It began as March No. 1 in D Major. When it was performed in concert in 1901, it was the recipient of two encores. Crown Prince Edward was impressed and asked that the middle section of the march be converted into a song to be played at his coronation as King Edward VII.
Poet A.C. Benson composed the lyrics and the song Land of Hope and Glory was created. The composer of the march, Edward Elgar, thought of the march as a tribute to England’s colonial expansion. The lyrics added that sentiment to the majesty of the march. Even to this day, there are those who think of the song as a second national anthem. You can listen to the march as a song here Vera Lynn – Land of Hope and Glory (youtube.com)
When Elgar was invited to America four years later to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University, the orchestra played the song at the end of the ceremony to honor him. Two years later many of the nation’s prestigious universities began using the march to accompany the arrival of the graduating classes to the commencement ceremonies. Twenty years later, Pomp and Circumstance March, as it was called, was a standard component of every graduation ceremony in high school and college.
Why did Elgar’s march become so popular? The tempo is slow-moving and regal. It adds solidarity and hope to a turning point in graduates’ lives.
Elgar became disillusioned by the popularity of his march. He thought it overshadowed his other works. And as English power began to wane, he felt that the original luster of the song didn’t match the reality of a weakened England empire.
Few graduates today know of the origins of the song they march to during commencement. Many might reject its military orientation, and its tributes to colonialization. Even so there remains a fondness to that moment when Pomp and Circumstance begin to play at their commencement exercises.
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Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wilder still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!
– The chorus to Pomp and Circumstance