Praise To The Holiest

The Dream Of Gerontius was composed in 1900 for the Birmingham Music Festival. It was a large-scale work for chorus, soloists and orchestra, setting a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman. The section of the textbeginning Praise To The Holiest had already been set and popularised to an Anglican hymn tune, but Elgar shunned this version, preferring to write his own melody. This has been arranged here for femalechorus with Piano accompaniment.

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) is one of England’s best-known and most-loved composers. He was self-taught as composer, coming from outside the musical and social establishment,whichallowed his music to be fresh and unencumbered.