276 pages; 35 music examples; 245 x 174mm
Cambridge University Press ISBN:0521533635 Paperback

Edward Elgar occupies a pivotal place in the British cultural imagination. His music has been heard as emblematic of Empire and the English landscape but is also the product of a private, introverted sensibility. The recent success of Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony has prompted a critical revaluation of his music.

This Companion provides an accessible and vivid account of Elgar's work in its historical and cultural context. Established... more

£4.00 off the publisher's recommended price

276 pages; 35 music examples; 253 x 180mm
Cambridge University Press ISBN:0521826233 Hardback

Edward Elgar occupies a pivotal place in the British cultural imagination. His music has been heard as emblematic of Empire and the English landscape but is also the product of a private, introverted sensibility. The recent success of Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony has prompted a critical revaluation of his music.

This Companion provides an accessible and vivid account of Elgar's... more Special Offer! The Cambridge Companion to
Elgar - (Hardback): RRP £50.00, our price £46.00 - see Special Offers page for more information

Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86199-1 Hardback
330 pages, 124 music examples

Reflecting the growth of international interest in Elgar’s music, this collection of essays brings together leading scholars from the UK and the USA, and covers the broadest range of analytical approaches to his music. It is perhaps in textual analysis and criticism that Elgar studies are showing their most remarkable growth. In this volume, analysts and theorists place Elgar at the centre of research into late-tonal music theory - particularly Schenkerian and neo-Riemannian - and the continually burgeoning area... 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

Cardinal Newman's renowned poem describes the death of an old man and the journey of his soul to the judgement seat of God.

First published in 1865, it quickly became a best-seller in its field, second only in popularity to Tennyson's 'In Memoriam'.

This new edition of the poem marks the bicentenary of Newman's birth in 1801; it also celebrates the centenary of the first performance in 1900 of Elgar's choral master piece based on the poem.

In addition to a foreword by... more

From the end of the eighteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War, the oratorio was Britain's most accessible and important musical genre, and towards the end of this period, Edward Elgar became its most successful champion. Four oratorios were composed by Elgar in the decade 1896 to 1906: The Light of Life, The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom. The last three were performed at every major British music festival and at numerous venues worldwide. This is the first study of these works within the broader context of the British oratorio tradition, and as such gives us a unique appreciation of just... 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'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.

First performed in 1899 under Hans Richter, the work became his passport to national fame and international success.

From the first, listeners have been intrigued by the 'enigma' of the title and the identity of the 'friends pictured within', to whom the work was dedicated.

Appearing in 1999, the centenary year of the work's completion, this book elucidates what is known and what has been said about... more

Edward Elgar was for many years the most popular composer in Britain; his music was, and remains, inextricably linked with the final, glorious years of the Empire. Yet Elgar himself was almost entirely untypical of the British establishment.

Born a shop-keeper's son, part of an active Catholic family and community, Elgar struggled for many years against the prejudices his background raised in music circles.

Ironically, composition for the Anglican Church was an important early platform for Elgar, and it is through the sacred music that this pioneering study approaches his life and work. It... more

Cambridge University Press 978 0 521 10754 9 Paperback

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... more

Cambridge Univrsity Press 0 521 86200 0

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... more

Faber & Faber 0571 195385 Paperback

Elgar's Third Symphony has long been one of the great unknowns of twentieth-century music. Commissioned in 1932 by the BBC, it was apparently fragmentary and disorganised when Elgar died in 1934. A few months before his death, Elgar despairingly asked for his sketches to be destroyed, saying, in words that came to be interpreted as a command, 'No one must tinker with it.'

But he continued to talk about the Symphony, even writing out passages that seem almost to be instructions for its completion. And shortly after his death, his great friend, W.H.Reed, published many of the sketches in... more

The difficulties of interpreting Elgar are interestingly explained by a conductor of legendary knowledge and understanding. For lovers of Elgar and students of conducting this book is nothing short of invaluable.

Preface
Variations on an Original Theme, “Enigma” Op. 36
Symphony No. 1 in A flat, Op. 55
Symphony No. 2 in E flat, Op. 63
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Concert Overture Froissart, Op. 19
Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20
Overture, Cockaigne (In London Town), Op. 40
Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra, Op. 47
Concert-Overture In the South (Alassio),... 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