Pomp and Circumstance

Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches date mainly from the period 1901-7, the fifth being added in 1930. They share a broadly common structure, with bracing outer sections bookending a contrasting, more expansive middle segment. The idiom is unashamedly militaristic—the phrase “pomp and circumstance” is drawn from a passage extolling war in Shakespeare’s Othello—with ebullient writing for brass instruments and percussion. While the mood is generally celebratory and upbeat, there are enough orchestral nuances and shades of feeling to stop the Marches seeming merely jingoistic. By far the most famous March is No. 1, the proudly martial strut of its beginning and conclusion framing a central episode where the “tune that comes once in a lifetime” (as Elgar himself described it) burgeons in irresistibly noble, heartfelt fashion. With words added, this melody later became the patriotic anthem “Land of Hope and Glory”, and is also regularly played at graduation ceremonies in America.