ELGAR, EDWARD (SIR)

(2 June 1857, Broadheath near Worcester, England – 23 February 1934,Worcester)

   Primarily a composer of concert music, Elgar also wrote about two dozen motets, hymns, anthems, and other liturgical works, and three oratorios: the widely admired The Dream of Gerontius (1900) on the theme of death and final judgment, and the diptych The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906; a third in the series, The Last Judgment, was left incomplete), based on Biblical texts selected by Elgar.