Elgar’s Serenade for Strings

Edward Elgar’s Op.20 “Serenade for Strings” was written in March of 1892 and was first performed by the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral class later that year. Musicologists posit that this enduringly popular offering from Elgar was written in an earlier period of the composer’s life, and that it is older even than his Wand of Youth suites. The assertion that the Serenade for Strings is a reworking of an earlier work is given credibility mainly by the characteristics of young Elgar’s compositional style which make it up: there is a youthful charm supported by a bedrock of ingenious musical machinations and textures. A lifelong perfectionist, it has been rumored that “Serenade for Strings” was one of the first pieces with which Elgar “professed [him]self truly satisfied.” 

The Serenade itself is set in E minor, utilizes a string orchestra as its musical vehicle, and is separated into three short movements: “Allegro Piacevole”, “Larghetto”, and “Allegretto”. A musical landscape of hills and valleys emerges as we hear the first movement sing out its compelling central theme. The rhythmic figure of this movement is characterized by a wind-blown momentum which propels one’s musical expectations towards the opening of the Larghetto.

Easily the most mature movement of the three, the brilliance of the Larghetto rests in its simple grandeur, and the subtle ways Elgar shifts tonalities to illustrate several distinct and intimate moment of warmth. It was the stylistic qualities of the Larghetto which signaled to music historians and researchers that this work had existed in a previous iteration. Although lamentably brief in terms of duration, this movement remains one of the most popular pieces of musical writing Elgar ever committed to paper.

The final movement of this piece (Allegretto) develops a melody which possesses a great sense of yearning and is unashamed of its romantic character. The violin comes alive in this movement, its song gifted points of luminous emotional expressivity by Elgar’s sensitive compositional insight. Beginning in 12/8 time, the measure alters to 6/8 near the movement’s conclusion in order to signal the reappearance of the Allegro Piacevole’s main theme.

Elgar dedicated his “Serenade for Strings” to an acquaintance of his, the organ builder and amateur musician Edward W. Whinfield. “Serenade for Strings” received its first public performance in Antwerp, Belgium on 21 July 1896. Although Edward Elgar felt for much of his life an outcast, there is no doubt that his Serenade for Strings represents an early triumph in a series of well-deserved compositional victories. Not unlike a sunset viewed from aboard a transatlantic cruise, Edward Elgar’s “Serenade for Strings” paints the mind of the beholder with touching shades of pink, orange, and gold.

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