by Adams, Byron
3. Proms 2006 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/) offered the world premiere of Pomp and Circumstance March no. 6, realized from sketches by Anthony Payne. Charlotte Higgins, “‘New’ Version of Pomp and Circumstance for the Proms,” Guardian, 28 April 2006; http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1763456,00.html.
4. In March 2006, “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations came sixth in the top ten classical downloads from iTunes. Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1 was seventh. Charlotte Higgins, “Big Demand for Classical Downloads Is Music to Ears of Record Industry,” Guardian, 28 March 2006. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/netmusic/story/0,,1741087,00.html.
5. Radiance 2: Music for Wine and Candlelight (Denon DEN 17488, 2005); Perfect Summer Wedding (Naxos Regular CD 8.557979, 2006).
6. “Manliness in Music,” The Musical Times 30 (August 1889): 460–61.
7. Charles L. Graves, Hubert Parry: His Life and Works (London: Macmillan, 1926), 365.
8. “‘The Sketch’: Photographic Interviews LXII—Dr. Edward Elgar,” The Sketch (7 October 1903): 419.
9. Edward Speyer, My Life and Friends (London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1937), 174.
10. Edward Elgar to Frank Schuster, 8 May 1910, quoted in Letters of Edward Elgar and Other Writings, ed. Percy M. Young (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1956), 195.
11. Elgar immediately offered himself as Master of the King’s Musick when the post fell vacant in 1924; at the same time he was hoping for a peerage. See Jerrold Northrop Moore, Edward Elgar: A Creative Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 769–70.
12. It is surprising how little attention has been paid to the private musical milieus by scholars working in the field of British music studies. Work such as Jeremy Dibble’s essay “Edward Dannreuther and the Orme Square Phenomenon,” in Music and British Culture, 1785–1914: Essays in Honour of Cyril Ehrlich, ed. Christina Bashford and Leanne Langley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), are all too rare.
13. For a discussion of Elgar’s attitude toward his own “salon music,” see Daniel M. Grimley’s essay in this volume.
14. That the private musical world was such a feminized space is doubtless largely responsible for its neglect by musicologists and music historians. In the world view of these scholars, it was only the public, masculine musical spaces that were worth investigating. Feminized spaces were simply assumed to be trivial, frivolous, and insignificant.
15. The diaries are in the British Library: Additional Manuscripts 46254–46266. A useful selection has been published: Mary Gladstone (Mrs. Drew) Her Diaries and Letters, ed. Lucy Masterman (London: Methuen, 1930).
16. Masterman, Mary Gladstone, 52.
17. Ibid., 100–101. Wilma Neruda (1839–1911), born in Moravia, was a frequent visitor to England where she was a much celebrated and loved performer, appearing at high-profile concerts throughout the country and doing much to popularize the violin as an instrument suitable for women to play. In 1888 she married the naturalized English pianist and conductor Charles Hallé.
18. Ibid., 123.
19. Ibid., 191.
20. Ibid., 291.
21. Ibid., 121.
22. Moore, Edward Elgar: A Creative Life, 89–91.
23. “Musical Notes,” The Monthly Musical Record (September 1885): 208.
24. The Monthly Musical Record (June 1889): 137.
25. The Musical Times 21 (1880): 600.
26. The Musical Times 23 (1882): 82.
27. The Musical World 64 (5 June 1886): 366.
28. Margaret Myers, Blowing Her Own Trumpet: European Ladies Orchestras and Other Women Musicians 1870–1950 in Sweden (Goteborg: Goteborg University, 1993), 144.
29. Writing in 1946, Edmund Horace Fellowes noted that “her name is not now very generally remembered. Yet she stands alone among British-born violinists in the same rank as the great foreign virtuosi, Sarasate, Kubelik, Mischa Elman, Heifetz, and even Kreisler.” Edmund H. Fellowes, Memoirs of an Amateur Musician (London: Methuen, 1946), 79–80. At her London debut in 1903, Hall was encored six times for her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Henry Wood and the Queen’s Hall Symphony Orchestra. That year, a Musical Times critic wrote: “We may be proud of her nationality, and wish for her a long and brilliant career.” The Musical Times 44 (March 1903): 186, 173.
30. Jerrold Northrop Moore, Edward Elgar: Letters of a Lifetime (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990), 22.
31. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 160–61.
32. Michael Kennedy, The Life of Elgar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 147.
33. Speyer, My Life and Friends, 174.
34. See Percy M. Young, Alice Elgar: Enigma of a Victorian Lady (London: Dennis Dobson, 1978).
35. The Kufferath family was of German origin and were distinguished as performers and pedagogues, especially in Belgium.
36. Speyer, My Life and Friends, 3–11.
37. Ibid., 71.
38. Moore, Edward Elgar: A Creative Life, 390.
39. David Ward, “Unknown Elgar Is Just a Puff of Smoke,” Guardian, 11 December 2003; http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,11711,1104249,00.html. As this witty little “cantata” was never intended for performance, Elgar described it as “inadautory.”
40. Joys and Sorrows: Reflections by Pablo Casals, as told to Albert E. Kahn; available at http://www.cello.org/heaven/joys/chap10.htm.
41. Cyrus Adler and Frederick T. Haneman, “Speyer” in JewishEncyclopedia.com; http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1004&letter=S.
42. “Grosvenor Street: South Side,” Survey of London, vol. 40, Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Pt. 2 (The Buildings) (1980), 44–57. www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42104; “Archives in London and the M25 Area: Whitechapel Art Gallery”; www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frames/fulldesc?inst_id=80&coll_id=7210; “Robert Falcon Scott 1868–1912: The TERRA NOVA Expedition 1910–13”; www.south-pole.com/p0000090.htm.
43. John Bird, Percy Grainger (London: Paul Elek, 1976), 116.
44. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 383.
45. Richard Norton-Taylor, “Privy Council Agrees Aitken Resignation,” Guardian Unlimited (June 27, 1997); http://www.guardian.co.uk/aitken/Story/0,,208491,00.html.
46. Kennedy, Life of Elgar, 141. According to Kennedy, the “pro-German” activities consisted of sending food parcels to relatives.
47. Maude Valerie White, Friends and Memories (London: Edward Arnold, 1914), 369.
48. John Farrar, ed., The Bookman Anthology of Verse (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1922); http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/bav22_5.htm.
49. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 566–68. Leonora Speyer was later to turn to writing, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1927 for her collection Fiddler’s Farewell (1926); http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/pulitzer.html.
50. Before she married Millais, Effie Gray had been married to John Ruskin. Since this first marriage was never consummated, she managed to get it annulled, but still faced the condemnation of much of Victorian society. On the Ruskin, Gray, Millais triangle see Phyllis Rose, Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), 51–98; re playing piano in father’s studio, Jerold Northrop Moore, Edward Elgar: The Windflower Letters. Correspondence with Alice Caroline Stuart Wortley and her Family (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 3.
51. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 641.
52. Ibid., 658.
53. Sally Cline, Radclyffe Hall (London: John Murray, 1997), 288; http://www.thepeerage.com/p15927.htm.
54. Maud Warrender, My First Sixty Years (London: Cassell, 1933), 179, 185–86.
55. See Warrender, My First Sixty Years, 184, 205, 210–11, 238 passim.
56. Ibid., 199.
57. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 543.
58. Warrender, My First Sixty Years, 187.
59. Helen, Countess-Dowager of Radnor, From a Great-Grandmother’s Armchair (London: Marshall Press, 1927), 96–99; 102–5.
60. Radnor, From a Great-Grandmother’s Armchair, 112.
/> 61. Jeremy Dibble, C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 313.
62. Radnor, From a Great-Grandmother’s Armchair, 100–101.
63. Ibid., 264.
64. Michael Baker, Our Three Selves: A Life of Radclyffe Hall (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1985), 41.
65. Diana Souhami, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998), 18.
66. Unidentified press cutting, dated 15 March 1902. Mabel Batten Papers, in the possession of Cara Lancaster.
67. Sally Cline, Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John (London: John Murray, 1997), 92.
68. See Sophie Fuller, “Women Composers During the British Musical Renaissance, 1880–1918,” Ph.D. diss., King’s College, London University, 1998.
69. Liza Lehmann, The Life of Liza Lehmann, (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1919), 73–77.
70. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar, 284.
71. Moore, Windflower Letters, 313.
72. On Maddison, see Sophie Fuller, “‘Devoted Attention’: Looking for Lesbian Musicians in Fin-de-Siècle Britain,” in Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity, ed. Sophie Fuller and Lloyd Whitesell (Urbana: Illinois University Press, 2002), 85–87.
73. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 555.
74. Ethel Smyth, As Time Went On . . . (London: Longmans, Green, 1936), 252.
75. “I well remember that no one looked on Lady Folkestone’s String Band of womenamateurs as an outlet for serious musical energy and passion, but merely as an aristocratic fad; a resource for such bored and elegant ones as to-day eke out the hours with feeble bridge.” Ethel Smyth, Female Pipings in Eden (Edinburgh: Peter Davies, 1933), 7.
76. Another German-Jewish musical patron who became a fervent supporter of Elgar was Marie Joshua, renowned for her musical gatherings and support of various musicians and artists. In 1918 Elgar dedicated his Violin Sonata to her. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 725
77. Rupert Hart-Davis, ed., Siegfried Sassoon Diaries 1920–1922 (London: Faber & Faber, 1981), 293–94.
78. Unpublished diary quoted in John Stuart Roberts, Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) (London: Metro, 2005), 220.
79. As, for example, Schuster’s teasing over the possibility of Sassoon’s relationship with Philipp of Hesse being made public. See Roberts, Siegfried Sassoon, 172.
80. Young, Alice Elgar, 157. In fact, Alice was clearly very fond of and grateful to Schuster. The Elgars appointed him as one of their daughter’s legal guardians, a clear demonstration of their respect and trust. See Richard Smith, Elgar in America: Elgar’s American Connections between 1895 and 1934 (Rickmansworth: Elgar Editions, 2005), 27.
81. I have been unable to locate a copy of his will.
82. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar, 350.
83. White, Friends and Memories, 256. Correctly, it is “Old Queen Street.”
84. Ibid., 255–56.
85. “Poor Mr. Schuster, who thought, with every reason, that the situation was rather embarrassing for a still youngish woman, rushed off to call on every nice woman he knew in Venice, and to one and all he said the same thing. ‘You absolutely must come and call on Miss White as soon as she arrives, so that she may feel that everything is all right.’ … I enjoyed every minute of my stay.” Ibid., 336. Casa Wolkoff, a small palazzo at San Gregorio, belonged to the Russian painter and friend of Wagner, Aleksandr Volkov. It was used at various times by the Princesse de Polignac (who invited Gabriel Fauré to stay there) and Eleanora Duse, as well as Schuster. See Princesse Edmond de Polignac, “Memoirs of the Late Princesse Edmond de Polignac,” Horizon 12, no. 68 (August 1945): 129; Jean-Michel Nectoux, ed., Gabriel Fauré: His Life Through His Letters, trans. J. A. Underwood (London: Marion Boyars, 1984), 156; and “Eleanora Duse: I Luoghi—Venezia”; http://spazioinwind.libero.it/eleonoraduse/_private/luoghiVenezia.htm.
86. Santley to Schuster, 19 July 1887. Extracts available at www.farahardupre.co.uk/index.htm (accessed June 28, 2005).
87. Blumenthal to Schuster, 7 June 1886. Extracts available at www.farahardupre.co.uk/index.htm (accessed June 28, 2005).
88. Quoted in Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 467.
89. Times, 2 January 1928, 19.
90. See Times, 26 June 1895, 6; 23 July 1897, 12; 23 July 1898, 14; 23 July 1904, 5; 22 July 1911, 6.
91. Times, 21 March 1882, 12; 24 February 1891, 10.
92. Times, 13 January 1899, 7; 16 May 1899, 12.
93. Times, 19 May 1911, 12.
94. Times, 2 March 1927, 14.
95. Frank Schuster to Adrian Boult, n.d., British Library, Add. Ms 72625 f.16.
96. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 268.
97. Ibid., 292. The bust is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London. See http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?mkey=mw02064. Note that the date given for the bust appears to be 1927 although this was presumably the year that the NPG acquired it, following Schuster’s death.
98. In December 1908, for example, Schuster took Fauré to a rehearsal of Elgar’s Second Symphony, followed by a dinner party for both composers. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 547.
99. Polignac, “Memoirs of the Late Princesse,” 119. This was not the first time that Fauré had been to London. According to Fauré’s biographer, Robert Orledge, his first visit was in 1882, followed by a concert at St. James’s Hall in November 1894. Robert Orledge, Gabriel Fauré (London: Eulenburg Books, 1979), 16.
100. Quoted in Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 348.
101. Ibid., 116 and 123–24.
102. Moore, Letters of a Lifetime, 144.
103. Ibid., 157.
104. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 435.
105. Ibid., 592.
106. Quoted in Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 589.
107. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 740.
108. See Young, Letters of Edward Elgar, 263–64.
109. See Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 775.
110. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar, 300. See also Byron Adams, “The ‘Dark Saying’ of the Enigma: Homoeroticism and the Elgarian Paradox” in Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity, 226–28; and Adams’s essay in this volume. Schuster’s sister Adela, also a friend of Elgar’s, frequently acted as hostess at her brother’s parties and is best known for her support of her friend Oscar Wilde, giving him £1,000 at the time of his trial in 1895 and sending a wreath to his funeral five years later. Wilde apparently regretted not making her the dedicatee of any of his work and so Robert Ross posthumously dedicated The Duchess of Padua to her. See Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 523, 584; and Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954), 187.
111. Quoted in Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 435.
112. See, for example, Elgar’s snubbing of Schuster after a concert as recounted in Sassoon’s diaries. Adams, “The ‘Dark Saying’ of the Enigma,” 227.
113. Frank Schuster to Adrian Boult, 3 September 1921, British Library, Add Ms 60499 f.85.
114. Moore, Windflower Letters, 290. The “young man” driving was Anzy Wylde, a soldier from New Zealand who lost a leg at Gallipoli. The “bit of fluff” may have been Wylde’s future wife, the artist and Sickert pupil Wendela Boreel. Schuster built an annex for the couple at The Hut.
115. Moore, Elgar: A Creative Life, 776. It is interesting that neither Elgar nor the Stuart-Wortleys and Siegfried Sassoon attended Schuster’s funeral, apparently due to a snowstorm. See Moore, Windflower Letters, 318; and Max Egremont, Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography (London: Picador, 2005), 316.
116. See Adams, “The ‘Dark Saying’ of the Enigma,” 227.
117. Ernest Walker, A History of Music in England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907), 286. Elgar, of course, would have loved to hold an important official position (and successfully angled to be named Master of the King’s Musick) and in many ways felt that his life outside recognized musical circles had been imposed on him against his wishes.
118. Walker, A History
of Music in England, 304.
Elgar and the British Raj:
Can the Mughals March?
NALINI GHUMAN
Sir Edward Elgar touches us at home by his declared intention to write a “musick masque” on the theme of the “Crown of India,” and make it celebrate the “pomp and circumstance” of the Imperial Coronation Durbar … India has lavished her arts of splendour on the Royal visit, and it is only fitting that a great master in the West should spend the wealth and range of his powers on interpreting for us “the kingdom, the power, and the glory” of the highest manifestation of empire that the world has seen.
—Pall Mall Gazette, 9 January 1912
In January 1912, at the height of its imperial fervor, the British public eagerly devoured colorful newspaper reports of King George V’s visit to India the previous month.1 This royal visit celebrated the king’s assumption of the title “Emperor of India” that had been bestowed upon him during his coronation in Westminster Abbey on June 22, 1911. The focus of the new king’s Indian sojourn was the Delhi “Durbar,” the court ceremony held in his honor in December 1911, and presented in “Kinemacolour” film to packed London picture houses the following year. A magnificent imperial occasion lasting some ten days, the Durbar involved over 16,000 British and 32,000 Indian officials, and displayed the obeisance paid by all the Indian princes to their rulers.2 An Australian visitor marveled at “the pomp and solemnity of it all; the gorgeous hues … the rhythmic march of regiments; the masses of white-robed, keen-eyed natives; the blended colours where East and West met … the thousand sights seen beneath the glamour of that old Indian sun.”3 The event was widely reported and attracted praise from all corners of the empire.
Contrary to appearances and popular belief, however, the Durbar was more than a “pageant of splendour,” as one spectator termed it.4 It afforded an opportunity for the king-emperor to announce several crucial measures to bolster England’s weakening hold on India. The first, the shift of the imperial capital from Calcutta to Delhi, had been the subject of debate, and the suitability of other cities as capital had been considered. The kingemperor’s second announcement was, in the words of an American spectator, “surely the best-kept secret in history … it literally took away the breath of India.” He announced the reunification of Bengal, repealing Lord Curzon’s partition of the region in 1905 as part of the English “divide and rule” policy.5 The partition repeal was reportedly “fraught with such vast import” that the king’s announcement left “astonishment and incredulity on every face.”6