Elgar: Salut D'Amour Op.12 - wind quintet

Transcribed from a combination of Elgar’s piano music and his arrangement for violin and piano.

"Salut d'amour" is one of Elgar's best-known works and has inspired numerous arrangements for widely varying instrumental combinations. It was even arranged as a song "Woo thou, Sweet Music" with words by A. C. Bunten.

Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was romantically involved with Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it "Liebesgruss" ('Love's Greeting') because of Miss Roberts' fluency in German. On their engagement she had already presented him with a poem "The Wind at Dawn" which he set to music and, when he returned home to London on 22 September from a holiday at the house of his friend Dr. Charles Buck in Settle, he gave her Salut d'Amour as an engagement present.

Transposed into Eb from E major.

A beautiful tune.

 The clarinet opens the piece with it.