Pomp and Circumstance

Today son Nik received his honors diploma in high school graduation ceremonies. And, of course, the tradition of playing Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance (technically, what gets played is a just one of several marches, in part inspired by Shakespeare's Othello, that comprise the whole work) was upheld -- incidentally including clarinet work by Nik's younger sister in her role with her bandmates. It is said that Elgar was invited to a 1905 Yale commencement, where the work was played and went on to become a virtual institution at stateside graduations and commencements. Here is Elgar conducting a 1931 performance (a much more brisk rendition than the slow, stately treatment we usually hear these days):



SIDEBAR: While hearing this music can readily and rightly make parental hearts flutter and tears flow, it is still Elgar's Cello Concerto -- especially the classic first movement -- that really reaches me, especially Jackie Du Pre's interpretation (here seen a few years before her death):