Who originally composed Pomp and Circumstance?

Answer 1

In December 1900, British troops fighting in the Transvaal, South Africa suffered many losses when they were attacked at Nooitedacht. This may have inspired Edward Elgar, then a 43-year-old composer living in Malvern Wells in England's West Midlands, to sketch a march melody in D major in his notebook a few weeks later on January 3, 1901.

Elgar realized its value immediately. A few days later, he wrote to his friend and publisher, August Jaeger, 'Gosh I've got a tune in my head!' However, he put the sketch aside for the moment, hoping to use it as the main theme for a symphony he has planning to write.

In May he told a visitor, 'I've got a tune that will knock 'em--knock 'em flat,' and played the march on his piano. He got down to the serious work of orchestrating it that summer, and it was first performed in Liverpool on October 19, 1901.

There are five Pomp and Circumstance marches, the most famous being the first. They were written by Elgar over a period of nearly 30 years and take their title from Act 3 of Shakespeare's 'Othello': 'Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump.../Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!'

When the march had its first London performance at a Proms concert on October 22, the audience response was so enthusiastic that the orchestra played the march again twice, the only double encore for an orchestral piece in Proms history.

Elgar visited America in 1903 to receive an honorary degree from Yale University. The band played Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in tribute its composer, and its complex mood--partly triumphant, partly nostalgic--seemed so well suited to a commencement that it was soon being played for American graduations throughout the nation.

Elgar eventually did write his symphony. It was first performed in 1908, and it began with a march--that one in A flat.

Frank Beck

Answer 2

Pomp and Circumstance was composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1901

Answer 3

Edward Elgar