1 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:14,790 I'm Joanna Bullivant, a music lecturer at the University of Oxford, 2 00:00:14,790 --> 00:00:21,780 and this podcast explores Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius through the places that inspired it. 3 00:00:21,780 --> 00:00:28,440 Gerontius is one of Elgar's most important works alongside the Enigma Variations. 4 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:36,930 It was one of the two works that launched his career and recognition as a composer of international stature, 5 00:00:36,930 --> 00:00:44,570 as Richard Strauss, the German composer, said upon a performance of the work in Dusseldorf in 1982. 6 00:00:44,570 --> 00:00:50,010 With this work, England has become one of the modern musical states. 7 00:00:50,010 --> 00:01:02,010 And yet it would be a mistake to see Elgar's work Gerontius as simply part of England's promotion to a putative compositional Premier League. 8 00:01:02,010 --> 00:01:09,900 It is a work that is bound up with issues of the composer's religious and national identity. 9 00:01:09,900 --> 00:01:16,050 For one thing, it sets a poem of the same name by Cardinal Saint John Henry Newman, 10 00:01:16,050 --> 00:01:25,650 a figure who proved a focal point for much of the ambivalence surrounding Roman Catholicism that characterised 19th century England. 11 00:01:25,650 --> 00:01:28,530 Famously, in 1875, 12 00:01:28,530 --> 00:01:38,490 Newman contributed to a public dispute over the patriotism of Catholics after William Gladstone suggested in his pamphlet to the Vatican decrees that 13 00:01:38,490 --> 00:01:48,930 "no one can now become Rome's convert without renouncing his moral and mental freedom and placing his civil loyalty and duty at the mercy of another." 14 00:01:48,930 --> 00:01:58,050 So what Gladstone was saying here - was accusing English Catholics of - was essentially being unable to be both Catholic and patriotic, 15 00:01:58,050 --> 00:02:02,880 a key accusation that would clearly have implications for Elgar. 16 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:14,820 And with that in mind, we can see something of the accusations made against Elgar's music, particularly Gerontius, of its strangeness and Englishness, 17 00:02:14,820 --> 00:02:26,130 in a remark attributed to the senior English composer Charles Villiers Stanford, who is said to have complained that Gerontius "stank of incense". 18 00:02:26,130 --> 00:02:36,210 Thus, the work has important connexions to Elgar's identity as part of a minority religious group in late 19th and early 20th 19 00:02:36,210 --> 00:02:44,760 century Britain who were trying to establish their religious and national identity within the mainstream Anglican culture. 20 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:54,970 Moreover, Elgar made much discussed comments about the relationship of this work to his own personal sense of faith. 21 00:02:54,970 --> 00:03:03,780 The work is headed with the dedication "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" or "For the Greater Glory of God." 22 00:03:03,780 --> 00:03:11,400 The composer also signified his personal and creative achievement in the work by adding to the end of the manuscript score 23 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:16,650 A quotation from John Ruskin: "This is the best of me; for the rest, 24 00:03:16,650 --> 00:03:21,780 I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated like another: 25 00:03:21,780 --> 00:03:30,840 my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory." 26 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:38,250 However, after the first catastrophic English performance in Birmingham on 3rd of October 1900, 27 00:03:38,250 --> 00:03:42,780 Elgar was distraught, writing to his friend August Jaeger: 28 00:03:42,780 --> 00:03:50,280 "I have worked hard for forty years &, at the very last, Providence denies me a decent hearing of my work; 29 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:55,230 so submit - I always said God was against art and I still believe it ... 30 00:03:55,230 --> 00:04:03,930 I have allowed my heart to open once - it is now shut against every religious feeling and every soft, gentle impulse for ever. 31 00:04:03,930 --> 00:04:12,420 Gerontius is definitely a work which is bound up with Elgar's own developing faith in his lifetime, 32 00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:21,150 with his experience as part of a minority culture, with his status as England's national composer. 33 00:04:21,150 --> 00:04:26,550 But there's another aspect of the work I want to explore in this podcast, 34 00:04:26,550 --> 00:04:34,380 which is the work's association with the English landscape and particularly the countryside around Worcester. 35 00:04:34,380 --> 00:04:45,000 We know that in the work, as we shall see, Elgar evoked the fir trees that were so evocative in the place of his birth, 36 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:51,480 Broadheath, and also around the cottage where he composed much of the work, 37 00:04:51,480 --> 00:05:01,920 Birchwood Lodge. So this is what we're going to be exploring through this tour of five places that are significant to Elgar's work, 38 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,480 which is Worcester Cathedral, St George's Catholic Church in Worcester, 39 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:15,550 The Firs, which is Elgar's birthplace cottage, Birchwood Lodge, and finally, the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Birmingham, 40 00:05:15,550 --> 00:05:26,500 which was the home of St. John Henry Newman and now houses Elgar's original autograph manuscript, in the course of this journey. 41 00:05:26,500 --> 00:05:32,920 What we'll try to do is gain insights into not only Elgar's work itself, 42 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:44,920 but into the culture, community and places that nurtured his creativity and that all contributed to making this work, The Dream of Gerontius, possible. 43 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:53,800 So I want to start our story before we delve back into the history of the work with the modern Worcester itself. 44 00:05:53,800 --> 00:06:02,980 I'm here just at the edge of the high streets where William Elgar, Elgar's father's music shop, stood just over there. 45 00:06:02,980 --> 00:06:10,420 And we're also by this civic statue of Edward Elgar showing his central city to Worcester. 46 00:06:10,420 --> 00:06:19,120 And this is right in the heart of the city, directly opposite the cathedral, really cementing that connection, 47 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:26,410 that historic importance of to the city and his relationship with Worcester Cathedral itself. 48 00:06:26,410 --> 00:06:31,300 We're now going to move over to the cathedral grounds and inside the cathedral 49 00:06:31,300 --> 00:06:40,940 itself to discover more about Elgar's association with this historic building. 50 00:06:40,940 --> 00:06:50,240 So we're now inside Worcester Cathedral. I'm here with Samuel Hudson, Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral. 51 00:06:50,240 --> 00:07:00,080 And could you please start by telling us something of Elgar's association with the cathedral in his lifetime? 52 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,610 Of course. So Elgar had a close association with the cathedral and with Worcester. 53 00:07:04,610 --> 00:07:11,300 His father had a music shop on the High Street here now just yards from where Elgar's statue is. 54 00:07:11,300 --> 00:07:20,780 And as a young man, Elgar played the violin in the Three Choirs Festival Orchestra and then went on to have a 55 00:07:20,780 --> 00:07:26,100 lot of his larger-scale works performed and sometimes premiered here in the cathedral. 56 00:07:26,100 --> 00:07:29,570 So it was a building that he was familiar with throughout his life. 57 00:07:29,570 --> 00:07:37,760 Is it correct to say as well that he had many friendships with key people who were associated with music in the cathedral? 58 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,930 Absolutely, yes. And he knew Sir Ivor Atkins very well indeed. 59 00:07:41,930 --> 00:07:46,400 He was the director of music here, one of my predecessors, for 50 years. 60 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:57,080 So he did come into contact with lots of musicians of the time and indeed those of the neighbouring cathedrals in Hereford and in Gloucester. 61 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:05,720 And were there any tensions with Elgar's associations and his works here, given that he, as a Roman Catholic, 62 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:16,040 he wasn't a worshipper here, and that his religion also came into aspects of his music, such as notably in the case of Gerontius? 63 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:26,390 Yes, there was there was a period, I believe, where the text of The Dream of Gerontius was altered to fit the performance inside the cathedral. 64 00:08:26,390 --> 00:08:32,120 And I think, indeed, a period where it wasn't performed as well. So we've sort of got past that now. 65 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:39,860 And Gerontius is one of the great pieces that is performed regularly here by a number of different groups. 66 00:08:39,860 --> 00:08:43,910 But I think that did probably come into the equation in our lifetime. 67 00:08:43,910 --> 00:08:53,450 Also, perhaps we could then turn our attention to the window here, which actually depicts a scene from The Dream of Gerontius. 68 00:08:53,450 --> 00:09:04,430 So could you could you tell us more about how this window came to be in the cathedral when it was created and what it's signifying? 69 00:09:04,430 --> 00:09:15,440 Of course. So the window was installed in 1935. So just a year after Elgar's death, it was designed by A K Nicholson, 70 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:21,860 and it depicts the main scenes from the narrative of The Dream of Gerontius. 71 00:09:21,860 --> 00:09:27,200 The bottom of the window you have Gerontius surrounded by his friends and by the priests, 72 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:34,880 above that you have the Soul of Gerontius and his Guardian Angel, and the sides at the bottom 73 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:41,810 you've got various saints. So this is Saint Wulstan and Saint Oswald, who are saints associated with Worcester. 74 00:09:41,810 --> 00:09:46,190 And then you've got Saint Cecilia as well, of course, the patron saint of music. 75 00:09:46,190 --> 00:09:51,830 And then at the very top of the window is New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. 76 00:09:51,830 --> 00:09:55,190 Obviously, with Christ in the middle, as you've said, 77 00:09:55,190 --> 00:10:04,280 these difficulties or these tensions over the Catholic content of Gerontius are not something that's felt today. 78 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:16,250 And what do you think the importance of Elgar for this building, for the town of Worcester, for the worshippers here is today? 79 00:10:16,250 --> 00:10:22,850 Well, I think Elgar is still a massively important figure for us here in Worcester and certainly is one of the cathedral's musicians. 80 00:10:22,850 --> 00:10:26,990 I feel that very strongly. We still perform a lot of his music. 81 00:10:26,990 --> 00:10:30,050 And it's wonderful to to walk through the cathedral and think that this was 82 00:10:30,050 --> 00:10:34,940 the first place that some of the great pieces by Elgar were heard and in fact, 83 00:10:34,940 --> 00:10:40,790 that he himself had such a close association with the building and knew the building so well. 84 00:10:40,790 --> 00:10:45,950 So I think that more widely the people of Worcester, the congregation at the cathedral and the 85 00:10:45,950 --> 00:10:52,160 musical groups associated with the cathedral will also feel that link with Elgar and are very, 86 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:57,710 really proud to continue to perform his music. 87 00:10:57,710 --> 00:11:09,080 So as we heard from Samuel Hudson, Elgae remains a really significant figure associated with the cathedral and a source of pride in Worcester, 88 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:18,170 a famous son associated with the history and the cultural achievements of the city and the cathedral. 89 00:11:18,170 --> 00:11:22,490 We also heard about his association with the Three Choirs Festival, 90 00:11:22,490 --> 00:11:32,960 a long running choral festival which alternates every three years between the cathedrals of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. 91 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:40,310 And we heard also of his association with organists of Worcester Cathedral, such as Ivor Atkins. 92 00:11:40,310 --> 00:11:46,670 There is a strong association there, a strong connection. And yet also, as we heard, there are also tensions. 93 00:11:46,670 --> 00:11:51,620 Elgar scholar Charles Edward Maguire has noted the window would not have been deemed 94 00:11:51,620 --> 00:11:59,090 appropriate at the time of the 1902 performance because of its overtly Catholic content. 95 00:11:59,090 --> 00:12:08,510 Newman's poem depicts the death of Gerontius - the name signifying simply old man - while a priest in assistance asked for the prayers of Mary, 96 00:12:08,510 --> 00:12:17,510 mother of God. After death, the Soul of Gerontius is lifted up by his Guardian Angel towards the enthroned Christ in heaven, 97 00:12:17,510 --> 00:12:21,170 the scene depicted in the Elgar window. However, 98 00:12:21,170 --> 00:12:27,800 the soul finds himself unready to behold his Lord and instead is lowered into the waters of Purgatory by 99 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:35,240 the Guardian Angel to be aided again at the throne of Christ by masses on earth and prayers in heaven. 100 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:42,290 These references to the saying of masses on Earth and prayers for the intercession of Our Lady proved a 101 00:12:42,290 --> 00:12:50,390 distinct sticking point when the work came up for performance as part of the Three Choirs Festival in 1932. 102 00:12:50,390 --> 00:12:54,620 And indeed, the festival had some form in this area, 103 00:12:54,620 --> 00:13:02,660 having refused to perform works with their original Latin texts in the past and referring to Beethoven's 104 00:13:02,660 --> 00:13:11,000 Mass in C as a "service" at one point in its history. For this 1902 performance of Gerontius, 105 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:21,950 all these various references to masses to the Virgin Mary had to be omitted and other sections had to be mumbled by the singers. 106 00:13:21,950 --> 00:13:29,690 So this is a real palpable reminder of what it meant for Elgar to be working as a Catholic 107 00:13:29,690 --> 00:13:37,220 composer in an Anglican culture and trying to break into that culture as a musician. 108 00:13:37,220 --> 00:13:46,430 It's also worth noting the centrality of the statue of Elgar in the city centre just by the cathedral and the Elgar 109 00:13:46,430 --> 00:13:56,420 window can give this impression or that this was the heart of where Elgar lived his life as well as created his music. 110 00:13:56,420 --> 00:14:25,619 But in fact, this was not his childhood place of worship. And in order to discover that, we have to go elsewhere.