The Angel's Farewell from the Dream of Gerontius

New to this website, and my second piece of Elgar of the day. To keep my interest up and force myself to learn new repertoire I'm doing an "organ alphabet" series of voluntaries - currently for pre-recorded services. A was for Alain, B was for Bach, and now E is for Elgar.

The other half of my E offering is Pomp and Circumstance no 4 (https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/44392).

The Dream of Gerontius is one of the masterpieces of the late 19th century. It clearly owes a debt to Wagner, but to my (English) ear it is far superior. It's easy to forget that Elgar, as well as being the quintessential establishment gentleman, was also an outsider - a Catholic at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment was still mainstream. And music doesn't get much more Catholic than Gerontius.

This is an arrangement of the closing section ("Softly and gently, dearly ransomed soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee...") in which the Angel leads Gerontius's soul in words which also have an echo of pagan Rome ("And carefully I dip thee in the lake")

The arrangement is by Herbert Brewer, organist at Gloucester Cathedral. He also arranged the prelude - the music for both is on IMSLP. He has essentially taken the orchestral accompaniment, which includes an outline of the soloist's line. One day I will prevail on my resident contralto to do a combined recording. Musically it often harks back to the centrepiece of the oratorio - Elgar's version of "Praise to the Holiest". It's by far the best tune of the many used for those words, even if it is completely unsingable by a congregation.

I've been reasonably liberal in my registration. Most of it is marked for Swell Open Diapason, with the occasional addition of oboe, and solo lines for oboe and clarinet.

David Briggs released a version on Facebook last summer, which is what alerted me to the music. I've recorded it as live and then added registration on a second take - my console has no registration aids.