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The Elgar Society Edition is pleased to announce the publication in August 2008 of a further
volume in the Elgar Complete Edition - Volume 22: Music for Powick Asylum.
It was at the Powick Asylum, situated between Worcester and Malvern but now demolished,
that Elgar obtained his first paid employment as a musician. Joining the asylum band as a
violinist in 1877, he took on the role of bandmaster from 1879 until 1884, a job which involved
not only conducting the assembled forces but also composing pieces for the band to play at its
Friday evening dances. During his time at Powick, he turned out 31 completed works, mainly in
the style of the popular dances of the day - four sets of quadrilles and one of lancers (with five
quadrilles or lancers to each set), five polkas and a Menuetto - and he also sketched a further set of
quadrilles. The band was a somewhat ad hoc affair of varying composition, requiring Elgar to
provide parts for instruments such as the bombardon, and in some cases a part for whatever
instrument turned up on the day.
The music has not previously been published; it has survived only in the form of the
part-books used by the musicians and now held in the Elgar Birthplace archive. This has
presented a number of unusual editorial challenges. With no full score for all but the Menuetto,
only what appears to be a piano-conductor's score, the complete score has been reconstructed
from the separate parts. The partbooks are entirely manuscript, mainly in Elgar's own hand,
presenting problems of legibility and imprecision to overcome in understanding a hurriedly
written-out part. In producing the parts, Elgar employed a number of quaint shorthand ploys
requiring interpretation and expansion. And for the string section, duplicate partbooks exist,
obviously intended for use by different desks; while these should be identical to each other, there
are the predictable discrepancies to resolve between them, indicative of a copying error rather
than a daring harmonic experiment by the youthful Elgar. Add to this the unusually repetitive
nature of the music with, for one of the pieces, a surviving ambiguity in the order in which the
repeats are to be performed, and even the casual reader may appreciate the care and skill needed
to produce a definitive volume of this nature.
The volume has been edited by Andrew Lyle, former BBC Radio 3 producer, who has
developed a particular interest and expertise in this music. The volume's Recommended Retail
Price is £85 per copy and copies can be obtained through all good book stores and
specialist music shops. But visitors to this website can purchase volumes at a special subscribers
discount of 10% or even 25%. For details, visit the How to
Purchase page.
The volume contains:
- 11 complete works for the Asylum band, comprising:
Menuetto;
four sets of Quadrilles (Die junge Kokette; L'Assomoir; La Brunette; Paris);
one set of Lancers (The Valentine);
five Polkas (Maud; Nelly; La Blonde; Helcia; Blumine)
- 1 substantial set of sketch scores for the Five Singing Quadrilles;
- 7 sets of Quadrille fragments and sketches.
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