![]() He's famous for having hiked around Great Britain with an early recording device strapped to his back. An Australian by birth, Grainger was instrumental in revitalizing a worldwide interest in British folk music. This man was truly devoted to the wind band. What this list also highlights is an incredible need for diversity in published composers. Art is subjective, after all! There are countless composers not mentioned here whose works are educational and longtime favorites for bands worldwide, including popular names in the field such as John Barnes Chance, Alfred Reed, Ron Nelson and Robert W. This list aims to include voices who have impacted or are impacting the tradition of composition for band, and is not to be read as a list of the "top 10" composers. It should be noted that depending on when you participated in band, certain composers' names will stand out as favorites. His band also played as a volunteer baseball team, challenging all of the local teams on their tours. As his music would suggest, Sousa was a fun-loving, patriotic guy. His The Stars and Stripes Forever is an American classic, and he was a powerful force in creating a concert band culture in the United States through the Marine Band and his touring band. ![]() He has been called the March King because he contributed more than 100 marches to the band literature. John Philip Sousa is, for many, the primary encounter with concert bands in the wild. Here are just a few of the important names in band history. Whether you played in the band, had friends who played, or simply knew of all the kids who headed to the far corner of the school at 10th period, you have probably heard of band and maybe some of its instruments.īut while you might know famous composers' names from throughout classical music history, you might be less familiar with band composers. The Cello Concerto was Elgar’s last major work and in the remaining 15 years of his life he wrote very little.The concert band is a familiar part of many Americans' educational experience. The work did not achieve wide popularity until the 1960s when Jacqueline du Pré’s recording of Elgar’s melancholy masterpiece caught the public imagination. The first performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in 1919, under the composer’s baton with Felix Salmond as soloist, was a disaster because of inadequate rehearsal time. Cello ConcertoĮdward Elgar composed his Cello Concerto in E minor, one of his best works, in the aftermath of the First World War and a deep feeling of melancholy pervades the work. 2 was fully appreciated and it is now acclaimed at least as much as his First Symphony. It was not until after the First World War that Symphony No. 2 lacked the immediate success of earlier works and Elgar complained the audience “sat there like stuffed pigs”. Although relatively well received Symphony No. 2, completed in 1911, was officially dedicated to the memory of King Edward VII, who had died in May 1910, but many scholars believe his close friend Alice Stuart Wortley, with whom he was rumoured to have a romantic liaison, was the inspiration. Listen to the best of Elgar on Apple Music and Spotify.Įlgar’s Symphony No. After the death of his wife in 1920 he went into virtual retirement however he was working on a third symphony, a piano concerto, and an opera when he died in 1934. His last masterpiece was the Cello Concerto, completed in June 1919. Elgar achieved even greater national recognition for his Pomp and Circumstance Marches – the first of these includes ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ which became an unofficial English national anthem. His reputation was consolidated the following year with the oratorio The Dream Of Gerontius regarded as one of the greatest English choral pieces of all time. ![]() He struggled to achieve success until his forties when, after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations, composed between October 1898 and February 1899, marked his breakthrough as a composer of national importance. Elgar’s best works include the Enigma Variations, The Dream Of Gerontius, the Pomp and Circumstances Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies.Įlgar was largely self-taught as a musician and composer and felt himself to be an outsider, not only in musical circles dominated by academics but also socially. Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. Sir Edward Elgar was one of the greatest British composers and one of the leading European composers of his generation.
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