Happy Birthday Sir Edward Elgar

“My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us, the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require.”

Edward Elgar, Letters of a lifetime

Edward Elgar was born on June 2nd 1857 in Lower Broadheath, a small village just outside Worcester. He was the son of a piano tuner and thus exposed to music at an early age. His father was also an organist and violinist and taught his son music when Elgar was little. His mother supported his interest in arts, which he expressed at an early age. Elgar learned German in order to go to the Conservatory in Leipzig to study, but his father could not afford to send him. Instead, he embarked on an office career as a solicitor.

He later started touring through Europe, to places such as Paris and Leipzig and met many great German composers, such as Schumann, Wagner and Brahms. It was not until 1883 when his first piece for orchestra was performed in Birmingham. His reputation as a composer grew steadily and he was known in the whole Midlands by the 1890s. He was soon known internationally and in 1899 his Enigma Variations were performed in London and became a great success. More importantly, the variations were very well received on the continent in Germany, France and Italy, which finally gave him a rank amongst other great composers of the time.

Elgar was knighted in 1904 and was appointed a member of the Order of Merit in 1910.

Today, Elgar is probably known best for his Pomp and circumstance marches, and the first of the series is now the characteristic piece played every year at the famous Last Night of the Proms in Royal Albert Hall in London.

We celebrate the probably greatest and most known classical composer of England today. Happy Birthday, Sir Edward Elgar! Your music still lives as vividly these days as it did a hundred years ago. Your music still moves us as it did a hundred years ago.

A list of famous compositions by Elgar:

The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 (1899–1900)

Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 (1909–1910)

Falstaff, Op. 68 (1913)

Cello Concerto, Op. 85 (1918–1919)

Pomp and Circumstance five marches, Op. 39 (1901–1930)

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