Thank you, Jessica, for a splendid, insightful article. I too wound up looking at Moore before I read Gerontius. Perhaps I am not alone in detecting unconscious irony and symbolism in the Bank's decision to replace the last emblem of English romanticism with the first exponent of classical economics. Mrs Thatcher must be very happy, but I would really rather have my beloved Elgar back.
I'd like to mention that the inscription on the Violin Concerto lost two of its dots at editorial stage. It should have read 'Herein is enshrined the soul of .....' not 'of...' The five dots indicate letters. The question is: do they denote A-L-I-C-E (either Mrs E or the 'other' Alice, the 'Windflower'); or H-E-L-E-N, E's own secret Ferne Geliebte....?
Now Pliable at On an Overgrown Path has more information for anybody still intrigued by the Violin Concerto, gleaned from 'Dorabella''s autobiography and amplified by a letter he discovered in his second-hand copy of it. J-U-L-I-A.....?
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Surely the jouney up the Amazon was pure fiction? I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else other than in this book.
I always thought so, too, but when I checked I found it in the Jerrold Northrop Moore biography, 'Elgar: A Creative Life'.
Thank you, Jessica, for a splendid, insightful article. I too wound up looking at Moore before I read Gerontius. Perhaps I am not alone in detecting unconscious irony and symbolism in the Bank's decision to replace the last emblem of English romanticism with the first exponent of classical economics. Mrs Thatcher must be very happy, but I would really rather have my beloved Elgar back.
I'd like to mention that the inscription on the Violin Concerto lost two of its dots at editorial stage. It should have read 'Herein is enshrined the soul of .....' not 'of...' The five dots indicate letters. The question is: do they denote A-L-I-C-E (either Mrs E or the 'other' Alice, the 'Windflower'); or H-E-L-E-N, E's own secret Ferne Geliebte....?
Now Pliable at On an Overgrown Path has more information for anybody still intrigued by the Violin Concerto, gleaned from 'Dorabella''s autobiography and amplified by a letter he discovered in his second-hand copy of it. J-U-L-I-A.....?
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