Edward Elgar - After many a dusty mile by Wah Yan College Kowloon Senior Boys Choir
Channel: Wah Yan College, Kowloon Music Association
Date: 2014-06-13

A cappella TTBB from the Song Album 'Five Part-songs from the Greek Anthology'

(Extracted from http://www.elgar.org/3parts1.htm)
Michael Kennedy writes how Five Part-songs from the Greek Anthology is 'a title that must have deterred many from discovering the beauties of the music it concealed'. In the second song 'we hear the innocent Elgar, the boy from Broadheath, the dreamer by the reeds of the Severn. It epitomises the charm and lyricism of Elgar, what I would call his Tennysonian element.'

The texts were culled from translations by English poets contributing to an anthology of Greek verse. Written for male voice choir, the works were not actually intended for the burgeoning competitive choral movement, receiving their first performance in the Albert Hall on 25 April 1904 by the London Choral Society. Nevertheless, after being published by Novello in 1903, they were seized upon by choirs for their colour, humour and varied technical challenges.