Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Tabloid Tuesday: Edward Elgar

In addition to possessing just the most thick and full mustache my eyes have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, Edward Elgar is a well-known British composer.

This composer had humble beginnings. His parents believed in the virtues of a rural upbringing, so he was raised outside the city, which meant that he had instilled in him at an early age a fondness for nature which would last through his life.

He received his earliest music instruction from his father who owned a music shop. He also had violin lessons with a local musician, but he never received formal academic instruction.

Elgar lived in the Victorian era which was a time obsessed with class. Because social mobility was becoming more common, those who already occupied the ruling classes felt that they needed to defend their kind against the rising members of lower classes, who could now enter their sphere thanks to rapid urbanization which created more opportunities to accumulate wealth. Unless you were a member of the landed gentry in the country, if you didn’t have property in London it was difficult to gain social status in the city spheres.

So signifiers of class became incredibly important. One had to be seen wearing the right thing, saying the right thing at the right time, making the proper connections, showing a certain type of comportment, and most importantly – marrying in a suitable manner.

Elgar, who was not rich, and definitely not a member of the landed gentry, is really an impressive figure for making his way to fame at the time in which he lived, which he certainly did.

His wife, Alice, was a daughter of fortune, but was disinherited by her father when she married a musician who was at that time unknown.

As a Victorian artist, he was expected to be able to interact on a level with the aristocrats who would attend his concerts. Once, he responded rather haughtily to a dinner invitation by referring to himself and Alice as a “shopkeeper’s son and his wife.”

He soon realized that his wife had given up so much for him, and that he should accept the various honours and invitations bestowed upon him with grace, instead of moodiness.

Despite this rocky beginning he became a favourite among London music society. He was praised by his fellow musicians and the general public. He even conducted the London Symphony Orchestra for a year.
After his marriage, he found himself with the means to move to London and get into the heart of the music scene in England. Even though his wife had been disinherited for having married a musician who was at the time unknown and without much in the way of fortune, they still managed to move into the popular city sphere.

In 1904 he was knighted and found himself even more adored by the musical circles in London. However, when his wife died in 1920, he moved out of London and back to the country and wrote very little after that time.

Elgar is a composer who adored his close circle of friends and was in turn adored by English society. He struggled with class relations as many in his time did for part of his life, but managed to come out on top.


You can hear music by Elgar performed by the Kingston Symphony this season in Brahms, Mozart & Elgar on March 2nd at 2:30 at The Grand Theatre.

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