City Music Society

Programme:

Edward Elgar Harmony Music No.1

Edward Elgar Harmony Music No.2

Antoine Reicha Adagio

Carl Nielsen Wind Quintet

• I. Allegro ben moderato
• II. Menuetto
• III. Praeludium: Adagio. Tema con variazioni: Un poco andantino

Why this programme…?

One might have thought that if Edward Elgar wrote a wind quintet, we would hear it performed all the time – well… he wrote twelve of them! Sadly for us and the so-called modern wind quintet however they’re a little different from the norm. Elgar composed around one a week in the years 1878 and 79. All due to the fact that a group of friends would gather and play the music in a garden shed. (Sure enough, these pieces are now known as, the Shed Music). A compositional challenge for the young composer to do so every week as well as a social gathering of his three friends plus his brother Frank who played oboe. The instrumentation then does not include French Horn –  instead two flutes, oboe, clarinet and Elgar’s own bassoon.

Lumas have managed to get their hands on arrangements of Harmony Music Nos. 1 and 2, the first in the catalogue to be written, now suited to us in the form of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and french horn. However, this music exists! And although we will be performing an arrangement, we feel very excited to be sharing a rarely heard snippet from one of the most well-known composers in English music history.