Elgar is considered to be an untypical composer for he was a man of the countryside, with a wide range of interests – animal, vegetal and mineral – who just happened to be a great composer as well.
the elgar birthplace museum
Situated in Broadheath, near Worcester The Elgar Birthplace Museum is devoted to the life, work and influences of a great English composer, a rare distinction shared by only two other musical museums in a country far richer in literary collections. This Independent Museum’s unique and nationally important collection includes music manuscripts, letters, press cuttings, concert programmes, diaries, recordings, books, furniture and memorabilia. Less predictably (to those unaware of Sir Edward Elgar’s wide-ranging interests), the Museum also houses his golf clubs, cycling maps, scientific instruments and other personal possessions.
Just outside Worcester, where Elgar’s father and uncle had their music shop, the small 19th-century cottage in Broadheath in which Elgar was born on 2 June 1857 is set in the heart of his beloved Worcestershire countryside, facing the Malvern Hills. After the composer’s death in 1934, his daughter Carice Elgar Blake followed her father’s wishes in setting up a Museum here.
For many years, visitors crowded into the little Birthplace Cottage (which was also the Curator’s home) to see the treasures displayed on open shelves. As interest in Elgar and his music increased, expansion became essential as the Museum could no longer meet the needs of its growing collections, its visitors and its staff. Numerous development plans met with frustration, and it was not until August 2000 that years of planning, fundraising and hard work came to fruition with the opening of the Elgar Centre, adjacent to the Birthplace Cottage.
The Museum’s own appeal attracted generous support from the Elgar family, numerous organisations, trusts and individuals, and an HLF grant finally accomplished the completion of a project which has transformed the Museum. The Birthplace Cottage retains its much-cherished tranquillity, in its pretty garden, with the bustle of shop and admissions facilities now removed to the new Centre. There, an increased range of recordings, books, music and gifts provides essential income, and more space is available to welcome visitors, with improved accessibility including the all-important toilets.
Vitally, the Elgar Centre has provided increased scope for interpretation and display, with its permanent exhibition interpreting the composer’s musical development and inspirations. The Birthplace Cottage houses Elgar’s study, and concentrates on the man, his family, hobbies and travels, using purpose-designed display cases in keeping with the historic surroundings yet meeting modern standards.
Lottery funding has brought other benefits to this small museum among them a purpose built and environmentally controlled archive store and research room where thousands of items not currently displayed can be securely stored or used by musicians, writers, performers, scholars and other researchers. Lottery funding has also supported the appointment of an archivist, ensuring essential resources to support documentation and supervision of researchers.
In the three years since the Elgar Centre opened, the Museum has maintained its momentum: recruiting a willing band of volunteers to support paid staff; organising a substantial events programme; introducing digital audio guides (funded by donation and legacies); commissioning an introductory video; negotiating secondment to develop an education programme; and boosting marketing to raise the Museum’s profile, increase visitor numbers – and reassure groups that we no longer have to make people shiver in the cottage garden while waiting their turn to visit!
quotable quotes
Elgar on golf (1904)
Golf...is the best form of exercise for writing men, as it involves no risk of accident, is always ready without much preliminary arrangements and has the inestimable advantage of being solidly respectable, inasmuch as it is seldom worth seeing and rarely worth reading about.
On Chemistry ...to Frank Schuster...28 August 1908
I am resuming chemistry and made soap yesterday between fits of scoring (not scouring!) the symphony. I have been daily trying to persuade Carice to wash with it – strange how little encouragement I get.
On Woodwork...His diary...30 November, 1918.
Made a music stand for Reed.
He had a great love of animals, and especially of dogs.
In a letter to his daughter Carice he wrote the following on 3 August, 1905:
My dearest Chuck: the animals are all well and not likely to remain so I fear, as everyone who goes by their house gives them something: I find the following extras were offered and devoured:
May: 4 chicory leaves each
Mother: 2 large carrots
Father: 2 pea-pods (full)
The doves do not lend themselves to strutting so readily.
some elgar facts
• Elgar loved wordplay: His Enigma Variations contained clues as to the people who inspired each of the pieces: his daughter was called Carice, using part of each of his wife’s forenames Car(oline Al)ice: His house in Malvern was called Craeg Lea, an anagram of C(arice), A(lice) and E(dward) Elgar.
• The famous poem by Lawrence Binyon For the Fallen (They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old) which is heard every Remembrance Day in Britain was set to music by Elgar in his The Spirit of England.
• The maverick film director Ken Russell made a film of Elgar’s life for the BBC in 1962. It was recently released on DVD.
• There are 65 roads named after Elgar in the UK.
In the year commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of Sir Edward Elgar, The Elgar Birthplace Museum has planned an interesting and varied programme of lectures, recitals, exhibitions and so on. If you wish to receive a copy please email [email protected]
The section on the Museum is a shortened version of an article written by Catherine Sloan, Museum Director.