Elgar, Edward

Elgar belonged to one of the first generations of Britons in recent times to celebrate the Catholic Mass. The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 had put an end to 200 years of religious intolerance and Elgar’s parents had both been early converts to Catholicism(though it is doubtful that his father was very serious about it. He attended St. George’s Worcester only to play the organ, often leaving during the sermon to drink a pint of beer at a local inn).

Nevertheless, Catholicism was still widely distrusted and Elgar’s choral ‘music-drama’ for the 1900 Birmingham Festival, The Dream of Gerontius (MPH score 1186), attracted much criticism for its very Catholic theme – the preparation of a soul for Purgator