was good. When Simon Peter saw him, he fell
at the knees of Jesus, saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man'"
(Lk 5,8).
Peter did not want
to be parted from Jesus. That is why he clung to his knees. At the
same time he recognised his unworthiness. He felt he could not
remain in Our Lord's presence. He wanted to be close, yet he felt
he should keep away. He was not worthy. This is perhaps the way it
will be for us after death.Death is the way which leads us to the
vision of God, the moment when we shall see Him as He really is,
and find our total fulfilment in love's final choice. The ultimate
union with that which is most lovable, union with God, is the moment
of ecstasy, the unending 'now' of complete happiness. That vision
will draw from us the response of surprise, wonder and joy which
will be forever our prayer of praise. We are made for that.”
(Cardinal Basil
Hume “To be a Pilgrim” © St Paul Publications 1984)
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In the Summer of
1898 Elgar was asked if he would write a major new work for the 1900
Birmingham Triennial Festival. Now in his forties, he had long
wanted recognition from the musical establishment, and with the
recent success of works such as the Enigma Variations and Sea
Pictures, he now felt able to undertake a more ambitious project.
He had been given a copy of Newman's 900-line poem on man's journey
into the afterlife as a wedding present in 1889. In the summer of
1900 he said "The poem has been soaking in my mind for at least
eight years." He started work in January of that year and worked on
it for about six months. He used slightly less than half of the
poem, cutting whole sections and shortening others to focus on its
central narrative: the story of a man's death and his soul's journey
into the next world. “I imagined Gerontius to be a man like us," he
wrote to his friend, August Jaeger of Novello’s the music publisher,
"Not a priest or a saint, but a sinner ... no end of a worldly man
in his life, & now brought to book. Therefore I've not filled his
part with Church tunes & rubbish but a good, healthy, full-blooded
romantic, remembered worldliness.” |
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Combining the
composition with other commitments: teaching, rehearsals with the
Worcestershire Philharmonic and performances of Sea Pictures and the
Enigma Variations, not to mention the odd round of golf and trips to
see his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers play (he composed the
first-recorded football anthem for them), Elgar found it to be a
daunting task to undertake and often felt a lack of confidence in
his own ability to do it justice. Fortunately Novello, his
publisher, whom he had sent the manuscript of the first half of Part
One in early March, was most encouraging: “I feel sure you will be
equal to it, for … you seem to grow with the task”, Jaeger wrote. |
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An unfortunate
combination of late completion of the vocal score (in early August),
the untimely death of the festival choirmaster and the failure of
both his replacement and the conductor, Hans Richter, to appreciate
the complexity of the work led to an under-rehearsed and poorly
received première. Fortunately, a German choirmaster in the
audience (Julius Buths, the Director of the Lower Rhine Festival,)
recognised the work's considerable merits and produced subsequent
sell-out performances in Düsseldorf in each of the following two
years, which set the precedent for its place in the established
choral repertory. |
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The poem and
Elgar’s setting are distinctly Catholic in terms of the religious
ideas conveyed, specifically the account of the soul’s need to pass
through Purgatory before entering Heaven, a concept alien to
Anglican and Protestant theology. For this reason many
contemporaries dismissed the work, Charles Villiers Stanford, a
celebrated Anglican composer, allegedly saying that the work 'stank
of incense'. The Dream of Gerontius is not, however an exposition
of Catholic doctrine, but an allegorical representation of the
transition from time to eternity. A hundred years on and religious
sensitivities have given way to a wider appreciation of the work’s
greatness and it is now undoubtedly the most popular and among the
most frequently performed of all Elgar's choral works |
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The orchestral
Prelude to Part 1, which opens with a dark, pianissimo theme in
D-minor, the “Judgement Theme”, presents all of the work's main
themes. They are some of Elgar's most fertile melodic ideas, so
dovetailed that each flows seamlessly into the next. As it fades
away, we hear Gerontius on his deathbed praying. |
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Elgar gives him a
unique vocal style, which is neither simple recitative nor full
singing, but which lets the music shape itself to the words in a
natural and expressive way. We can hear it in the first line, 'Jesu,
Maria, I am near to death“. In his first eighteen opening lines
Gerontius goes through feelings of desperation, terror, supplication
and then exhausted calm. |
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Gerontius's
friends pray at his bedside with a 'Kyrie eleison' ('Lord have
mercy') that begins in the a cappella semi-chorus. At the
rehearsals for the first performance, Elgar urged the chorus not to
sing as though they were in church, but with “more tears in their
voices,” as though they were at the side of a dying friend. The
friends' prayers rouse Gerontius to a more spirited solo, followed
by a second choral section in the form of a subdued fugue, ‘Be
merciful, be gracious’. Gerontius's emotional and passionate
statement of faith, ‘Sanctus fortis' follows, its final bars marked
piangendo ('wailingly')." |
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'Rescue him, O
Lord,' sing his friends and Gerontius utters his dying words, 'Novissima
hora est,' ('It is the final hour'). After a brief pause, the Priest
pronounces the final blessing: 'Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de
hoc mundo' ('Go forth from this world, Christian soul'). Elgar here
conveys faith, sorrow and wonder, all at once, in one of the work's
most inspired passages, in which at the words 'Go in the name of
Angels and Archangels,' the chorus joins in, building to a triple
forte on the words 'go forth', expressing an affirmative trust in
the dying man’s new life beyond the grave. The Priest again gives a
blessing, the accompaniment softens to a single melody for the first
violins, and with one last, gentle swell of orchestra the first part
closes on the words 'through Christ our Lord'. |
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Part 2 opens with
a new, delicate melody marked dolce e legato whose light 3/4 time,
displaying none of the rhythmic pulse that permeates Part 1, tells
us that time no longer exists, ‘I hear no more the busy beat of time
… nor does one moment differ from the next’. His soul begins to
sing 'I went to sleep; and now I am refreshed’. The discrete
physical senses that informed his earthly body are gone, but he is
aware of being carried forward and of his Guardian Angel singing, ‘I
hear a singing; yet in sooth I cannot of that music rightly say
whether I touch or taste the tones’. There follows one of the
work's most memorable passages: the dialogue between the Soul and
the Angel which the musical setting interprets with great
imagination. The Soul is hesitant, but curious to know 'a maze of
things' about his new condition. The Angel's response is
understanding and compassionate: 'You cannot now Cherish a wish
which ought not to be wished.' Gerontius wonders why he has not
already seen God and the Angel explaining that they are fast
approaching the place of Judgement, reassures the Soul and the Soul
sings of his new-found joy. |
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Close by the Court
of Judgement Gerontius's soul hears the demons singing a fierce,
mocking fugue, intensified by cries of sarcastic laughter,
complaining at their expulsion from Heaven and expressing cynical
disdain for the Saints who have inherited it. As the demons pass,
the Soul notices that he has only heard them, not seen them. Will he
be able to see God? The Angel says he will, but warns that 'the
flame of the Everlasting Love Doth burn ere it transform.' |
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There is distant
music, angelical beings singing 'Praise to the Holiest in the
height.' There is a great, expectant moment as the Angel sings,
ecstatically, 'And now the threshold, as we traverse it, Utters
aloud its glad responsive chant' when all the voices join together
triple-forte, singing 'Praise to the Holiest' with thrilling support
from the orchestra. This is the beginning of one of the most
elaborate and stirring passages in choral music: Elgar called it
'the great Blaze.' The music swings into a second subject in 6/4
time on the words 'O loving wisdom of our God!' and the two subjects
blossom and intertwine in soaring four- and eight-part harmonies.
(As a boy, Elgar had taken advantage of living close to Worcester
Cathedral by spending much time listening to the music there. He
subsequently developed a familiarity with the choral works of Bach,
Handel, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Dvořák as a violinist in the
Festival orchestras. The knowledge of cathedral acoustics and of
choral writing that these experiences gave him are apparent
throughout this powerful song of praise. |
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A brief orchestral
passage leads to the Judgement scene. The Angel of the Agony, a
second part for the bass, pleads with Jesus to 'spare these souls
which are do dear to Thee.' We then hear the voices on earth praying
at Gerontius's bedside, indicating that all the events of Part 2
have happened in an instant of time. The Angel sings a last
'Alleluia,' and the Judgement theme builds up throughout the
orchestra, as the Soul crosses the threshold and enters the Presence
of God. Elgar marks this point tutta forza, 'For one moment, must
every instrument exert its fullest force.' |
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The sight of God
is so overwhelming that, aware of his unworthiness to be there, the
Soul sings 'Take me away,' he needs to join the Souls in Purgatory,
who are heard singing the psalm, 'Lord, Thou has been our refuge'.
Now comes the great song of compassion that crowns the work, 'Softly
and gently, dearly-ransomed soul,' as the Angel leads the Soul to
Purgatory. The work draws to a close with the simultaneous singing
of 'Praise to the Holiest' by the chorus of Angelicals and the psalm
by the Souls, coming together on a repeated 'Amen' to bring this
wonderful work softly and serenely to a close. |
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Peter Carey
Royal Free Singers, Windsor |
[Note to other
societies: you are welcome to use the whole or parts of this text in
your own programmes, but if you do please include an acknowledgement
to the Royal Free Singers.] |
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