Edward Elgar

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Edward Elgar, c. 1900
Elgar's birthplace, Lower
Broadheath
Elgar's parents,
William and Ann Elgar
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"Elgar" redirects here. For other uses, see Elgar (disambiguation).
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO(2 June 1857 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and
international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches,
concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed
Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be
an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was
regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even
after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to
achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He
followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in
Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered
the regular repertory. The first of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901) is well known in the English-speaking world.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public
popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing
chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained lowfor a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by newrecordings of his works.
Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music remains more played in Britain than elsewhere.
Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the microphone in 1925 made
far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made newrecordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early years
1.2 Marriage
1.3 Growing reputation
1.4 National and international fame
1.5 Last major works
1.6 Last years
2 Music
2.1 Influences, antecedents and early works
2.2 Peak creative years
2.3 Final years and posthumous completions
2.4 Reputation
3 Honours, awards and commemorations
4 Selected works
4.1 Orchestral
4.2 Cantatas and oratorios
4.3 Songs
4.4 Partsongs
4.5 Church music
4.6 Chamber music
4.7 Keyboard
4.8 Arrangements
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 Sources
8 Further reading
9 External links
Biography [edit]
Early years [edit]
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England. His father, William Henry Elgar (18211906), was raised in Dover and had been
apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments.
[1]
In 1848 he married Ann Greening (18221902), daughter of a farm worker.
[2]
Edward was the fourth of their seven children.
[n1]
Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism
shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father.
[n2]
William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard
and held the post of organist of St. George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the
Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin.
[5]
All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin
lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local
figures.
[1]
Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development.
[2]
He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a
passionate love of the countryside.
[6]
His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that
"permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality."
[7][n3]
He began composing at an early
age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled
The Wand of Youth.
[2]
Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (nowLyttleton)
[n4]
House school, near Worcester. However, his only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons
from local teachers was more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer, during brief visits to London in 187778. Elgar said "my first music was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed
from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten."
[10]
He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music.
[5]
He later said
that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
[11]
Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for
further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical
development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools."
[5]
However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to the
office of a local solicitor as a clerk. He did not find an office career congenial, and for fulfilment he turned not only to music but to literature, becoming a voracious reader.
[n5]
Around this time,
he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist.
[13]
After a fewmonths, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop.
[1]
He was an active member of the
Worcester Glee Club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. Pollitzer believed that, as a
violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country,
[14]
but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full
enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist.
[1]
At twenty-two he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum in Powick,
three miles (5 km) from Worcester.
[5]
The band consisted of: piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, three or four first and a similar number of second violins, occasional viola, cello,
double bass and piano.
[15]
Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience
proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to knowintimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of
these and many other instruments."
[5]
He held the post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week.
[1]
Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind
Sons of Gentlemen.
[5]
Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles.
[2]
He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvok's
Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under the composer's baton.
[16]
Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band).
[5]
Elgar
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Schumann and Brahms, top,
Rubinstein and Wagner, bottom,
whose music inspired Elgar in
Leipzig
Edward and Alice Elgar, c.
1891
Serenade for Strings (Op. 20, mv1)
Elgar's "Serenade for Strings, movement
1" performed bythe United States Army
Band Strings ensemble
Problems playing this file? See media help.
August Jaeger, Elgar's publisher
and friend, and "Nimrod" of the Enigma
Variations
Cardinal Newman, author
of the text of The Dream of
Gerontius
Clara Butt, first singer of
Elgar's "Land of Hope and
Glory"
arranged numerous pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills.
[5]
In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Sans play the organ at the Madeleine and attended concerts by first-rate orchestras. In 1882 he
wrote, "I got pretty well dosed with Schumann (my ideal!), Brahms, Rubinstein & Wagner, so had no cause to complain."
[10]
In Leipzig he visited a friend, Helen Weaver, who was a
student at the Conservatoire. They became engaged in the summer of 1883, but for unknown reasons the engagement was broken off the next year.
[1]
Elgar was greatly distressed,
and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her.
[n6]
Throughout his life, Elgar was often inspired by close women friends;
Helen Weaver was succeeded by Mary Lygon, Dora Penny, Julia Worthington, Alice Stuart Wortley and finally Vera Hockman, who enlivened his old age.
[17]
In 1883, while a regular member of the orchestra for W. C. Stockley's winter concert seasons in Birmingham, Elgar took part in a performance of one of his first works for full orchestra,
the Srnade mauresque. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece, but, as Stockley later recalled, "he declined, and, further, insisted upon playing in his place in the orchestra.
The consequence was that he had to appear, fiddle in hand, to acknowledge the genuine and hearty applause of the audience."
[18]
He often went to London in an attempt to get his
works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and lowon money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am
not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money not a cent."
[19]
For a number of years he was assistant to his father, William Elgar, as
organist of St George's, Worcester, and succeeded him for four years from 1885. During this period he wrote his first liturgical works in the Roman Catholic tradition, beginning with his
three motets Op. 2 (1887) for four-part choir (Ave Verum Corpus, Ave Maria and Ave Maris Stella), and followed by a setting of Ecce sacerdos magnus for the entry of the Bishop on an
official visit to St. George's in 1888, all four of which remain in the repertoire of church choirs.
Marriage [edit]
When Elgar was twenty-nine, he took on a newpupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and a published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight
years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who
worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited."
[1]
They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory.
[16]
From then until her death she acted as his business
manager and social secretary, dealt with his mood swings and was a perceptive musical critic.
[20][21]
She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited
success.
[22]
In time he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his
career.
[n7]
In her diary she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman."
[24]
As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin and piano piece Salut
d'Amour to her.
[n8]
With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only
child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names
Caroline and Alice.
Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know
newmusic.
[25]
Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were
masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Richard Wagner.
[2]
His own compositions, however, made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns
conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and the Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries, and
partsongs.
[26]
Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly.
[26]
For example, an offer from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to run through some of his works was withdrawn
at the last second when Sir Arthur Sullivan arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music. Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened.
[n9]
Elgar's only important commission while in
London came from his home city: the Worcester Festival Committee invited him to compose a short orchestral work for the 1890 Three Choirs Festival.
[28]
The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890.
[2]
For lack of other work, he was obliged to leave
London in 1891 and return with his wife and child to Worcestershire, where he could earn a living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching. They settled in Alice's former home town, Great Malvern.
[2]
Growing reputation [edit]
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892)
and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing
publisher in Novello and Co.
[29]
Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough
consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger
man's career.
[n10]
Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival
composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed
with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has
given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."
[31]
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent
German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with
the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they
would have written if they were asses enough to compose".
[32]
He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting
Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations.
[33]
The
large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.
[2]
The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is
that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole
set" but is never heard.
[n11]
Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in
particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss.
[1][2]
The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy,
[35]
and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.
[n12]
National and international fame [edit]
Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as
first musician of the land."
[16]
Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited.
[36]
For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream
of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly.
[37]
Elgar was deeply depressed, but the
critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance.
[1]
It was performed in Dsseldorf, Germany, in 1901 and again in 1902, conducted by Julius Buths, who also
conducted the European premiere of the Enigma Variations in 1901. The German press was enthusiastic. The Cologne Gazette said, "In both parts we meet with beauties of imperishable
value. ... Elgar stands on the shoulders of Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, from whose influences he has freed himself until he has become an important individuality. He is one of the leaders of
musical art of modern times." The Dsseldorfer Volksblatt wrote, "A memorable and epoch-making first performance! Since the days of Liszt nothing has been produced in the way of
oratorio ... which reaches the greatness and importance of this sacred cantata."
[38]
Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day,
[39]
was so impressed that in
Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar."
[39][n13]
Performances in Vienna, Paris and NewYork followed,
[2][41]
and The
Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a newchapter in the
English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation."
[1]
Elgar, as a Roman Catholic, was much moved by Newman's poem about the death and redemption of a sinner,
but some influential members of the Anglican establishment disagreed. His colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford complained that the work "stinks of incense".
[42]
The Dean of Gloucester
banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.
[43]
Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930.
[44]
It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over
the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms,
[45]
where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first
march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em will knock 'em flat".
[46]
When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade
Concert, it was conducted by Henry J. Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item
was accorded a double encore."
[47]
To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House in
June 1901. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have
words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the newvocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of
Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song.
[48]
It was immensely popular and is nowconsidered an unofficial British
national anthem.
[1]
In the United States, the trio, known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or "The Graduation March", has been adopted since 1905 for virtually all high school and
university graduations.
[49][50]
In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years
ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to
be out of his mind."
[51]
The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius,
[51]
and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first
heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival).
[52]
The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara
Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a neworchestral work, In the South (Alassio),
inspired by a holiday in Italy.
[53]
Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904.
[54]
The following month, he and his family moved to Pls Gwyn,
[55]
a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until
1911.
[1]
Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at the zenith of popularity.
[1]
He made four visits to the U.S., including one conducting tour, and earned considerable fees from the performance of his
music. Between 1905 and 1908, he held the post of Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham.
[2]
He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music.
[56]
He
was not at ease in the role,
[57]
and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics
[58][n14]
and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with
inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white all over white and
somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You knowin your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted
the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908.
[61]
His newlife as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-
health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love."
[62]
Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would
have collaborated with George Bernard Shawhad Shawbeen willing.
[63]
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
FritzKreisler, dedicatee
of Elgar's Violin Concerto
Elgar aged about 60
Laurence
Binyon (top) and
Rudyard Kipling,
whose verses
Elgar set during
World War I
Cello Concerto IV. Allegro
Performed bythe Skidmore College
Orchestra. Courtesyof Musopen
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Elgar in 1919, byWilliam
Rothenstein
Trio of Pomp and Circumstance March
No. 1
Conducted byElgar in 1931 at the
opening of EMI's studios
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Elgar's principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford, professor at Yale University. Elgar visited America in that year to conduct his music and to accept a
doctorate from Yale.
[2][n15]
His next large-scale work was the sequel to The Apostles the oratorio The Kingdom (1906). It was well received but did not catch the public imagination as The Dream of Gerontius had done
and continued to do. Among keen Elgarians, however, The Kingdom was sometimes preferred to the earlier work: Elgar's friend Frank Schuster told the young Adrian Boult: "compared with The Kingdom, Gerontius is the
work of a rawamateur."
[64]
As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years.
[65]
His First Symphony (1908) was a
national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in NewYork under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Lwe, St. Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur
Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.
[66]
The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from W. H.
Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's
life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I KnewHim (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition.
[67]
The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and
the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion".
[68]
So great
was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugne Ysae spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented
Ysae from playing it in London.
[68]
The Violin Concerto was Elgar's last popular triumph. The following year he presented his Second Symphony in London, but was disappointed at its reception. Unlike the First Symphony, it
ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and contemplatively. Reed, who played at the premiere, later wrote that Elgar was recalled to the platform several times to acknowledge
the applause, "but missed that unmistakable note perceived when an audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused or worked up, as it was after the Violin Concerto or the First
Symphony."
[69]
Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs."
[69]
The work was, by normal standards, a success, with twenty-seven
performances within three years of its premiere, but it did not achieve the international furore of the First Symphony.
[70]
Last major works [edit]
In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V, Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit,
[71]
an exclusive honour limited to twenty-four holders at
any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-
scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received
politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece,"
[72]
while the musical
scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."
[73]
When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused.
[74]
He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later
withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army.
[75]
He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for
speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium,
[76]
and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland.
[77]
Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished
in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
[2]
Elgar's other compositions during the war included incidental music for a children's play, The Starlight Express (1915); a ballet, The Sanguine Fan (1917); and The
Spirit of England (191517, to poems by Laurence Binyon), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years.
[2]
His last
large-scale composition of the war years was The Fringes of the Fleet, settings of verses by Rudyard Kipling, performed with great popular success around the country,
until Kipling for unexplained reasons objected to their performance in theatres.
[78]
Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.
[79]
Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented 'Brinkwells', a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex
Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano
Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful newmusic".
[80]
All three works were well received. The Times
wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be."
[81]
The quartet and quintet
were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry,
and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."
[82]
By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony
Orchestra's 191920 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was
conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ...
that brute Coates went on rehearsing."
[83]
The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of
inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable
an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years but with a
profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity."
[84]
Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played for him again later.
[85]
In contrast with the
First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.
[86]
Last years [edit]
Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion,
[1]
his admirers continued to present his works when possible. Reed singles out a performance of the Second Symphony in
March 1920 conducted by "a young man almost unknown to the public", Adrian Boult, for bringing "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to a wider public. Also in 1920, Landon Ronald
presented an all-Elgar concert at the Queen's Hall.
[87]
Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music
played in public.
[88]
After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.
[89]
Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife.
[85]
With no public demand for newworks, and deprived of Alice's constant support and inspiration, he allowed himself to be deflected from
composition. His daughter later wrote that Elgar inherited from his father a reluctance to "settle down to work on hand but could cheerfully spend hours over some perfectly unnecessary
and entirely unremunerative undertaking", a trait that became stronger after Alice's death.
[90]
For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies.
[1]
Throughout his
life he was a keen amateur chemist, sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden.
[91]
He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an
anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal",
[92]
and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protgs, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both
recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races.
[93][94]
In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic cyclist, buying
Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus").
[95]
As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur.
[1]
In
November and December 1923, he took a voyage to Brazil, journeying up the Amazon to Manaus, where he was impressed by its opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. Almost nothing is
recorded about Elgar's activities or the events that he encountered during the trip, which gave the novelist James Hamilton-Paterson considerable latitude when writing Gerontius, a fictional
account of the journey.
[96]
After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to
1927.
[97]
He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924
British Empire Exhibition.
[98]
Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.
[99]
From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously",
[100]
he had already recorded much of his
music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium
for reproducing orchestral and choral music.
[100]
Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance.
[100]
Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up a series of sessions
to capture on disc the composer's interpretations of his major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, the first and second symphonies, and the cello and violin concertos. For most of these, the
orchestra was the LSO, but the Variations were played by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. Later in the series of recordings, Elgar also conducted two newly founded orchestras, Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir
Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elgar's recordings were released on 78-rpm discs by both HMV and RCA Victor. After World War II, the 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto with the teenage Menuhin as soloist remained available on 78 and later on LP,
but the other recordings were out of the catalogues for some years. When they were reissued by EMI on LP in the 1970s, they caused surprise to many by their fast tempi, in contrast to the slower speeds adopted by
many conductors in the years since Elgar's death.
[100]
The recordings were reissued on CD in the 1990s.
[101]
In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Path for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only
surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before."
[102]
A memorial plaque to
Elgar at Abbey Road was unveiled on 24 June 1993.
[103]
A late piece of Elgar's, the Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere: its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar
once again drewon his youthful sketch-books.
[2][n16]
In his final years, Elgar experienced a musical revival. The BBC organised a festival of his works to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1932.
[104]
He flewto Paris in
1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellowcomposer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing.
[16]
He was sought out
by younger musicians such as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent and John Barbirolli, who championed his music when it was out of fashion.
[105][106]
He began work on an
opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness, however, prevented their completion. He fretted
about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony,
[107]
but at other times he
said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it or write a better one."
[108]
After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in cooperation with the BBC
and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady,
[109]
which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer
Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1998.
[108]
Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933.
[110]
Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St. Wulstan's Church in Little Malvern.
Music [edit]
Influences, antecedents and early works [edit]
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music
[111]
and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded
Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings.
[112]
The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvok and, to some
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Elgar and the London SymphonyOrchestra at the
Queen's Hall
Fragment of manuscript of the
opening of the second movement of the
Cello Concerto
degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth-century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Sans
and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.
[111][113]
Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drewon his early sketchbooks for themes and inspiration. The habit of assembling his compositions, even large-scale ones, from scraps of themes jotted down
randomly remained throughout his life.
[114]
His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 187881, and music of many types for the Powick
Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but fewof them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of
Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches.
[2]
Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 188991, the overture Froissart, was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but
also showing further Elgarian characteristics.
[2]
Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. In this period and later, Elgar
wrote songs and partsongs. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the partsong The Snow, for female voices, and Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which
remains in the repertory.
[115]
Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He
also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts
and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma
Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade.
[2]
Peak creative years [edit]
Elgar's best-known works were composed within the twenty-one years between 1899 and 1920. Most of them are orchestral. Reed wrote, "Elgar's genius rose to its
greatest height in his orchestral works" and quoted the composer as saying that, even in his oratorios, the orchestral part is the most important.
[116]
The Enigma
Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in
contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases.
[2]
His next orchestral works, Cockaigne (In London Town), a concert-overture (1900
1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and the gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne, lasting less than
fifteen minutes. In the South (Alassio) (19031904), although designated by Elgar as a concert-overture, is, according to Kennedy, really a tone poem and the longest
continuous piece of purely orchestral writing Elgar had essayed. He wrote it after setting aside an early attempt to compose a symphony.
[117]
The work reveals his
continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at
less than its brightest."
[118]
In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a
profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis
Fantasia."
[119]
Nevertheless, at less than a quarter of an hour, it was not by contemporary standards a lengthy composition. Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony,
composed at the same time, runs for well over an hour.
[n17]
During the next four years, however, Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by
an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour.
[n18]
McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not
only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence.
Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several
dozen music examples to chart its progress."
[2]
Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, in the viewof Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind".
[121]
They are, however, very
different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart,
[115]
is lyrical
throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns.
[122]
The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to
another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent."
[123]
Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which
has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with
Shakespeare's",
[124]
while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters.
[125]
Reed thought that the
principal themes showless distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works.
[126]
Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.
[127]
The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius
(1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as
a pice d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several
quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben.
[128]
The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains
the best-loved and most performed.
[129]
On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like
another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory."
[2]
All three of the large-scale works followthe traditional
model with sections for soloists, chorus and both together. Elgar's distinctive orchestration, as well as his melodic inspiration, lifts them to a higher level than most of their British
predecessors.
[130]
Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood
(1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy".
[131]
Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal
repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra."
[115]
Final years and posthumous completions [edit]
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and Chopin, in distinctively Elgarian orchestration,
[2]
and once again turned his youthful notebooks
to use for the Nursery Suite (1931). His other compositions of this period have not held a place in the regular repertory.
[1]
For most of the rest of the twentieth century, it was generally agreed that Elgar's creative impulse
ceased after his wife's death. Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those
pages, along with others, showElgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. The Gramophone described the opening of the newwork as something "thrilling ... unforgettably gaunt".
[132]
Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006.
[133]
Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913
were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.
[134]
Reputation [edit]
Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile
reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern".
[135]
Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any
country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models Beethoven and Brahms."
[40]
By contrast, the critic
W. J. Turner, in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "Salvation Army symphonies,"
[113]
and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms".
[136]
Elgar's immense popularity was not long-
lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with
the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years.
[1]
Henry Wood and younger conductors such as Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli championed Elgar's music, but in the recording catalogues and the concert programmes of the middle of the century his works were not well
represented.
[2][137]
In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the
academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression".
[138]
This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy.
[139]
In the later years
of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book
The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:
Boastful self-confidence, emotional vulgarity, material extravagance, a ruthless philistinism expressed in tasteless architecture and every kind of expensive yet hideous accessory: such features of a late
phase of Imperial England are faithfully reflected in Elgar's larger works and are apt to prove indigestible today. But if it is difficult to overlook the bombastic, the sentimental, and the trivial elements in his
music, the effort to do so should nevertheless be made, for the sake of the many inspired pages, the power and eloquence and lofty pathos, of Elgar's best work. ... Anyone who doubts the fact of Elgar's
genius should take the first opportunity of hearing The Dream of Gerontius, which remains his masterpiece, as it is his largest and perhaps most deeply felt work; the symphonic study, Falstaff; the
Introduction and Allegro for Strings; the Enigma Variations; and the Violoncello Concerto.
[137]
By the 1960s, a less severe viewwas being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept
so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English
music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical
nations."
[138]
In 1967 the critic and analyst David Cox considered the question of the supposed Englishness of Elgar's music. Cox noted that Elgar disliked folk-songs and never used them in his works, opting for an idiom that was
essentially German, leavened by a lightness derived from French composers including Berlioz and Gounod. Howthen, asked Cox, could Elgar be "the most English of composers"? Cox found the answer in Elgar's own
personality, which "could use the alien idioms in such a way as to make of them a vital form of expression that was his and his alone. And the personality that comes through in the music is English."
[113]
This point about
Elgar's transmuting his influences had been touched on before. In 1930 The Times wrote, "When Elgar's first symphony came out, someone attempted to prove that its main tune on which all depends was like the Grail
theme in Parsifal. ... but the attempt fell flat because everyone else, including those who disliked the tune, had instantly recognized it as typically 'Elgarian', while the Grail theme is as typically Wagnerian."
[140]
As for
Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it,
[40]
and Sibelius called him, "the personification of the true English character in music ... a noble
personality and a born aristocrat".
[40]
Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them.
[141]
The Dream of Gerontius has also been given
high praise by Elgarians,
[142]
and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated.
[142]
Many rate the Violin Concerto equally highly, but some do not. Sackville-West omitted it from the list of Elgar masterpieces in The Record
Guide,
[143]
and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry."
[70]
Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite,
[144]
and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it.
[145]
In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by
contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's viewthat Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.
[146]
The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see howany candid student can deny
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Composers who admired Elgar
included (top) Sibelius (l) and Richard
Strauss and (below) Vaughan Williams
(l) and Stravinsky
Insignia of
Baronet
Statue of Elgar in
Worcester
Statue of Elgar with bicycle in
Hereford
the greatness of this symphony."
[70]
However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies.
[146]
In the
same year, Roger Fiske wrote in The Gramophone, "For some reason fewpeople seem to like the two Elgar symphonies equally; each has its champions and often they are more
than a little bored by the rival work."
[147]
The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn
and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief",
[148]
whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked
instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."
[149]
Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their
neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the
Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More
than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius.
[150]
Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's
works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by
orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.
[151]
Honours, awards and commemorations [edit]
Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in
1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight
Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale
(USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome;
Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Acadmie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and the American Academy. In 1931 he was created a Baronet, of Broadheath
in the County of Worcester.
[152]
In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO).
[153]
In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in
vain.
[1]
The house in Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born is nowthe Elgar Birthplace Museum, devoted to his life and work. Elgar's daughter, Carice, helped to found the
museum in 1936 and bequeathed to it much of her collection of Elgar's letters and documents on her death in 1970. Carice left Elgar manuscripts to musical colleges:
The Black Knight to Trinity College of Music; King Olaf to the Royal Academy of Music; The Music Makers to Birmingham University; the Cello Concerto to the Royal
College of Music; The Kingdom to the Bodleian Library; and other manuscripts to the British Museum.
[154]
The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works
was formed in 1951. The University of Birmingham's Special Collections contain an archive of letters written by Elgar.
[155]
Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer by Rose Garrard is at
the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadowof the Hills that he so often regarded. In September
2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with the city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle.
From 1999 until early 2007, newBank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was
the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010.
[156]
There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
[157]
Among these are eleven Elgar Avenues, including one in
Malvern, and another close to the house where Elgar lived, Pls Gwyn in Hereford. A street in North Springfield, Virginia and a major road in Box Hill, Melbourne, are also named after him.
Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour
[158]
(all of them renamings). The first was a Bulldog class locomotive of the Great Western Railway (GWR): it was built in May 1906 as no.
3704, renumbered 3414 in December 1912, named "A. H. Mills" in July 1914, renamed "Sir Edward Elgar" in August 1932, and withdrawn from service in October 1938.
[159]
The second was
a "Castle" class locomotive, also of the GWR: it was built in June 1946 as no. 7005 "Lamphey Castle",
[160]
renamed "Sir Edward Elgar" in August 1957 and withdrawn from service in
September 1964.
[161]
The third was a British Rail Class 50 diesel locomotive: it was built in March 1968 as no. D407, renumbered 50 007 in the mid-1970s, named "Hercules" in April 1978,
and renamed "Sir Edward Elgar" in February 1984.
[162]
The newnameplates were specially cast in the former GWR style.
[157]
On 25 February 1984, this locomotive was officially named "Sir
Edward Elgar" at Paddington station in London by Simon Rattle, then conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
[163]
Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius
[96]
and several plays. Elgar's Rondo, a 1993 stage play by
David Pownall depicts the dead Jaeger offering ghostly advice on Elgar's musical development.
[164]
Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994);
[165]
another Elgar-themed
radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003).
[166]
David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974)
[167]
deals with themes including sex and
adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune
to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora
Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin
Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.
[168]
Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film
contradicted the viewof Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.
[169]
Selected works [edit]
Main article: List of compositions by Edward Elgar
The following have been selected as representative of Elgar's works, based on quality, significance and popularity.
Orchestral [edit]
Froissart, concert overture, Op. 19 (1890)
Serenade for Strings, Op. 20 (18881892)
Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma), Op. 36 (1899)
includes Variation 9 Nimrod
Cockaigne (In London Town), concert overture, Op. 40 (19001901)
Pomp and Circumstance, five marches, all Op. 39 (19011930)
March No. 1 in D (1901) (The trio contains the tune known as Land of Hope and Glory)
In the South (Alassio), concert overture, Op. 50 (19031904)
Introduction and Allegro for strings (quartet and orchestra), Op. 47 (190405)
The Wand of Youth, suites Nos. 1 and 2, Opp. 1a/b (186771, rev. 1907/8)
Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, Op. 55 (19071908)
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 (19091910)
Romance for bassoon and orchestra, Op. 62 (1910)
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 63 (19091911)
Falstaff, symphonic study, Op. 68 (1913)
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (19181919)
The Severn Suite, Op. 87 (1930) (for brass band, trans. for orchestra 1932)
Cantatas and oratorios [edit]
The Black Knight, symphony/cantata for chorus and orchestra, Op. 25 (18891892)
The Light of Life (Lux Christi), oratorio for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 29 (1896)
Scenes From The Saga Of King Olaf, cantata for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 30 (1896)
Caractacus, cantata for soprano, tenor, baritone and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 35 (18971898)
The Dream of Gerontius, for mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 38 (18991900)
The Apostles, oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor and three bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 49 (19021903)
The Kingdom, oratorio for soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 51 (19011906)
The Music Makers, ode for contralto or mezzo-soprano soloist, chorus and orchestra, Op. 69 (1912)
Songs [edit]
"The Wind at Dawn", poem by C. Alice Roberts (1888)
Sea Pictures, (Sea Pictures: A Cycle of Five Songs for Contralto), Op. 37. (18971899)
"Land of Hope and Glory", words by Arthur Christopher Benson (1902)
Seven Lieder of Edward Elgar (1907)
Partsongs [edit]
"O Happy Eyes", SATB unacc., words by C. Alice Elgar, Op. 18 No.1 (1890)
"My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land", SATB unacc., words by AndrewLang, dedicated to Rev. J. Hampton (1890)
"The Snow", SSA acc. 2 violins and piano, words by C. Alice Elgar, dedicated to Mrs. E. B. Fitton, Op. 26 No.1 (1894) (also with orchestral accompaniment, 1903, and various other combinations of voices SATB etc.)
"Go, Song of Mine", SSAATB unacc., words by Cavalcanti, tr. D. G. Rossetti, dedicated to Alfred H. Littleton,
[n19]
Op. 57 (1909)
"The Shower" and "The Fountain", SATB unacc., words by Henry Vaughan, Op. 71 Nos.1 and 2 (1914)
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Ballet portal
Church music [edit]
Three motets: "Ave verum corpus", "Ave Maria" and "Ave Maris Stella", Op. 2 (1887)
Te Deum and Benedictus, Op. 34 (1897)
Chamber music [edit]
Romance, violin and piano, Op. 1 (1878)
Salut d'Amour (Liebesgruss), violin and piano, Op. 12 (1888)
Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin, violin and piano, Op. 15 Nos. 1 and 2 (1897/1899).
Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 (1918)
String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 (1918)
Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84 (19181919)
Keyboard [edit]
Organ Sonata in G, Op. 28
Concert Allegro, piano, Op. 46 (1901; unpublished)
Arrangements [edit]
J. S. Bach, Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537, tr. for orchestra, Op. 86 (19211922)
Handel, Overture in D minor (Overture to Chandos Anthem "In the Lord put I my Trust", HWV247), tr. for orchestra (1923)
See also [edit]
Dorabella Cipher
John Alden Carpenter (a student of Elgar's in Rome in 1906)
Notes and references [edit]
Notes
1. ^ His siblings were Henry John ("Harry"; 184864), Lucy Ann ("Loo") (born 1852), Susannah Mary ("Pollie"; born 1854), Frederick Joseph ("Jo"; 185966), Francis Thomas ("Frank"; born 1861), and Helen Agnes ("Dott" or "Dot"; born
1864).
[3]
2. ^ William Elgar was evidently sceptical of any branch of the church: he wrote of "the absurd superstition and play-house mummery of the Papist; the cold and formal ceremonies of the Church of England; or the bigotry and rank
hypocrisy of the Wesleyan."
[4]
3. ^ Elgar himself later said, "There is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require",
[8]
and "The trees are singing my music or have I sung theirs?"
[9]
4. ^ It is spelt "Littleton" by all the Elgar authorities cited; however, some current sources, for example English Heritage , spell it "Lyttleton".
5. ^ A profile in The Musical Times reported that Elgar "read a great deal at this formulative period of his life. ... In this way he made the acquaintance of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, Richard Baker's Chronicles, Michael Drayton's
Polyolbion", and the works of Voltaire."
[12]
6. ^ Kennedy (ODNB) mentions the 'Romanza' variation (no. 13) in the Enigma Variations and the Violin Concerto as possible examples, the former being headed "****" and the latter being inscribed as enshrining an unnamed soul.
7. ^ When Elgar was knighted in 1904, his daughter Carice said, "I am so glad for Mother's sake that Father has been knighted. You see it puts her back where she was".
[23]
8. ^ Salut d'Amour became one of Elgar's best-selling works, but initially he earned no royalties, having sold the copyright to the publisher Schott for a flat fee of 2 guineas; Schott later decided to pay him royalties.
[1][2]
9. ^ Sullivan said to Elgar, "But, my dear boy, I hadn't the slightest idea of it why on earth didn't you come and tell me? I'd have rehearsed it myself for you".
[27]
10. ^ Elgar, in recommending Coleridge-Taylor for a commission from the festival, said, "He is far and away the cleverest fellowgoing among the young men."
[30]
11. ^ It is not known whether Elgar meant a musical theme or a more general non-musical theme such as that of friendship. Many attempts have been made to find well-known tunes that can be played in counterpoint with Elgar's main
musical theme of the piece, from Auld Lang Syne to a theme from Mozart's Prague Symphony.
[34]
12. ^ For example, according to the Elgar Society 's website, in April and May 2010, the Variations were programmed in NewOrleans, NewYork, Vancouver, Denver, Moscow, Washington D.C. and Krakw.
13. ^ Strauss and Elgar remained on friendly terms for the rest of Elgar's life, and Strauss paid him a warm obituary tribute in 1934.
[40]
14. ^ Elgar's principal target was J.A. Fuller Maitland, music critic of The Times, whose patronising obituary of Arthur Sullivan repelled Elgar;
[59]
in his Birmingham lectures he alluded to it as "the shady side of musical criticism ... that
foul unforgettable episode."
[60]
15. ^ This was the occasion on which the American tradition of playing the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance March at graduation ceremonies originated.
16. ^ The elder daughter was Princess Elizabeth of York (later Queen Elizabeth II).
17. ^ Timing from the recording of the Mahler symphony by Michael Gielen and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baden-Baden, Hnssler Classic CD93.030. Elgar did not knowMahler's works.
[120]
18. ^ In a series of transfers of the composer's electrical recordings available in 2010, the timings are: Symphony No. 1: 46:28 (Naxos Historical CD8.111256); Symphony No. 2: 48:30 (Naxos Historical CD8.111260); Violin Concerto:
49:57 (Naxos Historical CD8.110902).
19. ^ Alfred Henry Littleton was chairman of the publishers Novello. At the time that he wrote the song, Elgar and his wife were staying at the villa of his friend Julia Worthington at Careggi near Florence when they were visited by Littleton,
References
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c

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f

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h

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17. ^ Moore (1984), pp. 96, 264, 348, 512, 574, and 811
18. ^ Quoted in "Edward Elgar", The Musical Times, 1 October 1900, pp. 64148
19. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 15.
20. ^ "Some of Elgar's Friends", The Musical Times, April 1934, p. 319
21. ^ Moore (1984), p. 587
22. ^ Moore (1984), p. 134
23. ^ Moore (1984), p. 440
24. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 115.
25. ^ Anderson, Robert, "Elgar's Musical Style", The Musical Times, December 1993, pp. 68990 and 692. Accessed 23 October 2010 (subscriptionrequired)
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27. ^ Reed, p. 24
28. ^ Reed, p. 25
29. ^ The Musical Times, obituary of Elgar, April 1934, pp. 31418
30. ^ Duchen, Jessica. "Edward Elgar: A maestro you can bank on", The Independent, 16 March 2007.
31. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 50.
32. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 55.
33. ^ McVeagh (1987), p. 51; Hughes, p. 72
34. ^ Whitney, Craig R., "NewAnswer to a Riddle Wrapped in Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations" , The NewYork Times, 7 November 1991; Portnoy, Marshall A., "The Answer to Elgar's 'Enigma'", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 2
(1985), pp. 20510 Accessed 24 October 2010 (subscriptionrequired); and Westrup, J. A., "Elgar's Enigma", Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 86th Session (19591960), pp. 7997. Accessed 24 October 2010
(subscriptionrequired)
35. ^ Atkins, Ivor, "Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations", The Musical Times, April 1934, pp. 32830
36. ^ Reed, p. 59
37. ^ Reed, p. 60
38. ^ "The German Press on Dr. Elgar's 'Dream of Gerontius' ", The Musical Times, 1 February 1902, p. 100
39. ^
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Sibelius, Jean, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss and Arthur Nikisch, "Tribute and Commentary", The Musical Times, April 1934, p. 322.
41. ^ "First Performances in Foreign Countries", The Musical Times, April 1934, p. 318
42. ^ Grogan, Christopher, "Elgar, Newman and 'The Dream of Gerontius'", Music & Letters, Vol. 77, No. 4 (November 1996), pp. 62932
43. ^ Lewis, Geraint, "A Cathedral in Sound", Gramophone, September 2008, p. 50. Accessed 1 June 2010.
44. ^ Kennedy (1970), pp. 3839
45. ^ "Last Night of the Proms set to reach largest ever global audience" , BBCwebsite, 7 September 2009. Accessed 5 November 2010
46. ^ Kennedy, Michael, Liner note (orig. 1977) to EMI CDCDM 5-66323-2
47. ^ Wood, p. 154
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
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49. ^ "Why Americans graduate to Elgar" , The Elgar Society. Accessed 5 June 2010.
50. ^ Hoffman, Miles, "Pomp and Circumstance: Familiar Standard Marches Ahead of Competitors" , NPRMusic. Accessed 25 October 2010.
51. ^
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52. ^ "The Elgar Festival", The Times, 16 March 1904, p. 12
53. ^ "The Elgar Festival", The Times, 17 March 1904, p. 8
54. ^ "Birthday Honours", The Times, 24 June 1904, p. 12
55. ^ "Elgar Court, once known as Plas Gwyn" , Geograph. Accessed 29 October 2010
56. ^ Moore (1984), p. 446
57. ^ Reed, p. 92
58. ^ Reed, p. 89
59. ^ Fuller Maitland, J. A., "Sir Arthur Sullivan", Cornhill Magazine, March 1901, p. 30009
60. ^ Young (1971), p. 264
61. ^ Reed, p. 97
62. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 144.
63. ^ Anderson, pp. 11516
64. ^ Kennedy (1987), p. 29
65. ^ Reed, p. 96
66. ^ "Elgar's Symphony", The Musical Times, 1 February 1909, p. 102
67. ^ Reed, p. 102
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71. ^ Supplement, The London Gazette, no. 2769, p. 4448, 19 June 1911. Accessed 27 October 2010.
72. ^ Kennedy (1971), p. 82
73. ^ Scholes, Percy A., "Elgar's 'Falstaff' Reconsidered", The Musical Times, 1 August 1929, p. 696
74. ^ Reed, p. 115.
75. ^ Reed, pp. 115 and 118
76. ^ Reed, pp. 11516
77. ^ Reed, pp. 11718
78. ^ Reed, p. 121
79. ^ HMV discs 02734-7. See Rust, p. 45
80. ^ Oliver, Michael, Review, Gramophone, June 1986, p. 73
81. ^ "Sir E. Elgar's Violin Sonata", The Times, 22 March 1919, p. 9
82. ^ "Elgar's NewChamber Music", The Manchester Guardian, 22 May 1919, p. 10
83. ^ Lloyd-Webber, Julian, "HowI fell in love with E E's darling", The Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2007.
84. ^ Newman, Ernest, "Music of the Week", The Observer, 2 November 1919
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Reed, p. 131
86. ^ "Elgar's Cello Concerto", The Observer, 16 January 1921, p. 15
87. ^ Reed, p. 130
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89. ^ Moore (1984), pp. 75051
90. ^ Moore (1984), p. 17
91. ^ "Plas Gwyn, Hereford" , Classic FM. Accessed 25 October 2010.
92. ^ Alleyne, Richard, "Sir Edward Elgar wrote football chant along with his classical music", The Daily Telegraph, 26 September 2010
93. ^ "Malcolm Sargent", BBCLP RE10 1967 (includes recording of Sargent talking about Elgar)
94. ^ "Yehudi Menuhin". BBCFour. Accessed 1 May 2010
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102. ^ Video on YouTube. Accessed 2 May 2010
103. ^ "Green plaques" , City of Westminster, accessed 15 March 2014
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105. ^ Moore (1979), pp. 4247, 5659, 9698
106. ^ Aldous, p. 124
107. ^ Reed, p. 145
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109. ^ The Spanish Lady , The Elgar Society. Accessed 2 June 2010.
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117. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 30
118. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 32
119. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 42
120. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 52
121. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 43
122. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 45
123. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 50
124. ^ Tovey, Donald F., "Elgar, Master of Music", Music and Letters, January 1935, p. 1
125. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 35
126. ^ Reed, p. 151.
127. ^ Reed, p. 113
128. ^ Burn, Andrew, Notes to Naxos recording of The Music Makers (CD8.557710)
129. ^ Reed, p. 58
130. ^ Reed, p. 150
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133. ^ Clements, Andrew, "BBCSO/Davis", The Guardian, 4 August 2006. Accessed 27 October 2010.
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139. ^ Hale, Alfred M., "The Elgar Protest", The Musical Times, April 1931, p. 350; King, C. W. and Kaikhosru Sorabji, "The Elgar Protest", The Musical Times, May 1931, pp. 44344; Lorenz, Robert, John Levy and John F. Porte, "The
Elgar Protest", The Musical Times, June 1931, pp. 54243; Veritas, "Mr. Maine and Elgar", The Musical Times, March 1932, p. 259; Maine, Basil, "Mr. Maine and Elgar", The Musical Times, April 1932, p. 354; and Veritas, "Mr.
Maine and Elgar", The Musical Times, May 1932, p. 450
140. ^ "Pre-war Symphonies", The Times, 1 February 1930, p. 10
141. ^ Reed, p. 180; Kennedy (ODNB), McVeagh (Grove), Sackville-West, p. 254; and in a centenary symposium in 1957 a variety of composers, scholars and performers, include Enigma among their favourite Elgar works. See Vaughan
Williams, Ralph, John Ireland, Julius Harrison, Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, Gordon Jacob, Jack Westrup, Edmund Rubbra, Steuart Wilson, Patrick Hadley, Herbert Sumsion, Frank Howes, Eric Blom, George Dyson, Thomas
Armstrong, W. Greenhouse Allt, Edric Cundell, Ernest Bullock, R. J. F. Howgill, Maurice Johnstone and Eric Warr, "Elgar Today", The Musical Times, June 1957, pp. 30206.
142. ^
a

b
Sackville-West, Mc Veagh (Grove), Kennedy (ODNB), Reed ("perhaps the greatest work of its kind in English music", p. 61), and Vaughan Williams, Ralph, and others, "Elgar Today", The Musical Times, June 1957, pp. 30206.
143. ^ Sackville West, p. 254
144. ^ "Elgar", Music and Letters, April 1934, p. 109
145. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 35; and Reed, p. 151.
146. ^
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Vaughan Williams, Ralph, and others, "Elgar Today",The Musical Times, June 1957, pp. 30206
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147. ^ Fiske, Roger, "Elgar, Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63", The Gramophone, July 1957, p. 9
148. ^ Warrack, John, "Three English Masters", Gramophone, March 1984, p. 21
149. ^ Kennedy (1970), p. 56
150. ^ Farach-Colton, Andrew, "Vision of the Hereafter," Gramophone, February 2003, p. 39
151. ^ "An Elgar Musical Diary" , The Elgar Society. Accessed 5 June 2010.
152. ^ The London Gazette: no. 33729. p. 4152 . 26 June 1931.
153. ^ The London Gazette: no. 33946. p. 3805 . 2 June 1933.; and "Elgar, Sir Edward", Who Was Who, A & CBlack, 19202008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007. Accessed 3 June 2010 (requires
subscription)
154. ^ The Musical Times, December 1970, p. 1211
155. ^ Library Services , University of Birmingham. Accessed 22 April 2010.
156. ^ Adams, Stephen, "20 Elgar note withdrawal 'a national disgrace'", The Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2010
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Sinclair, Max, Elgar and the Bridge , BBCHereford and Worcester. Accessed 2 June 2010.
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160. ^ le Fleming 1953, p. H18
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Buckley, R. J. (1905). Sir Edward Elgar. London: John Lane The Bodley Head. OCLC558906223 .
Cox, David (1967). "Edward Elgar". In Simpson, Robert (ed.). The Symphony: Elgar to the Present Day. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books. OCLC221594461 .
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Kennedy, Michael (1987). Portrait of Elgar (third ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN0-19-284017-7.
le Fleming, H.M. (October 1954). White, D.E., ed. The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part seven: Dean's Larger Tender Engines. Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN0-901115-18-5.
le Fleming, H.M. (1953). White, D.E., ed. The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part eight: Modern Passenger Classes (1st ed.). Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN0-901115-19-3.
McVeagh, Diana M. (2007). Elgar the Music Maker. London: Boydell Press. ISBN978-1-84383-295-9.
Marsden, Colin J. (November 1984). BRLocomotive Numbering. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN0-7110-1445-0. EX/1184.
Moore, Jerrold N. (1979). Music and Friends: Letters to Adrian Boult. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN0-241-10178-6.
Moore, Jerrold N. (1984). Edward Elgar: a Creative Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-315447-1.
Reed, W.H. (1946). Elgar. London: Dent. OCLC8858707 .
Rust, Brian (ed.) (1975). Gramophone Records of the First World War An HMV Catalogue 191418. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN0-7153-6842-7.
Sackville-West, Edward; Shawe-Taylor, Desmond (1955). The Record Guide. London: Collins. OCLC474839729 .
Sterndale, A.C.; Parker, L.T.; Smith, C.; Reed, P.J.T.; Tabor, F.J.; Davies, F.K.; Allcock, N.J.; Lucking, J.H. (May 1974). White, D.E., ed. The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part twelve: A Chronological and Statistical
Survey. Kenilworth: RCTS.
Wood, Henry (1938). My Life of Music. London: Victor Gollancz. OCLC2600343 .
Young, Percy M. (1973). Elgar O.M.: a study of a musician. London: Collins. OCLC869820 .
Young, Percy M. (1971). Sir Arthur Sullivan. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. ISBN0-460-03934-2.
Further reading [edit]
Adams, Byron (2000). "The "Dark Saying" of the Enigma: Homoeroticism and the Elgarian Paradox". 19th-Century Music 23 (3).
Adams, Byron (ed.) (2007). Edward Elgar and His World. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-13445-1.
Alldritt, Keith. Elgar and the Journey to Hanley a novel. ISBN0-233-97064-9.
Burley, Rosa; Carruthers, Frank C. (1972). Edward Elgar: the record of a friendship. London: Barrie & Jenkins Ltd. ISBN0-214-65410-9.
Grimley, Daniel and Julian Rushton (eds.) (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Elgar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-82623-3.
Harper-Scott, J. P. E. (2006). Edward Elgar, Modernist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-86200-0.
Harper-Scott, J. P. E. (2007). Elgar: an Extraordinary Life. London: Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. ISBN1-86096-770-1.
Harper-Scott, J. P. E. and Rushton, Julian (eds.) (2007). Elgar Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-86199-3.
Jacobs, Arthur (August 1949). "Elgar's Solo Songs". The Musical Times (Musical Times Publications Ltd.) 90 (1278): 267269. JSTOR933694 .
McGuire, Charles Edward (2008). "Edward Elgar: "Modern" or "Modernist?" Construction of an Aesthetic Identity in the British Press, 18951934". The Musical Quarterly 91 (12).
McGuire, Charles Edward (2000). "Elgar, Judas, and the Theology of Betrayal". 19th-Century Music 23 (3): 236272. doi:10.2307/746880 .
McGuire, Charles Edward (2002). Elgar's Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative. Aldershot: Ashgate Press. ISBN0-7546-0271-0.
Moore, Jerrold N. (1972). Elgar: A Life in Photographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-315425-0.
Moore, Jerrold N. (2004). Elgar: Child of Dreams. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN0-571-22337-0.
Mundy, Simon (1980). Elgar: His life and times. Tunbridge Wells: Modas Books. ISBN0-85936-120-9.
Payne, Anthony (1999). Elgar's Third Symphony: The Story of the Reconstruction. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN0-57119-538-5.
Reed, W.H. (1989). Elgar as I knewhim. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-282257-8.
Thomson, Aidan (2005). "Elgar and Chivalry". 19th-Century Music 28 (3).
Ward, Yvonne M. (2002). "Edward Elgar, A.C. Benson and the creation of Land of Hope and Glory". The Court Historian 7 (1). OCLC43272438 .
Young, Percy M. (1978). Alice Elgar: enigma of a Victorian lady. London: Dobson. ISBN0-234-77482-7.
External links [edit]
Edward Elgar at DMOZ
The Elgar Society (Archive copy at the Wayback Machine), official site.
The Elgar Foundation and Birthplace Museum , official site.
Elgar in Hereford , official site.
"Elgar, Sir Edward William" at The National Archives
"Sir Edward Elgar, Bt." at National Portrait Gallery
"The Growing Significance of Elgar" , lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007
Free scores by Edward Elgar at the International Music Score Library Project
Free scores by Edward Elgar in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
Works by or about Edward Elgar at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
Edward Elgar at Find a Grave
Edward Elgar at AllMusic
Court offices
Preceded by
Sir Walter Parratt
Master of the King'sMusick
19241934
Succeeded by
Sir Henry Walford
Davies
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation
Baronet
(of Broadheath)
19311934
Extinct
London Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductors
Hans Richter (1904) EdwardElgar (1911) Arthur Nikisch (1912) Thomas Beecham (1915) Albert Coates (1919) Willem Mengelberg (1930) Hamilton Harty(1932) Josef Krips (1951) Pierre Monteux(1960) Istvn Kertsz(1965) Andr Previn
(1968) Claudio Abbado (1979) Michael Tilson Thomas (1987) Colin Davis (1995) ValeryGergiev(2007)
Authoritycontrol
WorldCat VIAF: 76499978 LCCN: n50026227 ISNI: 0000 0001 2102 494X GND: 118688588 SUDOC: 030208041 BNF: cb138936277 (data) ULAN: 500292772 MusicBrainz:
4e60a56a-514a-4a19-a3cc-49927c96b3cb NDL: 00798527
Categories: 1857 births 1934 deaths 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Academics of the University of Birmingham Ballet composers
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Brass band composers Burials in Worcestershire Cancer deaths in England Classical composers of church music Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for pipe organ Deaths from colorectal cancer Edward Elgar English composers English conductors (music) English Roman Catholics Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors Masters of the Queen's Music Members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Members of the Order of Merit Musicians from Worcestershire
Oratorio composers People associated with Durham University People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire People from Worcester People of the Edwardian era People of the Victorian era
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