| Abstract |
This study of Elgar draws on letters and documents published in the last twenty-five years. The author, a leading scholar of British music and a distinguished musical biographer, examines this new material, which includes Elgar's vast correspondence, in an attempt to get to the centre of his complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was 'not wanted'. Although much of Elgar's music sounds confident and coherent, it also has an underlying layer of unease, melancholy and insecurity. This reflects the complex character of the man, acutely conscious of his lower middle-class origins even though he had a meteoric rise to fame and to honours in Edward VII's reign and became a friend of the King. Illustrated with thirty-one photographs, some of them rare, this book will be of interest to students and enthusiasts alike. |
