Elgar's Oratorios

"Using narrative theory to analyze the structure of the oratorios, Charles McGuire locates the different problem presented in each of the four works and shows the increasingly complex musical means that Elgar used to solve them. This new approach reveals that The Light of Life and Gerontius gave Elgar the tools to create musical epic of Wagnerian proportions in The Apostles and The Kingdom, and to transcend the limitations of the oratorio genre."--Jacket.