Themes from the Symphony in A-flat (First Movement) (3/4 of a MILLION listens!)

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. . He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Although he is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful.

This demanding arrangement was done by John E. West, well-known as a composer and an editor at Novello.

John Ebeneezer West (1863-1929) was an organist and founder of the North-East London Academy of Music.

West was taught at home by his father and received organ lessons from Frederick Bridge, organist at Westminster Abbey. From 1880-82, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was taught composition by his uncle, Ebenezer Prout, the respected authority on the fugues of Bach. He gained his Associateship from the Academy in 1898 and passed the Fellowship exam of the then College of Organists (it did not receive “Royal” status until 1893).

He held successive organ posts in London at St. Mary’s, Bourdon Street; St. John of Jerusalem, South Hackney; and St. Augustine’s, Queen’s Gate.

He worked with Novello for 45 years, of which 32 were spent as chief editor. He retired shortly before his death in 1929.

He was a prolific composer and editor with nearly 500 published pieces, and was a pioneer in the field of editing.

The score is attached below, as well as photos of Sir Edward Elgar and John West.

Musical and performance notes are given in the First Comment.