The Life of Elgar (Musical Lives) [Paperback]

Michael Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521009073 | ISBN-13: 978-0521009072 | Publication Date: April 5, 2004

This new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available over the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music as well as a distinguished musical biographer, uses the new material (including Elgar's vast personal correspondence) to analyze the composer's complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was "not wanted."

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The author ... writes with a great sympathy for his subject, as well as a love for his music ... [his] wide-ranging knowledge gives this thoroughly enjoyable biography a cultural depth which enriches one's understanding of the life and work of this complicated musical genius and English gentleman.' Contemporary Review

'Michael Kennedy's elegantly written volume is full of interesting and sagacious comments on Elgar's compositions ...'. The Sunday Telegraph

Book Description

This important new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available in the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy, a leading scholar of British music and a distinguished musical biographer, uses this new material, which includes Elgar's own vast correspondence, in an attempt to get to the centre of the composer's complex personality. Elgar's letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood, from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was 'not wanted'.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521009073
• ISBN-13: 978-0521009072
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,681,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introduction, July 3, 2007

By 

D. A Wend (Arlington Heights, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Life of Elgar (Musical Lives) (Paperback)

I have had a longtime interest in the music of Sir Edward Elgar but I never knew very much about the composer or a great deal about his music, for that matter, other than his main works. With the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth I thought it was time to learn more about his, and this book by Michael Kennedy was everything that I wanted.

Mr. Kennedy's biography is well-written and nicely illustrated. He does not go into a lot of technical detail about Elgar's music which is appropriate in a general life and I can get additional detail, if I want it, from the internet. The author provides an excellent portrait of Elgar with all of his subject's complexities. The general view of Edward Elgar is that he was a proper Englishman and his music reflected the glory of empire and the so-called Edwardian period. Nothing could be more false. Elgar enjoyed and was influenced more by German music than anything else and he was very insecure about his stature as a composer, probably because he came to composition without much formal training. He often threatened to give up music altogether as a way of gaining sympathy and he would have bouts of psychosomatic illnesses, such as problems with his eyes and throat.

Mr. Kennedy's book provided me with an excellent introduction to all of Elgar's music and led me to investigate other works such as The Black Knight, the String Quartet and Quintet. He also relates events in Elgar's life but does not push the reader to any critical point-of-view or speculation. I came to some of my own conclusions: it seemed to me that Elgar's daughter Carice was rather neglected by her parents (for example, they did not attend her confirmation) in favor of her father's moods and temperament. One could also speculate about Elgar's relationship with Alice Wortly (his Windflower who was the Muse for his Violin Concerto and Second Symphony) and his late-in-life affection for Vera Hockman. I enjoyed reading about the recording of the Violin Concerto with the 16-year-old Yehudi Menuhin and with how much regard Elgar held this recording.

This is a very appealing and highly readable book that is an excellent introduction to Edward Elgar's life. After reading the book, I have pursued further reading - a more in-depth study of the Enigma Variations and the Cello Concerto - but this is a great volume to have and keep as a reference.