# DLP #2: 2. Elgar - Dream of Gerontius, part 1 - (20centrfuge)



## Robert Gamble (Dec 18, 2016)

Deep Listening Project Week #2 (2/11/18 - 2/18/18)

Nominated by 20centrifuge (below is a link to a performance on YouTube):





Another piece I haven't heard before but am looking forward to spending time with. Coincidentally I just listened to Elgar's Cello Concerto, Cockaigne, and Sea Pictures last week and picked up a couple of symphony sets. None of my CDs have this, so...

If you listen to a performance other than the YouTube video, please give the information on it addition to your impressions!


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I like this work by Elgar. Never heard it before.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I enjoy oratorios and enjoy a lot of Elgar but have never liked this music. For one thing, it relies very heavily on solos and little by the chorus. It's also, like a lot of Elgar, too long and contains a somewhat vacuous story.


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## Robert Gamble (Dec 18, 2016)

So, I listened to this yesterday 'shallowly' (my normal way of listening while doing something else) mainly because it's not the kind of thing I normally listen to and I wanted to get my mind attuned to it a bit before listening without distractions today (nice rainy day to eat lunch inside and listen).

I rather enjoyed it, although amusingly I realized I could actually understand the words about 3/4 of the way through. I'm so used to any sung classical music not being in English, that it didn't even occur to me that I could understand this. 

It's definitely not in my normal wheelhouse, being sung. And to boot I'm non-religious (an atheist actually) although I've been re-reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to my wife of late. But first impressions, which I'll expand on today after lunch are that it was quite melodic (which for me is always a good thing).


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## Robert Gamble (Dec 18, 2016)

So, this is the version Iistened to from my Google Music subscription:








I followed along with the words from:
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/elgar/guides/dream-gerontius-complete-text/

I enjoyed it. The lyrics didn't do much for me (and before anyone points to my lack of religion as a reason, one of my favorite songwriters is Don Francisco, look up "Too Small A Price" or "Adam Where Are You?".. that's how you do religious songwriting!). Yup, not fair to compare lyrics of an Oratorio to a more modern type, but the story's "pace" is somewhat slow for me. 

Lyrics aside, I think I'm like larold. I definitely preferred the chorus and the 'semi-chorus' portions over the solo Gerontius parts. The music itself kind of lulled me at times into a fairly pleasant state, but I didn't find a lot to concentrate on or moments that made me think "Wow. Great stuff." It's probably just not my cuppa.

As in the previous DLP, I'll ask 20centrifuge what makes this a piece he wanted to explore or have others explore more fully? Inquiring minds want to know!

(In the meantime, I'm continuing to listen to Part 2)


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

_The Dream of Gerontius_ is really the only large-scale choral work of Elgar's that I can truly get along with and I don't even listen to it all that much. It must have been quite convenient for Elgar that Cardinal Newman's poem of a man attaining his spiritual goal in death actually reads like a libretto - and despite whatever scholarly misgivings there have been about the poem itself and as a subject for a work lasting 90+ minutes I actually find it quite touching and Elgar's musical treatment of it compliments it well.

In my affections I put this work at considerable distance above _Caractacus_ and even further above _The Apostles_ and _The Kingdom_. All contain some fine music but _Caractacus_ is hamstrung by both its amateurish libretto and bathetic ending and both _The Apostles_ and _The Kingdom_ are too slow-moving.


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## Robert Gamble (Dec 18, 2016)

Just a bump of this in case anyone else wants to give this a listen today or tomorrow.


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