Elgar, Edward (EN)

Elgar Sir Edward William, *2 June 1857 Broadheath (near Worcester), †23 February 1934 Worcester, English composer. Elgar’s life can be clearly divided into three stages of activity: in the first, until 1889, which also included his years of study, he made a name for himself as a performer (violinist, bassoonist, organist); in the second, until 1920, he devoted himself to composition; and in the third, he focused on conducting. Elgar grew up in a musical environment; his father, William Henry, was a violinist and organist (at St George’s Church in Worcester), and also ran a music shop with his brother from 1860. However, Elgar did not receive a comprehensive musical education; he began piano lessons at the age of seven at a school in Worcester, learned the organ from his father, and took violin lessons from F. Spray, a violinist with an amateur orchestra in Worcester. He later intended to study the violin seriously with A. Pollitzer in London but ultimately took only a few lessons in 1879. He was self-taught in theory and composition; having unlimited access to music publications in his father’s shop, he studied textbooks on counterpoint, harmony, and composition, as well as scores. He began his musical career early; as a teenager, he gradually took over his father’s duties at St George’s Church, accompanied singers in the Worcester Glee Club, soon becoming the club’s orchestra violinist, and in 1879 its conductor. At the same time, from 1877 he worked as a music teacher at a school in Malvern, he played the bassoon in a wind quintet in Worcester, and between 1879 and 1884 he directed the musical ensemble at the psychiatric hospital in Powick near Worcester. From 1880 he was also a violinist in W. C. Stockley’s orchestra in Birmingham and additionally performed in orchestras during music festivals in Worcester.

Elgar’s first attempts at composition date back to 1880: the suite Wand of Youth (ca. 1867, orchestrated in 1907), as well as works related to his practical musical activities, i.e. compositions for the choir of St George’s Church (Salve Regina 1878, the Easter anthem Brother, For Thee He Died 1878, Hymn in F major, 1878, and others), works for wind quintet (Promenades, 1878, a collection of seven pieces titled Harmony Music, 1879 and 1881, and others), polkas and quadrilles for the ensemble in Powick, etc. In 1882, Elgar took a musical trip to Leipzig, where he heard Schumann’s music, whose influence can be found in his work.

The year 1889 was a turning point in Elgar’s life; he married 40-year-old Caroline Alice Roberts. It was she who persuaded him to abandon his previous, distracting activities and devote himself exclusively to composition. She was also the first critic of his works, as well as the author of the poetry for some of his vocal compositions. It is noteworthy that Elgar’s most valuable works were created during the period of his marriage (from 1889 until Alice’s death in 1920). In 1890, Elgar’s first significant work, the concert overture Froissart, was composed and performed at the Worcester Festival. In 1892, Elgar travelled through Germany (Bavaria); the cycle of six songs From the Bavarian Highlands is reflects these travels. In 1899, the performance (conducted by H. Richter) of the Enigma Variations aroused great interest in London music circles, while the premiere of the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius at the 1900 Birmingham Festival ended in failure. Although admired by R. Strauss, the work initially earned Elgar recognition only abroad, with successful performances in Düsseldorf in 1901 and 1902. In 1904 and 1907, Elgar travelled to Italy, and the overture In the South (Alassio) reflects his first journey there. In 1908, H. Richter conducted Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major in Manchester. In 1910, F. Kreisler performed the solo part of the Violin Concerto in B minor, dedicated to him, in London, with Elgar himself conducting. In 1911 Elgar also conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major in London.

These events cemented Elgar’s reputation as a composer and conductor; in 1911, he toured Canada and America, conducting his own works. In 1911–12, he was the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1913, he achieved further success as a composer at the Leeds Festival, where he conducted his symphonic study Falstaff. In 1914, he began working with the Gramophone Company to record his own works, an activity he carried out most intensively between 1926 and 1933. In 1919, Elgar composed his last major work, the Cello Concerto in E minor. The few compositions he wrote after 1920 no longer made a significant impact on the musical world. Elgar received numerous titles and honours in recognition of his work, including a knighthood (1904), the Order of Merit (1911), and honorary doctorates from English and American universities (Cambridge 1900, Durham 1904, Leeds 1904, Oxford 1905, Yale 1905, Aberdeen 1906, Pennsylvania 1907).

Elgar’s post-Romantic, quasi-classical compositions, compared with the works of leading composers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, may appear eclectic and not to have introduced significant innovations to the development of music. Nevertheless, within the context of contemporary English composition, they hold considerable value, especially since they emerged after nearly 150 years of stagnation in English music following the deaths of Purcell and Handel. Elgar is considered a national composer. Although references to English folk melodies can only be found sporadically in his works (e.g. in the Introduction and Allegro for string quartet and orchestra or in the slow movement of the Violin Concerto), they nevertheless reveal his love for his homeland, its history and literature. This attitude is evident in the literary content of some of his vocal-instrumental works and programme symphonic compositions. For example, Elgar celebrates the Britons’ struggle against the Roman invaders in his cantata Caractacus, and the glory of medieval English knighthood in his concert overture Froissart. He draws on English literature in the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, based on a poem by C. Newman, as well as in the symphonic study Falstaff, in which the title character is based on Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV and Henry V. Many of Elgar’s occasional works can be seen as a form of “national” composition, written to commemorate contemporary historical events, for instance, the Coronation March, Op. 65, composed for the coronation of King George V.

The programmatic nature of Elgar’s symphonic works is not limited to themes drawn from English literature and history. Different kinds of extra-musical associations are evoked, for example, by the Enigma Variations and the concert overture Cockaigne. In London Town. The overture – as its title suggests – depicts city life, street traffic, the march of a military band etc. By contrast, the fourteen Enigma variations are musical portraits of Elgar’s friends; the cycle concludes with a variation intended as a self-portrait of the composer. The true theme of the work remains a mystery to this day, as the melody serving as the basis for the variations is merely a counterpoint to this unheard – and, in the composer’s words, “well-known” – theme. Some scholars speculate that it may be the tune Auld Lang Syne. The work consists of a series of cleverly orchestrated and contrasting miniatures.

For many years, Elgar dreamed of freeing himself from literary and musical thinking and creating a great symphonic work in the genre of so-called absolute music. He only fully succeeded in this in 1908, when he composed his Symphony No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 55. His Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, and Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 63, also belong to this genre to some extent. Although these works are considered to be his most valuable, they too are inspired by non-musical content, signalled by poetic mottos included in the scores. These compositions, which are the most mature in terms of technique, fully reveal the features of Elgar’s music, i.e. above all the distinctive abundance of themes, their repetitiveness and frequent sequencing in the melody. Elgar’s harmony and instrumentation can generally be described as neo-Romantic. The tedious repetition of themes, and even entire structures, is – alongside a certain rhythmic monotony – a serious drawback of many of the composer’s works. Even Symphony No. 1 is not yet free from this flaw (the second movement – Allegro and the third movement – Adagio are based on the same, repeatedly recurring melodic idea); it is only in his later works that this defect is largely mitigated by a more interesting treatment of themes. In their overall structure, Elgar’s concertos and symphonies largely follow classical models (for example, the Adagio in the third movement of Symphony No. 1 and the slow fourth movement in Symphony No. 2), yet their expression is decidedly Romantic, largely due to the lyrical cantilena, which is particularly expressive in the concertos. There are notable differences in the treatment of the solo parts in the two concertos: the Violin Concerto is far more virtuosic. The handling of the orchestral instruments and the way thematic ideas are developed in the Cello Concerto show references to Dvořák’s music.

In his oratorio and cantata works, Elgar was mainly inspired by Purcell and Mendelssohn. The high regard for the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius is due to several factors: the alignment of musical and textual accents, the emphasis on the expressive qualities of speech, orchestration that enhances the work’s mystical atmosphere, and a choral fugue free from academic stiffness. A distinctive feature of Elgar’s dramatic vocal-orchestral works (The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles, etc.) is the use of numerous leitmotifs, which suggests Wagner’s influence, although Elgar emphasised (in a statement in the “Musical Times” in October 1900) that the idea of using leitmotifs came to him while listening to Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah long before he became acquainted with Wagner’s music.

Among Elgar’s prolific vocal-instrumental works, the cycle of five songs Sea Pictures for voice and orchestra stands out due to its subtle and colourfully nuanced orchestration, which conveys the atmosphere and mood of the poetry.

Although Elgar’s music reveals the influence of many composers, including Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Wagner, Strauss, Dvořák and Brahms, it represents an important stage in the development of English music, and some of his works, especially his symphonies, remain part of the European repertoire to this day.

Literature:

Catalogues, bibliographies: J. N. Moore An Elgar’s Discography, London 1963; J.N. Moore Elgar on Record: the Composer and the Gramophone, London 1974; S.T. Craggs Edward Elgar: A Source Book, Aldershot 1995; G. Hodgkins Elgar: A Bibliography, “The Music Review” LIV No. 1 (1993), pp. 24–62; Ch. Kent Edward Elgar: A Guide to Research, New York and London 1993; Ch. E. McGuire Edward Elgar (bibliography), New York 2011; Ch. Kent Edward Elgar: A Research and Information Guide, Abingdon-on-Thames 2012; Ch. Kent Edward Elgar: a thematic catalogue and research guide, 2nd edition New York 2013

Iconography, manuscripts: J. N. Moore Elgar. A Life in Photographs, Oxford 1972; R. Anderson Elgar in Manuscript, London 1990

Correspondence and diaries: P. Young Letters of Edward Elgar and Other Writings, London 1956; P. Young Letters to Nimrod from Edward Elgar, London 1965; J.N. Moore Edward Elgar: a Creative Life, Oxford 1984, 2nd edition titled Elgar and his Publishers: Letters of a Creative Life, Oxford 1987, 3rd revised edition Oxford 1999; Edward Elgar. Windflower Letters: Correspondence with Alice Caroline Stuart Wortley and Her Family, ed. J.N. Moore, Oxford 1989, 2nd revised edition in «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series II vol. 2, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2015; Edward Elgar: Letters of a Lifetime, ed. J.N. Moore Oxford 1990, 2nd revised edition in «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series I vol. 1, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2012; Edward Elgar: collected correspondence, ed, J. N. Moore, M. Bird, P. Chennell, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2013; Provincial musician: diaries 1857–1896, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series V vol. 1, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2013; Darling Chuck: the Carice letters, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series II vol. 1, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2014; An Elgarian who’s who, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series I vol. 2, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2014; Edward Elgar: road to recognition: diaries 1897–1901, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series V vol. 2, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2015; The path to knighthood: diaries 1902–1904, ed, P. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series V vol. 3, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2016; Hans himself: Elgar and the Richter circle, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series IV vol. 1, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2017; The wanderer: diaries 1905–1907, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series V vol. 4, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2018; Ridgehurst friends: Elgar and the Speyer families, ed. M. Bird, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series II vol. 3, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2019; The Elgar family diaries 1908–1910, ed. M. Bird, P. Chennell, «Edward Elgar. Collected correspondence» series V vol. 5, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2020

Memoirs: W. H. Reed Elgar as I Knew Him, London 1936, reprint Oxford 1989;  R. Burley Edward Elgar: Record of a Friendship, London 1972; W. Atkins The Elgar-Atkins Friendship, Exeter 1984

Monographs and analytical studies: E. Newman Elgar, London 1905, 3rd edition 1922; E.J. Buckley Sir Edward Elgar, London 1905; F. H. Shera Elgar. Instrumental Works, London 1932; B. Maine Elgar. His Life and Works, London 1933; R. Powell Edward Elgar: Memories of a Variation, Oxford 1937, 4th edition 1994, e-book 2017; P. Young Elgar, London 1955; D. Cox Edward Elgar in: The Symphony: Elgar to the Present Day, vol. 2, ed. R. Simpson, London 1967; M. Kennedy Portrait of Elgar, London 1968, 3rd edition Oxford 1987; M. Kennedy Elgar. Orchestral Music, London 1970, Seattle 1971; J.N. Moore Elgar: Child of Dreams, Tunbridge Wells 1980, 2nd edition London 2004; S. Mundy Elgar: His life and times, Tunbridge Wells 1980; An Elgar Companion, ed. C. Redwood, Ashbourne 1982; J.N. Moore Spirit of England. Edward Elgar in his World, London 1984; Edward Elgar: Music and Literature, ed. R. Monk, foreword A.W. Atkins, Scolar Press 1993; P.M. Young Elgar, Newman, and the Dream of Gerontius: In the Tradition of English Catholicism, Aldershot 1995; D. Nice Edward Elgar: An Essential Guide to His Life and Works, London 1996; J. Rushton Elgar: Enigma Variations, Cambridge 1999; A. Payne Elgar’s Third Symphony: The Story of the Reconstruction, London 1999; B. Adams The ‘Dark Saying’ of the Enigma: Homoeroticism and the Elgarian Paradox, and Ch. E. McGuire Elgar, Judas, and the Theology of Betrayal, “19th-Century Music” XXIII No. 3 (2000); M. Allis Elgar and the art of retrospective narrative, “Journal of Musicological Research” XIX No. 4 (2000), pp. 289–328; Oh, my horses! Elgar and the Great War, ed. L. Foreman, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2001; Ch. E. McGuire Elgar’s Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative, Aldershot 2002; R. Clark Elgar and the Three Cathedral Organists and other essays, Oxford 2002; M. Kennedy The life of Elgar, Cambridge 2004; The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, ed. D. Grimley, J. Rushton, Cambridge 2004; Cockaigne Essays on Elgar ‘In London Town’, ed. K. Mitchell,  Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2004; A. Thomson Elgar and Chivalry, “19th-Century Music” XXVIII No. 3 (2005); R. Smith Elgar in America. Elgar’s American connections between 1895 and 1914, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2005; J.P.E. Harper-Scott Edward Elgar, Modernist, Cambridge 2006; J. P. E. Harper-Scott Elgar: an Extraordinary Life, London 2007: Elgar Studies, ed. J. P. E. Harper-Scott, J.G. Rushton, Cambridge 2007; D.M. McVeagh Elgar the Music Maker, London 2007; N. Kenyon Elgar. An Anniversary Portrait, London 2007; Edward Elgar and his World, ed. B. Adams, Princeton (New Jersey), Oxford 2007, e-book 2011; R. Clark Elgar’s Consecutive Fifths and other essays, Oxford 2008; M. Riley Edward Elgar and the Nostalgic Imagination, Cambridge 2007, reprint 2016; N. Kanyon Elgar: An Anniversary Portrait, London 2008; Ch.E. McGuire Edward Elgar: “Modern” or “Modernist?” Construction of an Aesthetic Identity in the British Music Press, 1895–1934, “The Musical Quarterly”, XCI Nos. 1-2 (2008), pp. 8–38; S. Boswell The Elgar Enigmas. A Musical Mystery, Trenton (Georgia) 2009; R. Clark Elgar and Keats and other essays, Oxford 2011; U. Tadday Edward Elgar, Monachium 2013; F. Csizmadia Leitmotivik und verwandte Techniken in den Chorwerken von Edward Elgar: Analysen und Kontexte, Berlin 2017; K. Alldritt England Resounding: Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Britten and the English Musical Renaissance, Marlborough 2019; R. Westwood-Brookes Elgar and the Press: A life in newsprint, London e-book 2019; Ch. Grogan Edward Elgar: Music, Life and Landscapes, Barnsley (South Yorkshire) 2020, e-book 2020; A pilgrim in Cockaigne: Elgarian essays, ed. K. Mitchell and D. Morris, Rickmansworth (Hertfordshire) 2022; R. Westwood-Brookes Chats about Elgar, London e-book 2022; Ch. Nicholson Elgar’s Secret Lover, London 2023; R. Westwood-Brookes Elgar’s Unknown Muse: Nicholas Kilburn, the ‘Musical Apostle of the North’, London 2024; N. Simeone Edward Elgar and Adrian Boult, Martlesham (Suffolk) 2025.

Special publications: The Elgar Society JOURNAL since 1977 (3 issues per year), ed. K. Mitchell, A. Dalton, D. Morris, A. Neill, available at www.elgarsociety.org

Editions: Elgar Complete Edition. 43 volumes in 6 series (critical edition), ed. R. Anderson, S. Halls, J.Pickard, I. Farrington, Rickmansworth 2007

Webpages:

www.elgarsociety.org

www.elgar.org