Beautiful reply, Ralph. I appreciate it. Yes, the poetry you quote is superb, it's just that I regard just about everything to do with Christianity as mumbo jumbo man-made gobble de gook. It reminds me of the exchange with Father Frank. It centered around the Lutz YouTube video of the Christmas cantata. I called my wife to listen to the glorious music-making and tears rolled down my face. I noted the display of English subtitles. I told my wife I wish they hadn't bothered because the words distract from the glory of the music. I mentioned the dialogue in Martinu's Greek Passion, the memorable lines: Will you have onions? No, I don't like onions, came the reply.
To me, Gerontius is on that same level, platitide after platitude, some of it mixed with the three lines of wisdom you quoted.
Father Frank, a man of the WORD, of the faith that the WORD became God, the text is as important as the musical notes.
I also confess that though I am a published writer, apart from juvenile doggerel, I am not a man given to poetry.
The other aspect of this work by Elgar is that it never seems to move from a very reverential first gear. It reminds me of the daily torture inflicted on us at Secondary School - daily Mass.The horror, the horror....
Thank you for your response, Dieter. Forgive me if I observe that although you say you are "repulsed" by the work, you do not address my specific point regarding the literary quality of the text. I assume from what you say that you do not find the music itself rebarbative but rather the expression of Catholic belief regarding purgatory and salvation, which is not itself "faux" but orthodox - or is that inseparable for you from that text? I am interested in what precisely about the style - rather than the content - of Newman's poetry people find so objectionable, as I would point to many instances where I think the words are beautiful. It is undoubtedly "Victorian" and occasionally "faux-archaic" in sensibility - but then, my favourite poet is Tennyson, so I suppose I would respond to Newman's idiom. For example, what's wrong with:
"I hear no more the busy beat of time,
No, nor my fluttering breath, nor struggling pulse;
Nor does one moment differ from the next."
(The complete text is provided here: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/elgar/guides/dream-gerontius-complete-text/ )
It is an oft-repeated mantra that the text Elgar used for his great oratorio is "terrible...embarrassing...mawkish...inept" - you name it - and I have long puzzled over this automatic condemnation. This posting is prompted by my catching our resident YouTube know-it-all critic and indefatigable belittler of all things British yet again coming out with that accusation. I do not say that I am any kind of supreme arbiter of literary taste but as an Oxford graduate in English Literature, a teacher of English over twenty-five years and a dabbler in translation into what I hope is elegant English, I remain mystified by that claim. It seems to me that Newman's text is direct, moving and devoid of flowery pretentiousness; are those negative reactions, I wonder, the result of delicate Protestant sensibilities being revolted by the expression of Catholic convictions? Or simply an unexamined prejudice which has gained currency? I am genuinely perplexed and would be interested to hear what fellow Elgar-devotees think!
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