Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)
Sir Edward Elgar, composer, became the University of Birmingham's first Professor of Music in 1905, some five years after the university received its Royal Charter.
The plaque can be found to the right of the Bramhall Music Building on a brick column which is situated to the right of a flight of steps.
Sir Edward is perhaps best remembered for his symphonies, his 'Engima' Variations, Link his oratorio 'The Dream of Gerontius', Link -based on Cardinal Newman's poem about a soul's journey Link and his 'Pomp and Circumstance' marches Link (the March No. 1 "Land of Hope and Glory" is regularly performed at the Last Night of the Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London).
"Edward Elgar was the greatest late Romantic composer in Britain and one of the greatest in Europe. He was born at Broadheath and cut his teeth in nearby Worcester, learning to paly the piano, violin and organ and composing for various ensembles (which he conducted), before joining an orchestra in Birmingham in 1882. Seven years later he was married at the Brompton Oratory and moved to London, but he soon returned to Worcestershire, where he derived inspiration from the Malvern Hills and the banks of the River Severn.
Having attaracted attention in the 1890's, he achieved a breakthrough in June 1890, when Hans Richter Link conducted his Variations on an Original Theme ('Enigma') at St. James's Hall, London. Link One year later, in Birmingham Town Hall, Richter conducted his oratorio 'The Dream of Gerontius', based on the poem by John Henry Newman. Link The disappointed of this under-prepared premiere was diluted by later, successful performances and by further commissions for the Birmingham Triennial Festival notably 'The Apostiles' (1930) and 'The Kingdom' (1960).
In 1904 the local {Birmingham} businessman and philanthropist Richard Peyton offered the University £10,000 to endow a Chair of Music on condition 'that it should in the first instance be offered to and accepted by Sir Edward Elgar'. Elgar, who had been knighted earlier that year, eventually accepted and his appointment took effect on 1 January 1905.
His inaugural lecture, 'A Future for English Music', was delivered on 16 March and was followed by seven other lectures in 1905-6. But he was not suited to academic life, his lectures did not go down well, and he resigned on 29 August 1908. In addition to the works cited he composed two symphonies, two concertos (for violin and cello), chamber music, and the choral ode 'The Music Makers', of which he gave the autogrpahed score to the University.
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Extract from: "Sir Edward Elgar - A Short Biography by Ian Lace
Elgar was born on 2nd June 1857 at Broadheath, a village some three miles from the small city of Worcester in the English West Midlands. His father had a music shop in Worcester and tuned pianos.
The young Elgar, therefore, had the great advantage of growing up in a thoroughly practical musical atmosphere. He studied the music available in his father's shop and taught himself to play a wide variety of instruments. It is a remarkable fact that Elgar was very largely self -taught as a composer - evidence of the strong determination behind his original and unique genius. His long struggle to establish himself as a pre-eminent composer of international repute was hard and often bitter. For many years he had to contend with apathy, with the prejudices of the of the entrenched musical establishment, with religious bigotry (he was a member of the Roman Catholic minority in a Protestant majority England) and with a late Victorian provincial society where class consciousness pervaded everything
Throughout the 1890s and the 1890s his experience grew and his experience grew and his style matured as he
conducted and composed for local musical organisations. He also taught the violin and played the organ at St. George's Roman Catholic Church in Worcester.
In 1889 he married one of his pupils, Caroline Alice Roberts, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts who had enjoyed a distinguished career with the British Army in India. She married Edward in opposition to her aunts and cousins (her mother had died in 1887) who considered that in marrying the son of a mere tradesman, a music teacher without prospects, she was marrying beneath herself. Nevertheless, Alice with determination and a dogged faith in Edward's emerging genius played a vital part in the development of Elgar's career.
Slowly, and through such early works as Froissart (1890),
Link the Imperial March(1897),Link and the cantatas King Olaf (1896) Link and Caractacus (1898), Link his reputation began to spread beyond the area immediately around his native Worcestershire. His first big success came with the Variation on an Original Theme (Enigma) Link in 1899. Dedicated to "my friends pictured within", this work, which is a masterpiece of form and orchestration, showed that Elgar, by that time, had surpassed the other leading English composers of his day, both in technical accomplishment and sheer force of musical personality.
After Sea Pictures,Link a song cycle for contralto and orchestra (1899), came one of Elgar's great compositions - The Dream of Gerontius Link -based on Cardinal Newman's poem about a soul's journey through to its judgement and beyond. Link
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