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Top 10 Interesting Facts about Sir Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar was an English composer known for vibrant color effects and bold tunes. His orchestral works inspired a renaissance of English music in the late 19th-century. Born on June 2nd, 1857, in Lower Broadheath near Worcester, Elgar was the son of a music dealer and organist.

Elgar was an exceptional violinist who spent time as a church organist and bandmaster. For a short period of time, Elgar worked in a lawyer’s office after leaving school at the age of 15. After working in London for about two years and without formal training as a composer, Elgar returned to Worcestershire and began composing.

His greatest works include the 1896 oratorio Lux Christi (The Light of Life) and the 1898 to 1899 Enigma Variations for orchestra. The variations were an enigma as Elgar said were a popular tune that he could not identify. Although there have been unsuccessful attempts to rediscover the variations, the last one among the 14 variations secretly referred to Elgar’s friends with an exception of his own musical self-portrait.

This work which became Elgar’s most performed composition was conducted by Hans Richter in 1899. It brought Elgar great recognition as a prominent composer. The oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, created in 1900, was considered Elgar’s masterpiece by many. Based on John Henry Cardinal Newman’s poem, which was similar to Richard Wagner’s musical dramas in its use of a traditional mixture of choruses, recitatives, and arias.

Although it wasn’t very popular in Britain initially, it gained popularity after its wide acclaim in Germany. A year before Elgar became a professor of music at the University of Birmingham from 1905 to 1908, he was knighted. Elgar occasionally wrote patriotic pieces during World War I.

After Elgar’s wife passed away in 1920, he cut back his music writing considerably and returned to Worcestershire. Elgar’s friendship with George Bernard Shaw stimulated him to compose more. Nonetheless at the time of Elgar’s death, left a piano concerto, an opera, and a third symphony that were unfinished.

Below are ten fascinating facts about Sir Edward William Elgar.

1. Elgar worked at the solicitor’s office a lot to make ends meet in his early years

Statue of Sir Edward Elgar in a corner of Hereford Cathedral Green. This statue commemorates the fact that the composer lived in Hereford from 1904 to 1911. Photo by Oliver Dixon/

Elgar did odd jobs so as to make ends meet. He worked at a solicitor’s office alongside accompanying choirs and local groups.

2. Elgar enjoyed writing letters to those close to him

Elgar enjoyed writing letters to his wife and to the people close to him. Widely discussed amongst his peers, Elgar’s brief letter to August Jaeger whom he referred to as Nimrod stated, ‘Dreary weather, Good music, Liver pills, Calomel, Income Tax, No Biking, New Boots, Bad golf, etc, etc, Fill up the life of your despised E.E.’

3. Elgar was previously engaged while in Leipzig

Bust of Edward Elgar, by Percival Hedley, 1905, National Portrait Gallery, London. Photo by Nihil Novi/

In 1883, while in Leipzig, Elgar got engaged to Helen Weaver. Although he didn’t say why the engagement didn’t last, it was called off in 1884. In 1886, Elgar met Caroline Alice Roberts, who become his wife.

Elgar dedicated a number of pieces to her including Salut d’Amour, which was her engagement present. She was the vigor behind Elgar’s creativity.

4. King Edward VII knighted Elgar

Finally achieving the recognition that his wife wanted for him, Elgar was knighted in 1904 by King Edward VII.

5. Elgar has fourteen variations of his composition and each composition relates to a specific person

English concert and opera singer Clara Butt (1872–1936). Photo by George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)/

Elgar’s1899 Enigma Variations is his most famous work. There are fourteen variations and each relates to either a person or animal in his life. Those to whom the work relates include his publisher, his wife, his students, and various friends.

6. Elgar enjoyed watching the Wolverhampton’s team play football

It is said that Elgar loved the ladies. It appears that Elgar was not only interested in a Wolverhampton team win but he also had an eye for Dora Penney the daughter of Wolverhampton’s Rector.

7. Elgar invented a chemical apparatus that went into production briefly

Drawing of Edward Elgar by William Rothenstein, printed in and scanned from Music & Letters, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan. 1920), p. 7. Photo by William Rothenstein/

In addition to the exceptional music that Elgar composed, he was also an inventor. Elgar was an amateur chemist who created a Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus. This apparatus which briefly went into production was used to synthesize hydrogen sulfide.

8. Elgar’s face was on the UK currency 20-pound note

Elgar had his portrait on the UK currency 20-pound note. He was replaced in 2010 by Adam Smith who is a Scottish philosopher.

9. Elgar visited the Amazon a few years before he died

Portrait of Cardinal Newman who is the author of the text of The Dream of Gerontius. Artist John Everett Millais/

In 1923 Elgar visited the Amazon in South America and documented his river cruise. James Hamilton-Patterson fictionalized the event in his novel titled ‘Gerontius’

10. Elgar’s Cello Concerto was not widely performed until the 1960s

A statue of Edward Elgar at the end of Worcester High Street in Worcester, United Kingdom. Photo by Edward Swift/

Considered a masterpiece, the premiere recording of Elgar’s cello concerto took place in 1920. Beatrice Harrison made it while Elgar conducted it. The concerto wasn’t widely performed and became popular in 1965 Jacqueline Du Pré got hold of it.

A Roman Catholic, Elgar intended to create a trilogy of religious oratorios but only completed The Apostles in 1903 and The Kingdom in 1906. The themes of these less popular works are linked in a similar method to Wagner’s leitmotivs. The 1898 choral cantata, Caractacus and the 1900 song cycle for contralto, Sea Pictures Elgar’s are also Elgar’s vocal works.

The ‘symphonic study’ Falstaff of 1913 and the overture Cockaigne, or In London Town of 1901 are Elgar’s primary works that are programmatic in nature. The 1908 and 1911 are also two of Elgar’s popular symphonies. This is in addition to the Introduction and Allegro for strings of 1905 as well as his Violin Concerto of 1910 and the Cello Concerto of 1919.

Elgar is the first English composer of global repute since Henry Purcell (1659–1695). Elgar who died on February 23, 1934, in Worcester, Worcestershire left behind a musical legacy. Elgar stimulated the school of English music and left rich vocal resources of late Romanticism to the younger composers. Elgar is admired for his music and for his role in leading the 20th-century English musical renascence.