Description
In his early 20s Edward Elgar, his brother Frank and friends Frank Exton and Hubert and Willie Leicester, used to meet on Sunday afternoons to rehearse in a shed behind his father’s music shop in Worcester. With two flutes, an oboe, a clarinet and a bassoon (played by a self-taught Elgar), this was not an orthodox wind quintet so it required special repertoire.
At first Elgar arranged the work of other composers but, by Christmas 1877, he began writing original music for the ensemble which he collectively called Shed Music. The first piece he wrote was the Peckham March. Elgar subsequently named quite a number of his pieces after places and people he knew, so presumably there is some sort of connection between Elgar and Peckham. In Edward Elgar: A Creative Life the author Jerrold Northrop Moore describes the piece as a bright little march – and indeed it is.
Special thanks for the source material for this arrangement go to John Morrison.
Elgar’s music has been re-arranged here for the standard wind quintet grouping of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon.
