The Sanguine Fan – Beau Brumel by Edward Elgar Score - Sheet Music

SKU: ST.EWE21

ISBN 9781904856214.

The main work in this volume is The Sanguine Fan, a work first published by Music Sales in 2002. It is now republished in a fully-revised academic edition, complete with an appendix of fifteen previously-unpublished excisions which Elgar himself made from the full score, all but one during rehearsals for the première production.nnBut, as often happens, the fascination lies in the lesser works and sketches, in this case Elgar’s incidental music to Beau Brummel. The ‘Minuet’ is familiar to all from the orchestral miniature which Elgar extracted from his score for performance in the concert hall; but the remainder of the music is unknown, Elgar’s autograph score having long been lost. Intensive efforts to track the score down have come to nought. However, while editing of the volume was under way, a copy of Elgar’s original autograph of the ‘Minuet’ (the ‘Theatre version’) came up at auction. This proved of considerable interest, differing from the Concert version not only in its orchestration (and thus revealing more of the composition of the pit orchestra for which Elgar first wrote his score) but also in its structure. Both versions are included in full in the volume, along with 11 autograph sketches now held by the British Library, most of which Elgar has annotated with the name of a character or location to help place them within the play. And then, within hours of dispatch to the printers, two further sketches labelled ‘Brummel’ were found in a scrapbook once belonging to Elgar’s niece and now held at the Elgar Birthplace.nnThe volume is edited by the noted conductor David Lloyd-Jones, himself Editor-in-Chief of the Walton Complete Edition and the editor of the 2002 Music Sales edition of The Sanguine Fan. His revision of that score is in part informed by his subsequent recording of the work for Naxos and consequent re-examination of the manuscript score.