Elgar Studies

Reflecting the growth of international interest in Elgar’s music, this collection of essays brings together leading scholars from the UK and the USA, and covers the broadest range of analytical approaches to his music. It is perhaps in textual analysis and criticism that Elgar studies are showing their most remarkable growth. In this volume, analysts and theorists place Elgar at the centre of research into late-tonal music theory - particularly Schenkerian and neo-Riemannian - and the continually burgeoning area of musical hermeneutics. Through study of published scores and recently discovered sketches, different contributions explore Elgar’s musical language and treatment of symphonic form, and themes in his music such as empire, race, the pastoral and idyllic, mourning, and loss. The essays cover the entire range of current thinking on Elgar’s music, and have wide ramifications for future approaches to music of the early twentieth century.

Reflecting the growth of international interest in Elgar's music, this collection of essays brings together leading scholars from the UK and the USA, and covers the broadest range of analytical approaches to his music. It is perhaps in textual analysis and criticism that Elgar studies are showing their most remarkable growth. In this volume, analysts and theorists place Elgar at the centre of research into late-tonal music theory - particularly Schenkerian and neo-Riemannian - and the continually burgeoning area of musical hermeneutics. Through study of published scores and recently discovered sketches, different contributions explore Elgar's musical language and treatment of symphonic form, and themes in his music such as empire, race, the pastoral and idyllic, mourning, and loss. The essays cover the entire range of current thinking on Elgar's music, and have wide ramifications for future approaches to music of the early twentieth century.

Preface J. P. E. Harper-Scott and Julian Rushton; 1. Elgar and theories of chromaticism Patrick McCreless; 2. Elgar and Acworth's Caractacus: the druids, race, and the individual hero Charles Edward McGuire; 3. Elgar and the Idyllic: 'By the Wayside' Christopher Mark; 4. Unmaking The Music Makers Aidan Thomson; 5. Gaudery, romance, and the 'Welsh tune': Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47 James Hepokoski; 6. Elgar's deconstruction of the belle époque: interlace structures and the Second Symphony J. P. E. Harper-Scott; 7. Music in the midst of desolation: structures of mourning in The Spirit of England Daniel M. Grimley; 8. Japing up the Cello Concerto John Pickard; 9. Lost love and unwritten songs: Elgar's Parker cycle, Op. 59 Julian Rushton; 10. Heroic melancholy: Elgar's inflected diatonicism Matthew Riley.

Reflecting the growth of international interest in Elgar's music, this collection of essays analyses the language and meaning of a wide range of Elgar's musical works, covering such themes as empire, race, the pastoral and idyllic, and mourning. The essays cover the entire range of current thinking on Elgar's music.

J. P. E. Harper-Scott is Lecturer in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Julian Rushton is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Leeds.