U of Ideas of General Interest -- March 2000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Contact: Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor, (217) 333-5491; [email protected]
MUSIC
Elgar oratorio seldom heard in U.S. to be performed at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- In the United States, the tune most closely associated with Edward Elgar is undoubtedly his "Pomp and Circumstance" March No. 1 -- the classical musical accompaniment to many a graduation ceremony.
However, in the composer's homeland of Great Britain, many other works from his sizeable output remain equally popular today. Among those still performed regularly is "The Dream of Gerontius," widely considered to be a masterpiece of late-Romantic oratorio, according to University of Illinois musicology professor Nicholas Temperley, an expert on English music. Set to words by John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Gerontius" is a meditation on the afterlife that describes the journey of a man's soul after it leaves the earthly realm.
Despite its popularity abroad, Temperley said the ambitious piece is rarely performed in the United States. Such a rare spectacle will take place on April 1 at the UI, where the university's Oratorio Society, Chorale and Symphony Orchestra will combine forces in a performance at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of UI music professor Fred Stoltzfus. The concert, which will feature solo performances by mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Campbell, tenor Jerold Siena and bass Ronald Hedlund, is planned in conjunction with the Midwest Victorian Studies Association's annual meeting on the campus March 31-April 2.
The association, which has members from throughout the United States and abroad, primarily comprises teachers, scholars and students of history, literature, art history, music, philosophy and religion. The theme of this year's conference is "Victorian Realities/Victorian Dreams." During the conference, Temperley will moderate a panel discussion on "Newman and Elgar and the Dream of Gerontius," which will feature presentations by UI history professor Walter Arnstein; David Goslee, professor of English at the University of Tennessee; and Charles McGuire, professor of music at the University of Maryland.
Temperley said he doesn't really know why "Gerontius" isn't performed more often in the United States. This much he does know, however: "The first performance, in 1900, was a disaster. The music was very difficult and rather modern for the ears of that time." But when people got to know the work, they took it to heart. "It has a passion and splendor," Temperley noted, "that triumph over difficulties, and sometimes recall the best of Wagner and Richard Strauss."
The composition also stirred a fair amount of controversy when it debuted in turn-of-the-century England, because of "its Roman Catholic subject matter, including the idea of purgatory, which was not shared by the Protestant Anglican majority in England," Temperley said. "There had been many converts, led by Newman himself, and Elgar was also a Roman Catholic. The oratorio awakened the age-old fear that England would be taken over by Rome."
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