Relayed from Llandaff Cathedral.
'Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis'...Botting, in B Flat
Address by The Rev. Canon Jones Powell

(to 17.50 app.)

Relayed from the Park Hall.

Steuart Wilson (Tenor), Gladys Palmer (Contralto), Harold Williams (Baritone)
The Society's Chorus
Station Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Warwick Braithwaite

In 1865 Cardinal Newman wrote the poem, The Dream of Gerontius, inspired by his thoughts as he sat by the death-bed of a friend. It pictures the dream of a dying man as he anticipates what lies beyond and (in the second part) his soul's experiences after his dissolution. Elgar, himself of the same faith as Newman, long afterwards set the poem to music, and his setting had its first performance in 1900, at the Birmingham Festival.
In the First Part of the work we hear Gerontius (Tenor), the Priest (Bass), and Assistants (Chorus).
The music opens with a very beautiful Prelude, and then follow solo and chorus passages as detailed below:-
Gerontius: 'Jesu, Maria, I am near to death'.
Assistants: 'Kyrie Eleison'.
Gerontius: 'Rouse thee, my fainting soul'.
Assistants: 'Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord'.
Gerontius: 'Sanctus fortis. Sanctus Deus'.
Gerontius: 'I can no more'.
Assistants: 'Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour'.
Gerontius: 'Novissima hora est'. 'Into Thy Hands, O Lord'
The Priest: 'Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul', 'Proficiscere, anima Christiana'.
Assistants: 'Go, in the name of Angels and Archangels'.

Relayed to Daventry

In the Second Part we hear The Soul of Gerontius (Tenor), Guardian Angel (Mezzo-Soprano), The Angel of the Agony (Bass), and Demons, Angelicals, and Souls (Chorus). It opens with a brief Introduction, and then follow:-
Soul of Gerontius: 'I went to sleep; and now I am refreshed'.
Angel: 'My work is done, my task is o'er'.
Dialogue, Angel and Soul: 'All hail, my child and brother, hail!'
Demons: 'Lowborn clods of brute earth'.
Angel: 'It is the restless panting of their being'.
Demons: 'The mind bold and independent'.
Dialogue, Soul and Angel: 'I see not those false spirits'.
Angelicals: 'Glory to Him'.
Angel: 'They sing of thy approaching agony'.
Soul: 'But hark! a grand mysterious harmony!'
Angel: 'And now the threshold, as we traverse it, utters aloud its grand responsive chant'.
Angelicals: 'Praise to the Holiest in the height'.
Dialogue, Angel and Soul: 'Thy judgment now is near'.
Angel of the Agony: 'Jesu! by that shuddering dread which fell on Thee'.
Voices on Earth: 'Be merciful, be gracious. spare him. Lord'.
Angel: 'Praise to His Name'.
Soul: 'Take me away'.
Souls in Purgatory: 'Lord, Thou hast been our refuge'.
Angel: 'Softly and gently, dearly ransomed soul... I now enfold thee'.
Souls: 'Lord, Thou hast been our refuge'.
Angelicals: 'Praise to the Holiest'.

Relayed to Daventry
(to 22.45)