Edward Elgar: Overture, ‘Cockaigne’ (‘In London Town’), Op. 40.

This post was inspired by one of Rosa Newmarch’s programme notes written for the Queen’s Hall Orchestra between the years 1908 and 1927. It gives a perfect verbal description of this wonderful overture alongside some astute technical details. Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture offers a vivid, affectionate panorama of everyday London. Though formally traditional, it unfolds as a sequence of sharply characterised scenes: bustling streets, dignified civic spirit, tender romance, cheeky street‑urchins, and the swagger of a military parade. Themes shift between nonchalant brilliance, noble warmth, and lyrical repose, coloured by exuberant orchestration and flashes of humour. Even the lovers’ retreat to a church is gently interrupted by urban bustle. The recapitulation gathers these strands before the march blazes back and the “nobler London” theme crowns the score. The Overture ends as it began- in buoyant celebration of the city’s optimistic, middle‑class vitality.

Rosa Newmarch writes: This Overture was first performed in London at a Philharmonic Concert, 20 June 1901. While adhering fairly closely to the requirements of traditional form, it follows a definite programme. The music depicts the varied experiences crowded into a few hours of London life, and evokes a whole series of pictures - serious, humorous, or romantic in turn - all of which are sincerely felt and expressed. It is average, middle-class London, optimistic and healthy-minded - but by no means uninteresting - that we meet in the pages of this score. London tragic and terrible, with its ‘garrulous clamours and assoiléd shows,’ [1] was not in the composer’s mind when he wrote ‘Cockaigne.’ But although Elgar does not pose here as the Charpentier of London life and abstains from showing up its sordid and seamy side, his work is the more valuable as being true to its time and surroundings.

The Overture is scored for the usual strings and woodwind, with double bassoon, four horns, two trumpets, [two cornetti] three or five trombones, [tuba], kettledrums, bass and tenor drums, and organ. The opening theme (Allegro scherzando), given out by the first violins, is animated and insouciant, and is followed at once by a cheery figure in the oboes and clarinets. The two phrases, having been developed and repeated, are brought to an effective climax in which the brass takes a full share. After this we reach an episode, distinguished by the composer’s favourite indication, Nobilmente. [2] This is based upon a dignified theme, delivered by woodwind, horns, and strings, and evidently intended to show the deeper side of the Londoner as compared with the gay (i.e., lively) opening subject. The latter, however, soon reasserts itself with heightened orchestral colour.

With a change of key to E flat the music assumes a gentler and quieter character. A transition passage with triplet accompaniment in the Strings introduces the love episode. Absorbed in their springtide dreams, a pair of lovers - so the story goes - seek refuge from ‘the madding crowd’ in some quiet glade of the parks. The theme of their romance forms the second subject proper of the Overture, and we hear it, piu tranquillo, in the first violins, with an idyllic additional phrase in the Oboes. This is fully developed, and when the tender passages have reached a crisis, an indiscreet solo (scherzando) for clarinet reveals the undesirable presence of the ubiquitous and sharp-eyed London street-boy. The theme of the intrusive youngsters is cleverly evolved by diminution from the motive marked Nobilmente which stood for the Londoner in his more dignified aspect. This proceeding naturally recalls Wagner’s transformation of the Mastersingers’ theme into the pert motive of the apprentices. Some repetitions and modifications of the foregoing materials bring this section to an end. The working-out starts with the Nobilmente theme, now given out ‘dolce e legato’ by the strings and succeeded by a reference to the closing phrases of the love-theme. A clarinet solo heralds the approach of a fresh episode, and soon the love-motive is lost in the martial strains which draw nearer and nearer, until finally the military band bursts into a gay and blustering march. This is worked out with immense spirit and brilliancy, the piccolos shrilling, the brass blaring out the tune, and the drums, bells, and triangles adding to the exhilarating din. Fragments of the ‘Young Londoners’ motive in different parts of the orchestra depict the eager delight of the street -urchins as they try to keep step with Tommy Atkins [3] in all his ‘pomp and circumstance.’ When the strains of the March have died down, the opening theme (‘gay London’) “returns and prepares the way for a new musical picture. The lovers now seek refuge from the turmoil of the streets in a neighbouring church. But before they can reach this haven of peace they must pass through another ordeal. This time it is not the band of the Guards, but more probably that of the Salvation Army, the clarinets of which play a very different version of the march-tune in G flat while the basses keep on cheerfully reiterating F. Yet, judging from the expressive whisperings in the violins, it takes more than the discord of semitone against semitone to interrupt the course of true love at this stage of its ‘world-oblivion.’

Presently a quiet theme in the horns and woodwind, with a countersubject in the strings, intimates that the couple have at last found sanctuary. Interwoven with the love-theme and the church motive are reminiscences of the urchins’ theme, like echoes from the surrounding streets. A gradual acceleration of speed leads back to the Tempo primo of the Overture, and the recapitulation begins with the theme of ‘gay London’ heard in the trombones. The lovers now resume their wanderings and pass through much the same experiences as before. The introductory subject and the phrase which followed it are restated with enriched and varied orchestration; the love-theme is also recalled very softly in the woodwind, first violins, and violas; and then the street boys’ motive appears, here, there, and everywhere, anticipating the return of the military band. The Coda reintroduces the march in its fullest vigour and audacity, and the ‘nobler London’ theme rings out in the full strength of the orchestra with the addition of organ ad lib. The Overture ends, however, with a last reference to the gay opening theme.

Rosa Newmarch The Concert-Goer’s Library of Descriptive Notes, Volume 1, OUP 1929 p.63f

Notes

[1] In the phrase “garrulous clamours and assoiléd shows,” ‘assoiléd’ suggests spectacles or displays that have been ‘absolved’ or ‘washed clean’ - perhaps morally dubious scenes glossed over or forgiven by the city’s bustle.

[2] Nobilmente tells the performer to play with “noble breadth and dignified warmth.” It signals an elevated, sincere tone: music that stands upright, speaks plainly, and carries a quiet moral weight rather than showy grandeur.

[3] ‘Tommy Atkins’ is the traditional nickname for the ordinary British soldier. It appears in Army paperwork from the early 19th century, where “Tommy Atkins” was used as a sample name on forms - much like “John Doe.” By the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, it had become a familiar, affectionate term for the rank‑and‑file infantryman: sturdy, good‑humoured, dutiful, and unpretentious. In Elgar’s Cockaigne, the street‑urchins march alongside “Tommy Atkins,” delighting in the swagger of the military band.