''The River'' is a song written by the English composer

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 ...

in 1909 as his Op.60, No.2. On the title-page it is described as a "Folk-Song (Eastern Europe), paraphrased by Pietro d’Alba and Edward Elgar". It was one of a set of a cycle of four songs that he planned, to his own words. It was shortly after writing the song '' A Child Asleep'' for

Muriel Foster Muriel Foster (22 November 187723 December 1937) was an English contralto, excelling in oratorio. '' Grove's Dictionary'' describes her voice as "one of the most beautiful voices of her time". Muriel Foster was born in Sunderland in 1877. She w ...

, a few days before the Christmas of 1909 that Elgar received the news of the death of a friend the soprano Olga Ouroussoff, the young wife of

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hund ...

. The inspiration for the songs was the result of this news. Only the first song of the cycle, '' The Torch'' and the last, ''The River'' were written. It was orchestrated in July 1912 and, with its companion song '' The Torch'', it was first performed by

at the Hereford Music Festival on 11 September 1912. A footnote to the poem explains the personification of the invoked river. The tempo of the music is an appropriately dramatic ''Allegro con fuoco''. The song was written by Elgar at his home "Plas Gwyn" outside

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, very close to the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

and it is likely that the song was inspired by the sight of the river which had flooded the fields that Christmas. At the end of the manuscript Elgar wrote ''(Leyrisch-Turasp 1909)'', which mysterious "place-name"

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 ...

suggests was Elgar's

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of a German version of

Peter Rabbit Peter Rabbit is a fictional animal character in various children's stories by English author Beatrix Potter. A mischievous, adventurous young rabbit who wears a blue jacket, he first appeared in ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' in 1902, and subs ...

: ''Petrus Has Lyric''. However Garry Humphreys points out that Elgar's home was not far from the flood-meadows at Tupsley, and ''Leyrisch-Turasp'' is another (loose) anagram of ''Tupsley Parish''.Mock-German "Tusley-Parrisch" could become "Leyrisch-Turasp" Another of Elgar's riddles.

Lyrics

THE RIVER* :River, mother of fighting men, (Rustula !) ::Sternest barrier of our land, (Rustula !) :From thy bosom we drew life : ::Ancient, honoured, mighty, grand ! ::::::::Rustula ! :Oh ! what worship had been thine, (Rustula !) ::Hadst thou held the foe-men, drowned ; (Rustula !) :Flood, more precious far than wine, ::Victress, saviour, world-renowned ! ::::::::Rustula ! :Rustula ! :Like a girl before her lover, (Rustula !) ::How thou falterdst, - like a slave ; - (Rustula !) :Sank and fainted, low and lower, ::When thy mission was to save. :::Coward, traitress, shameless ! ::::::::Rustula ! :On thy narrowed, niggard strand, (Rustula !) ::Despairing - now the tyrant's hand (Rustula!) :Grips the last remnant of our land, ::Wounded and alone I stand, :::Tricked, derided, impotent ! ::::::::Rustula ! ::::::::::''Pietro d’Alba.'' ::::::::From a Folk-Song (Eastern Europe) ::::::::::::::''(Leyrisch-Turasp, 1909)'' NOTE-… “The river was in full flood and, had it remained so another twenty-four hours, would undoubtedly have overwhelmed the enemy : but it sank far below its normal level more rapidly than it had risen three days before.” RECORDINGS Tudor Davies (Tenor) and Madam Adami (Piano) HMV - Recorded 14/12/1925 and released 7/1926 - (Recorded Hayes, Middlesex).
Elgar: The Collector's Edition, CD 29
Robert Tear (tenor), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Vernon Handley (conductor)

Neil Mackie (tenor) with Malcolm Martineau (piano), at Southlands College, London, April 1999

References

*Banfield, Stephen, ''Sensibility and English Song: Critical studies of the early 20th century'' (Cambridge University Press, 1985) *Kennedy, Michael, ''Portrait of Elgar'' (Oxford University Press, 1968) *Moore, Jerrold N. “Edward Elgar: a creative life” (Oxford University Press, 1984) *

External links

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:River, The Songs about rivers Songs by Edward Elgar 1909 songs