On Friday morning, Academic-in-Residence Richard McMillan gave a talk on the life and works of Sir Edward Elgar. This was the second of two talks this term on famous Hampstead residents. Elgar came to live in Hampstead at the height of his fame. Having established himself as England’s preeminent composer, what better place to live than a fashionable suburb overlooking the capital?
The house in which he lived, Severn House, was demolished a few years after his death but the site is marked by a plaque. The fate of Severn House was linked to social and economic changes underway in Britain at that time: large houses required servants, and these had become increasingly unaffordable.
Pupils learnt about Elgar’s relatively humble background and how he was entirely self-taught, unlike many other English composers. They learnt about Elgar’s problematic association with Empire but this was set in the context of the undeniable fact that his music does travel abroad and that it is popular with people of all ages and from all backgrounds.
There was a focus of Elgar’s work in the recording studio: he was the first composer to set down a record of his main works, a record against which other interpretations can be judged. The event ended with a live performance by two professional musicians, Tilly, our organist, and fellow Royal Academy student Chloe on the violin. They played a selection of Elgar’s lighter violin and piano repertoire and this went down very well with pupils.
Not only did pupils learn about an important English composer with local associations but they also gained a sense of how even world-famous musicians start out, like them, learning instruments at a young age.
Take a moment to listen to the beautiful recording above.
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