Howard Ferguson is an interesting figure. Born in Belfast in 1908, he had ambitions to become a composer. To this end, he traveled to London, where he studied at the Royal College of Music with, among others, Ralph Vaughan Williams. He also met and befriended a fellow student, Gerald Finzi. He achieved early success with works like the Octet of 1933, and no less a personage than Jascha Heifetz recorded his Violin Sonata No. 1.
Even so, over the decades his music has slipped from consciousness, no doubt helped by the fact that by mid-life, he felt he had said everything he had to say as a composer. He devoted his last four decades to musicological pursuits, editing and promoting works of Purcell, Schubert and Finzi. In the 1990s, he also wrote a cookbook, “Cooking Solo.” Ferguson died in 1999, not long after his 91st birthday.
Thankfully, he lived long enough to hear some fine recordings as part of a modest revival of his music in the 1980s and ‘90s. A number of his chamber works were released on the Hyperion label by fine musicians like Thea King and members of the Nash Ensemble; his Piano Concerto was recorded for EMI by Howard Shelley; and Richard Hickox conducted a disc of his orchestral works for Chandos.
Also on the latter album is what turned out to be Ferguson’s last completed work, for chorus and orchestra, “The Dream of the Rood,” composed in 1958. After that, the composer embarked on a string quartet, but became frustrated by the lack of a fresh perspective and tore the thing up.
“The Dream of the Rood” is based on an 8th century Anglo-Saxon poem which marries the Passion story with characteristics of the secular heroic tradition. The poem is framed by a narrator’s vision of a magnificent bejeweled tree. Upon closer inspection, however, he finds its jewels bespattered with blood. It becomes apparent that this tree was the very same upon which Christ was crucified.
The middle portion of the poem is told from the tree’s perspective, with the tree being cut down and carried away for the purpose of the crucifixion. The nails pierce the tree, yet man and tree endure, refusing to fall, bearing unimaginable pain for the sake of mankind. Just as Christ is resurrected, so is the Cross resurrected, now adorned with gold and silver. It is honored above all trees, just as Christ is honored above all men. The narrator gives praise to God, filled with hope at the prospect of eternal life and a desire to be nearer the glorious Cross.
“The Dream of the Rood” will be the featured work on the “The Lost Chord” this Easter Sunday. I hope you’ll join me for “Rood Awakening,” tomorrow night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Portions of the poem are engraved on the 8th century Ruthwell Cross (left, as it appeared between 1823 and 1887; and right, at its current location at Ruthwell Church, Dumfriesshire, Scotland)
