Elgar, Sir Edward
Elgar, Sir Edward (1857–1934),major British composer; one of the last to represent music's long‐lived romantic era. Active until early middle age as a local teacher and composer (he was self‐taught), he won overnight success with his Enigma Variations, Op. 36 in 1899. There then followed over the next 20 years a prolific outpouring of large and small‐scale works, including Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1900); the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 (1900); the First Symphony in A flat major, Op. 55 (1908); the Second Symphony in E flat major, Op. 63 (1911); the Coronation Ode of 1902 (containing the celebrated melody which later became ‘Land of Hope and Glory’), the violin concerto of 1910, Op. 61; and the Violoncello Concerto, Op. 85 (1919).
Elgar's mystical approach to his life and art (hence the aforementioned Enigma Variations), found further expression in works based on other‐worldly...
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