Description
The idea to arrange this piece came to quartet member Zahrah Hutton after searching for an English dance to pair with our English overture. Written in 1899, the work is certainly full of character and English wit, throwing us from a pastiche of a baroque dance into something distinctly romantic in Elgar’s own distinctive voice. Elgar wrote in a letter to a friend how he was inspired by a dance he saw in Germany: “I saw two dancers once in Leipzig who came down the stage in antique dress dancing a gavotte: when they reached the footlights they suddenly turned round & appeared to be two very young & modern people & danced a gay & lively measure … They had come down the stage backwards & danced away with their (modern) faces towards us: when they reached the back of the stage they suddenly turned round & the old decrepit couple danced gingerly to the old tune.” The guitar is an instrument almost uniquely suited to the transformative temporal leap in this piece, with a history of repertory encompassing both the polyphony of Renaissance and Baroque lute repertoire, and Romantic lyricism.
