# Listening to Elgar, Episode Three



## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

About three years after "Chantant", Elgar set another poem to music. This time the poem was an old one, written by Edmund Waller in 1645 and titled *"The Self Banished"*. Like the two previous pieces reviewed here, this piece was unpublished in the composer's lifetime.

But, though that may be understandable in regard to those earlier works, the lack of publication here is harder to understand.

The music is gorgeous. And, though the phrasing may seem a bit awkward in places to me, I have to admit that most music of this period that attempts to set English poetry seems awkward to me at times. This one is no worse than most in that regard.

In places it's even admirable. The twice repeated line "And makes my old wounds bleed anew" in particular is very nicely phrased. Elgar avoids the obvious in this line by drawing out the final two words to good effect.

Odd how the lines "But vow'd I have, and never must / Your banished servant trouble you;" reminds me of my own position with regard to the TC Forums…


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