{"id":854,"date":"2013-08-27T12:42:31","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T11:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geraldgarcia.com\/wordpress\/?p=854"},"modified":"2013-08-27T13:54:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T12:54:59","slug":"sir-edward-elgar-in-the-shed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/geraldgarcia.com\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Sir Ed in the shed!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edward Elgar<\/a>, the composer of such unguitaristic tunes such as “Land of Hope and Glory” \u00a0used to gather with a group of friends \u00a0behind the Elgar Brother’s music shop near Worcester in order to play music every Sunday afternoon when he was young and not yet a knight.<\/p>\n

\"Ed\"<\/a>
\n In his own words:
\n“In the early days of which I have been speaking five of us established a wind quintet.
\nWe\u00a0<\/em>had two flutes, an oboe, a clarionet, and a bassoon, which last I played for some time, and\u00a0<\/em>afterwards relinquished it for the cello.
\nThere was no music at all to suit our peculiar\u00a0<\/em>requirements, as in the ideal wind quintet a horn should find a place and not a second flute,so I used to write the music.
\nWe met on Sunday afternoons, and it was an understood thing\u00a0that we should have a new piece each week.
\nThe sermons in our church used to take at least\u00a0half an hour, and I spent the time composing the thing for the afternoon.
\nIt was great\u00a0experience for me, as you may imagine, and the books are all extant, so some of that music\u00a0still exists.
\nWe played occasionally for friends, and I remember one moonlight night stopping\u00a0in front of a house to put the bassoon together.
\nI held it up to see if it was straight before\u00a0tightening it. As I did so, someone rushed out of the house, grabbed me by the arms, and\u00a0shouted,’It will be five shillings if you do.’ He thought I had a gun in my hand.<\/em>” – from an interview in The Strand<\/p>\n

They rehearsed in a shed behind the Elgar music shop and “Shed” became the title for Elgar’s long pieces after Harmony Music No. 3.
\nCompositions for the group finished in 1879, except for the two movement Shed No. 7, composed in 1881 with added violin.<\/p>\n

Here are examples of Harmony Music which was played in the shed, and very cheery it is too – should do well over a cup of tea after Sunday lunch.<\/p>\n