|
Having retreated to Malvern in 1890 after a dismal year spent in London, Elgar seemed resigned to a career as a provincial violin teacher with composition as no more than an interesting pastime. He naturally engaged fully in various local music making activities and, as a result befriended Hugh Blair, the assistant organist at Worcester Cathedral. On a visit to the Elgar home in 1891, Blair chanced across sketches Elgar had made for a choral setting of The Black Knight, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s translation of a poem by the German poet Johann Uhland. Impressed by what he saw, Blair promised Elgar that, if he completed the work, Blair would arrange for it to be performed by the Worcester Festival Choral Society. Elgar seized the opportunity and the work was premièred in Worcester in 1893, launching Elgar’s career as a composer of substantial choral works.
Within three years, his reputation had grown to the extent that Novello, looking to capitalise on the growth in popularity of amateur choral societies in Britain looking to celebrate the approaching diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria’s accession, commissioned Elgar to set The Banner of St George, a retelling of the legend of St George and the Dragon by Shapcott Wensley, the pseudonym of a Bristol soap works employee. Like The Black Knight, it could be performed without soloists, although Elgar marks four Soprano passages conveying the words of the maiden Sabra to be sung solo if preferred.
The Banner retained sufficient popularity for Elgar to be commissioned by Novello forty years later to make unison arrangements of the final rousing chorus 'It comes from the Misty Ages', one with piano accompaniment, a second with accompaniment for strings and assorted percussion, for performance by schools choirs. But other projected works fell by the wayside. The germ of an idea for one such work, The High Tide, dates from the time of composition of The Black Knight but, without a sponsor for the work, Elgar set it to one side until asked for a work for the 1902 Norwich Festival, and for the 1905 festival. But nothing came of it, and all that now survives is a single bar of uncertain relationship to the work.
In recent years The Black Knight, for long a forgotten work, has regained a greater popularity than The Banner, but the unison arrangements of 'Misty Ages' now lie buried in the archives while the narrative poem which Elgar intended to set for The High Tide appears to be confined to the world of antiquarian booksellers, despite a strong resonance with current environmental concerns. Through the scores and accompanying historical narrative, this volume casts a light on a forgotten period of Elgar’s musical development, between the early years of wind quintets, the Powick Music and religious works for St George’s, and his emergence at the end of the nineteenth century as a composer of national importance. The volume, which comes complete with the customary apparatus of detailed source descriptions, commentaries and an introductory foreword can be obtained through all good book stores and specialist music shops, or directly from the publisher. For details, visit the How to Purchase page.
Series I : Choral Works
Publication History
- Publication date : October 2023
- Publisher : Elgar Works
- ISBN : 978-1-904856-01-6 (hardback)
Detailed Description
- Editor : Iain Quinn
- Number of pages : liv + 268
- Page size : 350 mm x 250 mm (portrait)
- Number of illustrations : 14 (monochrome)
- Binding : cloth (hardback)
- Contents :
- The complete full scores, re-originated in their entirety, of The Black Knight and The Banner of St.George
- Elgar's arrangement for organ of the introduction to Scene IV of The Black Knight (published as Solemn March);
- Elgar's two arrangements for unison chorus of 'It comes from the misty ages' from The Banner of St George;
- A scholarly foreword recording the history of Elgar's composition of the works, including his correspondence with representatives of the Norwich Festival regarding proposals to commission his composition of The High Tide;
- A comparative description of all known source material;
- A comprehensive commentary detailing editorial decisions and amendments;
- The full libretti as printed in the vocal scores, with editorial amendments.
|
