ELGAR, SIR EDWARD (185 , English composer, was born at Worcester on June 2, 1857. His father was organist of the Roman Catholic church of St. George in that city, and had connections with the Glee Club and the Three Choirs Festival. He was also a violinist, and both he and his son played in the Festival orchestra. The boy also played the organ and occasionally the bassoon, and sometimes led the Glee Club band. He had no regular musical education. In 18 7 9 he became bandmaster at the county lunatic asylum; in 1882 he was engaged as conductor of the Worcester amateur orchestral society; and in 1885 he suc ceeded his father as organist at St. George's. In 1889 he married Caroline Alice, daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir Henry Gee Roberts and in the same year he moved to London ; but finding no en couragement there he retired to Malvern in 1891, and in settled in Hereford. From 1905 to 1908 he was professor of music at Birmingham university.
To the public generally Elgar's name was little known until the production of his oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius. This work, first performed at the Birmingham Festival in 190o under Richter, did not at first receive the recognition which it merited. Portions of it, such as the death scene and the "Angel" music, made an instant impression, but the whole was felt to be disap pointing. A section of the audience objected to its "Catholicism," though to others, who appreciated the spiritual affinity existing between the music and Newman's poem, this was the element that was most precious. It was not until the performance of the oratorio at the Lower Rhine Festival at Dusseldorf on May 19, 1902, under Julius Buths, when it elicited from Richard Strauss a generous tribute which attracted universal attention, that its position was assured. Elgar's next great work was The Apostles, forming the first part of a trilogy, which was produced at the Birmingham Festival of 1903 and performed at the Lower Rhine Festival in Cologne in 1904. Its reception in both cases was dis appointing. Made of sterner stuff than Gerontius, it was not calculated to appeal to those who had taken that work to their hearts. The harshness of some of the progressions was displeasing to English festival audiences who had been brought up on Mendels sohn and Spohr, but subsequent performances brought a revulsion in its favour. Elgar's growing popularity led to the organization, in March 1904, of an Elgar festival of three days at Covent Garden, London, at which Gerontius, The Apostles and the con cert overture, In the South, were performed. The last is one of the composer's finest works, remarkable for the broad lines of its melody and its warm colouring, and interesting as a foretaste of the great symphonic writing that was to come. In 1906 The Kingdom (op. 51) (part II. of the trilogy), was produced at the Birmingham Festival.
The appearance of the first symphony (in A flat, op. 55), first played in Manchester on Dec. 3, 1908, marked the opening of a new phase. Where the massive choral works had failed to con vince and impose, the symphony now succeeded. Its breadth, its beauty and its sincerity left no doubt, from the first time of hear ing, of its importance. Its reception abroad was almost as en thusiastic, and in the result it was hardly going too far to say that English music had been raised to a higher position in the estima tion of Europe than any which it had occupied since the death of Purcell. After the symphony came the violin concerto (op. 61), the second symphony (op. 63) and the symphonic study for or chestra, Falstaff (op. 68). The concerto was first played by Kreisler at a Philharmonic concert in London in 1910 and, like the first symphony, attained immediate popularity.
The World War inspired Elgar to write some patriotic pieces, one of which, Carillon (op. 75), written to a poem by l?mile Cam maerts, had innumerable performances. These works were followed by Polonia, a symphonic prelude, and Le Drapeau Belge (op. 79). After the war Elgar turned his attention to chamber music, pro ducing in a single year (1919) the violin and piano sonata (op. 82) ; the string quintet (op. 83) ; the piano quintet (op. 84) and the violoncello concerto, all works of the finest quality. Since the death of his wife in 1920, he has produced little beyond two brilliant transcriptions for orchestra of a fugue by Bach and an overture by Handel, but it is believed that there are other works still to come.
Many of Elgar's earlier compositions were revived when his fame became established and have become permanent favourites with the British public. Among these are the Pomp and Circum stance marches (op. 39), the first of which contains as its trio the stirring melody now sung to the words of "Land of Hope and Glory" ; the song-cycle, Sea-Pictures, first sung at Norwich by Dame Clara Butt in 1899; the "Enigma" Variations for orchestra on an original theme; the overture Cockaigne and the two or chestral suites The Wand of Youth, written on material dating from the composer's childhood. Among these, the Variations stand easily first and have indeed long since taken their place, alike at home and abroad, among the most important of all Elgar's instrumental works; the Sea-Pictures, though on a lower level, rank none the less among the best of Elgar's songs, while Cock aigne has also proved very popular, not least on the continent, where it is regarded as a typical picture in tones of London's busy life. Still earlier works include the popular Salut. d'annour for violin and piano; Sursum Gorda for brass, strings and organ; a concert overture Froissart; Spanish Serenade for chorus and orch. ; The Black Knight, cantata; The Light of Life, oratorio; and Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf for soli, choir and orch.
Elgar received his knighthood in 1902, at the time of King Ed ward VII.'s coronation, for which he wrote the official Ode. The Order of Merit was conferred on him in 1911; and he was created a baronet in 1931, receiving the G.C.V.O. in 1933. He succeeded Sir Walter Parratt as Master of the King's Musick in 1924. He died Feb. For further information concerning the composer, see an excellent and comprehensive article in Grove's Dictionary (3rd ed.) ; R. J. Buck ley, Sir Edward Elgar (1904) ; Ernest Newman, Elgar (1906) ; J. F. Porte, Sir Edward Elgar (1921) .