Edward Elgar - The Apostles - A Study Guide
Golgotha and the Empty Tomb
Night at Golgotha, V.V. Vereshchagin, 1869
Following a pause, the scene at Golgotha with the final words of Christ from the gospel of Matthew (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”) intoned not by the chorus or soloists, but by the orchestra alone. Elgar has written the Aramaic words below the string parts:
The choir intones the response, “Truly this was the Son of God.” What follows is a simple but beautiful dialogue between Jesus Mother Mary and the Apostle John – singing words from the prophets Zechariah and Isaiah and recalling musical themes associated with Jesus from earlier in the oratorio. We hear the all-important three-chords of the “Christ the Man of Sorrows” theme three times under John’s words “They shall look upon him/whom they have pierced/and they shall mourn for him.”
Listen to the scene while following the text below:
(start at 1:41:35 stopping at 1:46:50)
GOLGOTHA
Apostles and Chorus
Truly this was the Son of God. (Matt. 27:54)
Mary
The sword hath pierced through mine own soul. (Luke 2:35)
John and Mary
Thou hast trodden the winepress alone,
and of Thy people there was none with Thee. (Isaiah 63:3)
They shall look upon Him Whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one
mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is
in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zech. 12:10)
Mary
The sword hath pierced through mine own soul.
AT THE SEPULCHRE
Connecting without pause, the understated scene at the cross is matched by a second understated and serene depiction of the women disciples visiting the empty tomb. The soloist who sings the role of Mary Magdalene, named in the scriptures as one of the first witnesses, is nonetheless named only by voice part as the narrator of this scene.
The men of the choir play the role of watchmen, reprising the chant we heard in the opening Temple scene of Part I (“The face of all the East is now ablaze with light”) as we view another sunrise, connecting the closing scene with the opening.
Elgar calls upon the women of the chorus to represent multiple angels singing “Alleluia’s” and announcing the good news to the unheard women disciples. There is a resemblance between the music they sing here and the consoling music of the women’s chorus at the end of Peter’s earlier denial scene.
Listen to the scene while following the text below:
(start at 1:46:50 stopping at 1:50:45)
Narrator 2
And very early in the morning they came unto the
sepulchre at the rising of the sun; (Mark 16:2)
and they entered in,
and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:3)
The Watchers (on the Temple roof)
The face of all the East is now ablaze with light;
the Dawn reacheth even unto Hebron!
Angels (Women's Chorus)
Alleluia!
Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen. (Luke 24:5-6)
Behold the place where they laid Him.
Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth
before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him,
as He said unto you. (Mark 16:6-7)
Alleluia!
Questions to ponder:
Does Elgar’s restrained and abbreviated portrayal of these two key events illuminate aspects of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ that weren’t as apparent to you otherwise?
How does the return of the chanting in the Temple from the opening scene put that scene in a different light (or clarify what Elgar was pointing toward in that scene)? Continuity of tradition? Other connections?