Edward Elgar
Sea Pictures
Edward Elgar is best known in this country for his Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (1901), which countless school band students have found themselves playing over and over as their compatriots march to receive their diplomas. (This is a legacy left
to us by Yale University, which featured the march when Elgar attended its 1905 commencement exercises.) Elgar's works, however, encompass not only marches but symphonies, concertos, chamber pieces, and a number of oratorios written for the many choral festivals of the British Midlands, where he lived and worked in the 1890's, in the town of Great Malvern.
Elgar had moved there with his wife Alice after several disappointing years in London, where he had tried to break into the music world as a composer. A mostly self-taught musician, Elgar was the son of a piano tuner and music dealer, and had spent his childhood immersed in the music manuscripts of his father's shop. His working-class social standing, however, made it difficult for him to get a hearing in London musical society. But he began to build a reputation with his compositions for choral festivals, and in 1899 got his big break with his orchestral work, the
Enigma Variations. A musical tribute to his friends, the Variations were premiered in June of that year at St. James Hall in London, conducted by Hans Richter, and were quickly praised by critics and concertgoers alike. He followed this success by changing a song cycle he had first written in 1844 for soprano and piano accompaniment to a work for mezzo-soprano and orchestra:
Sea Pictures. Mezzo-soprano Clara Butt premiered it at the Norwich Festival on October 5, 1899, with Elgar conducting, and performed it again later that month at the St. James Hall and for Queen Victoria at
Balmoral.
Sea Pictures is a setting of five poems by different authors. The first,
"Sea Slumber Song," is a gently rocking lullaby evoking the lapping of waves on shore. It quickly demonstrates Elgar's deft hand at creating musical pictures that match the words, from the sudden harp glissando and flute ornamentation for "this elfin land," to soft timpani rolls like the sound of distant waves. The second poem,
"In Haven (Capri)," was written by Elgar's wife, Alice, a published poet and novelist. This short song receives the most tender setting, which Elgar had previously published for voice and piano. The Italian city of the subtitle is hinted at with the song's
siciliano rhythm.
Listening to the setting of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's fervent "Sabbath Morning," we get a hint of
Pomp and Circumstance marches to come in the broad, sweeping melodies that swell as the poet declares her religious ardor. The next piece,
"Where Corals Lie," is light and graceful, with delicate woodwinds and a lilting accompaniment. The music, like the poem, hints just slightly at the ominous implication of drowning in "the land where corals lie." The final poem,
The Swimmer, is only excerpted in this work but the musical setting achieves the original poem's overall effect: on a stormy day, the singer recalls a happier time with his love, now lost, and imagines losing himself in the rolling waves. Elgar unleashes both singer and orchestra in the stirring finale.
Nov. 18, 2007
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