Edward Elgar and the Nostalgic Imagination

During his lifetime and in the course of the twentieth century Edward Elgarand his music became sites for a remarkable variety of nostalgic impulses.These are m... » 

During his lifetime and in the course of the twentieth century Edward Elgarand his music became sites for a remarkable variety of nostalgic impulses.These are manifested in his personal life in the content of his works in hiscritical and biographical reception and in numerous artistic ventures based onhis character and music. Today Elgar enjoys renewed popularity in Britain andnostalgia of various forms continues to shape our responses to his music. Fromone viewpoint Elgarian nostalgia might be dismissed as escapist regressiveand reactionary and the revival in Elgars fortunes regarded as the symptom ofa pernicious heritage industry in postcolonial postindustrial Britain.While there is undeniably a grain of truth to that view Matthew Rileyscareful treatment of the topic reveals a more complex picture of nostalgia andsheds new light on Elgar and his cultural significance in the twentieth andtwentyfirst centuries. «