The Torch (Elgar)

The Torch (Elgar)

"The Torch" is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1909 as his Op.60, No.1.

The manuscript is dated 23 December 1909.

On the title-page, the song is dedicated "To YVONNE", and it is described as a "Folk-Song (Eastern Europe), paraphrased by Pietro d’Alba and Edward Elgar".

It was one of a set of a cycle of four songs that he planned, to his own words. It was shortly after writing the song A Child Asleep for Muriel Foster, a few days before the Christmas of 1909 that Elgar received the news of the death of a friend, the soprano Olga Ouroussoff, the young wife of Henry Wood. The inspiration for the songs was the result of this news. Only the first song of the cycle, The Torch and the last, The River were written.

The song was orchestrated in July 1912 and, with its companion song The River, it was first performed by Muriel Foster at the Hereford Music Festival on 11 November 1912.