The Kingdom (Elgar)

The Kingdom, Op. 51, is an English-language oratorio composed in 1906 by Edward Elgar. It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley. The dedication is "A. M. D. G." Elgar wrote The Kingdom for choral and instrumental forces.

Following The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles, the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned Elgar to produce another large oratorio for the 1906 festival. This was The Kingdom, which continues the narrative of the lives of Jesus's disciples. It depicts the community of the early church, Pentecost, and the events of the next few days.

Elgar had been planning a work depicting the Apostles as ordinary men, reacting to extraordinary events, for many years. His ideas outgrew the confines of a single work: parts of The Kingdom were written before The Apostles, and later Elgar considered them as the first two parts of a trilogy. The Kingdom is, in effect, its slow movement. In the event, the projected third part was never written.

The Kingdom is written for a large orchestra, of typical late Romantic proportions. There is a double chorus with semichorus, and four soloists representing: The Blessed Virgin (soprano), Mary Magdalene (contralto), St John (tenor), and St Peter (bass).

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