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{el'-gahr}
Sir Edward Elgar, b. near Worcester, June 2, 1857, d. Feb.
23, 1934, is generally considered England's greatest native-born
composer since Henry PURCELL. He received his early musical
training from his father, a music seller, violinist, and organist
of St. George's Roman Catholic church in Worcester. In 1879
he had a few violin lessons in London, but as a composer Elgar
was self-taught. He succeeded (1885) his father as church
organist in Worcester and pursued a minor, local career--teaching,
conducting, and composing. In 1889 he married his student
and admirer, Caroline Alice Roberts, whose love and encouragement
transformed him; their marriage of three decades coincided
with the most creative period of Elgar's life.
Elgar's compositions, especially his oratorios and other choral
music and his orchestral works, won him growing success and
prestige. He was knighted in 1904, appointed master of the
king's music in 1924, and made a baronet in 1931. Identified
with the Edwardian era and the British Empire, he became,
despite his Roman Catholicism, a symbol of English national
pride. In 1920, however, he was devastated by his wife's death,
and his later years were lonely and unproductive.
Most popularly remembered for the first of his five Pomp and
Circumstance Marches, Elgar wrote magnificent orchestral scores
in the late romantic tradition: concertos for violin (1910)
and cello (1919), two symphonies (in A-flat, 1908; in E-flat,
1911), the buoyant Cockaigne (In London Town) overture (1901),
the celebrated Enigma Variations (1899), and the symphonic
study Falstaff (1913); as well as chamber music, piano pieces,
songs, church music, and incidental music for the stage. His
music for string orchestra includes a lovely serenade in E
minor (1892) and the spirited Introduction and Allegro (1905).
His oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a poem
by Cardinal Newman, is often considered by many to be Elgar's
masterpiece. An authoritative conductor of his own music,
Elgar was the first major composer to record his works systematically
for the phonograph.
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