Music Timeline

Edward Elgar

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Born / died

1857-1934

Movement

Romantic

Location

Born in Lower Broadheath

Friends / contemporaries

Anton Webern, Bedrich Smetana, Charles-Valentin Alkan +3 more

role: unknown · 20%era: Romanticmovement: Romantic1857–1934

Movement

Romantic · Wikipedia

Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era. It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the intellectual, artistic, and literary movement that became prominent in Western culture from about 1798 until 1837.

How this movement sounds

rubatochromatic harmonybig climaxesricher timbrelong lyrical linesnarrative feel

Romantic listening cues: heightened emotion, longer lyrical melodies, and more freedom with rubato (flexible timing) in performance.

Harmony is often more chromatic, with colorful chords and side-steps that create tension and release over longer spans. You may hear more delayed resolutions and more 'yearning' harmonic motion.

Dynamics and texture often expand: thicker sonorities, bigger climaxes, and a strong sense of narrative or character (even in purely instrumental music).

In piano music, listen for the use of pedaling and resonance to create a halo around harmony; in orchestral music, listen for richer timbre and denser voicing (inner lines matter).

A useful trick: follow the bass line. In Romantic music it often shapes the drama, pulling the harmony through longer arcs rather than short phrase punctuation.

How Edward Elgar sounds

rubatorich harmonylong melodybig dynamicscoloristic pedal

Romantic music tends to foreground emotion and color: long singing melodies, flexible tempo (rubato), and harmony that stretches and sighs.

You often hear thicker textures, wider dynamic range, and a more "orchestral" use of the piano with deep bass and resonant pedaling.

Look for heightened contrast and personal voice: the same musical gesture can feel intimate one moment and heroic the next.

Wikipedia

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet ( ; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire.Wikipedia

Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs.Wikipedia

He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Although Elgar 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.Wikipedia

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, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British Army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas.Wikipedia

He followed the Variations with a choral…Wikipedia

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