Edward Elgar

The Snow

The decade between Edward Elgar's marriage in 1889 and the publication of his famous Nimrod Variations in 1899 was possibly the happiest period of his life: he was comfortably settled into family life, but theburdens of national fame had not yet begun to take their toll.

His beautiful and haunting composition The Snow dates from this time: as a relatively unknown composer he was free to work on what he liked, and the growing popularity of competitive choral festivals led him to write a series of part-songs, of which this is undoubtedly the best-loved and most performed today. The words come from a poem by his wife Alice, and theworkhas been arranged here by the composer for two Sopranos, two Violins, and the Piano.