Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 (Op39)

*Arrangement* of Well known Patriotic Composition. Includes composer biography and notes on piece.

1. March

Composer Edward W. Elgar (1857-1934) was the first English composer to win international recognition in n more than two hundred years. His first attempts at composing began when he was ten and although he had very little formal music instruction Elgar learned by travelling, observing, experimenting, performing and teaching. From 1879 to 1884 e;gar served as bandmaster for the staff of the County Lunatic Asylum providing music therapy for the patients. 

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. The Pomp and Circumstance Marches are a series of five marches for orchestra. Elgar took the phrase "Pomp and Circumstance" from Act 3, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Othello. 

Shakespeare's words proclaim the "shows of things" - the naïve assumption that the splendid show of military pageantry—"Pomp"—has no connection with the drabness and terror—"Circumstance"—of actual warfare. The first four marches were all written before the events of WW1 shattered that belief, and the styles in which wars were written about spurned the false romance of the battle-song'. 

_Score 3 pp. Parts 1 pp._