as A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF EDWARD ELGAR'S ORATORIO, "THE APOSTLES" THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Everett Waddell Burge, B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1962 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .. 1 II. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .4 III. A THEMATIC STUDY OF "THE APOSTLES'" .. .14 Part One Prologue The Calling of the Apostles By the Wayside By the Sea of Galilee Part Two The Betrayal Golgotha At the Sepulchre The Ascension BIBLIOGRAPHY . 65 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. The Spirit of the Lord . 19 2. Anointing . 20 3. Christ, the Man of Sorrows . 21 4. Gospel . 21 5. Christ's Mission . 22 6. Light of Life...-..........-.. - - . 22 7. Preachers - --.-. 23 8. Variation of Preachers . 23 9. Comfort . 23 10. The Church.-.......... 24 11. Christ, the Son of God . 24 12. Evangelist - . 26 13. Pastoral..-.-...... 26 14. Variation of Pastoral -.. 26 15. The Prayer of Christ . .-. 27 16. Angel . ..... -.... 27 17. Dream of Gerontius......... 28 18. Prophecy...-....-.... 28 19. Apostles . 29 iv Figure Page 20. Variation of the Apostles . 29 21. Gregorian tones ... 30 . 30 22. Christ's Loneliness 31 23. Christs Passion . 31 24. Variation of Christ's Passion . 31 25. New version of the Christ motive . 32 26. Divine Blessing ........ 33 27. Shofar.. 33 28. Variation of Shofar . 33 29. String figure . 34 30. Soldiery . 34 31. Watchers . 34 32. Morning Psalm . 35 33. Light and Life . 35 34. Morning Glory . - - 36 35. Climax . .. - - 36 36. Fellowship . 37 37. Choosing the Weak . 37 38. Apostles1 Faith . ... ...... 38 39. Earthly Kingdom . 38 40. Wayside . .. 39 V Figure Page 41. Beatitudes . - . - . 40 42. Judas . - - - - - . - 40 43. Longing . - - - - - - . - 41 44. Strength of Faith . 41 45. Ship . 42 46. Mary Magdalene . 42 47. Anguish Prayer . 43 48. Humbleness.. 43 49. Forgiveness.. 44 50. Sin...... * 44 51. Dance . 45 52. Feasting . 45 53. Revelry . 46 54. Joy . 46 55. Storm . 48 56. Breakers . 48 57. Doubt . 49 58. Worship . 49 59. Peter . 50 60. Our Father . 51 61. Judgment . 51 vi Figure Page 62. Mary's Consolation................. .......... 52 63. Judas ] Temptation0.... ...... ..54 64. Resolution,.. ..... ......-.-.55 65. Rabble...... ..... .... -...--.-.-. 55 66. Silver Pieces......... ........ .. ......56 67. Captors....................... .............. 56 68. Questioning ......... ...........-. 57 69. The Priests . .................... ........... 58 70. Judas' Despair... .. ......... .........58 71. Indifference .... .. .................. 59 72. Golgotha. .. .......--..... -.-.-.-....60 73. Mary's Grief............. ...........-.. .. 60 74. Christ's Glory. ... ..... .. ...-... -.62 75. Christ's Peace*... ... ...... 63 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It is the object of this paper to review Sir Edward Elgar's life as a composer, and to discuss and study the thematic elements of his oratorio, "The Apostles." To understand and evaluate the significance of any per son's rise to fame in his own field, it is necessary to reconstruct the surroundings from which he came. If a study of the musical conditions had been made when Elgar's development as a composer was starting to draw attention, it would have been noted that the British public was prepared to listen to music in newer forms only if it was from a country other than England. There was very little done or said to encourage any music in a modern character if it was composed by someone from England. The one acknowledged British composer in Elgar's early years was Arthur Sullivan, who maintains a high place in English music history. He took London by storm in the early sixties, but in doing so did not try to break away from the methods of composition he had been taught. His per sonality and melodic gifts were exceptional and in spite of all offers to write for other nations, he remained true to England. Sullivan's fame was made with his comic operas. Although serious English music of the time, including his own and that of other writers, 2 has failed to maintain a permanent place in music history, Sullivants comic operas have not faded nor grown old-fashioned. Sullivan seemed to prove to the English musical public that the proper place for English music was the light-opera stage. This made it extremely hard for the more progressive composers in British music of this period to make any progress. Such composers as Alexander Mackenzie, HIubert Parry and Charles V. Stanford found it impossible to get any response from the musical public after Sullivan became strong in his position of leadership. It is believed, however, that these com posers produced works that helped to bring about the renaissance of English music. First was a cantata by Parry called "Prometheus Unbound, " which was not very successful with the critics of that day. In 1881 Stanford completed his opera, "The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, " and because it was produced in Germany it drew some attention from the British public. A similar thing happened to Mackenzie's orchestral ballad, "La Belle Dame sans Merci, "1 after its first performance by the Philharmonic Society of London. Nationalism in England's music started about the middle of the nine teenth century. Edward Elgar was the first English composer in more than two hundred years to gain international recognition for England. The unusual thing about Elgar t s music was that it was not affected by the folk song nor any technical characteristics that evolved out of the 3 national music tradition. He proved himself English for the effective way that he wrote cantatas and oratorios for chorus. The oratorio, "The Dream of Gerontius, " is one of the most important among Elgar's choral works. "The Apostles" (which will be thematically analyzed in Chapter III of this paper), and "The Kingdom" are two other important oratorios written by Edward Elgar. These works were to be part of a trilogy on which he was working. The trilogy was not completed, however, before Elgar's death. The entire work, "The Apostles, " is concerned with the choosing of the twelve apostles, and with various scriptural characters up to the time of Christ's crucifixion. "The Kingdom" is a continuation of "The Apostles," and the two works are connected by the use of some of the same themes. Elgar planned to call the third part of the trilogy "The Judgment. " Elgar wrote music for a certain period in history. Today his music may seem a little out of place because people do not always listen to it with an understanding of the period for which it was written and an awareness of the great amount of genius required to write such music. His music should be given a fresh hearing, and should be renewed by other groups outside the few choral groups in England who now perform the powerful music of Sir Edward Elgar. CHAPTER II BIOGRAPHICAL SKE TCH In the year 1857 on June 2, Edward William Elgar was born at the village of Broadheath near Worcester, England. Elgar ts father, W. H. Elgar, was a native of Dover and left there to join the music publishing business of Messrs. Coventry & Hollier in Soho, London (5, p. 2). Having gained experience in this firm, he went to Worcester in 1841, and with the aid and partnership of his brother, established a music business there. He became organist of the Roman Catholic Church of St. George, a position he retained for thirty-seven years. He made his influence felt in the musical life of Worcester by playing the violin in the orchestra engaged for the Festival of the Three Choirs and taking part with either violin or piano in the musical activities of the town (5, p. 3). He married Anne Greening, a native of Weston in Herefordshire, who was a lady with literary tastes. She read a great deal and retained what she read, and she was able to quote passages from books upon a variety of subjects. She used this ability to help educate her children (8, p. 3). It may be gathered, then, that Edward Elgar, through his father's many musical interests and his mother's literary tastes, inherited much 4 5 that was to be of value in his future career. Elgar was not given any special attention in the matter of education, although he was sent to a ladies school where he received his elementary piano lessons (2, p. 16). He was encouraged by his father to take up the violin, and was placed with a local violin teacher, Frederick Spray, in hope that he might add to the family earnings by playing the violin in the orchestra. When Elgar left the music school at the age of fifteen, there was a proposal to send him to Leipzig to study music. The project received poor backing, and instead of going to Leipzig he entered the office of a firm of solicitors in Worcester (1, p. 909). Here he spent a year before he decided that he would be more in his element by helping his father in the music store and in the organ loft. This kept him in contact with music, and by playing violin and piano he earned some extra money. The small sums Elgar saved amounted to enough to enable him to travel to London in 1879 for a few lessons with Adolf Pollitizer, a well-known violinist of that day (1, p. 909). Pollitizer was extremely pleased with his new pupil and urged him to strive for a position as a solo violin player, but Elgar lost his confidence and abandoned his short-lived aspiration of becoming a concert violinist. In 1879 Elgar undertook one of the strangest tasks that could ever have fallen to the lot of a musician.