EDWARD ELGAR (1857-1934)
An Anthology of Works from Boosey & Hawkes
(The Masterworks Library)
Sea Pictures (1899)
Pomp & Circumstance Marches 1 - 5
(1901-1930)
Cockaigne (In London Town) (1901)
265 pages of score
ISMN M060110238 £19.99 229 mm x 305 mm
Elgar was forty-two when he achieved recognition with his first masterpiece
'Enigma Variations' in 1899. The
works in this anthology come mainly from the first decade of the period when
Elgar was at the height of his powers, 1899 - 1920, the exceptions being
Pomp & Circumstance no. 5 which, though published in 1930 was sketched
much earlier, closer in time to the others, and the setting of Alice Elgar's
'In Haven', which was composed two years earlier than the rest of Sea
Pictures, under the title, 'Love Alone'.
There are brief but informative notes on each work in a preface by Malcolm
MacDonald, and separate texts of the poems; both preface and texts are given
in French and German translations. The score is in large format, 229 mm x
305 mm, and Boosey & Hawkes intend the publications in the 'Masterworks
Library' series for students, conductors, performers, libraries, CD collectors
and general music enthusiasts. Certainly both amateur and professional conductors
will find it useful to have these popular works on their shelves, since reference
can be made by way of annotations to the approach taken on previous occasions.
The scores are well bound and will lie flat without danger of the spine breaking,
essential when conducting or score reading at the piano.
Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra, is
given in a new edition; 'music setting by Jack Thompson' on what looks like
Sibelius software. It is a very clear score and easy on the eye, though clarity
is achieved partially by using smaller staves than the other works in this
collection. Relatively new engraving conventions are to be welcomed, such
as bar lines extending across instrumental groups, so the eye can separate
woodwind, brass and strings; the older method was to extend the bar lines
across all staves with a break only before the strings (unless there was
harp or percussion which would also be separated out). The vocal line uses
beamed note groupings instead of separating them according to syllables,
although there are a few slur marks used as phrasings rather than for melisma.
Instrumental abbreviations are marked on each page, and the horns have key
signatures. However, I wonder if Elgar really did omit pedal indications
in the harp part; the diminished chord glissando in bar ten of No.1, if really
intended as a glissando, would necessitate the harpist to tune three of the
strings to enharmonics to achieve the desired effect. It would also be better
if the vocal stave was marked, 'Alto solo' instead of 'Voice'.
Despite oft-repeated criticisms of 'Sea Pictures' citing that the
poetry is less than great, and the sea forms only a tenuous link between
movements, it has remained one of the most popular song cycles ever written.
The fact is, 'great' poetry is not always good material for song, and a group
of songs need not necessarily develop a narrative in order to make a satisfying
collection - the posthumous cycles of Strauss (Four Last Songs) and
Schubert (Schwanengesang) are proof of that. Some unity is gained
by cyclic use of themes; there is a reference to the opening of No. 1 in
No. 3, and the final song quotes from the previous two.
The movements are:
1. Sea Slumber-Song [words by Hon. Roden Noel]
2. In Haven (Capri) [words by Caroline Alice Elgar]
3. Sabbath Morning at Sea [words from a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning]
4. Where Corals Lie [words by Richard Garnett]
5.The Swimmer [words from a poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon
Perhaps the most popular of the sea pictures is 'Where Corals Lie', often
performed as a stand-alone song, but the whole cycle would make a good programme
filler for choral societies preparing one of the shorter choral works; the
orchestra is the same as for 'The Light of Life', though I recently
heard it performed with 'The Music Makers', which requires triple
woodwind.
The five Pomp and Circumstance marches all differ to varying degrees
in instrumentation, which suggests that they were not intended to be performed
as a suite, though the Elgar Society Website
states that they should be. Two harps are required for No. 1, and the first
three use two trumpets and two cornets, a practice that is more commonly
found in scores by French composers. Two harps are again required for No.
4, this time written on the same part with indications for unisons and octave
doublings, and a cor anglais is added to the last three. However, there is
sufficient contrast between each march to make them work extremely well as
a suite.
The title 'Pomp and Circumstance' is taken from Shakespeare's Othello, Act
III scene iii, in which Othello, having learned of Desdemona's inconstancy,
finds this an undignified, inglorious torment compared with heroic deeds:
'Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!'
Hence the subtitle 'Military Marches'; but there is also an air of celebration
and pageantry which is very apparent in the two best known, No. 1 (1901)
and No. 4 (1907). Though the forgoing sentiments are somewhat alien to us
today, Elgar was a man of his times and No. 1 would have certainly caught
the zeitgeist of the beginning of the twentieth century, with a new king
coming to the throne in 1901, and the Boer War coming to an end the following
year. It was the new king, Edward VII, who suggested to Elgar that words
should be provided for the trio melody, advice which Elgar heeded for the
1902 Coronation Ode with words by A.C. Benson. However, this is not
the version of 'Land of Hope and Glory' which, as stated in the preface,
is often sung to the march, for this version only contains the first four
of the well-known lines. The unfortunately jingoistic lyric was penned to
provide a song for voice and piano, and was never intended to be sung in
performances of the march; it omits the reply to the question, 'How may we
extol thee', which is answered in the Coronation Ode, 'Hearts in hope
uplifted' and 'Strong in faith and freedom', nobler sentiments indeed. To
my mind, the air of pious solemnity that is more appropriate for performances
of the Ode is out of place in the march; and the practice of singing in the
trio section has caused it to be performed far too slow without the voices.
The score, which has the least clear print in the anthology, gives bracketed
directions for the conductor's guidance that are not printed in the parts,
and I suspect that these are editorial additions. A better musical effect
would be achieved by following the pattern of march No. 4; the tempo remains
more or less even until the final grandioso re-statement of the trio melody.
A notable 'tingle factor' is the ringing violin open G-string in the last
four bars of the first statement of the trio melody in No. 1, and throughout
the first statement of the trio melody in No. 4. When rehearsing these trio
sections conductors will need to anticipate enquiries from the first violins
as to where to stop playing 'sul G', since it is not cancelled in the score
for either of these two marches, though it is apparent that a return to
'ordinario' is intended for the second statement of the themes an octave
higher.
March no. 2 (1901) is more restrained in character and the initial key rather
ambiguous. It opens in A minor, then proceeds with a Phrygian flavour and
a first violin passage that does not fall into even bowings. Familiarity
with the repeat signs is essential, since D.C. al segno (the actual sign
is printed) is used combined with an end repeat instead of a straight 'D.S.';
the sign to which to return appears in the third bar. The trio section has
a perky woodwind tune, more Austro-Germanic in character than the Englishness
of the other march trios. March no. 3 (1905) almost takes on the proportions
of symphonic argument with its dramatic, but hushed con fuoco opening
leading to a pounding theme at letter D somewhat similar in feel, and in
the same key of C minor, to the finale of the third symphony. The opening
of the trio section is rather fragmentary but develops into a wonderful passage
of cantabile Elgarian sequences. March no. 5 (1930) opens with the
most jovial music of them all, but the trio is like a wistful reminiscence
of past glories until its nobilmente recapitulation.
Elgar named his musical portrait of London 'Cockaigne', an epithet
that had been applied to the capital as two jokes in one - the similarity
to 'Cockney', and the irony of naming it after the mythical land of luxury
and idleness famed in mediaeval story. The work, for which Elgar wrote a
detailed programme, dates from 1901 and is a stirring evocation of Edwardian
London complete with lovers in a park being interrupted by a brass band!
The orchestration requires woodwind in twos apart from a contra-bassoon,
two cornets in addition to the two trumpets, an ad. lib. organ part and curiously
of all, two optional extra tenor trombones to 'bump up' at sections marked
in the score between 'pointing finger' icons. This work makes a marvellous
concert-opener, the duration being approximately fifteen minutes, not forty
as given in the score on page 196; perhaps the error results from the fact
that it is opus 40.
Jim Cooke
