Powick Asylum Music

The Powick Asylum Music consists of a number of sets of dance music – quadrilles and polkas – written by Edward Elgar during his time as bandmaster at the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum (later Powick Asylum) between 1879 and 1884. The music was not published, but the original manuscripts of instrumental parts are preserved in the collection of the Elgar Birthplace Museum.

In 1879 Elgar, at the age of 22, was appointed bandmaster at the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum. The band – formed from the attendants, not the patients – was needed to provide music at the regular dances for the patients. Elgar had already played violin in the band for two years. His one day a week there was his first regular job of composing or conducting. Elgar's duties were to train and conduct the band, and he was expected to have practical knowledge of the technique of flute, oboe, clarinet, euphonium and all string instruments. He was paid £32 annually – £4 per annum less than his predecessor, no doubt because of his inexperience. Additionally he was paid 5 shillings for each polka and quadrille he composed for the band, and one shilling and sixpence for accompaniments to the Christy's Minstrels ditties of the day.

The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments."

Although Elgar had no other settled position, increasing demands on his time and his growing aspirations as a composer (an orchestral work Sevillaña had just been written and performed in Worcester and London) led him, in the autumn of 1884, to resign as bandmaster at Powick Asylum.

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