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His work is used to celebrate Britain and evoke feelings of patriotism across the nation, but Sir Edward Elgar was greatly troubled by World War One and struggled with the vitriol and hatred shown towards the Germans.

He felt a debt of gratitude to the German nation as they had championed his earlier works including 鈥淭he Dream of Gerontius鈥� and many of his closest friends were German. He was deeply patriotic himself though and many of his compositions were used for charity concerts during the war and, of course, 鈥淟and of Hope and Glory鈥� became widely used to stir the nation.

In 1914, Elgar was approached to set the poems by Laurence Binyon to music but he was deeply affected by the suffering of the war and felt it difficult to set some of the harsher words in the poems to music. He struggled to complete the work in a year.

It took tragic news from the Western Front to enable him to overcome his personal doubts and complete what many view as his greatest work: 鈥淭he Fourth of August鈥�. On hearing of the death of Kenneth, the son of his former fianc茅e Helen Weaver, he fled London and started work on the final part of 鈥淭he Spirit of England鈥�.

Location: Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire WR2 6RH
Image Sir Edward Elgar in 1914, courtesy of the Elgar Birthplace Museum

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