Sir Edward Elgar — A Life of Music

“Edward was taught piano by his father and assisted him when he tuned the pianos in the big houses.”

Part 1 — The Early Years

Edward William Elgar was born in the village of Lower Broadheath, just a handful of miles from Worcester, on the 2nd of June 1857. His mother Ann Elgar (nee Greening) was the daughter of a Hereford farmer, and his father, William Henry Elgar, a Dover man who, after serving an apprenticeship in London, had, in 1841, moved to Worcester to open his own music shop and piano tuning business.

William found lodgings in in The Shades Tavern in Worcester, which operated more as a restaurant than a pub, and was run by a man who was married to Ann Greening’s sister. Ann often helped out at the tavern.

By the mid-1840s William had become an important part of the musical life of Worcester, becoming, in 1846, organist at St George’s Roman Catholic church. Around the same time, he left the tavern and moved into the Greening home in the village of Claines, just north of Worcester.

Like his son later, William fell head-over-heels, as did Ann. Everyone said it was meant to be.

Ann and William married in 1848 and moved to what was then called College Yard in Worcester, close to the cathedral, where Elgar’s siblings were born “under the…