''The Sanguine Fan'', Op. 81, is a single-act

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

written by Sir

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 1917. It was one of the pieces he composed to raise money for wartime charities, having been asked to write it by his close friend and confidante Lady Alice Stuart-Wortley. The theme of the ballet was inspired by a scene depicting Pan and

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

that the artist,

Charles Conder Charles Edward Conder (24 October 1868 – 9 February 1909) was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australi ...

, had drawn in

sanguine Sanguine () or red chalk is chalk of a reddish-brown colour, so called because it resembles the colour of dried blood. It has been popular for centuries for drawing (where white chalk only works on coloured paper). The word comes via French fr ...

on a fan, although the title itself is incidental to the theme. The first performance was part of the revue ''Chelsea on Tiptoe'' at the Chelsea Palace Theatre,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on March 20, 1917, and was conducted by the composer. Afterwards he added a further piece, a shepherd's dance, which received its premiere at a second charity performance in May. The piece did not find great favour with the public until the 1960s when the work was rediscovered by the conductor Sir

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...

, who revived it in 1973. It also being the subject of his final performance on 24 June 1978 in a production by London Festival Ballet at the

London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre ...

. An extract from the ballet, ''"Echo's Dance"'', as a piano solo, was published by Elkin in 1917.

Notes

References

*Moore, Jerrold N. "Edward Elgar: a creative life" (Oxford University Press, 1984)

External links

*
The Sauguine Fan
on the website from

Elgar Society The Elgar Society was founded in 1951 to promote performance of the music of British composer Edward Elgar, especially the more rarely performed items. Registered as a charity on 22 January 1988, It is particularly concerned with introducing the co ...

* Compositions by Edward Elgar 1917 compositions 1917 ballet premieres Ballets by Edward Elgar {{classical-composition-stub