What is The Dream of Gerontius?
[[File:gerontius-score.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Manuscript score, signed by [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] and the performers of the first performance]] '''The Dream of Gerontius''' is a large musical work for [[choir]]: three solo singers and [[orchestra]] composed by [[Edward Elgar]]. It was composed and first performed in 1900. It is an [[oratorio]], although Elgar did not like it being called an “oratorio”, but this is how it is usually described. It is usually thought of as the best choral work Elgar ever wrote. The words are from a poem by [[John Henry Newman]]. They are supposed to be the words of a man called Gerontius who is dying. He imagines what is going to happen to him when he dies: how he will meet [[God]] who will judge whether he has been good enough to go to [[heaven]]. The [[angel]] speaks to him in the poem. There is also a [[priest]], and a short solo for the Angel of Agony. The work is in two parts. Part I is about 40 minutes long and Part II lasts about an hour. ==First performances== The work was composed for the [[Birmingham Triennial Music Festival|Birmingham Music Festival]] of 1900 and the first performance took place on 3 October 1900, in [[Birmingham Town Hall]]. There were problems at the first performance: the chorus master died while the work was being learned. Some of the music sounded strange to the choir who found it very difficult. The soloists were not very good, and it was difficult for the conductor, [[Hans Richter]] (who was an excellent conductor) to stop the choir from singing out of tune. Richter had not had time to prepare the work properly: he was only given the full score on the day before the first rehearsal. The next year the work was performed in [[Germany]] where it was well received. Another reason why it was slow to become popular in England was that the ideas in the poem were from the [[Roman Catholic]] teaching (John Henry Newman was a Roman Catholic [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]]). This meant that a lot of [[Anglican]] cathedrals did not want it to b