ABSTRACT
Dyson might have been thinking of his own oratorio Nebuchadnezzar, a commission for the 1935 Three Choirs Festival at Worcester, which followed Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, premiered at the 1931 Leeds Festival, when writing these words in 1948. In fact, Dyson's Nebuchadnezzar was influenced by Parry, Stanford, and Walton, and features elements that are a response to those in Job, The Three Holy Children, and Belshazzar's Feast. Foreman's presumption that Dyson had attempted to emulate Walton is correct, for Nebuchadnezzar, possesses some of the dramatic impact and conciseness of Belshazzar's Feast. Dyson might have been aware of the new piano-vocal score published in 1902 but, certainly, it can be assumed that he would have known the compositions of his teacher, Stanford, from whom he received tuition at the RCM. The work opens with a plastic orchestral motif, arresting and bold, to announce the manufacture of an image of gold by the King.
