"New" Elgar Work

31 Jan 2011

A member of the Elgar Society has just completed a version of So Many True Princesses Who Have Gone - Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode - for wind band and choir, recreating a work which has been missing from the wind band repertoire for nearly 80 years. John Morrison, a member of the London branch of the Elgar Society, joined Richmond Symphonic Concert Band in November for its first rehearsal of the piece, which he has recreated from the only known manuscript of the work. Wind ensembles interested in obtaining copies of the new score and parts for full band and SATB chorus - with vocal parts cued for band-only performance - are invited to contact John Morrison.

In May 1932, Sir Edward Elgar - then aged 75 and Master of the King"s Music - was given less than a month to compose a musical setting for the poem So Many True Princesses Who Have Gone. The verses were written by the Poet Laureate, John Masefield, as a tribute to the late Queen Alexandra and the piece was to form the backdrop to the unveiling at Marlborough House (now the Commonwealth Institute) of Sir Alfred Gilbert’s Queen Alexandra Memorial on 8 June 1932. 2012 will therefore see the 80^th anniversary of that first performance.

Elgar originally set the poem to an orchestral accompaniment: however, when a last-minute change of plan meant the orchestra was replaced by a military band, a Captain Andrew Harris of the Welsh Guards was called upon to produce a hasty re-arrangement for wind band and choir. On the day, a be-robed Elgar conducted the chorister children of the Chapels Royal, the Choir of Westminster Abbey and the Band of the Welsh Guards in the first performance of what became known as Queen Alexandra's Memorial Ode.

Both the orchestral and band scores have since been lost," John Morrison explains. "My arrangement for wind band and voices is based on the vocal score in Elgar's own hand which lies in the library of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle." In separate revivals of the work, fellow Elgar Society member Barry Collett has recorded Elgar’s original draft for piano and choir whilst British composer Anthony Payne has realised a version for choir and full orchestra. "I would like to thank Barry Collett for letting me have a copy of the Elgar manuscript following his own recording,’ says John Morrison. "I must also thank Barry and Elgar Society colleague John Pickard for their encouragement of this project."