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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