Edward William Elgar

1857–1934

Introduction

Biography

Edward was the son of Will­iam Hen­ry Elgar and Ann Green­ing, and hus­band of Ca­ro­line Al­ice Ro­berts (mar­ried 1889).

A self-taught com­pos­er, he pro­duced or­ches­tral and chor­al works, con­cer­tos, sym­pho­nies, cham­ber mu­sic, hymn tunes and songs. He was al­so known as a vio­lin­ist and or­gan­ist.

Elgar was ap­point­ed Mas­ter of the King’s Mu­sick in 1924.

Works

One of El­gar’s best known ef­forts is Pomp and Cir­cum­stance, com­posed for the co­ro­na­tion of King Ed­ward VII in 1901. Its ti­tle comes from the line in Act 3, scene 3, of Shakes­peare’s Othel­lo: Pride, pomp, and cir­cum­stance of glo­ri­ous war!

In 1902, the mu­sic came in­to use with Ar­thur C. Ben­son’s lyr­ics for the pa­tri­ot­ic song Land of Hope and Glo­ry.

In 1905, the mu­sic’s po­pu­lar­ity ex­plod­ed af­ter it was played for a gra­du­ation ce­re­mo­ny at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty (where El­gar re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Mu­sic deg­ree). Af­ter aca­de­mia heard it there, the piece spread to be­come a sta­ple at gra­du­ations across Am­eri­ca and else­where.