# Listening to Elgar, Episode Eight



## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

It's been a while, I know, but I've been listening over and over to the pieces I've already talked about and haven't had time to listen to the next ones (more wind ensemble music) with a score in hand - until today.

*Harmony Music #1 *- Think of an extended (sonata form?) version of one of the Promenades. This one, in the key of G, offers a little more for the clarinet in the repeated exposition (though always carefully doubled by the bassoon). The music has that kind of impromptu, "outdoor band-concert" feel of the Promenades, only a bit longer. At any rate, I willingly add this to the earlier wind pieces as attractive, occasional music that rewards the listener with a lot of fun.

*Harmony Music #2 *- This is a horse of a different color. It's still very much a major key (key of F) thing, so it isn't somber or profound in any way. But, it feels much more "classical" than the Promenades and the HM #1 - almost Mozartean. In fact, pleasant though this is, it sounds so much like an unknown Mozart piece, that I can't really justify the time it takes to listen to it (it's the longest single piece Elgar wrote to date). I don't mind it as background music, but it doesn't grab my attention like the earlier wind instrument efforts.


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