A bicycle called Mr Phoebus

You have probably heard of the composer Edward Elgar: he wrote Pomp and Circumstance ( "Land of hope and glory, da-da-da-da-da-DA......" etc) and his first big breakthrough hit was the Enigma variations. Even if you haven't heard of the Engima variations, you almost definitely will have heard one of them, specifically this one, which is called Nimrod, and is quite beautiful:



It's his birthday today, which is why I mention him.  My favourite things about Elgar:

1.  He didn't make it big until he was well into his 40s, giving inspiration to all of us who, in our early/mid/late thirties are still dreaming of the day that we might actually  achieve something of note.  Even though now whatever we do will need to be exceptionally good and not just really-good-for-someone-who-is-still-so-young.

2. His career was full of near-misses;  he lost, for instance an opportunity to run through some of his works at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (which would have been a pretty big deal) because Sir Arthur Sullivan, as in Gilbert and, arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music.  (Apparently Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened, which I also like; as a closet G+S fan it's sort of reassuring to know Sir Arthur wasn't being a diva.)  The first performance of his most eagerly anticipated choral work was ruined by a dodgy choir. Another debut performance was under-rehearsed because the other guy on the bill used up all of the orchestra's rehearsal time. This kind of thing seemed to happen to poor old Elgar a lot.  Even when he became famous, he was massively popular for a while, but people pretty quickly went off him again.  I'm all about the underdog, and you get the feeling Elgar, famous as his music is now, definitely was one.

3. He played the bassoon (a fact you may not know about me: I also play the bassoon.)

4. He rode everywhere on a bicycle which he named Mr Phoebus.

5. His wife Alice was eight years older than him.  When they got married, she was disowned by her family, who were horrified that their new son-in-law was an unknown musician who, like nearly all unknown musicians, worked in a shop.  Alice, or Caroline Alice to give her her full name, clearly married for love.  (Or, just to hack her parents off.  But I like to think it was for love.)  From this picture of them, I'd say he loved her too:

They lose points for naming their daughter Carice, a combination of Caroline and Alice.  Basically, Elgar gave his bicycle a more interesting name than his daughter*. 

Other Elgar facts: he had a rabbit called Pietro, and his football team was the Wolverhampton Wanderers.


*This is not even the best/worst name-invented-from-a-combination-of-other-names I have heard of.  I used to work with someone called Neil McNeil, who had a wife called Jan and a daughter called Janneil.  True story.







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