Welcome
back! For today’s post, I present the first edition of the series Renowned composer, unknown works,
dedicated to the most obscure (or obscured) works by great composers of the
past that possibly got some or a lot of attention in their time (or not) and
that failed to get a place in the repertoire for whichever reason possible.
Today I will present some of Edward Elgar’s works that were written during World
War I which are of historical importance: Carillon
Op. 75, Polonia Op.76 and The Spirit of England Op. 80, which
represent the composers’ state of mind during different parts of the conflict.
Born in 1862,
Elgar was the fourth child of a Catholic Worcestershire music merchant. He was
largely a self-taught composer who in spite of all hardships and suspicions of
Victorian society and academia, achieved success and recognition, much like
William Byrd did in the Elizabethan Court three centuries earlier. Much of his
musical education was received at home thanks to his father’s musical
knowledge, but his musical inspiration came from visits to continental Europe
in his twenties and thirties, especially those visits to Germany, where he was
in contact with the music of Schuman, Rubinstein, Brahms and Wagner. It was in
this place that he also made important friendships, notably with Augustus
Jaeger, a music publisher, who helped inspire some of Elgar’s early work and
who is portrayed in Elgar’s first major success, the Enigma Variations Op.36. Elgar’s triumphs grew little by little and
by 1914, Edward Elgar was the most celebrated composer in the British
Empire. Having written two expansive
symphonies (Opp. 55 and 63 respectively), gigantic oratorios such as The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 and
lighter works such as the Pomp and
Circumstance Marches Op. 39 (Nos. 1 to 4), and even having received a
knighthood in 1904, Elgar’s music undoubtedly represented the optimism and
great glory of his nation before the Great War started.
Carillon Op.75 was written within the first months of the War
as a reaction to the fierce German invasion of Belgium. Set to the words of the
Belgian poet Émile Cammaerts, this work is a recitative drama on his poem Après Anvers which might be recited in
its original language or in its English translation Carillon (version presented here). This type of musical work was
not rare in the beginning of the 20th Century and the fervent
patriotism coming from both British and Belgians deemed suitable such a layout
instead of an orchestral/choral setting. The musical structure is very simple:
Elgar devises a four note descending leitmotiv that resounds throughout the
work, echoing the disappeared bells of the razed Belgian churches. After a two
minute introduction using the full orchestral resources, the speaker enounces
ardently the first words of the poem “Sing Belgians sing” and goes on
describing the destruction of this country. The orchestra comes in and out his
reciting, leaving the most solemn parts to be recited alone. In the end, the
poet and the speaker devise a triumphant reconquering of Belgium and an equally
triumphant entry in Berlin, under the command of “sweet vengeance”. Nowadays,
the work may be performed without the text and as a side note, this work
remained of complete obscurity to average concertgoers in my home country until
the evening of 11th January 2014, when it was premiered (without the
text) in/by Mexico’s UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra to an audience (myself
included) that received this work warmly.
The bright
optimism of a war that should have ended by 1914’s Christmas and that fueled the
British Army’s early operations soon vanished, especially when the advances in
the Western Front stopped and the carnage of the first fully industrial war
became a harsh reality to the soldiers in trenches and to countless lost
divisions of cavalry, with them facing machine guns, explosive artillery and
hand grenades, just to name a few mass death inventions. These war horrors were
soon to reach the arts: Laurence Binyon, an important name within the British
high art spheres, published some of his war inspired poetry by late 1914 in The
Times, though he only saw some action as a medical aide until 1916. Three of
his poems “The Fourth of August”, “To Women” and “For the Fallen” were to
become a trilogy Elgar set to music that he called “The Spirit of England” which bears the Op.80 of his production.
This composition has a difficult story behind its creation, since both internal
and external factors belated its premiere. First of all, a fellow composer of
Elgar, Cyril Rootham was to set the third poem. Second, while he was able to
set the second and third poem easily and secure their premiere, some lines in
the first poem which refer to Germans as “Vampires of Europes wasted will”. As
mentioned above, Elgar (as Delius, whose work was explored last week) had
several German friends and these words made him uneasy. Nonetheless, ongoing
atrocities in the battlefield and beyond finally convinced Elgar to go on.
Third, when the work was fully premiered, the difficulty of finding a tenor
soloist for the second poem proved to be a challenge and the work was sung only
by a soprano. Finally and against all odds, The
Spirit of England was premiered on October 1917. The work is scored for a
full symphony orchestra and mixed choir, plus two soloists, one tenor, one
soprano, and such a version is presented here. During its three episodes, music
is of a desolate nature, yet it contains some optimistic passages and thus it
was considered Elgar’s War Requiem. The Fourth
of August starts with deep, dissonant intervals on brass and woodwind to be
followed by a more joyful introduction and the first entry of the choir and
soloists. This movement is characterized by a joyful march rather than obscure
music, as it serves as a call for arms. Nevertheless, Elgar reuses material
from the Demon’s chorus from The Dream of Gerontius when arriving to the
Vampires’ verse and beyond: The ending verses of the poem are full of
dissonance and despair, symbol of the suffering of the front line soldiers, only
to regain its initial optimism. “To Women” is a more introspective and
reflective movement. The tenor, with a dramatic voice, introduces the movement
until the first equally dramatic entry of the choir. The effective use of
orchestration and chromaticism evoke vividly the words of the poem, which deal
with women’s suffering of loss and equally tell them to stand proud and strong in
spite of all hardships back home. The setting of the third and final poem “For
the Fallen” resembles a great funeral march, if not entirely, of mahlerian
flavor. Minor tonalities and a marching leitmotiv composed of jumping intervals
are the backbone of this movement, which is a remembrance and thanksgiving for
these lost troops. The middle episode, which remembers the young soldiers, is
of remarkable interest since chromaticism and playful march melody are in
complete contrast against the bleak, solemn, first and last sections of the
work. Eventually, the souls of soldiers are allowed light and eternal rest, marked
by the predominance of major keys towards the end of the work.
In the
meantime, Polonia Op. 76 was composed
and premiered in mid-1915. This work was composed for a charitable concert to
help the Polish Victims Relief Fund, an organization charged to help Poles who
sought asylum in England, and it became a premonition of things to come. Poland
didn’t exist as a country since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and several
revolts erupted in the area throughout the 19th Century in order to
regain independence from Austria, Russia and Prussia (later Germany). As a
result, Polish youth was drafted into the armies of these three countries and
WWI was not an exception. Many of these youths were able to flee to Western
Europe and thus support organizations like the PVRF were born. Elgar guised a
symphonic poem for large orchestra plus organ which depicts the continue
struggles and suffering of the Polish people under their three captors. Poland
might have not then existed, but its soul lived well within its artists and
people. Thus, Elgar makes quotes of Polish Patriotic songs Warzawianka (March of the Zouaves), Z dymem pózarow (With the smoke of fire), as well as Chopin’s Nocturne and Paderewski’s Polish fantasy, as well as an original
theme marked nobilemente. These
themes are used through reflective, patriotic, melancholic, and anguished
moments which culminate in a final struggle against foreign oppression,
triumphantly concluding with Dawbrowski’s
mazurka, soon to become Poland’s national anthem. Eventually, growing
dismay in the Central Powers as well as the Russian Revolution brought a final
uprising to the lands of the Poles after the end of the Great War, one that
eventually secured their independence with support of the Western Allies in
1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.
Sebastian Rodriguez Mayen
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