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

Alice Elgar was not what many would expect the wife of a great composer to be -in spite of her loyalty to her husband, she was very much her own woman.

Born in India, the daughter of a senior Army officer, Alice and her brothers were brought up in style and comfort on an estate on the borders of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. Alice loved this little world, but longed for a larger one too. She wrote many poems, a good deal of fiction and children's stories and was an industrious translator.

Dr Young, who is acknowledged to be a... more

'Nimrod' from the 'Enigma' Variations is, perhaps, the most familiar and best-loved movement ever written by Elgar.

'Nimrod' was in fact a tribute to A.J.Jaeger, of the editorial department of Novello & Company Ltd., who became one of Elgar's closest friends and advisers.

The letters from Elgar to Jaeger are, therefore, of particular importance. Stretching over the most significant part of the composer's career, and culminating in the first performance of the first symphony, they show his emergence... more

Elgar was England's greatest late romantic composer. His symphonies, the Enigma Variations and oratorios made him the toast of Europe and America during his lifetime. His ceremonial music, like the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, made him a national institution. But there was a more troubled and less confident side to him which can be heard in his chamber music and concertos.

This book explores his life from his background in a Worcester music shop to his final years as Master of the King's Musick and the first composer to make recordings of all his major work.

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".

David Bury has been contributing to the Elgar Society Journal for many years. The full contents are:

1. Elgar and the Two Mezzos - Marie Brema and Muriel Foster
2. Elgar and the Potteries Choir Master - James Whewall
3. Elgar and the Reluctant... 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

Son of a farm labourer's daughter from Herefordshire, Sir Edward
Elgar, though usually associated with Worcester, composed many of
his masterpieces in what he called "that sweet borderland".

Fully illustrated with maps and many contemporary photographs,
this little book provides both an essential companion for the visitor, and a new perspective on the fascinating background of one of the world's greatest composers.

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