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Elgar was deeply affected by the First World War. The bombast and swagger of works such
as the first Pomp and Circumstance March disguised
a
sensitive soul and Elgar felt keenly the suffering of the combatants in the conflict, particularly
that
of the unwilling participants such as the army horses. Naturally, the prevailing mood and
conditions did not encourage the composition of great works, although he did eventually produce
one wartime masterpiece in The Spirit of England. But
Elgar did not attempt to turn his back on the war. He played an active part in a number of
supporting roles : he became a special constable in Hampstead and later joined the
Hampstead Volunteer Reserve; he undertook extensive conducting engagements,
touring with the London Symphony Orchestra to raise money for wartime charities; and
he composed a number of pieces that could be considered to help the war effort. These included
a number of patriotic works such as Polonia,
The Fringes of the Fleet and orchestral
accompaniments for three recitations by the Belgian Emile Cammaerts - Carillon, Le Drapeau Belge and Une Voix dans le Desert - but also two significant
lighter works : the incidental music to The Starlight
Express, and a short ballet score, The Sanguine Fan.
It was Elgar's close friend and confidante Lady Alice Stuart-Wortley
(Windflower) that asked Elgar in January 1917 if he would write The
Sanguine Fan. The ballet was to be included in a matinée performance to be staged
in London in March of that year for the benefit of wartime charities. The name derives from the
fact that the theme of the ballet was inspired by a scene depicting Pan and
Echo that a local artist had drawn in sanguine on a fan. The title is thus incidental to
the theme.
Elgar, attracted both by the cause and the whimsical nature of the theme, responded
willingly
to Windflower's request and within a month had composed the original score.
After the first
performance, which he himself conducted, Elgar added a further piece - a shepherd's dance -
which was premièred at a second charity performance in May 1917. Though not
throbbing with innovation, this is a pleasant score with strong echoes of Falstaff and less obvious reflections of a number of other
Elgar works. However, as so often with gala performances, appreciation of the performance was
perhaps not the prime motivation for those who heard the work in March and May 1917. The
music failed to captivate them and, though Elgar took part in a studio recording of the ballet in
1920, the work then disappeared from view until resurrected by Sir Adrian Boult over
fifty years later. It remains sadly neglected today.
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