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The publication of a complete edition of his works is arguably the greatest accolade a
composer can hope for and the announcement by Novello in 1981 that they were to embark
on the publication of a comprehensive uniform edition of all of Elgar's published music was
met with universal acclaim by Elgarians. The first volumes, Symphony No.1 and the The
Dream of Gerontius, appeared in 1981-82 and over the next ten years, 12 further volumes
were published. From the start, Novello revealed their plans for the complete 41 (since increased to 44) volume set,
grouped by type of work, allowing them over ensuing years to publish volumes of the most
popular works while retaining the structural integrity of the complete edition. Regrettably, the
publication of a series such as this is not a commercially attractive venture, and in 1993
Novello withdrew from the project.
There were few further developments over the ensuing
five years other than a growing
belief that the edition could not be allowed to remain incomplete. However, public meetings
in October 1999 and May 2000 led to a commitment at the Elgar Society's Annual General
Meeting on 4 June 2000 that the Society would rise to the challenge of completing the set as
the Elgar Society Edition. This was followed by the establishment of a trust, the appointment
of a board of directors and the setting up of an editorial board to resume the task of editing
future volumes.
The Elgar Society Edition's explicit aim was simply to
complete the Edition begun and abandoned by Novello, emulating the earlier published volumes in all essential respects down to the red imitation leather binding with gold blocking. Under the original concept the Elgar
Society Edition board's primary role would be to raise funding for the Edition, delegating the
task of preparing works for publication to Novello and other commercial music publishers.
But it was perhaps naïve of the board to expect commercial publishers to embrace the
board's charitable aspirations. Despite the expressed intention of publishing two new
volumes a year, progress was initially slow. Following publication of Vol.25 (a volume held
ready for publication by Novello since 1993) on relaunch of the Edition in October 2001,
only one further volume appeared in the ensuing five years. The failure to produce new
volumes was matched by a lack of success in expanding sales and in raising new
sponsorship.
The solution was to bring all aspects of the production and distribution process in house, a change which was eventually completed in early 2007. The benefits of the new arrangement were immediately apparent, with two new volumes (Vol.37 - Music for Violin and Vol.4 - King Olaf) appearing in 2007; further volumes have since been published at regular intervals, with the half-way point of 22 volumes being reached with the publication of Vol.24 : Music for String Orchestra in 2011. Sales also increased by 15% during 2007 and new fundraising methods were successfully trialled.
Not that all problems have been overcome: most
importantly, we must find a way of
sustaining the availability of volumes originally published and still owned by Novello and
now increasingly falling out of print. But the future also holds exciting challenges, not least
the development of an electronic, interactive edition which maintains all the values of the
hard copy edition (well, perhaps not the imitation leather binding) while taking full advantage
of modern technology to interlink and expand on the current content, making each volume a
more valuable and easy-to-use research tool for the student and an exciting road to discovery
of Elgar's music for the amateur enthusiast.
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