"In Moonlight" is a song with music written by the English composer Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

 in 1904 to words from the poem "An Ariette for Music. To a Lady singing to her Accompaniment on the Guitar", by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...

 (1792-1822) and published in 1832.

The song is adapted to a central section of Elgar's concert-overture "In the South (Alassio)

In the South (Alassio)

In the South , Op. 50, is a concert overture composed by Edward Elgar during a family holiday in Italy in the winter of 1903 to 1904.The work is dedicated "To my friend Leo F. Schuster".- History :...

" where the "Canto Popolare

Canto Popolare (Elgar)

Canto Popolare is an arrangement for viola with piano accompaniment, made by the English composer Edward Elgar. It is from the viola solo in the central section of his concert-overture In the South , written in 1904....

" melody is introduced by a solo viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

 with a delicate and imaginative accompaniment, which could be likened to Shelley's "...accompaniment on the Guitar."

The first performance of "In the South" was in March 1904. In July that year Elgar made different versions of the "Canto Popolare" section. These were variously for small orchestra, for piano and for various instrumental combinations.

In August 1905 the song was reviewed in the London "Times":

"Sir Edward Elgar is paying one of the penalties of popularity, and the adaptation of a theme from his overture "In the South" to Shelley's words beginning "As the moon's soft splendour" will very likely attain the success which the publishers, Messrs. Novello & Co., appear to anticipate, as they issue it in several keys. The words, as might be expected, have to suffer a good deal of rhythmic modification in order to fit the "canto popolare", but this is hardly likely to stand in the way of the song's success".

The same poem was set by many others including the American composer Amy Beach

Amy Beach

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Most of her compositions and performances were under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.-Early years:Beach was born Amy Marcy Cheney in Henniker, New Hampshire into...

 ("Mrs. H. H. A. Beach"), as her Op. 1 No. 4, with the title "Ariette".

Lyrics

Elgar used only the first and third stanzas of Shelley's poem, "An Ariette for Music".

IN MOONLIGHT (ARIETTE)

Recordings

• "The Unknown Elgar" includes "In Moonlight" performed by Teresa Cahill (soprano), with Barry Collett (piano).

• Elgar: Complete Songs for Voice & Piano Amanda Roocroft (soprano), Reinild Mees (piano)

• Songs and Piano Music by Edward Elgar has "In Moonlight" performed by Amanda Pitt (soprano), with David Owen Norris (piano).

• The Songs of Edward Elgar SOMM CD 220 Catherine Wyn-Rogers (soprano) with Malcolm Martineau (piano), at Southlands College, London, April 1999

Videos

• "In Moonlight" (sound only) - Felicity Lott (soprano) with Graham Johnson (piano) 2008