Rosemary (“That’s for Remembrance”)

• This musical material appeared originally as Elgar’s 1882 piano piece Douce pensée (Sweet Thought), itself based on an 1882 piano trio by Elgar. Elgar produced his orchestral version, entitled Rosemary, in 1915.¹
• In 1882 Elgar was visiting friends in Giggleswick, Yorkshire: Dr. Charles Buck, an amateur cellist, and Buck’s mother, who played the piano. Elgar composed the original version of Rosemary as a trio for cello, piano, and violin so the three of them would have something to play together during the visit.² (Elgar played the violin.)³
• In 1913 the music publisher Elkin wanted to publish Elgar’s orchestral Salut d’Amour and requested two more light orchestral works from him to make a three-piece set. Elgar provided Rosemary and the orchestral version of Carissima.⁴
• The title is a quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act IV scene 5. It’s from Ophelia’s mad scene in which she is listing herbs thought to ease pain.⁵

OPHELIA: “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts…There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’Sundays…”

Hamlet, Act IV Scene 5

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. “Various short pieces written for solo piano,” Elgar Society, accessed September 19, 2019, http://elgar.org/elgarsoc/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Various-short-pieces-written-for-solo-piano.pdf.
3. McVeagh, “Elgar, Sir Edward,” Grove Music Online.
4. “Various short pieces written for solo piano,” Elgar Society.
5. Folgerpedia, The Folger Shakespeare Library, accessed September 19, 2019, https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/mediawiki/media/images_pedia_folgerpedia_mw/3/3b/BHRemViolets.pdf.