The Dream of Gerontius - Wikipedia.
Indeed Gerontius has a movement all of its own. A dramatic and powerful text, it describes the journey of an elderly Catholic man, Gerontius, from the moment of his death until his judgement. It is a poem, a dream and a prayer and invites reading, rereading and meditation. A literary masterpiece. From the start Gerontius.
The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by Saint John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory.
Elgar's Influences Although considered to be especially English, many of Elgar's influences were Germans. Such as: - Wagner, Brahms, Handel, Schumann and Dvorak. Schumann and Dvorak's influence is clearly seen the romantic lyricism and strong rhythmic contrast in Elgar's.
The Dream of Gerontius. The Libretto. Such is the popularity today of Elgar's oratorio that it is easy to overlook the fact that Newman's poem, which Elgar took as the basis of his libretto, had experienced remarkable success in its own right long before Elgar turned his serious attention to it. It was reprinted.
Elgar was one of the 19th century’s most famous composers. He devoted his life to writing musical pieces such as Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius, and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Certain personality aspects of Elgar, such as his wit and creative humor, are found in his music and set him apart from the other composers of his time.
In reading the text of the Dream of Gerontius, it is vital to remember that his elegant language is entirely at the service of belief, the belief in the soul's passage through death to judgement and entry into purgatory on course to eternal communion with the God of Jesus Christ.
The Dream of Gerontius is an 1865 poem written by St John Henry Newman consisting of the prayer of a dying man, and angelic and demonic responses. The poem, written after Newman's conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, explores his new Catholic-held beliefs of the journey from death through Paradise to God and thence to Purgatory.
Gerontius is written for tenor, mezzo-soprano, bass, chorus and orchestra. The work opens with a somber melody in D-minor marked pianissimo. This was named the Judgement theme by Elgar's friend and publisher August Jaeger, who wrote a detailed analysis of the score.
HERE I am, an old man in a dry month,: Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain. I was neither at the hot gates: Nor fought in the warm rain: Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass.
The Dream of Gerontius expresses in poetical form many truths of Catholic dogma concerning creation, redemption and eschatology. This, Newman’s longest poem, composed in 1865, almost twenty years after his entrance into full communion with the.
Among the wedding presents he received was a copy of the poem, The Dream of Gerontius by John, Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), which was given to him by the parish priest of the Catholic church in Worcester where Elgar had been the organist. Newman’s poem had been published in 1865 and Elgar was familiar with it already but now he had his own copy of the text.
The Dream of Gerontius. Composition of the Work. Life after Death How Elgar came to write the Work. It was in the Summer of 1898 that Elgar was first asked if he would write a major new work for the 1900 Birmingham Triennial Festival. Elgar accepted, but remained pre-occupied for much of 1899 with other, more pressing matters.
The failure of analysis with reference to God is a significant reminder by Newman of the ultimate limitations of dogma as linguistic attempts to express transcendent truths. Therefore, the Guardian Angel impresses upon Gerontius the decorum of purgation as a requisite for enjoying the Beatific Vision.
