Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

You may hear today’s featured work somewhere else this month since it is the “go-to” piece for graduation ceremonies. I remember a small kerfuffle in high school when our band director floated the idea of playing something else. The graduating seniors saw Pomp and Circumstance as their just due. It had been played every year, as far as they knew, and it has probably been played every year since. (Hmm, that would be 50 this year.) Not all traditions have been rendered taboo.

What is it about this march that enshrines it in our sense of public ceremony? Part of the answer seems to be that nobody does public ceremony better than the British. The name “Pomp and Circumstance” captures not just this march, but the whole British tradition concerning public displays. Perhaps a monarchy is required to create such ceremonial traditions. America inherited some of those traditions, and we (and the Brits) have managed to sustain some of them in our art. The patriotic event in the video looks very much like a Fourth of July celebration. You just have different flags. (Notice some brave soul in the audience waving the Tricolor.)

Sadly, in other circumstances, we have lost those traditions. Witness most any rendition of our National Anthem at sporting events where singers try to stamp their own personality on the Anthem by festooning it with cheap musical ornaments. Neither pomp nor circumstance there.

The other part of the answer, I think, rests with Elgar’s elegant melodies. Just a few weeks ago we featured Elgar’s Lux Aeterna (Nimrod). As noted there, it was described aptly by one writer as a “great-hearted melody.” That description seems even more suited to the trio of Pomp and Circumstance. The listener is drawn into it, and it lends dignity and grandeur to whatever it accompanies. Perfect for graduation.