Footnotes

This correspondence spans some thirty years, but the majority of the letters date from 1921 and 1922 when Elgar and Brewer collaborated on the Three Choirs Festival, an event which began in 1715 and involved the choirs of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester Cathedrals. Born and bred in Gloucester, Sir Albert Herbert Brewer (1865-1928) held the post of organist and master of the choristers of Gloucester Cathedral from 1896 until his death in 1928. He trained under Charles Villiers Stanford and his pupils included Ivor Novello, Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells. Through his involvement with the festival, Brewer met Elgar and many other important composers and artistic figures and, during his conductorship '...he introduced many new works and showed great enterprise in the drawing up of programmes...' (F.G. Edwards et al, Grove Music online). His own compositions largely comprised church music for organ and choirs which remain in the standard Anglican canon, including cantatas such as Emmaus of 1901, mentioned here by Elgar. Indeed, Brewer talked at length in his memoir Memories of Choirs and Cloisters of the invaluable assistance Elgar gave him with the score - '...a more generous act could not be imagined...' he wrote. Other works comprised The Holy Innocents and lighter pieces such as The Fairy Pipers which was recorded by Clara Butt. He transcribed several of Elgar's works for organ including Prelude and Angels Farewell from The Dream of Gerontius, In the South, Chanson de Matin and The Coronation March. His son Charles Brewer (d.1978) was a BBC producer who was appointed head of the BBC in Paris in 1944, shortly after the Nazi occupation. In 1945 he was in New York as head of the BBC office in North America. These letters derive from the collection of esteemed ceramics expert and writer the late Henry Sandon, who had a particular interest in Elgar and his works.

Provenance: Sir Albert Herbert Brewer (1865-1928); Charles Brewer (d.1978); his nephew Cecil Tew Bruton (1912-1997); purchased from the family of the recipient in 2004 by Henry Sandon (1928-2023); thence by descent.