Edward Elgar
Sir Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet,
OM, GCVO (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934)
was an English composer. Several of his first
major orchestral works, including the Enigma
Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance
Marches, were greeted with acclaim. He also
composed oratorios, chamber music, sym-
phonies, instrumental concertos, and songs.
He was appointed Master of the King’s
Musick in 1924.
Biography
Early years
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of
Lower Broadheath outside Worcester, Eng-
land to William Elgar, a music dealer, and his
wife Anne (née Greening). Elgar was the
fourth of their seven children: Henry John
(known as Harry, 15 October 1848– 5 May
1864), Lucy Ann (Loo,[1] born 29 May 1852),
Susannah Mary (Pollie, 28 December 1854),
Edward William (Ted,[2] 2 June 1857), Fred-
erick Joseph (Jo, 28 August 1859- 1866),
Francis Thomas (Frank, 1 October 1861), and
Helen Agnes (Dott or Dot, 1 January 1864).[3]
His mother, Anne, had converted to Catholi-
cism shortly before Edward’s birth,
so
Edward was baptised and brought up as a
Roman Catholic.
Elgar was an early riser, and would often
turn to reading Voltaire, Drayton historical
classics, Longfellow and other works encour-
aged by his mother. By the age of eight, he
was taking piano and violin lessons, and
would often listen to his father playing the
organ at St. George’s church, and soon also
took it up. His prime interest, however, was
the violin, and his first written music was for
that instrument.
Surrounded by sheet music, instruments,
and music textbooks in his father’s shop in
Worcester’s High Street, the young Elgar
became self-taught in music theory. On warm
summer days, he would take manuscripts in-
to the countryside to study them (he was a
passionate and adventurous early cyclist
from the age of 5). Thus there began for him
a strong association between music and
nature. As he was later to say, "There is mu-
sic in the air, music all around us, the world
is full of it and you simply take as much as
you requir