''The Spirit of England'', Op. 80, is a work for chorus, orchestra, and soprano/tenor soloist in three movements composed by

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

between 1915 and 1917, setting text from Laurence Binyon's 1914 anthology of poems '' The Winnowing Fan''. The work acts as a requiem for the dead of World War I and is dedicated "to the memory of our glorious men, with a special thought for the Worcesters"."The Spirit of England"
Elgar.org, retrieved 29 November 2014

History

The first of Binyon's poems used by Elgar was published within a week of Britain's entry into World War I. Its title, "The Fourth of August", marks the date of the declaration of war on Germany. The second, "To Women", and the third, "

For the Fallen "For the Fallen" is a poem written by Laurence Binyon. It was first published in ''The Times'' in September 1914. Over time, the third and fourth stanzas of the poem (usually now just the fourth) have been claimed as a tribute to all casualties ...

", were written before the end of 1914, after British troops had suffered the first of many great losses during the conflict. Elgar conducted the second and third sections in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

in 1916. The complete work was first performed in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

on 4 October 1917, by the

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Rosina Buckman Rosina Buckman (16 March 1881 – 31 December 1948) was a New Zealand soprano who became a prima donna during World War I and later a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music. She was born in Blenheim, New Zealand, Blenheim, grew up mo ...

, with

Appleby Matthews Thomas Appleby Matthews (30 August 1884 – 22 June 1949) was an English conductor and organist. Life and career Matthews was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire and received his musical education at the Birmingham and Midland Institute School ...

conducting his choir and the New Beecham Orchestra."Elgar's 'Fourth of August'", ''The Times'', 5 August 1917, p. 6 An abridged version of "For the Fallen", called "With Proud Thanksgiving", was sung at the unveiling of the new

Cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

in Whitehall on 11 November 1920.

Movements

# "The Fourth of August" – Moderato e maestoso –

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

# "To Women" – Moderato –

A major A major (or the key of A) is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The key of A major is the only k ...

# "For the Fallen" – Solenne –

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

Reception

The anonymous contemporary reviewer in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' wrote that Elgar's new work "contains some of his most vigorous and inspiring, if not some of his most inspired, work." Looking at the work from the perspective of the 1980s,

Edward Greenfield Edward Harry Greenfield OBE (3 July 1928 – 1 July 2015) was an English music critic and broadcaster. Early life Edward Greenfield was born in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. His father, Percy Greenfield, was a manager in a labour exchange, while his ...

wrote of its "magnificently defying the dangers of wartime bombast". In a 2007 study of Elgar, Rachel Cowgill noted that scholars including

Jerrold Northrop Moore Jerrold Northrop Moore (born 1934) is an American-born British musicologist, best known for a biography and other writings on the life and music of Sir Edward Elgar. He is also an authority on the history of the gramophone. Biography Moore was ...

and Donald Mitchell class ''The Spirit of England'' as one Elgar's "imperialist works". Cowgill comments that musically Elgar seems to respond in such a vein, "with expansive, aspirational melodies built around upward leaps and rising sequences in full choir and orchestra, marked ''grandioso'', ''nobilmente'', and ''sonoramente''." But in her view an earlier writer, Basil Maine, correctly distinguishes between the tone of ''The Spirit of England'' and that of other imperialist Elgar works: "The conception is grandiose, but not as the ''Pomp and Circumstance'' Marches are. It moves along with no less splendour, but with a more austere deliberation."Cowgill, p. 138

Notes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit of England, The Compositions by Edward Elgar 1917 compositions English patriotic songs