3-056-996 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Elgar's sketch of his 'Pomp and Circumstance March no 1', 1901. Elgar was a self-taught composer who first achieved fame with his 'Enigma Variations'. He wrote his 'Pomp and Circumstance Marches' a few days before the death of Queen Victoria, presumably with an eye to the imminent ceremonies for the accession of Edward VII. In July 1902, a version of the trio section of this march was performed at Covent Garden with words by Arthur Christopher Benson, an archbishop's son and house master at Eton, as a Coronation Ode.