Caroline Alice Elgar
Encyclopedia
Caroline Alice, Lady Elgar (9 October 18487 April 1920) was an English author of verse and prose fiction, who married the 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...

.

Family

Caroline Alice Roberts, known as Alice, was born in Bhooj
Bhuj
Bhuj is a city and a municipality in Kachchh district in the state of Gujarat, India.-History:It was established by Rao Hamirji in 1510 and was made the state capital by Rao Khengarji I in 1549. Its foundation stone as state capital laid formally on Vikram Samvat 1604 Maagha 5th...

, Gujarat, India, in 1848. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Major-General Sir Henry Gee Roberts KCB (1800–1860), and Julia Maria Raikes (1815–1887). Her three elder brothers were Albert Henry Roberts (born in 1839 and died young), Frederick Boyd Roberts (born 1841) and Stanley Napier Roberts (born 1844). Their father was serving in India at the time of the Indian Rebellion
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...

, and he died when Alice was aged only 12.

She was from a distinguished family: on her mother's side her grandfather was the Rev. Robert Napier Raikes, her great-grandfather Robert Raikes
Robert Raikes
Robert Raikes was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman, noted for his promotion of Sunday schools...

 (1736–1811) was a founder of the Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

 movement, and her uncle was British Indian Army General Robert Napier Raikes
Robert Napier Raikes
General Robert Napier Raikes in 1889 became General of the Remount responsible for the provision of horses throughout the Indian army.He was born 15 October 1813 in Drayton the son of Robert Napier Raikes the vicar of Gayton and rector of Hellesdon all in Norfolk, England; and the grandson of...

 (1813–1909).

As a girl she studied with the amateur geologist Rev W. S. Symonds
William Samuel Symonds
William Samuel Symonds , English geologist, was born in Hereford.He was educated at Cheltenham College and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1842. Having taken holy orders he was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the...

 and they and a group of her friends went fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

-hunting on the banks of the river Severn. She wrote the index to a book by him. She studied the piano with Ferdinand Kufferath in Brussels and harmony with Charles Harford Lloyd. She spoke fluent German, and also Italian, French and Spanish.

Before she was married her writing was published under the name C. Alice Roberts. A two-volume novel, Marchcroft Manor, was published in 1882, four years before she met Elgar. The Elgar scholar Diana McVeagh describes it as "quite an accomplished, entertaining, indeed touching tale, with a control of pace and situation, and a humour that might well surprise anyone knowing Alice only from her later verses, letters and diary". McVeagh also notes that earlier critics have drawn attention to the "tincture of radicalism" in the book.

Marriage

In 1886 her brothers had left to join the army and she was living with her elderly widowed mother at Hazeldine House at Redmarley
Redmarley D'Abitot
Redmarley D'Abitot is a civil parish and village in the Forest of Dean district, Gloucestershire, South West England. In addition to the village of Redmarley, the civil parish also includes the settlements of Lowbands, Haw Cross, Playley Green, Kings Green and Durbridge...

 in Worcestershire (now in Gloucestershire). That autumn she took up piano accompaniment lessons from a Mr. 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...

, who was violin teacher at Worcester High School. When her mother died the next year she went abroad for a while before returning to settle down at a house in Malvern Link
Malvern Link
Malvern Link is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England to the north and east of Great Malvern. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Malvern Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern Hills Conservators...

 called Ripple Lodge, and continued with her accompaniment lessons. She became engaged to her young teacher, much to the disapproval of her family, who considered her fiancé a poor tradesman, of a lower social class - and he was eight years younger. Besides, her family were Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

, his Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

.

Alice and Edward were married on 8 May 1889 in a shortened Catholic ceremony at Brompton Oratory. As an engagement present, Elgar had presented her with the short violin and piano piece called Salut d'Amour
Salut d'Amour
Salut d’Amour, Op. 12, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar in 1888, originally written for violin and piano.-History:Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was engaged to be married to Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it "Liebesgruss" because of Miss Roberts’ fluency in German...

, and she presented him with one of her poems The Wind at Dawn
The Wind at Dawn
"The Wind at Dawn" is a poem set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1888. The poem was written in 1880 by Caroline Alice Roberts, before she had met Elgar, though they were married in the year after the song was written....

. Of her family, only her cousin William Raikes and his wife Veronica attended, while on his side there were only his parents and his friend Dr. Charles Buck. The wedding breakfast
Wedding breakfast
A wedding breakfast is a dinner given to the bride, bridegroom and guests at the wedding reception that follows a wedding in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and some other English-speaking countries...

 was at the nearby house of a friend of Alice's, Mrs. Marshall - Elgar later dedicated A Song of Autumn
A Song of Autumn
"A Song of Autumn" is a poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon set to music by Edward Elgar in 1892.It was dedicated to 'Miss Marshall'.The song was first published by Orsborn & Tuckwood, then by Ascherberg in 1892. It was re-published in 1907 as one of the Seven Lieder of Edward Elgar, with English and...

 to her daughter "Miss Marshall".

The Elgars spent a three week honeymoon at Ventnor
Ventnor
Ventnor is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies underneath St Boniface Down , and is built on steep slopes and cliffs leading down to the sea...

 on the Isle of Wight, then returned to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life. But they had no settled home for over a year: they went first to 3 Marloes Road, Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

; then on 29 July they went back to her spacious house 'Saetermo' in Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

 when the lease ran out; then in October to the Raikes cousins' home (lent to them for the winter 1890-91) 'Oaklands', Fountain Road, Upper Norwood
Upper Norwood
Upper Norwood is an elevated area in south London, England within the postcode SE19. It is a residential district largely in the London Borough of Croydon although some parts extend into the London Borough of Lambeth, London Borough of Southwark and the London Borough of Bromley. Upper Norwood...

 with the advantage of being near the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...

 concerts which Edward attended whenever he could. They then moved to a terraced house at 51 Avonmore Road, Kensington where their only child, Carice Irene was born on 14 August 1890. However the lack of work for Edward forced them to leave, and they returned to Malvern Link
Malvern Link
Malvern Link is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England to the north and east of Great Malvern. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Malvern Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern Hills Conservators...

, renting a house 'Forli' in Alexandra Road, where it was hoped he could earn a living teaching and conducting local musical ensembles.

Influence

Alice's faith in her husband and her courage in marrying 'beneath her class' were strongly supportive to his career. She dealt with his mood swings and was a generous musical critic. She was also his business manager, social secretary, and not least set out and ruled score paper for his orchestral works.

She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. The honours accepted reluctantly by her husband mattered more to her and her social class. She also gave up some of her personal aspirations to further his career. In her diary she later admitted, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman."

When her husband received his knighthood in 1904, she became Lady Elgar.

At the beginning of the war, for a short while, Lady Elgar taught French to a group of private soldiers at Chelsea Barracks
Chelsea Barracks
Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London, adjacent to Chelsea, on Chelsea Bridge Road.-History:The barracks was originally built in the 1860s to house two battalions of troops...

.

By January 1920, friends had noticed that she had lost her normal vitality and had not been out of the house since November. She attended a performance of Elgar's Second Symphony on 16 March, and the next day went to a Harley Steet doctor, but stayed at home when Elgar travelled to a concert in Leeds. The last concert she attended was a performance of some of Elgar's chamber music in London.
She died of lung cancer on 7 April, in their home Severn House at 42 Netherhall Gardens in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

. Her funeral was held at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern
Little Malvern
Little Malvern is a small village and a civil parish on the lower slopes of the Malvern Hills south of Malvern Wells, near Great Malvern, the major centre of the area often referred to as The Malverns. in Worcestershire, England. It contains a Romanesque church called Little Malvern Priory, after...

 three days later. Edward was supported by their daughter Carice. Among the mourners was Alice's brother Napier Roberts. There were Elgar's friends Frank Schuster
Leo Frank Schuster
Leo Frank Schuster , was a patron of the arts in the United Kingdom, normally known to his friends as "Frankie". His home at 22 Old Queen Street, London, became a meeting-place for artists, writers and musicians, including Siegfried Sassoon, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert, Sir Edward Elgar...

, Billy Reed
William Henry Reed
William Henry "Billy" Reed was an English violinist, teacher, minor composer, conductor and biographer of Sir Edward Elgar...

 and Dr. Charles Buck. Sir Charles Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...

 arrived but could only speak to Reed before walking away in tears. In the gallery of the church the slow movement from Elgar's String Quartet
String Quartet (Elgar)
The String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, was one of three major chamber music works composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor, Op...

 was played by Reed, Albert Sammons
Albert Sammons
Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar...

, Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis, CBE was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...

 and Felix Salmond
Felix Salmond
Felix Adrian Norman Salmond was an English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in both England and the United States of America.-Early life and career:...

.

Legacy

Alice's letters and the diary she kept during the years of her marriage between 1889 and 1920 are a full and valuable record of the lives of her and her family.

Her daughter

At the beginning of World War I, Carice Elgar first trained in First Aid
First aid
First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...

, then from 1915 did translation work for the Government Censorship Department.

The month before Alice died, Carice returned home from a holiday in Mürren
Mürren
Mürren is a traditional Walser mountain village in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, at an elevation of 1,650 m above sea level and unreachable by public road....

, having met there a Surrey farmer older than she was named Samuel Blake. Her mother sensed a secret, but Carice did not tell her. A year later, with her father's consent, they became engaged. They were married in January 1922 and she took the name Carice Elgar Blake. They had no children.

After her mother died Carice devoted herself to supporting her father. After the death of her father in 1934 she played a part in the formation of the Elgar Birthplace Trust
Elgar Birthplace Museum
The Elgar Birthplace Museum in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, England, is a museum dedicated to the English composer Edward Elgar. Elgar was born here on 2 June 1857, and lived here until his family moved to Worcester two years later. The museum comprises the birthplace cottage and an...

. Samuel Blake died in 1939, and Carice died in Bristol on 16 July 1970. Her funeral was at St. Wulstan's Church in Little Malvern, where her parents were buried, and there was a memorial service for her at Farm Street Church in Mount Street, London W1 on 30 July.

Lyrics

Poems by Alice set to music by Elgar:
  • "The Wind at Dawn
    The Wind at Dawn
    "The Wind at Dawn" is a poem set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1888. The poem was written in 1880 by Caroline Alice Roberts, before she had met Elgar, though they were married in the year after the song was written....

    "
    , song (1888)
  • "Afar, amidst the sunny Isles", alternate poem by Alice to fit the music of "My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land", when Andrew Lang
    Andrew Lang
    Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...

     refused permission for his poem to be used: but Lang later changed his mind and Alice's words were not used
  • "Im Norden, wo mein Lieb gewohnt", German words to "My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land"
  • "O Happy Eyes", part-song SATB, Op.18 No.1 (1890)
  • "A spear, a sword", unpublished song (1892)
  • "Mill-wheel Songs", two unpublished songs (1892)
    • 1. "Winter"; 2. "May (a rhapsody)"
  • "The Snow", part-song SSA acc. 2 violins and piano, Op. 26 No.1 (1894). Winter from her poem Isabel Trevithoe.
  • "Fly, Singing Bird", part-song SSA acc. 2 violins and piano, Op. 26 No.2 (1894). Spring from her poem Isabel Trevithoe.
  • From the Bavarian Highlands, six choral songs SATB and orchestra, Op. 27 (1896). Alice also gave the songs their German subtitles.
    • 1. "The Dance (Sonnenbichl)"; 2. "False Love (Wamberg)"; 3. "Lullaby (In Hammersbach
      Hammersbach (Grainau)
      Hammersbach is a village in the municipality of Grainau at the foot of the Wetterstein Mountains in South Germany. It is located at the southwestern end of the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and is an important base for tours by mountaineers and hikers.- Summits :From Hammersbach the...

      )"
      ; 4. "Aspiration (Bei Sankt Anton)"; 5. "On the Alm 'True Love' (Hoch Alp)"; 6. "The Marksmen (Bei Murnau
      Murnau am Staffelsee
      Murnau am Staffelsee is a market town in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region of Bavaria, Germany.Murnau is situated on the edge of the Bavarian alps, approx. 70 km south of Munich. Directly to its west is the Staffelsee lake.-History:Murnau was first documented in...

      )"
  • "Love alone will stay
    Love alone will stay
    " Love alone will stay" is a poem by Caroline Alice Elgar, set to music for voice and piano by her husband, the English composer Edward Elgar, in 1897....

    "
    , song, (1898). Later in Sea Pictures
    Sea Pictures
    Sea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar...

    , Op. 37 as In Haven
    In Haven
    In Haven is a poem by Caroline Alice Elgar, probably best known in its musical setting as the second song composed by her husband Edward Elgar for his song-cycle Sea Pictures.- History :...

     (Capri)
  • "A Christmas Greeting", carol for 2 sopranos, male chorus ad lib, 2 violins and piano, Op. 52, (1907)
  • "The King's Way
    The King's Way
    ”The King’s Way” is a poem set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1909. The words were written by his wife, Caroline Alice Elgar....

    "
    , song (1910)

Fiction

  • Isabel Trevithoe, a poem by C. A. R., (The Charing Cross Publishing Co., 1879)
  • Marchcroft Manor, a novel (2 vols.), (Remington & Co., New Bond St., London, 1882)
  • Stories in the magazine Home Chimes
  • Poem: To Carice "Dear little ship, go forth"

Other

  • Index to Records of the Rocks by Rev W. S. Symonds
    William Samuel Symonds
    William Samuel Symonds , English geologist, was born in Hereford.He was educated at Cheltenham College and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1842. Having taken holy orders he was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the...

     (1872)
  • Translation from German of E. T. A. Hoffmann's poem Ritter Gluck, (London Society, a Monthly Magazine, May 1895)

Dedications

Dedicated by Edward Elgar to Alice
  • "Through the Long Days
    Through the Long Days
    ”Through the Long Days” is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1885 as his Op.16, No.2. The words are from a poem by the American writer and statesman John Hay....

    "
    , song, Op.16 No.2 (1887) - written on one of the first printed copies was 'Miss Roberts from Edward Elgar, Mar.21 1887'
  • "Liebesgruss
    Salut d'Amour
    Salut d’Amour, Op. 12, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar in 1888, originally written for violin and piano.-History:Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was engaged to be married to Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it "Liebesgruss" because of Miss Roberts’ fluency in German...

    "
    (Salut d'Amour), violin and piano, Op.12, inscribed "à Carice" (1888)
  • "Liebesahnung", violin and piano, later published as "Mot d'Amour", Op.13 No.1 (1889)
  • "Love", part-song SATB, Op.18 No.2 (1890)
  • Variation I of the Enigma Variations
    Enigma Variations
    Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...

    , Op.36 bears the initials "C.A.E." (1898)

External links

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