Let Beauty Awake is a collection of enlightening papers from the second joint seminar of the Elgar Society and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society held at the British Library.

The 160 page hard back book, edited by Julian Rushton, also includes a CD recording of Stephen Connock’s on-stage interview with Richard Hickox, recorded the day before the latter’s tragic early death.

Contents:
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Vaughan Williams and Others
1. Parry, Elgar, and Vaughan Williams: influences and aspirations
Michael Pope
2. Elgar’s literary choice... more

by Kevin Allen

'This Charming Island' provides an account of the Elgars' honeymoon idyll at Shanklin and Ventnor during the May of 1889, a honeymoon marking the formal beginning of a partnership that would nurture works of genius.

To all intents and purposes it was a quiet stay, with walking and fishing and occasional excursions, yet Alice proudly remembered the details all her life.

'This Charming Island' is based on previously unpublished letters, diary entries and local newspaper sources. In addition to the newylweds' story it offers some curious... more

This book takes you by the hand and provides you with a friendly introduction not just to the enigmatic music, but also to the passionate and private person. In true Classic FM syle, the jargon that sometimes surrounds classical music has gone, to give you a fun, accessible read.

Includes a FREE 47 minute CD of extracts from some of Elgar's best loved works.

224 pages 978 0 340 93911 6

Introduction
A Friendly Word Before We Get Started
The Friendly Guide to What Was Composed When
The Story of Elgar: The Cast List
When Elgar... more

Despite the volume of literature already written about Elgar there is one aspect of his creative work which has been comparatively neglected. This concerns the period 1917-1921 when the Elgars rented an ancient cottage, Brinkwells, deep in rural Sussex. Here, against the backdrop of the last months of the Great War, Elgar wrote his mature chamber music and most of one of his finest works, the Cello Concerto.

But Brinkwells had its own history and artistic ambience too, and to separate Elgar and his music from the influence of this environment is to tell only part of the story.

He rented the cottage... more

How did the son of a provincial piano tuner rise to international fame?

Was the English countrysisde the principle inspiration for Elgar's music?

Was this moustachioed, red-blooded imperialist all that he seemed?

In this fascinating and accessible history, Harper-Scott takes a combative swipe at many of the critical myths and prejudices that have attached themselves to the figure of Elgar, revealing both a surprisingly elusive personality and a deeper, often darker message within his works.

154 pages, 31 illustrations

ABRSM 98 1 86096 770 2

"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... more

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... more

Princeton University Press 978 0 691 13446 8

Acknowledgments
Permissions

Of Worcester and London: An Introduction
by BYRON ADAMS

PART I: WORCESTER
1. Measure of a Man: Catechizing Elgar's Catholic Avatars
by CHARLES EDWARD MCGUIRE
2. Elgar the Escapist?
by MATTHEW RILEY
3. Elgar and the Persistence of Memory
by BYRON ADAMS
4. "The Spirit-Stirring Drum": Elgar and Populism
by DANIEL M. GRIMLEY

PART II: DOCUMENTS
5. Early Reviews of The Apostles in British Periodicals
SELECTED, INTRODUCED, AND... more

Elgar Foundation Enterprises 0 9548553 3 7 Paperback
80 pages; 30 black & white and colour photographs

Edward Elgar chose the cottage in which he was born to be his physical memorial. The evidence of his love for the place, as he grew older, is clear. He would re-visit throughout his life, often bringing his friends. One such visit was in the company of the composer Herbert Howells, who recalled:

“...he went through to the cabbage patch, along the path, and up to the front door; and a woman carrying a baby-in-arms came and let him in, called him "Master"...he was very nice to her...and he said to me, "Oh, do you... more

This book includes dozens of photographs of Elgar and his family and friends reproduced from the archive at Elgar's Birthplace. 30 of these photographs have been colour tinted especially for this book.

At 64 pages, and with over 50 b&w and colour illustrations, this book is the ideal introduction to the life and music of Elgar

Michael Messenger is a director of the Elgar Foundation and Chairman of the Elgar Birthplace Management Committee. He has a keen interest in the arts generally but particularly in classical music and literature. He is the author of a number of published titles, including a comprehensive history of the Malvern Concert Club, founded by Edward Elgar in 1903 and still functioning.

Michael... more

'I have dreamt of you all my life...I must see you as much as possible...what lovely eyes you have...I have never had anyone in my life who could share everything as you can...aren't you divine...what music I would write if I could have you near to me always...I am not lonely today, we are together, I am so happy...'

Thus the seventy-four year-old Elgar, ever the passionate Romantic despite the bluff country-gentleman image of his later years, to Vera Hockman, the young violinist whose understanding, love and devotion inspired the composer to begin his Third... more

212 pages, 21 photographs

Elgar Editions 0 9537082 7 6 Hardback

60% OFF
Now only £7.50!!!

Many towns and cities have a music society, formed to promote an annual programme of chamber concerts, but few if any can have as long and illustrious a history as the Malvern Concert Club with its unbroken lOO years of active concert promotion.

It is unique too in having been founded by Sir Edward Elgar with the active participation of his close friend Troyte Griffith who, together with Elgar's daughter Carice, provided the Club with a strong and benevolent leadership from its creation... more

256 pages, 140 illustrations; 4 maps
Elgar Editions ISBN 0 9548553 1 0 Hardback

Elgar hated America - much as he liked Americans, wrote Dr Percy Young, one of Elgar’s most respected biographers. Richard Smith sets out to explore this apparent contradiction by following the detailed itinerary of Elgar’s four visits to the USA and the friendships which he developed with many of the Americans he met, most notably Samuel Sanford and Julia Worthington.

Not surprisingly, the picture which emerges is far less clear cut than Dr Young suggests. The author concludes his profusely illustrated account with a review of... more

Cambridge Universtsity Press 0 521 86361 9

During his lifetime, and in the course of the twentieth century, Edward Elgar and his music became sites for a remarkable variety of nostalgic impulses. These are manifested in his personal life, in the content of his works, in his critical and biographical reception, and in numerous artistic ventures based on his character and music (plays, poems, films, paintings and novels.

Today Elgar enjoys renewed popularity in Britain, and nostalgia of various forms continue to shape our responses to his music.

From one viewpoint, Elgarian nostalgia might be dismissed as escapist, regressive and reactionary, and the... more

The creative artist in conflict with destructive external pressures and corrosive internal tensions is a recurring theme in... more

During the 1890s, Edward Elgar and his wife Alice spent time in Southern Bavaria in five separate years. These holidays provided the inspiration and settings for the set of six part-songs to which Elgar gave the name 'From the Bavarian Highlands'

In the Bavarian Highlands retraces the Elgars' steps during those holidays, returning to the locations visited by the Elgars and recalling their reactions.

Peter Greaves' original research has succeeded in identifying the Garmisch guesthouse where the... more

Concerning the war I say nothing - the only thing that wrings my heart & soul is the thought of the horses - oh! my beloved animals - the men - and women can go to hell - but my horses; - I walk round & round this room cursing God for allowing dumb brutes to be tortured - let Him kill his human beings but how CAN HE?
Oh, my horses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Great War of 1914-18 transformed the... more

The apocryphal history of Gerontius is well known - how Elgar's late completion of the vocal score, the Birmingham choirmaster's untimely death and the failure of his replacement to appreciate the complexity of the work led to an under-rehearsed première which the critics panned. Fortunately, a German choirmaster in the audience recognised the work's considerable merits and arranged a subsequent performance in Dusseldorf which single-handedly rescued the work from oblivion. But how... more

Elgar Editions 0 9537082 6 8
Paperback - 96 pages with 26 photographs and illustrations

The "awful female" was architect Elisabeth Scott, great-niece of Sir Gilbert Scott, and her crime in Elgar's eyes was to design the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford, which he described as "that distressing, vulgar and abominable building".

But, great composer though he was, Elgar was also a complex and emotional character whose spoken outburst frequently camouflaged a deeper and often unrelated reason.

In this book, noted Elgarian commentator David Bury casts a perceptive eye over this and five other lesser known... more

HALF PRICE!!
NOW ONLY £10.00

Elgar Editions 0 9537082 5 X
Hardback - 480 pages with 93 photographs and illustrations

Inspired by the world première of Anthony Payne's elaboration of Elgar's sketches for a third symphony, Robert Anderson embarked on a voyage of rediscovery of the influences behind each of Elgar's major works. This book is the result.

Edward Elgar's music has an instinctive nobility and chivalry, equally characteristic of the man. His wide reading, interests in the world of art, visits abroad and social contacts made initially through his wife's position, reinforced the... more

Triflower Publications 0 9546301 0 6 Hardback

In the thirty years leading up to the First World War, the competition festival was an important feature in the musical life of the country, particularly in the North of England. Thousands of people, including children, took part, and as standards improved, the leading composers of the day wrote test pieces, and often attended to adjudicate and to
conduct their own works.

For the first decade of the 20th century the leading festival was undoubtedly that which took place at Morecambe in Lancashire. Its success can be attributed to four men: Rev Canon Charles Gorton, Rector of... more

This fascinating new study of Elgar draws on letters and documents published in the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music and a distinguished musical biographer examines this new material, which includes Elgar's vast correspondence, in an attempt to get to the centre of his 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'.

Although much of Elgar's music sounds confident and coherent, it also has an underlying layer of unease,... more

£2.50 off RRP

Richard Baxter Townshend, Cambridge Classics graduate, Wild West cowboy, writer, sportsman and Enigma Variation, published his masterly book, Inspired Golf, in 1921 towards the end of a long career of rough adventure and scholarship, which makes him unique among the timeless portrait-gallery of distinguished men and women that Elgar created in the Variations.

Full of common sense advice and ingenious practical suggestions for what he calls 'the... more Special Offer! Elgar's Inspired Golf: Was £7.50, now £5.00 - see Special Offers page for more information

A geographical tour around 59 of Elgar's homes and haunts, with maps and grid references.

Edward Elgar lived for fifty seven of his seventy six years in Worcestershire. These years brought contrasts - of high spirits and sadness, nonentity and celebrity. He was born on 2nd June 1857 at Broadheath but lived in Worcester for more than thirty years. As a young musician struggling for recognition he wrote in 1883, '...my prospects are worse than ever...', but five years later hejoyfully declared: 'Engaged to dearest A'. Elgar's marriage to Caroline Alice Roberts was the turning point in his life emotionally, socially, economically and musically, and by 1901 he... more

An expanded version of a paper given as the inaugural Wulstan Atkins Memorial Lecture, at the Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester 2004

Anyone wandering the country lanes of Worcestershire and Herefordshire in the early 1900s might have come across a bowler-hatted, handle-bar moustached man rhythmically and thoughtfully pedalling his handsome 'Sunbeam' bicycle. This is the story of that cyclist, Edward Elgar, and how some of his greatest music was born in the saddle in sight of the Malvern Hills he loved so much.

In April 1928, Elgar visited the dockyard city of Portsmouth to conduct Caractacus at the Guildhall. It was Elgar's only appearance in Portsmouth, and he came at the invitation of Ernest Birch, a dynamic, meticulous organist and choirmaster who single-handedly founded a new Choir which outshone other local bodies, especially after the imprimatur of Elgar's visit.

The occasion was a success, although no doubt Birch was disconcerted by Elgar's insistence on a shopping trip to Woolworth's before the rehearsal.

The Portsmouth North End Choral Society, Elgar, and Caractacus is based almost entirely on local documentary sources... more

Audiences and critics were quick to realise that a masterpiece had come among them when Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations had its first performance, in June 1899. It has stayed at the forefront of the orchestral repertoire ever since, and the Nimrod variation in particular has achieved a very special place in the nation's affections.

Patrick Turner's authoritative book, now in its second edition, was written to celebrate the centenary of this much-loved work, and takes a refreshing new look at the circumstances surrounding its composition, together with its associated puzzles, making... more

Elgar & Alice was first performed at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, on 5th June 2007 to mark the composer's 150th anniversary. The cast was headed by Gerald Harper

Severnpix Publishing 978-0-9545402-4-1