A CHRISTMAS GREETING (score & parts)

At the beginning of the 20th century Edward Elgar (1857-1934) was at the height of his popularity. He had enjoyed huge international acclaim for his Enigma Variations and other large-scale works such as The Dream of Gerontius. Despite his considerable fame he still evidently found time for smaller projects, of which A Christmas Greeting, Op. 52 is a lovely example – and an underrated festive gem of a piece.

In 1907 Elgar and his wife, Alice, spent Christmas in Rome. Clearly not satisfied with just sending Christmas cards to their family and friends back at home in Hereford they jointly set about putting a little piece together for them. A Christmas Greeting – in which Edward sets a poem by Alice to music – was the charming result. Her poem speaks of the differences in the countryside surrounding Rome and that of Herefordshire and its heartfelt refrain, which is heard three times, begins with the words ‘To those in sun, to those in snow’.

A Christmas Greeting was written for high voices, with optional tenor and bass parts and an accompaniment comprising two violins and piano. It was first performed on New Year’s Day 1908 at Hereford Cathedral. The music starts in quite a dramatic, foreboding manner but then subsides to a much lighter, gentler mood. Where Alice’s lyrics speak of the ‘pifferari’ (shepherd pipers who visit Rome each Christmas) Elgar playfully includes a quotation from the Pastoral Symphony from Handel’s Messiah.

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