The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-29
"THB DREAM OF GERONTIUS. .
MR.. CIGARS SETTING or CARDI-
MAJ NEWMANS POEM.
A New sacred Cantata which Is an
Homer to English Music-Ine Music
Powerfully Impressive and Filled
With Great Contrapunts1 Skill.

| FOWcUuuy IMPRESSIVE uuu Eu'eu
With Great Contrapuntsi Skill.
The week which has just ended was not
a. busy in the performance Of music as
the week after the opera season usually
Is. When the divine warblers Of Meyer
beer and Wagner have departed from the
scene of their more or lees valuable activi-
ties 1t Is usual for all sorts Of concert singers
to rush in and offer the joys Of their art to
| a world which has been stated with singing.
But this year comparative quiet prevailed.
\ Doleful David Baxter and lissome Leila
Morse sang to US, and then we settled down
to hearing two new works, Louis Won Gaert-
ner's symphonic fantasia, THE Gods OF
Greece and Edward Cigars cantata,
THE Dream Of Gerontius.'
The first Of these two compositions did
not hold us long In its trail. The gods.
like Mdcbeth's spectre, came like shadows
and so departed. Sufficient comment was
made on this composition at the time Of
its performance. Let II go spinning down
the ringing grooves Of change very small
change at that. But the cantata Of Edward
Elgar is matter of different sort. II will
be disappointing, indeed. IL this admirable
work does not become one Of the perma-
/ AsVhe ih'oih VI bihS puDhS' ~ Ou8h' W
be repeated next season, for 1t achieved
solid success on Thursday night
This outcome IL good cause for general
felicitation. The musical forms which
admit OF the employment Of the great
chorus, orchestra. organ and soloists are
| few, and 1t almost looked as IL some Of them
we're outworn. The mass belongs properly
| to the Roman Catholic Church, though
| public performances Of such music are
attended chiefly by Jews, who are the most
liberal and intelligent supporters Of all
music. Furthermore. no inspiration OF
genius can prevent the mass from becom-
ing a trifie monotonous. What is a COM
poser to do with -Kyrie Eleison, Christie
Eleison-i He must fugue it or chant 1t;
there Is little choice. What will he do with
the 'Dies Ir - II he attempts to be
pictorial. Berlioz laughs him to scorn. II
he does not, the audience wonders when
the trombones and the tympani are TO
come in.
English composers have done little enough
with the mass. and they have not wasted
much time over the requiem. In the field
Of oratorio they have been very busy and
they have done their level best to initiate
Mendelssohn and Handel and to mingle
the styles Of the two. They have paid
scant tribute to Haydn and have profited
little by the suggestions offered in his naive
instrumental depictions in The Creation
Treading laboriously the old paths, the in
dustrious and well-meaning brethren Of
the Bridge and Cowen variety have well
nigh persuaded US that there was nothing
to be expected from England.
Gounod's excursions into the field OF
oratorio were productive OF small rsults.
His Re demption- is so pretty and his
musical representation Of the most rever-
end figure in the thoughts Of worshipping
man so sentimental that the nearer won
ders why Aephisfopees does not enter
and chortle his calf Of gold" The .Mors
OF Vita Is no better. while Massenet's
Eve" led toward tho conclusion that
Frenchmen knew but one temptation,
namely. that TO which they always cheer
fully yielded.
The Germans have in recent years given
US Q few good works In which the
large chorus and orchestra could be en-
ployed. But on the whole really striking
oratorio or cantata was needed to stir US
all UP and reaflrm our belief in music OF
this variety. Mr.. Elgsr has given US what
We needed. He has warmed the cookies
Of our hearts and set the smouldering en-
bers OF our imaginations into visible fame
once more. 1t is q pity that the work
had to be produced 90 near the end Of the
season. 1t would have been received with
more enthusiasm had IL come earlier, when
impressions were more spontaneous.
Mr. Elgar was hardly known three years
<k.x. az -
the Birmingham festival. Richter oon-
Quoted the work. and expressed his Joy In
1t In Characteristic terms. It was per-
formed In 1907 at the Lower Rhenish fes- |
tival and the Germans chorused their ap-
prevail OF the hitherto unknown English |
man. America will now fall into line a |
little late, but none the less eagerly. We |
have not known much about Elgar. We |
have heard his sea Pictures and his |
Pipes Of Pam songs Of sublimated medi- |
ocrity. and his overture, 'Cockaigne.'
clever Instrumentation OF tenuous ideas; |
but still we wondered why England priced |
him 20 highly. We wonder no more. |
The Dream Of Gerontius 7 explains EVERY |
thing. and notice Ii served upon Mr.. Elgar |
that his standard has been measured in
this country. To live up to 1t will he no
child's task.
Mr. Elgar Is chiefly self taught He was
at one time organist Of st. Georges Roman
Catholic Church at Worcester. and In himself |
a devout follower OF the religion Of Rome.
He In something Of q mystic. too, and this
helped him toward ready sympathy with
Cardinal Newman's poem. This poem,
we are told. was given to Mr.. Elear a. a
wedding present In 1850. and he permitted
Il TO work upon his imagination for eight
years before the world heard his music.
He abbreviated the text here and there,
but made no other alterations.
Newman's poem 10. OF course. essentially
Roman Catholic in it's thought. but with
the single exception OF the reference TO
purgatory. II contains little or nothing
with which . sinoere Protestant would
Ind himself out Of sympathy. The citation
81 the mass and the sub venite- and other
parts Of the Roman ritual amounts 10 little.
The Protestant mind will he surprised 10
Ind that In Cardinal Newman's heaven the
Holy Virgin does not dominate. that the
,ne great hgure which fills that abode
u bliss 10 the sgonixed Christ, torn with
In youn ds of the cross and dlled with |