Musical contribution - January 2019

Salut d’Amour - Edward Elgar (1857-1934) (LiVE sample set: Leipzig, Sauer).

First of all, on behalf of the staff and management of the Global Organ Group, I’d like to wish you a wonderful, healthy and musical New Year. We’re looking forward to being in touch every month through the Musical Contribution. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. As always, we’ll be at your service again in the New Year!

We open this year with a lovely composition by the Englishman Sir Edward Elgar. Edward was born into a musical family in the English village of Broadheath. He developed extremely rapidly as a musician, and was a gifted violinist, organist and composer.

In 1889 he married his pupil Caroline Alice Roberts, who was eight years his senior. The story goes that the piece we’re offering this month was composed for her while he was away in Germany. He wrote her a letter and enclosed a musical “Liebesgruß” with it. When he returned home, his wife encouraged him to publish it under this title, but it sold almost no copies. Sometime later, the publisher translated the title into English, calling it “Love’s greeting”. When it failed to sell under that name too, they decided to give it one more chance, being particularly enthusiastic about the infectious, romantic melody. This third name proved to be the right choice: “Salut d’Amour”. The song went into the history books with this title, and ultimately became one of Elgar’s best known works.

The original arrangement was for violin and piano. Over the years, it has been arranged for many other instruments, right up to large symphony orchestras. This month, we’ve arranged it for the organ. It’s another one of those pieces of music that always sound good, no matter what registration you choose. For example, if you are playing on a LiVE 2T, 3T or III, the English organ is ideal. The leading stop on the Swell goes beautifully with a soft reed. And whenever you turn to the Great with both hands, we also advise coupling many 8’ stops from the other manuals to create a grand, broad orchestral sound.

I still have a number of performances abroad in my calendar for this year. I’m going to think about sending my wife a greeting like this one!

Warm regards,

André van Vliet