Edward Elgar and Rimsky Korsakov both created symphonies that were lyrical and lovely - and each of which expressed modern musical motifs in very different ways. This paper examines the first symphony of each composer, examining the ways in which these two near contemporaries used similar tools and rules of composition to create works that are strikingly different from one another. While Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov would write his First Symphony well within the conventions of the classical symphony, Elgar, writing later and with English rather than Continental musical influences at the fore, would write an essentially Romantic symphony.
Elgar stands out as being one of the very few great English composers. It is both true that if he had not been English then he would not have been so celebrated and also that he should have been celebrated no matter what his nationality was, for his work - coming at the very end of Romanticism but still expressing some of the fundamental tropes and motifs of that school - is lyrical and beautiful, highly distinctive and original, serious without being unduly solemn, inclined to laugh at the world - but in joy, not mockery.
His First Symphony was greeted almost rapturously, as the following suggests:
"Gentlemen, now let us rehearse the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer - and not only in this country." Thus spake Hans Richter, in 1908, of Elgar's First Symphony - dismissing Dvorak and Sibelius, to name but two. Was he overstating his case? Maybe, but then maybe it was justifiable considering the circumstances, which much later led Michael Kennedy to conclude, "This was not only Elgar's first symphony, it was England's." à
Then along came Elgar, dishing up roast beef and veg. liberally laced with tongue-toasting English mustard. His piFce de resistance (to date) came courtesy of a symphony that was, in many ways, right at the cutting edge of the avant-g...