Edward Elgar

Pomp & Circumstance Op. 39 March No. 6

Organ transcription of Anthony Payne's 2006 orchestral completion from Elgar's sketches. Robert Gower comments, Working from the orchestral score confirms Payne's musical intuition in taking fragments and developing them into an entirely convincing whole, one imbued with Elgarian spirit and characterised through the economical precision of his own art. Here, intellectual and artistic integrity combine to construct overall architecture in which not a note is wasted, painstaking care is evident in the subtle details of instrumental colouring, and where there is thrilling rhythmic forward propulsion. In saluting the skills of both composers, I have sought to open out for organists the excitement and sincerity of their work, being designed for performance not only on larger organs with a full range of orchestral colour, but also made entirely feasible for performance on smaller two-manual instruments.