Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was one of the leading British composers of the modern era. Born in the English Midlands, he received little formal musical training and largely forged his own path as a composer, helping bring British music to international prominence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His music is marked by long-breathed melodies, richly colored and weighty orchestration, and an expressive blend of dignity and melancholy, qualities heard in works such as the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, and the Cello Concerto. Piano music occupies a relatively small place in his output, but his piano pieces, chamber music, song accompaniments, and arrangements reveal the same lyrical warmth and refined harmonic sense. The piano arrangement of Salut d’amour, in particular, remains one of the most familiar ways to encounter his music.