Following the Branch AGM one of our members, John Greig, who is also a member of the Elgar Society gave a talk about Elgar’s connections with Kent. The presentation commenced with Elgar’s,‘Serenade for Strings’ and throughout the talk John played pieces of music including ‘Life on the Ocean Wave’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Nimrod’ whilst showing slides of various members of the Elgar family.
John’s interest in Elgar began when he was a teenager and he bought a book entitled ‘Biography of Elgar’. He then began to research the composer’s family tree and his connection with Kent. John said his talk had developed over the years and his original research now owed much to other researchers including, a lady from Whitfield and Elgar Society historians.
Edward Elgar was born on 2nd June 1857 in Lower Broadheath near to the city of Worcester. The house is now ‘The Elgar Birthplace Museum’. In this museum they have a pedigree showing that both Elgar’s grandfather and his father were from South East Kent. The Elgar family connections in Kent showed that from at least the seventeenth century they had lived in various towns and villages – Folkestone, Newington, Elham, Stelling Minnis, Saltwood, Romney Whitfield and Dover. His family name suggests Viking ancestors; Elgar deriving from Aelfgar or Oelgar meaning fairy or elf spear. There is also mention of Elgar's in the Doomsday Book of 1085.
Edward’s grandfather, Henry was interested in music and his father, William Henry who was raised in Dover had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening and Edward was the fourth of their seven children.
Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. In nineteenth century Britain, Roman Catholics were still regarded with suspicion in some quarters. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and despite his strong Protestant views he became organist of St. George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing and by the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons. His father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along. One place they visited was Witley Court, the home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide widow of William IV, she allowed them to use by Royal Appointment in their piano tuning business.
Edward left school in 1872 to work as a clerk in the office of a local solicitor but he did not like it and after a few months he left to embark on a musical career. He gave piano and violin lessons and occasionally worked in his father's shop. He was an active member of the Worcester Glee Club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. For a number of years he was assistant organist to his father at St George's; becoming organist upon his father’s death.
Edward Elgar was a self-taught composer and his only formal musical training lessons was the piano and violin from local teachers; and during brief visits to London in 1877/78 when he had advanced violin lessons with Adolf Pollitzer. Pollitzer believed that, as a violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country and offered him lessons but he declined as he preferred composition. At around this time Edward made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist; and regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist.
Edward married Alice Roberts in 1890 and their only daughter, Carice, was born later the same year. They moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, as Elgar had started devoting his time to composition. In 1904 he was knighted at Buckingham Palace and the following year he was given the Freedom of Worcester. He was still composing in his fifties, producing a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful.
Towards the end of his life Elgar suffered with depression and ill health and he went into a nursing home where he died of cancer in 1934.
Report by Tricia Baxter