Elgar's Imperial March

[wolsey]

Having just listened to at least four different orchestral samples - courtesy of iTunes, there appears to be a misprint in the Martin transcription published by Novello: bar 27 (two bars before the modulation from B flat to E flat) - the pedal minim (beats 1 and 2) should be bottom C - not E flat as printed.

[Guest Barry Williams]

Having just listened to at least four different orchestral samples - courtesy of iTunes, there appears to be a misprint in the Martin transcription published by Novello: bar 27 (two bars before the modulation from B flat to E flat) - the pedal minim (beats 1 and 2) should be bottom C - not E flat as printed.

 

This matches the cadence at bar 8 - II7 V7 Ia. Most organ recordings seem to have it as written. Does anyone know of a reading with the C, which undoubtedly seems correct?

 

Barry Williams

[Florian]

Having just listened to at least four different orchestral samples - courtesy of iTunes, there appears to be a misprint in the Martin transcription published by Novello: bar 27 (two bars before the modulation from B flat to E flat) - the pedal minim (beats 1 and 2) should be bottom C - not E flat as printed.

 

I think you're right: it should be bottom C instead of E flat. I own two different orchestral recordings (one rather dull by Groves, and the highly inspired Boult recording), and in both cases it is not easy to distinguish whether they play C or E flat, because the bass drum covers most of the lower notes. For absolute security you have to refer to a full score.

 

In my opinion there seems to be another misprint: the left hand rhythm in the trio section (E flat major, poco meno mosso), in the orchestral version played by the bassoons, appears in the wrong order: right at the beginning of the Trio comes the the rhythm which Martin gives on page 4 (last bar of 3rd system), and vice versa.