Edward Elgar Trivia Quiz

Answer: Worcestershire

Elgar was born in the village of Broadheath, just outside Worcester. The countryside around the western counties of England, including Worcestershire, proved to be inspirational for many English composers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Answer: Music seller

His father's love of music - he was also the organist of a church in Worcester - doubtless had a profound influence on the young Edward.

Answer: Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford

The Three Choirs Festival has been in existence since at least the early eighteenth century, and is probably one of the oldest music festivals in Europe. It is held annually in August, alternately at each of the three cathedrals, and includes music ensembles from around the world as well as the three main cathedral choirs.

Answer: Alice

Alice was the daughter of Major-General Sir Henry Roberts. Her family felt that she had married beneath her social status, but her faith in the composer was probably the main factor behind his success.

Answer: "To my friends pictured within"

At the start of the piece the main "enigma" theme is played, and this is then followed by fourteen variations. The main theme has never been identified - an alternative name for the work is "Variations on an Original Theme". Each of the variations is named after one of Edward's friends, often just using their initials or a code word (such as "Nimrod" or "Troyte").

Answer: Cardinal John Henry Newman

"The Dream of Gerontius" tells the story of the passage of a soul (Gerontius) from this life into the next. With the help of his friends and a priest at his bedside, Gerontius dies peacefully. He is then escorted by his guardian angel towards the judgement throne, where he is judged with a single glance.

He is then lowered into the soothing lake of purgatory, with the promise of a future re-awakening in glory.

Answer: Two, with one unfinished

Elgar wrote his first two symphonies between 1907 and 1911. He wrote sketches for a third symphony in the early 1930s, but he never completed the work. Many years later the sketches were elaborated by Anthony Payne and published in 1997.

Answer: The coronation of King Edward the Seventh

When King Edward first heard the music to the first march, he told Elgar that he thought it would make a great song. The poet A.C. Benson was commissioned to write the words, and it was incorporated into the "Coronation Ode" that Elgar wrote for the coronation in 1902. Since then it has become one of England's national songs, and is often thought of as an alternative national anthem. Elgar himself grew to hate the song because he thought it had become "jingoistic".

Answer: The death and destruction of the First World War

The "Cello Concerto" is usually thought to be Elgar's lament on the First World War. It is full of beautiful, elegiac melodies which can be seen as the composer's sadness at the death caused by war and the passing of the world he had known and loved.

Answer: Gustav Holst and Frederick Delius

Following his wife Alice's death in 1920, Elgar largely lost interest in composing, although he made a number of recordings of his music. In the early 1930s he started work on his third symphony and also on an opera ("The Spanish Lady"), both of which remained unfinished. Holst and Delius were also major figures in English music during the same period as Elgar, both making individual and valuable contributions to the national music scene.