Biography by "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide
A British composer of choral, orchestral, chamber, and instrumental music known for the oratorio "The Dream of Gerontius" (1900) and the tone poem "Enigma Variations" (1899). A chronological list of Elgar's works is like an autobiography of his interior life within English society, from the early choral works about the "hero" bringing new vision and even a childlike sense of wonder ("The Black Knight, op. 25," 1889), to the mysterious tone poems that, while they lack a specific program, often contain musical portraits of friends and family in the process of self-discovery ("Enigma Variations"), and finally to the stark landscape and lone-survivor solos of the "Concerto for Cello & Orchestra in E" (1919). He is known for developing a unique variation technique for symphonic writing and for the popular "Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1, op. 39."
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