Elgar completed five
Pomp and Circumstance marches. The first
four appeared 1901-07. The fifth came
out four years short of his death. Sketches
of a sixth survived and came down to
posterity through the Elgar Will Trust.
However when three manuscript pages
marked P&C6 surfaced at the
Royal School of Church Music library
Anthony Payne thought a completion might
be possible.
Payne, a composer in
his own right of music with a radical
stamp, had already realised into a finished
form Elgar’s Third Symphony. It has
already had many performances, three
recordings and has drawn down no little
controversy. Clearly controversy exercised
few fears for him and for the publishers
Boosey & Hawkes. The fact is that
the world’s fascination, admiration
and love for Elgar’s music has tended
to transcend any wishes the composer
may have had. The wonder is that no-one
has as yet done the same for the Vaughan
Williams Cello Concerto, the Moeran
Second Symphony, Sibelius’s Eighth and
Finzi’s Piano Concerto.
The quick march in
¾ from the three pages of MS was filled
out and became the main section. The
British Library’s restlessly ambivalent
theme followed on from the main theme.
There was a fine nobilmente trio to
be capitalised upon and developed and
in the finale Payne introduces a snatch
of P&C No. 1. I recall hearing a
radio arts feature programme about the
march and Payne did not disguise the
substantial amount of speculative original
work he had had to do.
Anthony Payne’s introduction
– on which I have drawn - is included
and there are translations into French
and German.
The march was premiered
at the BBC Proms on 2 August 2006 at
the Royal Albert Hall by the BBC Symphony
Orchestra conducted by the dedicatee
Sir Andrew Davis. In fact Anthony Payne
has inscribed it to Davis ‘with admiration
and gratitude’.
As yet there is no
recording but aspiring concert promoters,
orchestral managements and record companies
would do well to give this overture
length march a close look. How long
before we see a recording presenting
all Six P&Cs?
Rob Barnett
