Unit information: Elgar, England and the Empire in 2008/09

Unit name	Elgar, England and the Empire
Unit code	MUSI30085
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Pickard
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	N/A Single Honours Music students. Joint Honours students must normally have taken Issues in History I or II at level C
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit examines Elgar's work from a number of perspectives in both a British and a European context. We will consider its curious adoption (often simultaneously) of public and private personae, its complex relationship to British nationalism and its fraught religiosity. We will also consider the development of Elgar's musical language in the context of his emotional identification with both the English landscape in the context of his emotional identification with both the English landscape in which he grew up and his intellectual appropriation of European models.

Aims:

This unit aims to explore the quintessentially English composer Edward Elgar from a variety of perspectives, some of them revisionist in nature. In fact, Elgar was a deeply paradoxical composer, often seen as an establishment figure, he was the first British composer of significance to come from a working-class background (and a Catholic one at that); the composer of Pomp and Circumstance marches and ceremonial music for royal occasions, he was also a rather reclusive and withdrawn individual, whose music often speaks a deeply personal and private language, infused with secret codes and ciphers and filled with references to close friends and family; a composer of popular salon music, he was also the first British composer to confront head-on the challenge of late-Romantic Austro-German symphonic music and, in doing so, brought a new direction and sense of purpose to British music (Richard Strauss hailed him the first of the English progressives). Most paradoxical of all is his relationship to his own country and the unit will revisit the construction of Elgar as the composer most immediately associated with late-nineteenth century British military and imperial expansion.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

• Discuss key works by Edward Elgar

• Discuss the nationalist and imperialist reception agendas for Elgars Music

• Demonstrate an understanding of the composers personal sound-world and of the contexts that led to it

• Evaluate Elgars importance in comparison to other early 20th-century composers such as Vaughan Williams

• Comment on European perspectives on the reception of Elgars music in his own lifetime

• Display a sensitivity to historical context in discussion this repertoire

• Be aware of appropriate research methodologies and their application

• Be able to participate, either as speaker or respondent, in seminar presentations

• Be able to plan and present an essay effectively

• Defend and critique arguments orally and in writing

And additionally (specific to Level H) to:

• incorporate a consistently strong grasp of detail with respect to content

• argue effectively and at length (including an ability to cope with complexities and to describe and deploy these effectively)

• display to a high level skills in selecting, applying, interpreting and organising information, including evidence of a high level of bibliographical control

• describe, evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking

• discriminate between different kinds of information, processes, interpretations

• take a critical stance towards scholarly processes involved in arriving at historical knowledge and/or relevant secondary literature

• engage with relevant theoretical, philosophical or social constructs for understanding relevant works or traditions

• demonstrate an understanding of concepts and an ability to conceptualise

• situate material within relevant contexts (invoking interdisciplinary contexts where appropriate)

• apply strategies laterally (perhaps leading to innovative results)

Teaching Information

Seminars and lectures.

Assessment Information

One essay of 3000 words (50%); 2-hour examination (50%)

NB the essay and examination questions will be specific to this level, as will the assessment criteria.

Reading and References

• Robert Anderson, Elgar (London, 1993)

• Robert Anderson, Elgar and Chivalry (Rickmansworth, 2002)

• Lewis Foreman (ed.), Oh, My Horses! Elgar and the Great War (Rickmansworth, 2001)

• Jerrrold Northrop Moore, Edward Elgar, A Creative Life (Oxford, 1984)

• Jerrrold Northrop Moore, Elgar,Child of Dreams (London, 2004)

• W.H. Reed, Elgar as I knew him (Oxford, 1936, 1989)