The Overtures by Edward Elgar Score - Sheet Music

SKU: ST.EWE28

ISBN 9781904856283.

This volume is primarily taken up with Elgar’s three renowned overtures: Froissart, Cockaigne and In the South (‘Alassio’). Bearing in mind how well known these three overtures are, their editing has proved unexpectedly challenging. The original full score and parts for both Cockaigne and In the South were completed in haste for looming premières, resulting in numerous discrepancies which needed to be resolved before publication in this volume. Froissart followed a more complex evolution. Elgar produced two autograph full scores before this work’s première at the 1890 Three Choirs Festival. But Novello engraved only the string parts for the Festival’s use, publication of the full score and other parts not following until 11 years later. Annotations on the later of Elgar’s two autograph scores, including the Novello plate number, show that this was used as the basis for the published full score but there remain substantial differences between the two, notably in the trombone part, pointing to the likelihood of another source, probably a late proof, now lost. Again quite a challenge in addressing the differences, including some which proved to be not fully resolvable.nnAs ever, however, it is in the volume’s Appendix that the points of particular fascination are to be found. Although the fragmentary works rarely import significance for Elgar’s musical reputation, they inevitably hold greater uncertainties and the potential for discovery. The current volume contains just three overtures left unfinished by Elgar. Their names are familiar from Elgar’s correspondence, but what little music he wrote for each remains hidden in his sketchbooks...well, almost.nnThe first two - the Lakes and Scotish [sic] overtures - were begun almost concurrently in the early 1880s, Elgar recording progress in his letters to Charles Buck. But the dating of the sketches coincides only approximately with that of the correspondence. We therefore decided late in the day not to distinguish the sketches, labelling them simply ‘Two Overture Fragments’ to reflect the uncertainties in their precise identification.nnThe third incomplete overture, City of Dreadful Night, was intended as a successor to Ccockaigne and sketches for it date from the first years of the twentieth century. Elgar labelled four sketches to show their intended use in this overture, but editorial work for this volume has established a musical overlap with other, unlabelled sketches on the same and adjacent sketchbook pages, approximately doubling the amount of material Elgar seemingly composed for the overture. While still far too little to attempt a completion, it gives a significantly fuller insight into the work.