The Elgar Family Diaries 1908–1910 by Edward Elgar Study Score - Sheet Music

SKU: ST.EWCV5

ISBN 9781904856610.

This fifth volume of the Elgar family diaries once again draws on a wealth of contemporary sources including letters from and to the Elgars. It covers a period of activity and creation. Elgar was now able to complete and hear Richter conduct the first performance of his first Symphony, continuing to the composition of the Violin Concerto and, towards the second half of 1910, to progress the composition of the Second symphony. The old frustrations concerning a lack of money and time for ‘real composition’ may have remained but, through these pages, we see how his success was achieved. It is also clear from the diary entries – particularly when the Elgars are travelling in Italy – how profound the cultural and religious impact of that country was on all in their party.nnA first draft of the text was prepared by Martin Bird before his sudden death in May 2019. Martin, an authority on the life of Elgar, edited the Elgar Society Journal from 2011 to 2017. He studied music at school in the days when the A-level syllabus always included a work by Elgar and was bowled over by The Dream of Gerontius, a work he subsequently conducted. Graduating from the University of Kent and Canterbury with a degree in Economic and Social History and a subsequent career with British Airways, Martin devoted much of a productive retirement to compiling a database including transcriptions of all letters to and from Elgar he managed to locate plus full transcriptions of all surviving Elgar family diaries. These form the basis of the Collected Correspondence series. In 2016 Martin was awarded the Elgar Society Medal ‘for his significant scholarship in editing the Elgar diaries and correspondence’. The volume is dedicated to Martin in recognition of his instrumental role in transcribing the diaries and correspondence and in helping to launch the Collected Correspondence series.nnUnder the guidance of the series’ General Editor Chris Bennett, the text has been taken forward to completion by another keen student of all things Elgarian, Paul Chennell. His interest in Elgar is part of a wider fascination with the history of music in Britain from the late 19th century through to the mid-20th century. After five happy years as a functionary in BBC Radio at Broadcasting House in the 1970s Paul took an MA Honours degree in history from St Andrews University. Four happy and successful years in Scotland were followed by work in local government and the voluntary sector for the rest of his working life. In 2012 he took early retirement and has since been involved in various voluntary-sector projects. He has been a member of the Delius Society since 1984, serving on the committee of that Society for eleven years and editing the Delius Society Journal for almost the same period as Martin edited the Elgar Society Journal.