Synopsis
On today’s date in 1930, in Kingsway Hall in London, British composer Edward Elgar conducted the first performance of his Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5, the last in this popular series.
Two of the previous marches had been dedicated to organist friends of the composer, and so when organist Percy Hull asked Elgar for a new work for the 1930 Hereford Festival, the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5 is dedicated to him.
In 1930, Elgar was 73 and liked to go for automobile rides in the country. Hull had given him some driving lessons, and, appropriately enough, he got the idea for the musical themes of his new march on a drive through the countryside with a friend. He suddenly asked for something on which he could jot down his ideas. All the driver could produce was a road map of Worcestershire — so on its margins the first notes of his new score were scribbled.
The march proved to be one of his last new orchestral works. He had planned to write a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, a kind of soldier’s funeral march, he said, but he died in 1934.
Music Played in Today's Program
Edward Elgar (1857-1934): Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5; Royal Philharmonic; André Previn, conductor; Philips 454 250
On This Day
Births
1893 - Australian composer Arthur Benjamin, in Sydney
1910 - Polish-born Israeli composer Josef Tal, in Pinne (near Posen)
Deaths
1970 - Rock guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix, 27, in London
Premieres
1954 - Virgil Thomson: Concerto for flute, strings and percussion, in Venice
1960 - Penderecki: Dimensions of Time and Silence, during Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music
1978 - Shostakovich: unfinished opera The Gamblers (after Nikolai Gogol), in Leningrad at the Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic
1986 - Corigliano: Fantasia on an Ostinato by the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta
1998 - Bright Sheng: Spring Dreams, by cellist Yo-Yo Ma with the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwartz conducting
1998 - Michael Torke: Lucent Variations, in St. Paul, by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff conducting
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.