Elgar, Edward

Elgar the Music Maker

'The new Diana McVeagh book on Elgar is first-rate,' wrote Gerald Finzi of her earlier study of the composer, published in 1955. In the completely new Elgar the Music Maker she harvests five decades of thoughts about his music, scrutinizing the biographical details that have since been discovered and using them to assess the ways in which they affect the compositions. Diana McVeagh explores Elgar's complex personality and his compositional methods, his style and his relationship to his contemporaries, yet it is the music - still played, recorded, loved and discussed as much as ever- that remains her prime focus. Each of Elgar's works is discussed, balancing information and appraisal, from his juvenilia to his unfinished Third Symphony. Diana McVeagh provides a compelling and accessible companion to the music of one of England's greatest composers. Musicians, scholars and CD collectors alike will find much to enjoy in Elgar the Music Maker.

Gerontius

In this delightful novel, which won a Whitbread Prize in 1989, James Hamilton-Paterson joins celebrated British composer Edward Elgar on a cruise on the Amazon River and imagines what artists of the time may have pondered. "Oh Edward what a stupid doltish ass you've been to waste your life on the idea that art--in its small way--can make the least difference to things," he imagines Elgar as commenting. The book isn't merely a collection of questioning ruminations; the cruise is filled with a variety of comical and interesting passengers and crew members.

Elgar The Erotic Variations & Delius A Moment with Delius (Ken Russell Presents)

Two fictional biographies of the famous composers Elgar and Delius.

The Cambridge Companion to Elgar (Cambridge Companions to Music)

Divided into three sections, this Companion explores Edward Elgar's early career, his major musical achievements, and the reception, performance and interpretation of his work. Placed in this wider perspective, Elgar emerges as a pivotal figure in the British cultural imagination at a defining historical moment for England's musical identity.

This Companion provides an accessible, diverse and up-to-date introduction to life and music of Edward Elgar. The book will be of interest to a wide readership, including performers and members of the general public as well as students and serious scholars. Divided into three sections, the Companion explores Elgar's early career, his major musical achievements, and the reception, performance and interpretation of his work. Placed in this wider perspective, Elgar emerges as a pivotal figure in the British cultural imagination at a defining historical moment for the national musical identity.

Elgar: Enigma Variations (Cambridge Music Handbooks)

Elgar's Variations for Orchestra, commonly known as the 'Enigma' Variations, marked an epoch both in his career, and in the renaissance of English music at the turn of the century. The first extended study of the work, this Cambridge Music Handbook contains historical information concerning the conception and writing of the work, an extended musical discussion requiring only a little technical knowledge of music, and a fascinating survey of the "solutions" to the mystery implied by the title of Elgar's most famous work.

Elgar's Variations for Orchestra, commonly known as the 'Enigma' Variations, marked an epoch both in his career, and in the renaissance of English music at the turn of the century. The first extended study of the work, this Cambridge Music Handbook contains historical information concerning the conception and writing of the work, an extended musical discussion requiring only a little technical knowledge of music, and a fascinating survey of the 'solutions' to the mystery implied by the title of Elgar's most famous work.

The Life of Elgar (Musical Lives)

This new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available over the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music as well as a distinguished musical biographer, uses the new material (including Elgar's vast personal correspondence) to analyze the composer's complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was "not wanted."

This important new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available in the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music and a distinguished musical biographer, uses this new material, which includes Elgar's own vast correspondence, in an attempt to get to the centre of the composer's complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was 'not wanted'.

Portrait of Elgar (Oxford Paperbacks)

First published in 1968, this biography of Edward Elgar--one of England's foremost twentieth-century composers--paints a compelling portrait of Elgar's complex personal and musical character. For this third edition, Kennedy has added new material and incorporated recent research, shedding new light into Elgar's early years. Kennedy has also revised and expanded the list of works.

Elgar: An Anniversary Portrait

June 2007 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar. Here, to mark the occasion, is a collection of new essays by a distinguished group of contributors. They deal with Elgar the Man and Composer, as well as with issues connected to Elgar's lasting legacy and to the performance of his music.

Elgar was a man of many contradictions. He was born an outsider, into a family of lower-middle class, Catholic, origins. Yet his fame, and ability to write music that struck a chord in the national consciousness, led him to adopt a sycophantic attitude towards the Royal Family and high society, even though he always felt ill at ease with them. Elgar was a depressive with a problematic marriage, who craved recognition, but in many ways he regretted the piece of music which made him famous. 'Pomp and Circumstance' made him the leading English composer of his age, but also contributed to the jingoism which he so disliked during the First World War.

Yet, unquestionably, he was the greatest musical genius that England had produced in centuries. This Anniversary Portrait, by some of the scholars and musicians that understand him best, offers interesting new light on a wide range of aspects of Edward Elgar's life and work. Richard Strauss`s famous toast to Elgar in 1902- ` to the welfare and success of the first English progressivist`- looks startling today. Is not Elgar the last embodiment of a fading Empire, a composer of late romantic music that even for its period was behind the times? That cliched view has become ever more inadequate over a period when Elgar`s music has increasingly been performed and acknowledged internationally.

Edward Elgar, Modernist (Music in the Twentieth Century)

The first full-length analytical study of Edward Elgar's music, this book argues that Elgar was a modernist composer, and that his music constitutes a pessimistic twentieth-century assessment of the nature of human being. Focusing on Elgar's music rather than his life, Harper-Scott blends the hermeneutic and existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger with music-analytical methods derived from Heinrich Schenker and James Hepokoski. In the course of engaging with debates centred on duotonality in musical structures, sonata deformations, meaning in music, the nature of tragedy, and the quest narrative, the book rejects poststructuralist and literary-theoretical interpretations of music, radically interprets Schenkerian theory, and tentatively outlines a new space - a Heideggerian 'clearing' - in which music of all periods can be understood to operate, be experienced, and be understood. The book includes a detailed glossary which provides the reader with clear definitions of important and difficult terms.

The first full-length analytical study of Edward Elgar's music, this book gives a historical overview of its place in European musical history. Harper-Scott argues that Elgar was a modernist composer, and that his music constitutes a pessimistic twentieth-century assessment of the nature of human being. A detailed glossary is included.

Elgar Studies