The Life of Elgar

This new biography of Elgar draws on letters and documents which have become available over the last twenty-five years. Michael Kennedy a leading scholar of British music as well as a distinguished musical biographer uses the new material (including Elgar''s vast personal correspondence) to analyze the composer''s complex personality. Elgar''s letters reveal his unpredictable swings of mood from gaiety and a fondness for puns to morose self-pity and a feeling that he was not wanted.