EDWARD WILLIAM ELGAR, English Composer (1857-1934). Edward William Elgar free midi downloads.

SIR EDWARD WILLIAM ELGAR
2^ndJune 1857 --- 23^rdFebruary 1934

SIR EDWARD WILLIAM ELGAR (born 1857, Broadheath, Worcestershire, England--died 1934, Worcester, Worcestershire, English composer
whose works in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism--characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery
of large forms--stimulated a renaissance of English music.

He was a son of an organist and music dealer, Elgar left school age 15 and worked briefly in a lawyer's office. He was an excellent violinist
played the bassoon, and spent periods as a bandmaster and church organist. He had no formal training in composition. After working in
London (1889-91), he went to Malvern, Worcestershire, and began to establish a reputation as a composer. He produced several large
choral works, notably the oratorio Lux Christi (1896) Light of Life before composing in 1896 the famous Enigma Variations for orchestra.
The variations are based on the countermelody to an unheard theme, which Elgar said was a well-known tune he would not identify-hence
the enigma. Repeated attempts to discover it have been unsuccessful. All but the last of the 14 variations refer cryptically to friends of
Elgar, the exception being his own musical self-portrait. This work, highly esteemed by Hans Richter, who conducted the first performance
in 1899, brought Elgar recognition as a leading composer and became his most frequently performed composition. In 1900 there followed
another major work, the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, which many consider his masterpiece. Based on a theme by John Henry Cardinal
Newman, it dispensed with the traditional admixture of recitatives, arias, and choruses, using instead a continuous musical texture as in
the musical dramas of Wagner. The work was not well received at its first performance in Birmingham, but after it was acclaimed in
Germany, it won British favour.

Elgar a Roman Catholic, planned to continue with a trilogy of religious oratorios, but he completed only two, The Apostles (1903) and The
Kingdom (1906). In these less successful works, representative themes are interwoven in the manner of the leitmotivs of Wagner. Other
vocal works include the choral cantata, Caractacus (1898), and the song cycle for contralto, Sea Pictures (1900).

In 1904 Elgar was knighted, and from 1905 to 1908 he was the University of Birmingham's first professor of music. During World War 1 he
wrote occasional patriotic pieces. After the death of his wife in 1920, he curtailed his music writing severely, and in 1929 he returned to
Worcestershire. Friendship with Bernard Shaw eventually stimulated Elgar to further composition, and at his death he left unfinished a
third symphony, a 0iano concerto, and an opera.

Elgars principal works of a programmatic nature are Overture Cockaigne, or In London Town (1901), and the "symphonic study" Falstaff
(1913). Of his five Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901-07, 1930), the first became particularly famous. Also highly esteemed are his
two symphonies (1908 & 1911) the Introduction and Allegro for strings (1905) and his Violin Concerto (1910) and Cello Concerto (1919).

The first English composer of international stature since Henry Purcell (1659-95), Elgar liberated his country's music from its insularity.
He left to younger composers the rich harmonic resources of late Romanticism and stimulated the subsequent national school of English
music. His own idiom was cosmopolitan, yet his interest in the oratorio is grounded in the English musical tradition. Especially in England,
Elgar is esteemed both for his own music and for his role in heralding the 20th-century English musical renascence.
Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated on 2017
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thanks to Edward Gold, for the music below, Email (egld@inr.net)
music below done in 16 or 32 channels in Roland GS format
(2911)"Symphony No.2 in Eb, Opus.63, Mov.1. Allegro vivace e nobilmente,(32channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(2920)"Symphony No.2, Opus.63, Mov.2. slow mov,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(2912)"Symphony No.2, Opus.63, Mov.3. Rondo, Presto,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(2913)"Symphony No.2 in Eb, Opus.63, Mov.4. Moderato e maestoso,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(2298)"Concert Overture In the South (Alassio), Opus.50,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(2299)"Concert Overture In the South (Alassio), Opus.50,(16 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(1247)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55, 1st mov, Andante,(16 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(1236)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55" 1st mov, Andante,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(1739)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55" 2nd Mov,(Allegro molto), 3rd mov,(Adagio),(16 channels)". Sequenced by Edward Gold.
(1499)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55" 2nd Mov,(Allegro molto), 3rd mov,(Adagio),(32 channels)". Sequenced by Edward Gold.
(1745)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55" last mov, Andante,(16 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(1612)"Symphony No.1, Ab major, Opus.55" last mov, Andante,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(748)"Cockaigne Overture (In London Town) Opus.40,(16 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(749)"Cockaigne Overture (In London Town) Opus.40,(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(487)"Enigma, Variations,(Orchestral),(16 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(487a)"Enigma, Variations,(Orchestral),(32 channels)". Sequence by Edward Gold.
(27)"Imperial March". Sequenced by Robert Finley

(64)"Pomp and Circumstance March No.4". Sequenced by Robert Finley

(1177)"Imperial March Opus. 32". Sequenced Goerge Pollen.
(75)"Sursum Corda". Sequenced by Ralph Van Zetten

Thanks to James Pitt-Payne for the music below, Email (drjames@ntlworld.com)
(3005)"Pleading". Sequenced by James Pitt-Payne.

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