Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 in G Major

Main page on Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches Op. 39

• Elgar composed this march in 1907.¹
• Elgar arranged this march into a song for voice and piano, “The King’s Way,” in 1909.
  • The song premiered in 1910, sung by Dame Clara Butt, an English contralto recitalist whose voice inspired Elgar more than once. He composed the role of the Angel in Dream of Gerontius with her in mind.
  • The text of “The King’s Way” was written by Elgar’s wife, Alice (Caroline Alice Elgar, 1848-1920). Elgar used more song texts by Alice than by any other poet.²

1. Diana McVeagh, “Elgar, Sir Edward,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 18, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008709.
2. Trevor Hold, Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-Composers (Woodbrigde: Boydell Press, 2002), 60.