Edward Elgar: A Creative Life (Clarendon Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Jerrold Northrop Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1999 | Series: Clarendon Paperbacks

Drawing on a vast amount of source material, much of it previously unpublished, Moore here presents Sir Edward Elgar's life and works as inseparable parts of a single creative whole.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The single indispensable book on Elgar's career and music."--Choice

"A superbly entertaining and informative biography, in which the music becomes an integral part of the thread which held this most extraordinary English composer together....Elgar comes to life on these pages as never before."--Musical Opinion

"In the finest tradition of American scholarship--exact, comprehensive and bringing novel insights to Elgar's music."--The Sunday Times (London)

"Here, in 841 pages with 500 musical examples, is all you could possibly want to know about Elgar...a monumental achievement."--Michael Kennedy, Daily Telegraph

"His book is the greatest yet on any English Musician."--Punch

About the Author

Freelance historian and writer

Product Details

• Paperback: 860 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198163665
• ISBN-13: 978-0198163664
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,360,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive biography of an enigmatic composer., December 6, 1999

By 

Frank Beck (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Edward Elgar: A Creative Life (Clarendon Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Kudos to Oxford for bringing this classic back into print! Jerrold Northrop Moore worked for more than 20 years to write this definitive biography of one of Britain's greatest composers.

Using primary sources that range from Elgar's musical sketches and scores to letters, diaries and contemporary reviews, Moore shows how a self-taught violin teacher from a provincial English town created such masterpieces as the Enigma Variations, the Cello Concerto and the Dream of Gerontius. All this at a time when the vogue for Brahms and other Continental composers made it hard for even well-connected British ones like Arthur Sullivan to get their orchestral works heard.

Moore describes in fascinating detail how Elgar shaped and reshaped each major work, sometimes over a period of years--the Second Symphony took almost a decade to compose. He also explores Elgar's complex personality. Uneasy about his middle-class origins, he often played the role of a bluff, country gentleman, but his music is more like that of a British Tchaikovsky--extravagant and restless, with a powerful emotional charge.

As Elgar's story unfolds, the whole artistic life of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain is conjured up. Moore traces the composer's friendships with Hans Richter, Richard Strauss, Fritz Kreisler, George Bernard Shaw and Augustus Jaeger, the editor at Novello's who recognized and nurtured Elgar's genius.