British Library acquires long-lost draft for Elgar masterpiece

The British Library has acquired previously unknown sketches and drafts by Sir Edward Elgar for his famous 'Introduction and Allegro for Strings', a significant addition to the library’s collection of the composer’s work.

Spanning 15 pages, the drafts, which had been torn out of Elgar’s sketchbook in 1930, provide an intriguing insight into the creative journey behind one of Britain’s most revered composers. Among the sketches is the early outline for an organ piece that Elgar began but never completed.

“Elgar often jotted down tunes and other musical ideas into a bound sketchbook. He would then expand and rewrite his ideas, sometimes copying them from one sketchbook to another, and gradually turn them into fully-formed musical works,” Sandra Tuppen, Head of Music Collections at the British Library, wrote on the institution’s music blog. “When we were alerted to the existence of the 'Introduction and Allegro' sketches last year, we suspected that they came from one of Elgar’s many sketchbooks.”

The sketches were originally given to Frank Webb, Elgar’s former violin student, just four years before the composer’s death. Webb’s son, Alan, recalled that Elgar had once pulled the pages out of his pocket during a visit and offered them to his father. For decades, these drafts remained with Webb’s descendants, largely unseen by the public.

The newly discovered sketches offer a glimpse of Elgar’s working method, particularly in terms of orchestration. Tuppen highlighted how the drafts show the composer carefully determining the instrumentation for different sections, with the famous Welsh Tune – inspired by a choir Elgar heard while in Wales – appearing repeatedly throughout the sketches.

“This theme appears several times in the manuscript: as a single-line tune, a melody with lightly sketched harmony and fully harmonised in a setting for strings. Elgar used this string setting in the final version of the piece," Tuppen explained.

The British Library now holds the world’s largest collection of Elgar’s original manuscripts and letters, much of which was donated by his daughter, Carice.

According to The Guardian, the £50,000 (€60,000) acquisition, secured through a sale organised by Christie’s private sales on behalf of Webb’s descendants, reunites these pages with the rest of the sketchbook for the first time since they were removed in 1930.

Once conserved, the newly acquired drafts will be displayed in the British Library’s Treasures Gallery, offering scholars and the public a rare opportunity to study the composer’s creative process up close.