Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius: A Story in Five Places | Episode 4

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/embed/3871718040e1f0947fed

Episode 4  | The Birmingham Oratory: Elgar and Newman

 
Image of the Birmingham Oratory

Birmingham Oratory | Image credit: By SilentVicinity via Wikimedia

Dr Guy Nicholls joins Dr Joanna Bullivant at The Oratory in Birmingham to discuss the origins of Elgar’s work in Cardinal Newman’s own poetry, charitable work, and love of music.

 

Dr Joanna Bullivant is Departmental Lecturer in Historical Musicology at the Faculty of Music and a current TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellow working on her project 'The Dream of Gerontius: Curating Catholic Music Digitally'. This podcast series (4 episodes) explores Elgar’s work 'The Dream of Gerontius' through five historic locations associated with it, some of which have received little attention previously and are not part of the traditional Elgar tourist routes. The five locations at which filming will take place are: Worcester Cathedral; St George’s, Worcester; The Firs (Elgar’s Birthplace Museum); Birchwood Lodge (where the work was composed) and The Oratory, Birmingham.

 

Musical extracts from Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (Hallé Orchestra/cond. Sir Mark Elder/Hyperion Records, 2008) are used with the kind permission of the Hallé Orchestra.

Images from the MS copyright of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory; digital images property of National Institute of Newman Studies, USA. Detail from Elgar letter used with kind permission of the British Library.

Filming undertaken with kind permission of The Oratory, Birmingham; The Chapter of Worcester Cathedral; St George’s Church, Worcester; The National Trust.

Produced by Tiger Features for TORCH/University of Oxford.

 

Episode 1  |  Worcester Cathedral: A Civic Legacy  |  Release date: 12/08/2021

Episode 2  |  St George’s Church, Worcester: Marginal Origins  |  Release date: 17/08/2021

Episode 3  |  The Firs and Birchwood Lodge: Natural Inspirations  |  Release date: 24/08/2021

Episode 4  |  The Birmingham Oratory: Elgar and Newman  |  Release date: 31/08/2021

You can read more about Dr Joanna Bullivant's KE Fellowship 'The Dream of Gerontius: Curating Catholic Music Digitally' on the project webpage.