He grew up in a heavy musical environment since his father owned a music shop He learned a wide variety of instruments, including the bassoon. What made Elgar unique was that beyond his father teaching him music, he did not receive a formal training in composing. In the 1880’s and 90’s he worked locally conducting and composing music ensembles in Worcester, and served as the organist for St. George’s Roman Catholic Church. His reputation began to spread until 1899 when he wrote his most famous work Variations on an Original Theme, or simply titled Enigma Variations. This work remains popular in orchestral repertoire for its technical accomplishment and great musical forces that showed off Elgar’s raw genius (Lace).