Elgar Complete Edition
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ELGAR COMPLETE EDITION
Volume 23
Short Orchestral Works


Elgar�s Short Orchestral Works - Salut d�amour, Chansons de Nuit and de Matin, the �Canto Popolare� from In the South and so on: all popular and much played works which surely hold no secrets - or so we thought when embarking on this volume. At least we could claim the first publication in full score of Carissima and Rosemary. But how wrong could we be? Thanks in no small part to the irrepressible energy of our editor David Lloyd-Jones, the volume has revealed secret after secret:

  • It was during the editing of the volume of orchestral songs that we realised that Elgar�s intention in providing an orchestral accompaniment for Pleading was to create not an orchestral song but an orchestral miniature, better housed in this volume. The wistful air to Elgar�s arrangement makes it an appropriate companion to Sospiri, but it is clear from his ingenious score, making provision for any one of a number of instruments to take the solo part, that he was hoping for another financial success following in the footsteps of the �Canto Popolare�.
  • The latter work and the two Falstaff interludes next came under scrutiny. We started from the position of wondering whether they would differ sufficiently from their original forms to be worth including at all, but that changed when David found that, beyond a marginal reduction in orchestral forces, Elgar had restructured the works to provide more satisfying concert pieces when performed in isolation from their parent works. It is our belief that they have never been recorded in their restructured forms and will be unknown almost all.
  • And then, when we came to disentangle the fragments, two further surprises awaited us. The disparate collection of parts in various hands in the Elgar Birthplace Archive, all that survives of Elgar�s 1882 Air de ballet, were found to contain enough to allow David to assemble the previously unpublished full score of the work. And four other incomplete scores each revealed links to the Three Characteristic Pieces. It is believed that these were sections of Elgar�s 1888 Suite in D, discarded in the cannibalisation of the suite to provide Novello with the simpler later work.

Add to this the results of David�s efforts to unravel the mysteries of the �Original Edition� of Sevillaña and to identify the unknown hand which filled out the ailing Elgar�s orchestration of Mina and it will be clear that, from an unprepossessing start, this has developed into a ground- breaking volume, increasing not only access to the oeuvre but our knowledge of the underlying history of a number of the works therein. 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 IV : Orchestral Works

Publication History

  • Publication date : 18 September 2015
  • Publisher : Elgar Works
  • ISBN : 978-1-904856-23-8 (hardback)

Detailed Description

  • Editor : David Lloyd-Jones
  • Number of pages : xxxii + 487
  • Page size : 350 mm x 250 mm (portrait)
  • Binding : cloth (hardback)
  • Number of illustrations : 8 (monochrome)
  • Contents :
    • The complete full scores, re-originated in their entirety, of:
      • Air de ballet; Mina; Romance for bassoon; Sevillaña; Sursum Corda; Three Bavarian Dances and the Three Characteristic Pieces;
      • Elgar's orchestral arrangements of Carissima; Chansons de Matin et de Nuit; May Song; Minuet Op.21; Rosemary; Salut d'amour; Serenade Lyrique;
      • Elgar's arrangements for reduced orchestra of the Canto Popolare from In the South and the two Interludes from Falstaff;
      • Elgar's arrangement as an orchestral miniature of his song Pleading, originally composed for voice and piano.
    • An appendix containing all known sketches and fragments of eight works for which the full scores, if ever completed, are now lost:
      • the Lalla Rookh sketches;
      • Ballet Music for woodwind and strings;
      • March Revaal;
      • the Symphony in G minor (derived from Mozart Symphony No.40);
      • and sketches and fragments for three of the four movements of the 1888 Suite in D:
        • the Andantino in G minor for woodwind, horns and strings;
        • Scene (Intermezzo Mauresque);
        • Gavotte;
        • and the March - Pas Redouble;
    • A scholarly foreword recording the history of Elgar's composition of the works;
    • A comparative description of all known source material;
    • A comprehensive commentary detailing editorial decisions and amendments;
    • A range of facsimiles illustrating significant features of the work's development.

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