Editing Edward Elgar (section)

==Music==
{{Further|List of compositions by Edward Elgar}}

===Influences, antecedents and early works===
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music<ref name=k10>Kennedy (1970), p. 10</ref> 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 [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]] as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings.<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 8</ref> The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some 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, [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]], Saint-Saëns and, particularly, [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]], whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.<ref name=k10/><ref name=cox/>

Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drew on 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.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/elgar/56393.stm "Antony Payne on Elgar's Symphony No 3"], BBC News, 13 February 1998. Retrieved 22 April 2010.</ref> His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878 and 1881, 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 few of them are regularly played, except ''[[Salut d'Amour]]'' and (as arranged decades later into ''[[The Wand of Youth]]'' Suites) some of the childhood sketches.<ref name=grove/> Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91, the overture ''[[Froissart Overture (Elgar)|Froissart]]'', was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]] and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics.<ref name=grove/> Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the ''[[Serenade for Strings (Elgar)|Serenade for Strings]]'' and ''[[Three Bavarian Dances]]''. In this period and later, Elgar wrote songs and [[part song]]s. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the part song ''The Snow'', for female voices, and ''[[Sea Pictures]]'', a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which remains in the repertory.<ref name="Reed, p. 149">Reed, p. 149</ref>

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 [[leitmotif]]s, 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.<ref name=grove/>

===Peak creative years===
[[File:Elgar-LSO-1911.jpg|thumb|300px|alt=large orchestra and their conductor seen on the platform of Victorian concert hall in long shot|Elgar and the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] at the [[Queen's Hall]]]]
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.<ref>Reed, pp. 148–50</ref> 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.<ref name=grove/> His next orchestral works, ''[[Cockaigne (In London Town)|Cockaigne]]'', a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two ''[[Pomp and Circumstance Marches|Pomp and Circumstance]]'' marches (1901), and the gentle ''[[Dream Children (Elgar)|Dream Children]]'' (1902), are all short: the longest of them, ''Cockaigne'', lasting less than fifteen minutes. ''[[In the South (Alassio)|In the South]]'' (1903–1904), 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.<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 30</ref> 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."<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 32</ref> In 1905 Elgar completed the ''[[Introduction and Allegro (Elgar)|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 [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]'s ''[[Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis|Tallis Fantasia]]''."<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 42</ref>

During the next four years 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 [[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|First Symphony]], [[Violin Concerto (Elgar)|Violin Concerto]], and [[Symphony No. 2 (Elgar)|Second Symphony]], which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour.{{refn|In a series of transfers of the composer's electrical recordings available in 2010, the timings are: Symphony No. 1: 46:28 (''Naxos Historical'' CD 8.111256); Symphony No. 2: 48:30 (''Naxos Historical'' CD 8.111260); Violin Concerto: 49:57 (''Naxos Historical'' CD 8.110902).| group= n}} 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&nbsp;... 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."<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Elgar-cello-concerto-manuscript.jpg|thumb|left|Fragment of manuscript of the opening of the second movement of the [[Cello Concerto (Elgar)|Cello Concerto]]|alt=manuscript music score, faded with age]]
Elgar's Violin Concerto and [[Cello Concerto (Elgar)|Cello Concerto]], in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind".<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 43</ref> 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,<ref name="Reed, p. 149"/> is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns.<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 45</ref> The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world&nbsp;... the simplest of all Elgar's major works&nbsp;... also the least grandiloquent."<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 50</ref> Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study ''[[Falstaff (Elgar)|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",<ref>Tovey, Donald F., "Elgar, Master of Music", ''Music and Letters'', January 1935, p. 1</ref> while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on [[Sequence (music)|sequences]]" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters.<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 35</ref> Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works.<ref>Reed, p. 151</ref> Elgar himself thought ''Falstaff'' the highest point of his purely orchestral work.<ref>Reed, p. 113</ref>

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 (Elgar)|The Apostles]]'' (1903) and ''[[The Kingdom (Elgar)|The Kingdom]]'' (1906); and two shorter odes, the ''[[Coronation Ode]]'' (1902) and ''[[The Music Makers (Elgar)|The Music Makers]]'' (1912). The first of the odes, as a ''pièce 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]]''.<ref>Burn, Andrew, [http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.557710&catNum=557710&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English Notes to Naxos recording of ''The Music Makers''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321063942/https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.557710&catNum=557710&filetype=About+this+Recording&language=English |date=21 March 2021 }} (CD 8.557710)</ref> The choral works were all successful, although the first, ''Gerontius'', was and remains the best-loved and most performed.<ref>Reed, p. 58</ref> 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."<ref name=grove/> All three of the large-scale works follow the 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.<ref>Reed, p. 150</ref>

Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for ''[[Diarmuid and Grania|Grania and Diarmid]]'', a play by [[George Moore (novelist)|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".<ref>McVeagh (2007), p. 78</ref> 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."<ref name="Reed, p. 149"/>

===Final years and posthumous completions===
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]], in distinctively Elgarian orchestration,<ref name=grove/> 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.<ref name=dnb/> 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 into a complete score led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those pages, along with others, show Elgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. ''The Gramophone'' described the opening of the new work as something "thrilling&nbsp;... unforgettably gaunt".<ref>Cowan, Rob, Review, ''Gramophone'', March 2000, p. 61</ref> Its first public performance was given by the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] under [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Andrew Davis]] in London on 15 February 1998.<ref>Robin Golding (2000) Liner notes to Naxos compact disc 8.554719</ref> Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth ''Pomp and Circumstance March'', premiered at [[the Proms]] in August 2006.<ref>Clements, Andrew, [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/aug/04/classicalmusicandopera1 "BBCSO/Davis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319060536/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/aug/04/classicalmusicandopera1 |date=19 March 2021 }}, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 4 August 2006. Retrieved 27 October 2010.</ref> 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.<ref>Greenfield, Edward, "Session report – New from Elgar", ''Gramophone'', March 2005, p. 16</ref>

===Reputation===
[[File:Edward Elgar, by Percival Hedley, 1905.jpg|upright|alt=Black bust of white man with large moustache|thumb|Elgar, by Percival Hedley, 1905]]
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".<ref>"Music – The Elgar Symphony", ''[[The Observer]]'', 13 December 1908, p. 9</ref> 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."<ref name=mt322/> By contrast, the critic [[Walter J. Turner|W. J. Turner]], in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "[[Salvation Army]] symphonies,"<ref name=cox>Cox, pp. 15–16</ref> and [[Herbert von Karajan]] called the ''Enigma Variations'' "second-hand Brahms".<ref>Kennedy, Michael, "Holst", ''Gramophone'', December 1990, p. 82</ref> 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.<ref name=dnb/> 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.<ref name=grove/><ref name=esw>Sackville-West, pp. 253–57</ref>

In 1924, the music scholar [[Edward Joseph Dent|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".<ref name=howes>Howes, pp. 165–67</ref> This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy.<ref>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. 443–44; Lorenz, Robert, John Levy and John F. Porte, "The Elgar Protest", ''The Musical Times'', June 1931, pp. 542–43; 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</ref> 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:
{{Blockquote|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.&nbsp;... 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.<ref name=esw/>}}

By the 1960s, a less severe view was 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.&nbsp;... 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."<ref name=howes/>

[[File:Sibelius-strauss-RVW-stravinsky.jpg|thumb|right|Composers who admired Elgar included (top) [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] (l) and [[Richard Strauss]] and (below) [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] (l) and [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]|alt=head and shoulders portraits of four men. One is bald; one is balding and luxuriantly moustached; one is a drawing of a young man in full face, with a full head of hair, in collar and tie; the fourth shows a young man, balding and bespectacled looking towards the camera]]
In 1967 the critic and analyst [[David Cox (composer)|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. How then, 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."<ref name=cox/> 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.&nbsp;... 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."<ref>"Pre-war Symphonies", ''The Times'', 1 February 1930, p. 10</ref> As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] made particular reference to it,<ref name=mt322/> and [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] called him "the personification of the true English character in music&nbsp;... a noble personality and a born aristocrat".<ref name=mt322>Sibelius, Jean, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss and Arthur Nikisch, "Tribute and Commentary", ''The Musical Times'', April 1934, p. 322</ref>
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.<ref>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 (composer)|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 (composer)|George Dyson]], [[Thomas Armstrong (conductor)|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. 302–06.</ref> ''The Dream of Gerontius'' has also been given high praise by Elgarians,<ref name=dg>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. 302–06.</ref> and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated.<ref name=dg/> 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'',<ref>Sackville West, p. 254</ref> 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&nbsp;... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry."<ref name=mason>Mason, Daniel Gregory, "A Study of Elgar", ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'', April 1917, pp. 288–303</ref> ''Falstaff'' also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite,<ref>"Elgar", ''Music and Letters'', April 1934, p. 109</ref> and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it.<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 35; and Reed, p. 151</ref> In a ''Musical Times'' 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share [[Eric Blom]]'s view that ''Falstaff'' is the greatest of all Elgar's works.<ref name=sympo>Vaughan Williams, Ralph, and others, "Elgar Today",''The Musical Times'', June 1957, pp. 302–06</ref>

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.&nbsp;... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony."<ref name=mason/> However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies.<ref name=sympo/> In the same year, [[Roger Fiske]] wrote in ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|The Gramophone]]'', "For some reason few people 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."<ref>Fiske, Roger, "Elgar, Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 63", ''Gramophone'', July 1957, p. 9</ref> 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",<ref>Warrack, John, "Three English Masters", ''Gramophone'', March 1984, p. 21</ref> whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and ''angst'' and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."<ref>Kennedy (1970), p. 56</ref>

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''.<ref>Farach-Colton, Andrew, "Vision of the Hereafter," ''Gramophone'', February 2003, p. 39</ref> 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 Australasia.<ref>[http://www.elgar.org/4welcome.htm "An Elgar Musical Diary"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706015905/http://www.elgar.org/4welcome.htm |date=6 July 2011 }}, The Elgar Society. Retrieved 5 June 2010.</ref>