Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)

The Music Makers

Written for first performance at the Birmingham Festival of 1912, though some sketches date back to 1902, this is the last substantial work of Elgar's for chorus and orchestra. Its single movement length of only 40 minutes does not justify the word "substantial" in itself, in comparison with say Gerontius, but, like that piece, it clothes the words in unmistakable passion, greatly enhanced by the detailed and masterly orchestral comment.

There are very strong elements of nostalgia in the work, as though the composer were addressing a world whose ideals, if it still had any, were not attuned to him, and this impression is strengthened by a dozen self-quotations. Elgarians will find them listed in Michael Kennedy's Portrait of Elgar, but it would be a disservice to recent and first-time listeners to deflect them from the music in this programme note. But two are so obvious as to make it certain that they were meant to 'tell': the long and touching reference to 'Nimrod' at the soloist's words "But on one man's soul it hath broken, A light that doth not depart", and the quotation of 'Novissima hora est' which links the moment of Gerontius's death with the soloist's last words: "and a singer who sings no more."

Author: Ivor Keys

This note was supplied through the Programme Note Bank of Making Music (The National Federation of Music Societies).