Though Elgar enjoyed a musical background, being the son of a piano tuner, he nevertheless received little formal training in music. In fact, he began to compose even before he learned how to notate his compositions. Elgar was experimental: even the sighs of river reeds were considered fair game for musical material.
Elgar developed his musical interests through frequent visits to the opera and concert hall, absorbing the works of Wagner, Weber, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet, Schumann, Brahms, Berlioz, and Liszt. Though influenced by these Romantic and post-Romantic composers. Elgar's lack of training helped him to develop a unique blend of style. Quite possibly because of his love of opera, many of Elgar's works suggest dramatic action or embody scenes from literature. For example, The Black Knight and King Olaf use texts by Longfellow. Other works, such as Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands and Spanish Serenade, evoke picturesque landscapes in exotic countries. Very familiar with the works of Wagner, Elgar made frequent use of the leitmotif.
Elgar's later works maintain the dramatic color of his earlier programmatic music. Each of the variations in Variations on an Original Theme ( more commonly known as the Enigma Variations) musically portrays one of Elgar's particular friends. Pomp and Circumstance, a set of five marches to which a sixth was added posthumously by Anthony Payne, is perhaps the most culturally prevalent of his works: the first march is widely recognized as a common graduation processional.
Raised Catholic, Elgar composed several oratorios, including one of his greatest works, The Dream of Gerontius. To produce overtly religious works in an increasingly secular community was yet another way in which Elgar proved rather unconventional.
In 1904, Elgar was knighted for his cultural contributions to his country.
