159-515: Humoresque (or in German, Humoreske ) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit. Notable examples of the humoresque style are: This article about a music genre is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Romantic music Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with
318-578: A "romantic" composer or not, the breadth and power of his work gave rise to a feeling that the classical sonata form and, indeed, the structure of the symphony, sonata and string quartet had been exhausted. Events and changes in society such as ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events often affect music. For example, the Industrial Revolution was in full effect by the late 18th century and early 19th century. This event profoundly affected music: there were major improvements in
477-418: 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. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to
636-517: 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." Elgar asked Reed, "What
795-471: A colorful orchestral palette. The mystic Alexander Scriabin dreamed of a synthesis of colors, sound and scents. Sergei Rachmaninov wrote melancholic-pathetic piano pieces and concertos full of intoxicating virtuosity, while the piano works of Nikolai Medtner are more lyrical. In the Czech Republic, Leoš Janáček , deeply rooted in the music of his Moravian homeland, found new areas of expression with
954-516: A distinctly Russian national style of classical music . They were often at odds with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky who favored a more Western approach to classical composition. Led by Mily Balakirev the group's main members also consisted of César Cui , Modest Mussorgsky , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin . The Belyayev circle was a society of Russian musicians who met in Saint Petersburg from 1885 and 1908 who sought to continue
1113-473: A few of his works are quite close to the musical progress of the time. His successor include Walter Braunfels , who mainly emerged as an opera composer, and the symphonist Wilhelm Furtwängler . The opera stage was particularly suitable for increased emotions. The folk and fairy tale operas of Engelbert Humperdinck , Wilhelm Kienzl and Siegfried Wagner , the son of Richard Wagner, were still quite good. But even Eugen d'Albert and Max von Schillings irritated
1272-574: A fictional account of the journey. 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. 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
1431-570: A firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society , with Kreisler and the LSO, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion." So great
1590-581: 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." When Elgar was 29, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts , known as Alice, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and 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
1749-536: A full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. 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 (five km) from Worcester. 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. Elgar coached
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#17328545522471908-501: A generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more 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
2067-881: 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 new music". 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
2226-509: A loose collection of composers and critics informally led by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner who strove for pushing the limits of chromatic harmony and program music as opposed to absolute music which they believed had reached its limit under Ludwig van Beethoven . This group also pushed for the development and innovation of the symphonic poem , thematic transformation in musical form , and radical changes in tonality and harmony . Other important members of this movement includes
2385-554: A new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." 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". The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester
2544-456: A professional orchestra. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece but 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." Elgar often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to
2703-641: A raw amateur." 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. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch , Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe , 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
2862-572: 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
3021-793: 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,
3180-473: A special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon , a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia , an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. "Land of Hope and Glory", already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to
3339-471: A style that reminded Brahms. Ralph Vaughan Williams , whose works were inspired by English folk songs and Renaissance music , became the most important symphonist of his country. Gustav Holst incorporated Greek mythology and Indian philosophy into his work. Very idiosyncratic composer personalities in the transition to modernity were also Havergal Brian and Frank Bridge . In Russia, Alexander Glazunov decorated his traditional composition technique with
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#17328545522473498-414: A sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade. 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
3657-458: 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." The king and queen attended
3816-419: A trait that became stronger after Alice's death. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. Throughout his life he was a keen amateur chemist , sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden. He even patented the "Elgar Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus" in 1908. He enjoyed football , supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. , for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged
3975-492: A year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe. 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 (LSO), who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed
4134-462: Is Franz Schubert , with Erlkönig , however, many other romantic composers have devoted themselves to the lied genre such as Saint-Saëns , Duparc , Robert Schumann , Johannes Brahms , Hugo Wolf , Gustav Mahler , and Richard Strauss . It is Beethoven who inaugurates the romantic concerto, with his five piano concertos (especially the fifth ) and his violin concerto where many characteristics of classicism can still be recognized. His example
4293-486: Is a symphonic poem about the Moldau River in the modern-day Czech Republic , the second in a cycle of six nationalistic symphonic poems collectively titled Má vlast (My Homeland). Smetana also composed eight nationalist operas, all of which remain in the repertory. They established him as the first Czech nationalist composer as well as the most important Czech opera composer of the generation who came to prominence in
4452-463: Is as it should be." 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." By contrast, the remaining work,
4611-472: Is followed by many composers: the concerto rivals the symphony in the repertoire of major orchestral formations . Finally, the concerto will allow instrumentalist composers to reveal their virtuosity, such as Niccolò Paganini on the violin, and Frédéric Chopin , Robert Schumann , and Franz Liszt on the piano. The nocturne is presented as a short-lived confidential piece, which the Irish composer John Field
4770-481: Is free of material or program, is the embodiment of the romantic art idea. Another one of the most important representatives of late classicism and early romanticism is Franz Schubert . Because only with him did romantic features come into the German-language opera with his chamber music works and later also symphonies . In this field, his work is supplemented by the ballads of Carl Loewe . Carl Maria von Weber
4929-563: Is important for the development of the German opera , especially with his popular Freischütz. In addition, there are fantastic-horrious materials by Heinrich Marschner and finally the cheerful opera by Albert Lortzing , while Louis Spohr became known mainly for his instrumental music. Still largely attached to classical music is the work of Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Ferdinand Ries , and the Frenchman George Onslow . Italy experienced
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5088-408: 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. His new life 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
5247-462: Is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing. Elgar paid three visits to the USA between 1905 and 1911. His first was to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale University . His principal composition in 1905
5406-581: Is prominent in the Mazurkas of Chopin". His mazurkas and polonaises are particularly notable for their use of nationalistic rhythms. Moreover, "During World War II the Nazis forbade the playing of ... Chopin's Polonaises in Warsaw because of the powerful symbolism residing in these works". Other composers, such as Bedřich Smetana , wrote pieces that musically described their homelands. In particular, Smetana's Vltava
5565-523: Is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." 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. In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V , Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit , an honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year,
5724-422: Is the most important. 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. His next orchestral works, Cockaigne , a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and
5883-592: Is the position of the Finn Jean Sibelius , also a symphonist of melancholy expressiveness and clear line design. In Sweden, the works of Wilhelm Peterson-Berger , Wilhelm Stenhammar , and Hugo Alfvén show a typical Nordic conservatism, and the Norwegian Christian Sinding also composed traditionally. The music of Spain also increased in popularity again after a long time, first in the piano works of Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados , then in
6042-600: Is under the influence of Wagner's progressive ideas, among them, for example, Peter Cornelius . On the other hand, an opposition arose from numerous more conservative composers, to whom Johannes Brahms , who sought a logical continuation of classical music in symphony, chamber music and song, became a model of scale due to the depth of the sensation and a masterful composition technique . Among others, Robert Volkmann , Friedrich Kiel , Carl Reinecke , Max Bruch , Josef Gabriel Rheinberger , and Hermann Goetz are included in this party. In addition, some important loners came on
6201-404: Is where verism developed, an exaggerated realism that could easily turn into the striking and melodramatic on the opera stage. Despite their extensive work, Ruggero Leoncavallo , Pietro Mascagni , Francesco Cilea , and Umberto Giordano have only become known through one opera at a time. Only Giacomo Puccini 's work has been completely preserved in the repertoire of the opera houses, although he
6360-688: 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
6519-659: The Cello Concerto in E minor , had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the LSO's 1919–20 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." The critic of The Observer , Ernest Newman , wrote, "There have been rumours about during
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6678-688: The Enigma Variations , Cockaigne , the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South , inspired by a holiday in Italy. Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford , overlooking the River Wye , where they lived until 1911. Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at
6837-531: 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." However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to
6996-669: The Second Viennese School being its main promoters and Primitivism with Igor Stravinsky being its most influential composer. Carried to the highest degree by Ludwig van Beethoven , the symphony becomes the most prestigious form to which many composers devote themselves. The most conservative respect to the Beethovenian model includes composers such as Franz Schubert , Felix Mendelssohn , Robert Schumann , Camille Saint-Saëns , and Johannes Brahms . Others show an imagination that makes them go beyond this framework, in form or in
7155-453: The moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius . Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath , near Worcester , England, on 2 June 1857. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to
7314-491: The symphony genre in the classical mold, though they would implement their own musical language. The most prominent members of this circle were Johannes Brahms , Joseph Joachim , Clara Schumann , and the Leipzig Conservatoire , which had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn . The Mighty Five were a group of Russian composers centered in Saint Petersburg who collaborated with each other from 1856 to 1870 to create
7473-454: 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". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry 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
7632-612: 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. 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 . The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to
7791-414: The 1860s. The transition of Viennese classicism to Romanticism can be found in the work of Ludwig van Beethoven . Many typically romantic elements are encountered for the first time in his works. These works stand here in contrast to vocal music and are "purely" instrumental music. According to Hoffmann, the pure instrumental music of Viennese classical music, especially that of Beethoven , since it
7950-404: The 1924 British Empire Exhibition . 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 . 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", he had already recorded much of his music by
8109-423: 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. The recordings were reissued on CD in
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#17328545522478268-484: The 1990s. In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé 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 LSO, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A memorial plaque to Elgar at Abbey Road
8427-489: The Brahms-oriented Hubert Parry and symphonist, as well as the comic operas of Arthur Sullivan . In late Romanticism, also called post-Romanticism, the traditional forms and elements of music are further dissolved. An increasingly colorful orchestral palette, an ever-increasing range of musical means, the spread of tonality to its limits, exaggerated emotions and an increasingly individual tonal language of
8586-577: The Dane Niels Wilhelm Gade . In opera, the operas of Otto Nicolai and Friedrich von Flotow still dominated in Germany when Richard Wagner wrote his first romantic operas. The early works of Giuseppe Verdi were also still based on the Belcanto ideal of the older generation. In France, the Opéra lyrique was developed by Ambroise Thomas and Charles Gounod . Russian music found its own language in
8745-640: 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 ,
8904-490: 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
9063-548: The Leather for Goal" , and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, 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. 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 "). As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about
9222-609: The Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries , and part songs . Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. 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
9381-600: The Symphony poems oriented towards Liszt. The symphonies, concerts and chamber music works of Antonín Dvořák , on the other hand, have Brahms as a model. In Poland, Stanisław Moniuszko was the leading opera composer, in Hungary Ferenc Erkel . Norway produced its best-known composers with Edvard Grieg , creator of lyrical piano works, songs and orchestral works such as the Peer-Gynt Suite; England's voice resonated with
9540-565: The Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing . 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. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady , and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony . His final illness prevented their completion. He fretted about
9699-414: 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
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#17328545522479858-504: 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
10017-407: The composer's baton. Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). Elgar arranged numerous pieces by Mozart , Beethoven , Haydn , and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills. In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Saëns play
10176-471: The conductor Landon Ronald , confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," 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." When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as
10335-505: The countryside by his chauffeur. 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 ,
10494-400: The critic Richard Pohl and composers Felix Draeseke , Julius Reubke , Karl Klindworth , William Mason , and Peter Cornelius . The conservatives were a broad group of musicians and critics who maintained the artistic legacy of Robert Schumann who adhered to composing and promoting absolute music . They believed in continuing along the footsteps of Ludwig van Beethoven of composing
10653-443: The critics 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 know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it
10812-459: 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 . The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius , was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin , "This is the best of me; for
10971-510: The development of the language melody in his operas. The local sounds are also unmistakable in the music of Zdeněk Fibich , Josef Bohuslav Foerster , Vítězslav Novák , and Josef Suk . On the other hand, there is a slightly morbid exoticism and later classicist measure in the work of the Polish Karol Szymanowski . The most important Danish composer is Carl Nielsen , known for symphonies and concerts. Even more dominant in his country
11130-676: The development of the national Russian style of classical music following in the footsteps of the Mighty Five although they were far more tolerant of the Western compositional style of Tchaikovsky . This group was founded by Russian music publisher philanthropist Mitrofan Belyayev . The two most important composers of this group were Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov . Members also included Vladimir Stasov , Anatoly Lyadov , Alexander Ossovsky , Witold Maliszewski , Nikolai Tcherepnin , Nikolay Sokolov , and Alexander Winkler . During
11289-484: The disapproval of his father. 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. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar
11448-401: 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. Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance. Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up
11607-470: The end of his life, represents in person as well as in music almost the prototype of the passionate romantic artist, shadowed by tragedy. His idiosyncratic piano pieces, chamber music works and symphonies should have a lasting influence on the following generation of musicians. Franz Liszt , who came from the German minority in Hungary, was on the one hand a swarmed piano virtuoso, but on the other hand also laid
11766-473: 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." Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto , in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind". They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached
11925-496: The first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius , and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival). 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 ,
12084-555: The first performance in Worcester in September 1890. 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 . During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for
12243-545: The first significant applications of the term to music was in 1789, in the Mémoires by the Frenchman André Grétry , but it was E. T. A. Hoffmann who established the principles of musical romanticism, in a lengthy review of Ludwig van Beethoven 's Fifth Symphony published in 1810, and an 1813 article on Beethoven's instrumental music. In the first of these essays Hoffmann traced the beginnings of musical Romanticism to
12402-590: The following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance. Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches , which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms , where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called
12561-533: The foundation for the progressive " New German School " with his harmoniously bold symphonic poems . Also committed to program music was the technique of the Idée fixe (leitmotif) of the Frenchman Hector Berlioz , who also significantly expanded the orchestra. Felix Mendelssohn was again more oriented towards the classicist formal language and became a role model especially for Scandinavian composers such as
12720-550: The gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne , lasting less than fifteen minutes. 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. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in
12879-555: 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 . Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar
13038-550: The height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns. 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." 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
13197-430: The hero for example), it is to be compared to music with a symphonic program. This musical genre appeared with the evolution from pianoforte to piano during the romantic period. The lied is vocal music most often accompanied by this instrument. The singing is taken from romantic poems and this style makes it possible to bring the voice as close to feelings as possible. One of the first and most famous lieder composers
13356-489: The heyday of the Belcanto opera in early Romanticism, associated with the names of Gioachino Rossini , Gaetano Donizetti , and Vincenzo Bellini . While Rossini's comic operas are primarily known today, often only through their rousing overtures , Donizetti and Bellini predominate tragic content. The most important Italian instrumental composer of this time was the legendary "devil's violinist" Niccolò Paganini . In France , on
13515-408: 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. In her diary, she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to
13674-447: The immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences " and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work. The major works for voices and orchestra of
13833-579: The individual composer are typical features; the music is led to the threshold of modernity . Thus, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler reached previously unknown dimensions, partly give up the traditional four-sentence and often contain vocal proportions. But behind the monumental facade is the modern expressiveness of the Fin de siècle . This psychological expressiveness is also contained in the songs of Hugo Wolf , miniature dramas for voice and piano. More committed to tradition, particularly oriented towards Bruckner, are
13992-475: The individual" by being composed in ways that were often less restrictive and more often focused on the composer's skills as a person than prior means of writing music. During the Romantic period, music often took on a much more nationalistic purpose. Composers composed with a distinct sound that represented their home country and traditions. For example, Jean Sibelius' Finlandia has been interpreted to represent
14151-612: 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-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes , whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired. 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. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for
14310-730: The later half of the 19th Century, some prominent composers began exploring the limits of the traditional tonal system. Important examples include Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner and Bagatelle sans tonalité by Franz Liszt . This limit was finally reached during the Late Romantic period where progressive tonality is demonstrated in the works of composers such as Gustav Mahler . With these developments, Romanticism finally began to break apart into several new parallel movements forming in response, bringing way to Modernism . Some notable movements to form in response to Romanticism's collapse include Expressionism with Arnold Schoenberg and
14469-487: The later works of Haydn and Mozart . It was Hoffmann's fusion of ideas already associated with the term "Romantic", used in opposition to the restraint and formality of Classical models, that elevated music, and especially instrumental music, to a position of pre-eminence in Romanticism as the art most suited to the expression of emotions. It was also through the writings of Hoffmann and other German authors that German music
14628-457: The leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." Performances in Vienna, Paris and New York followed, 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
14787-632: The less true and sturdy English quality". 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 . Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (now Lyttleton) House school, near Worcester. His only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons from local teachers consisted of more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer , during brief visits to London in 1877–78. Elgar said, "my first music
14946-488: The mechanical valves and keys that most woodwinds and brass instruments depend on. The new and innovative instruments could be played with greater ease and they were more reliable. Another development that affected music was the rise of the middle class. Composers before this period lived under the patronage of the aristocracy. Many times their audience was small, composed mostly of the upper class and individuals who were knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composers, on
15105-605: The middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." 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 ." 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
15264-415: The mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". 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
15423-523: 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. 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
15582-436: The movements of Romantic literature , poetry , art, and philosophy. Romantic music was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, literature, poetry, super-natural elements, or the fine arts. It included features such as increased chromaticism and moved away from traditional forms. The Romantic movement was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in
15741-528: The nerves with a German variant of verism. Erotic symbolism can be found in the stage works of Alexander von Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker . Richard Strauss went even further to the limits of tonality with Salome and Elektra before he took more traditional paths with the Rosenkavalier. In the style related to the works of Strauss, the compositions Emil Nikolaus von Rezniceks and Paul Graeners are shown. In Italy, opera still dominated during this time. This
15900-619: The new vocal 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. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem. 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. In March 1904
16059-446: The next year. Elgar was greatly distressed, and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her. 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. In 1882, seeking more professional orchestral experience, Elgar
16218-429: 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. Around this time, he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist. After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. He
16377-464: The one hand, the light Opéra comique developed, its representatives are François-Adrien Boieldieu , Daniel-François-Esprit Auber , and Adolphe Adam , the latter also known for his ballets . One can also quote the famous eccentric composer and harpist Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (seven operas). In addition, the Grand opéra came up with pompous stage sets, ballets and large choirs. Her first representative
16536-588: The operas of Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyschski . The second phase of high romanticism runs in parallel with the style of realism in literature and the visual arts. In the second half of his creation, Wagner now developed his leitmotif technique , with which he holds together the four-part ring of the Nibelungen , composed without arias ; the orchestra is treated symphonically, the chromaticism reaches its extreme in Tristan and Isolde . A whole crowd of disciples
16695-400: The operas, ballets and orchestral works of Manuel de Falla , influenced by Impressionism. Finally, the first important representatives of the United States also appeared with Edward MacDowell and Amy Beach . But even the work of Charles Ives belonged only partly to late Romanticism - much of it was already radically modern and pointed far into the 20th century. The New German School was
16854-508: 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." 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
17013-467: The other hand, often wrote for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers, who had not necessarily had any music lessons. Composers of the Romantic Era, like Elgar , showed the world that there should be "no segregation of musical tastes" and that the "purpose was to write music that was to be heard". "The music composed by Romantic [composers]" reflected "the importance of
17172-474: The overture Froissart , was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics. 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 part songs . W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised
17331-476: 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. 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
17490-477: The parties in composition. Verdi also reached the way to a well-composed musical drama , albeit in a different way than Wagner. His immense charisma made all other composers fade in Italy, including Amilcare Ponchielli and Arrigo Boito , who was also the librettist of his late operas Otello and Falstaff. In France, on the other hand, the light muse triumphed first in the form of the socio-critical operettas of Jacques Offenbach . Lyrical opera found its climax in
17649-477: The period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism —the intellectual, artistic, and literary movement that became prominent in Western culture from about 1798 until 1837. Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic, and often programmatic ; reflecting broader trends within
17808-457: 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 know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." He held
17967-575: The post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week. Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen . Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles. He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvořák 's Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under
18126-586: The premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. It was performed in Düsseldorf , 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
18285-561: The present day a worldwide concert staple. 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." Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited. 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
18444-477: 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 . 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. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two. Elgar
18603-420: The regular repertory. 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 low for
18762-541: 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." 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. Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid ,
18921-456: The rising nation of Finland, which would someday gain independence from Russian control. Frédéric Chopin was one of the first composers to incorporate nationalistic elements into his compositions. Joseph Machlis states, "Poland's struggle for freedom from tsarist rule aroused the national poet in Poland. ... Examples of musical nationalism abound in the output of the romantic era. The folk idiom
19080-510: The scene, among whom Anton Bruckner particularly stands out. Although a Wagner supporter, his clear-form style differs significantly from that of that composer. For example, the block-based instrumentation of Bruckner's symphonies is derived from the registers of the organ. In the ideological struggle against Wagner's adversaries, he was portrayed by his followers as a counterpart of Brahms. Felix Draeseke , who originally wrote "future music in classical form" starting from Liszt, also stands between
19239-518: The second half of the 18th century in Europe and strengthened in reaction to the Industrial Revolution . In part, it was a revolt against social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, literature, and education, and was in turn influenced by developments in natural history. One of
19398-471: 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 Düsseldorfer 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." Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as
19557-399: The spirit: the most daring of them being Hector Berlioz . Finally, some will also tell a story throughout their symphonies; like Franz Liszt , they will create the symphonic poem , a new musical genre, usually composed of a single movement and inspired by a theme, character or literary text. Since the symphonic poem is articulated around a leitmotiv (musical motif to identify a character,
19716-500: The symphonies of Franz Schmidt and Richard Wetz , while Max Reger resorted to Bach's polyphony in his numerous instrumental works, but developed it harmoniously extremely boldly. Among the numerous composers of the Reger successor, Julius Weismann and Joseph Haas stand out. Among the outstanding late romantic sound creators is also the idiosyncratic Hans Pfitzner . Although a traditionalist and decisive opponent of modern currents, quite
19875-402: The tune. 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 (1915–17, to poems by Laurence Binyon ), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years. His last large-scale composition of the war years
20034-458: 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 pièce d'occasion , has rarely been revived after its initial success, with
20193-504: The unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young , in co-operation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady , which
20352-433: The variations. 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. 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
20511-461: 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." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond , who played
20670-555: 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. Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91,
20829-601: The work for him again later. 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. Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, 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
20988-680: The works of Claude Debussy , the structures dissolved into the finest nuances of rhythm, dynamics and timbre. This development was prepared in the work of Vincent d'Indy , Ernest Chausson and above all in the songs and chamber music of Gabriel Fauré . All subsequent French composers were more or less influenced by Impressionism. The most important among them was Maurice Ravel , a brilliant orchestral virtuoso. Albert Roussel first processed exotic topics before he anticipated Neoclassical tendencies like Ravel. Gabriel Pierné , Paul Dukas , Charles Koechlin , and Florent Schmitt also dealt with symbolic and exotic-oriental substances. The loner Erik Satie
21147-508: The works of Jules Massenet , while in the Carmen by Georges Bizet , realism came for the first time. Louis Théodore Gouvy built a stylistic bridge to German music. The operas, symphonies and chamber music works of the extremely versatile Camille Saint-Saëns were, as were the ballets of Léo Delibes , more tradition-oriented. New orchestra colors were found in the compositions of Édouard Lalo and Emmanuel Chabrier . The Belgian-born César Franck
21306-542: The zenith of popularity. He made four visits to the US, 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 . He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on
21465-538: 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. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company . 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",
21624-724: Was Gaspare Spontini , her most important Giacomo Meyerbeer . Music development has now also taken an upswing in other European countries. The Irishman John Field composed the first Nocturnes for piano , Friedrich Kuhlau worked in Denmark and the Swede Franz Berwald wrote four very idiosyncratic symphonies . The high romanticism can be divided into two phases. In the first phase, the actual romantic music reaches its peak. The Polish composer Frédéric Chopin explored previously unknown depths of emotion in his character pieces and dances for piano. Robert Schumann , mentally immersed at
21783-414: 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." In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At
21942-527: 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
22101-670: Was accompanied by a revival of organ music, which was continued by Charles-Marie Widor , later Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire . A specific national romanticism had by now emerged in almost all European countries. The national Russian current started by Glinka was continued in Russia by the " Group of Five ": Mily Balakirev , Alexander Borodin , Modest Mussorgsky , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , and César Cui . More western oriented were Anton Rubinstein and Pyotr Tchaikovsky , whose ballets and symphonies gained great popularity. Bedřich Smetana founded Czech national music with his operas and
22260-509: Was accorded a double encore." 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 on 30 June 1902. 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
22419-627: Was also often accused of sentimentality. Despite some veristic works, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was mainly considered a revival of the Opera buffa. Ferruccio Busoni , a temporarily defender of modern classicity living in Germany, left behind a rather conventional, little played work. Thus, instrumental music actually only found its place in Italian music again with Ottorino Respighi , who was influenced by Impressionism. The term Impressionism comes from painting, and like there, it also developed in music in France. In
22578-460: 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, but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked
22737-451: Was brought to the center of musical Romanticism. The classical period often used short, even fragmentary, thematic material while the Romantic period tended to make greater use of longer, more fully defined and more emotionally evocative themes. Characteristics often attributed to Romanticism: In music, there is a relatively clear dividing line in musical structure and form following the death of Beethoven. Whether one counts Beethoven as
22896-613: Was buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern . Elgar was contemptuous of folk music 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. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism ,
23055-402: Was devastated by the loss of his wife. With no public demand for new works, 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",
23214-531: Was developed throughout the 19th century, especially by composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Russia and Léo Delibes in France. Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet , OM , GCVO ( / ˈ ɛ l ɡ ɑːr / ; 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
23373-582: Was employed as a violinist in Birmingham in William Stockley's Orchestra , for whom he played every concert for the next seven years and where he later said he "learned all the music I know". On 13 December 1883 he took part with Stockley in a performance at Birmingham Town Hall of one of his first works for full orchestra, the Sérénade mauresque – the first time one of his compositions had been performed by
23532-470: Was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic . She was disinherited." They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory . 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. She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time, he would learn to accept
23691-559: Was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened. 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. 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
23850-415: Was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1997. Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933. He told his consulting doctor, Arthur Thomson , that he had no faith in an afterlife : "I believe there is nothing but complete oblivion." Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and
24009-520: Was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten." He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. He later said that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry 's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to
24168-524: Was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. 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. His own compositions made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and
24327-500: 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. 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
24486-549: Was one of the first to cultivate. Immersed in the climate of the night, an atmosphere privileged by romantics, it is often of ABA structure, with a very flexible and ornate melody , accompanied by a left hand with undulating arpeggios . The tempo is usually slow, and the central part is often more agitated. Frédéric Chopin has set the most famous form of the nocturnes. He wrote 21, from 1827 to 1846. First published in series of three (opus 9 and 15), they are then grouped in pairs (opus 27, 32, 37, 48, 55, 62). The Romantic ballet
24645-580: 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. Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development. He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. 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
24804-410: Was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings , dedicated to Samuel Sanford . 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
24963-752: Was the creator of spun piano pieces and idol of the next generation. Nevertheless, Impressionism is often attributed to the epoch of modernity, if not seen as its own epoch. Hubert Parry and the Irishman Charles Villiers Stanford initiated late Romanticism in England, which had its first important representative in Edward Elgar . While he revived the oratorio and wrote symphonies and concerts, Frederick Delius devoted himself to particularly small orchestral images with his own variant of Impressionism. Ethel Smyth wrote mainly operas and chamber music in
25122-425: Was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London. 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
25281-645: Was unveiled on 24 June 1993. 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 drew on his youthful sketch-books. 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. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct
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