Stephen Westrop; Vernon Handley: London Symphony Chorus - Elgar: Choral Songs

Elgar's greatest part-songs were written specifically for the competition festival movement and he produced them more or less throughout his career, the first to be published being My love dwelt in a Northern land, from 1890 (marking the beginning of his association with the publishers Novello). But it was realized that the term 'part-song' might cause people to underestimate their size and quality so by 1914 they were being described as 'choral songs'. Their scale and range vary enormously.