Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 — this is not the one from graduation ceremonies. That is No. 1, whose trio became Land of Hope and Glory; No. 4, written in 1907, has a trio just as broad, and in 1940 it too had words put to it, as Song of Liberty. This is a piano transcription that folds a whole orchestra into two hands: 262 bars, four minutes forty-four, striding for 70 bars before it softens for the first time at bar 71. The full piano score is on screen, note by note.
Five marches, and the famous one is not this one
Elgar wrote five Pomp and Circumstance marches, Op. 39: Nos. 1 and 2 premiered in 1901, No. 3 in 1904, No. 4 in 1907, and No. 5 not until 1930. The title comes from a line in Shakespeare's Othello.
The one everybody knows is No. 1. Its trio was so popular that Edward VII suggested words be set to it, and it became Land of Hope and Glory — the tune played at graduations across Britain and America.
No. 4 is built the same way: a fast, angular march on the outside, then a sudden broadening in the middle where a long tune appears, and finally that tune sung once more at full volume to close. Its trio was given words too, in 1940, by A. P. Herbert, under the title Song of Liberty — the first year of the Second World War.
The score is dedicated to George Robertson Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral and a friend of Elgar's. The same man turns up in the Enigma Variations — the eleventh variation is about him, and about his bulldog.
This is a piano transcription. The original is orchestral, and the arranger has pressed the brass harmony, the string runs and the percussion accents all into two hands, which is why the page is more crowded than a piano piece usually is.
A Clockwork Orange sets it against aversion therapy
In 1940 A. P. Herbert set words to this march's trio, with Elgar's permission, as the wartime song Song of Liberty.
Kubrick used it in A Clockwork Orange (1971), over the sequence taking the main character to aversion therapy.
Seventy bars upright before it sits down
It starts at full speed. 20 to 31 notes a bar, both hands moving, accents landing hard — the gait of a military band, with tune and fanfare in the right hand and drum and bass in the left. The first 70 bars stay that way, with nowhere to draw breath.
Around 1:08 the music thins abruptly: bar 62 holds 3 notes in the whole bar, and the next few hold 6 to 8. Something is about to change.
From 1:18 comes the trio. The key signature drops from one sharp to none; the pulse does not change but everything else does. The count falls to 6 to 16 a bar, a long broad melody walks out, and a few chords hold it up. This is the tune that later got words.
At 2:35 the march returns whole, the density jumping straight back to the twenties and thirties, and runs to 3:39.
From 3:39 the trio comes back, and this time it is not quiet — it is taken as loud as the piece goes, both hands filling in the chords. That is where the whole thing has been heading.
The close is quick: from bar 255 the count drops to 3 to 9 and it is over in a few strokes.
This does not work as background: the volume stays in the upper half throughout and there is no quiet stretch. It suits mornings, commutes, and any time you need to be upright.
Two hundred and sixty-two bars, the trio twice, the second time loudest
262 bars and 4,107 sounding notes, with 33 grace notes besides, in 2/4 and G major, with no repeats. The score carries 45 dynamics and 31 hairpins, and no pedal marks — transcribed from an orchestral score, it leaves the pedal to the player.
The key signature changes twice: from one sharp to none at bar 71, and back at bar 143. Those two points are the entrance and exit of the trio.
The bar counts cut the sections cleanly: bars 1 to 60 average 22, bars 61 to 70 fall to 3 to 10, the trio at bars 71 to 142 holds 5 to 16, and from bar 143 the count returns to 24 to 31. When the trio comes back at bar 203 it is thicker than the first time, with columns of 20 notes at bars 242 and 244.
The range is G1 to F-sharp 6, just over five octaves, and the shortest note lasts 0.029 seconds.
The difficulty is holding two hundred bars upright
First, stamina. The opening sixty bars and the sixty from bar 143 are full handfuls of chords, and the arms tire before the fingers; work in sections and plan where to release, rather than forcing it.
Second, put the accents in the right place. This is a march, and misplaced accents dissolve it; the left-hand bass is the drum, and the note that should be heavy has to be clear.
Third, do not slow down for the trio. The marked tempo does not change there, only the texture widens; many players slow automatically and the two sections then fail to join.
Fourth, plan the volume for the second trio. It has to be much bigger than the first, so the first must be held back — unlike a Chopin nocturne where three sections take three characters, this is one passage at two volumes.
Fifth, the pedal. There is not a single mark, and an orchestral texture smears easily; change with the bass, and take more depth in the trio.
The tempo follows the printed 112 to the quarter: bar 1 carries Allegro marziale with the metronome mark, so nothing is substituted.
We rate this 4 out of 5.
The other four marches, and the variation about his friend
Op. 39 has four more marches. No. 1 is the one that became Land of Hope and Glory and the one most often heard; No. 2 in A minor is the darkest of the five; Nos. 3 and 5 are played less. None besides this one has been made yet.
The channel also has Elgar's Nimrod, the ninth of the Enigma Variations — the quietest music the same man wrote, and heard beside this it shows both of his faces, loud and soft. Sinclair, this march's dedicatee, appears in that set too, as the eleventh variation.
