Elgar : Child of Dreams

by Jerrold Northrop Moore, Colin Matthews

'When Elgar's Cello Concerto reached my young ears fifty years ago across the seas in the United States, it transfixed me with its power to project a landscape I did not know. When knowledge came of Worcestershire, Elgar's projection proved strangely accurate. How could music do that?' Jerrold Northrop Moore pursues his quest for the essential Elgar and sets out the story of an extraordinarily creative life. It shows themes of childhood, fantasy and vision fusing into a mature style of nobility and nostalgia. Above all it links the composer to the English landscape that formed the backdrop to all of his work, from his earliest years. This powerful short book is the outcome of half a century's thought and reflection by a leading Elgar biographer.

212 pages, Hardcover

First published August 9, 1984

About the author

Jerrold Northrop Moore is an American-born British musicologist, best known for a biography and other writings on the life and music of Sir Edward Elgar. He is also an authority on the history of the gramophone.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have listened to Elgar for many years but knew little about his life. He wrote Enigma Variations early on in his career, and he was also a violinist - performing with the Birmingham Symphony conducted by Dvorak, in the late 19th century. He had no little musical schooling and training, but had a good ear for the Severen Valley folksongs and landscape. The book helps to frame Elgar in a different light and where he fits into the English musical hierarchy.