October 19, 1901: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 and March No. 2 premiere, at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. The marches are conducted by their composer, Edward Elgar. Two days later, he conducts them again at Queen's Hall in London.
Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, in the West Midlands of England. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.
In 1879, he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at Powick Hospital, a psychiatric institution outside Worcester. In 1882, he became a violinist with a Birmingham orchestra. He married Alice Roberts in 1886, and they lived in her hometown of Great Malvern, outside Worcester. By 1892, his own compositions began to be performed. In 1899, his Enigma Variations made him world-famous.
Elgar took the phrase "Pomp and Circumstance" from Act 3, Scene 3 of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello:
Pomp and Circumstance was written in 6 "Marches": No. 1 in D major in 1901; No. 2 in A minor, also in 1901; No. 3 in C minor in 1904; No. 4 in G major in 1907; No. 5 in C major in 1930; and No. 6 in G minor, which remained unpublished at his death on February 23, 1934, from colon cancer, at the age of 76.
The five original marches were dedicated to friends of Elgar's: The conductor Alfred E. Rodewald, the composer Granville Bantock, and the organists Ivor Atkins, G.R. Sinclair, and Percy Hull.
Pomp and Circumstance, March No. 1 includes the trio section "Land of Hope and Glory." It is the section that truly popularized the work, since it became the "Coronation Ode" for the Coronation of King Edward VII on August 9, 1902.
It is often known as "The Graduation March," and is played as the processional tune at many high school and college graduation ceremonies. It was first played at such a ceremony on June 28, 1905, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where the Professor of Music, Samuel Sanford, had invited his friend Elgar to attend commencement, and receive an honorary doctorate of music. Elgar repaid the compliment by dedicating his Introduction and Allegro to Sanford later that year.
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October 19, 1901 was a Saturday. The only games played in North America that day were college football games. Among them were these:
* Harvard beat Army, 6-0 on The Plain at West Point, New York. Harvard finished 12-0 that season, and were generally regarded as the Champions of the East.
* Yale beat Penn State, 22-0 at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.
* Columbia beat Hamilton College of Kirkland, New York, 12-0 at the Polo Grounds.
* Cornell beat the Carlisle Indian School, 17-0 at the Stadium of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
* Princeton beat Brown, 35-0 at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.
* The University of Pennsylvania beat Bucknell, 6-0 at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
* Rutgers lost to Swarthmore, 27-0 at Whittier Field in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia.
* Navy beat Lehigh, 18-0 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.
* Michigan beat Northwestern, 29-0 at Regents Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This was coach Fielding Yost's "Point-a-Minute Team," outscoring 11 opponents 550-0 -- an average of 50-0, not quite a point for every minute, but, given time of possession, considerably more than that. They were generally considered to be what their song "Hail to the Victors" called them: "The Champions of the West," a title they seemed to secure by winning what is generally regarded as the 1st bowl game, beating West Coast champions Stanford on New Year's Day, January 1, 1902, 49-0.
* Notre Dame, not yet the power they would become, beat Chicago Eclectic Medical College, 32-0 at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana. Chicago Eclectic Medical changed its name the next year, to the American College of Medicine and Surgery. The school closed in 1917, due to the manpower drain of World War I, and never reopened.
* And Illinois beat the team then generally regarded as their rivals, the University of Chicago, 24-0 at Marshall Field in Chicago, named for Marshall Field, who ran the department store that also bore his name.
And in English soccer, Woolwich Arsenal, the South London team that would later become Arsenal F.C. of North London, traveled to Yorkshire, and lost to Middlesbrough F.C., 3-0 at Linthorpe Road West in Middlesbrough.
In 1979, having had to go to 4 replays in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup against Sheffield Wednesday, the last 3 of them on neutral ground at Filbert Street, home of Leicester City, Arsenal fans -- nicknamed "Gooners," after the team's nickname, "the Gunners" -- adapted Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" into this song:
We all follow The Arsenal
over land and sea!
(And Leicester!)
We all follow The Arsenal
on to victory!
The next season, after going to 3 replays of the FA Cup Semifinal against Liverpool, losing the Final to West Ham United, seeing Liverpool win the Football League title, and seeing Nottingham Forest win the European Cup, the Gooners redid the song again:
We hate Nottingham Forest!
We hate Liverpool, too!
(And Tottenham!)
(And Tottenham!)
We hate West Ham United!
But Arsenal, we love you!
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