Salut D'Amour...Elgar

[Steve Harrison]

Sire Edward Elgar, probably  England's finest composer, was born in the village of Lower Broadheath in Worcestershire which is just about 5 miles (9 km) from where I live in Malvern. Elgar and his wife Alice are  are both buried in the churchyard of St.Wulstan's in Little Malvern having lived a large part of their life in Malvern.

On the occasion of his marriage, he composed Salut d'Amour for Alice and I have taken great liberties with the tune and have made a reduced arrangement, keeping just the 'pretty bits' to see if it was possible on banjo.

It is well worth listening to the full violin arrangement, of which there are many on You Tube, in order to appreciate the correct phrasing...Steve.

 

Edit by Ian: I have added an MP3 of Steve's arrangement here:

 

SALUT D'AMOUR

[Mike Moss]

Your arrangements never fail to impress me. This one, in particular, makes a very clever use of the banjo's resources to produce two voices. I also like making transcriptions for the 'jo and your arrangements are a source of inspiration.

[marc dalmasso]

Yes ,i love him &  i always thought that his march from Fantasia ' final should be great played by numerous banjos ; do an arrangment exist ?

[Steve Harrison]

Thanks Mike..there was a documentary on BBC4 about Elgar last week and this inspired me to give this tune a try. It is impossible to escape from the influence of Elgar if you live in Malvern, there is an excellent bronze statue of him on Bell Vue Terrace. I believe that to keep classic banjo relevant, even though there much good music already in the repertoire, you have to move forward with new tunes and arrangements.

Mike Moss said:

Your arrangements never fail to impress me. This one, in particular, makes a very clever use of the banjo's resources to produce two voices. I also like making transcriptions for the 'jo and your arrangements are a source of inspiration.

[Steve Harrison]

I'll have a look at some of his marches and see what I can do, I don't know of any that have been arranged for banjo.
marc dalmasso said:

Yes ,i love him &  i always thought that his march from Fantasia ' final should be great played by numerous banjos ; do an arrangment exist ?

[Mike Moss]

"Land of Hope and Glory" should be easy enough to transcribe and it would be great fun if we could play along at the last night of the proms, lol!

[Richard William Ineson]

I did an arrangement of LofH&G some years ago, I will post it when I get back next week.

Mike Moss said:

"Land of Hope and Glory" should be easy enough to transcribe and it would be great fun if we could play along at the last night of the proms, lol!