JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to 19th-Century Music.The musical works of Edward Elgar have typically been interpreted through the lenses of biography. Critics' assessments of his compositions often parallel how they understand Elgar's own feelings toward a particular work. For instance, an Elgar biographer recently judged the long-hailed "Enigma" Variations (1899) to be a work of genuine inspiration, in part because its composition supposedly came effortlessly to Elgar, and in part because it satisfied him greatly.' The same pattern of reception is true of Elgar's second oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius (1900): while the failure of its initial performance caused the composer great stress, its subsequent rehabilitation and acclaim ultimately gave him a great deal of satisfaction throughout his life, and many critics consider this work his best oratorio.2 Biographers and critics do not greet The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906) with nearly so much enthusiasm. Composing these oratorios-two linked works from a projected trilogy designed to present an English, Christian, and sacred counterpart to Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen-was a disorganized and often An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Second Biennial Conference on Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Durham, 1999. I would like to thank Chris Bennett, Melanie Weathersley, and Catherine Sloan of the Elgar Birthplace Museum; John Gough and the staff of the Birmingham Library; and the staffs of the British Library and the Library of Congress for their assistance with archival materials used in this article. Christine Crabb provided invaluable help with nineteenth-century biblical interpretation, and Christopher Sweeney and Nancy Scott facilitated the final version of this paper greatly with their respective detailed knowledge of the Book of Common Prayer and the Pre-Raphaelites. Geoffrey Hodgkins and Jerrold Northrop Moore graciously offered comments and archival material that tremendously aided the final version of this paper. Karen Painter and Reinhold Brinkmann provided helpful comments on earlier drafts. I would like especially to thank Byron Adams, whose conversations and insight initially inspired this paper. 'Jerrold Northrop Moore, "The Return of a Dove to the All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions disheartening process. While composing each, Elgar fought against his own procrastination as well as tremendous deadlines. Moreover, the whole project was exacerbated by the fact that he composed much of the music for both oratorios without a completed libretto. Although some of the text was established before the initial composition ...

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract