This song cycle for contralto and orchestra (though the songs lie a little high at times and it is often sung by a mezzo-soprano) was composed in 1899 for the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. It was first performed there with Clara Butt, a majestic woman who became so closely associated with the work that her name appears prominently on the title page. The poems are all by different authors; just the second song ‘In Haven (Capri)’, with words by Elgar's wife Alice, had been written already in 1897 with the title ‘Lute Song’ and published the following year, and was now slightly altered to fit the new context. Fresh from a quarrel with Novello over expenses with the Variations, Elgar chose instead to cross the road and offer Sea Pictures to Boosey, which evidently did the trick: a few weeks later Novello agreed to print not only the full score of Enigma but also all the orchestral parts, a huge advantage over the frequent exigency of making do with manuscript copies. It is curious and unexpected, but delightful, to discover that Mahler conducted this cycle (excluding No.5) in New York a few months before he died in 1911.

sources

A  Autograph (1899), in the British Library, shelf mark Add. Ms. 58005, viewable online

V  Vocal score, published in 1899 by Boosey & Co. (no rehearsal letters)

E,P  First edition score and parts, published in 1900 by Boosey & Co.

F  Full score, published in 1999 by Boosey & Hawkes in their Masterworks series

The difference between the texts of E and P is quite startling. In a few places they are simply completely different (e.g. No.1 G2–3 Vl 2, simply the result of the engraver misreading A), and the most important of these are preceded by * below. But in general, the problem is that often only the bare notes agree, dynamics being missing in one or other while slurs/ties in one bear no resemblance to those in the other (e.g. No.3 N Cors). As a general rule, P is superior to E, especially where in E two WW or Cors parts are on one stave; on the other hand VcB dynamics in A are often notated only in Vc, to be assumed the same in Cb; some were added to the Cb stave of E, but are often missing in P Cb (see especially No.3).