The first four Pomp & Circumstance Marches were composed between 1901 and 1907, but this, the fifth, was not completed until 1930 although Elgar had made some sketches for it much earlier. The Ordnance Survey map still survives on which Elgar jotted down the main theme of this march as he was motoring through Gloucester. Despite arriving well towards the end of the composer's life, it is in many ways the most jaunty of the set, swinging along in a breezy six-eight. On 18 September 1930, Elgar recorded the March two days before its public premiere under Henry Wood in the Queen's Hall. Despite Elgar's absence through illness, the hall was sold out, the reception "rapturous", and the Daily Telegraph reported that "No recent announcement can have given greater pleasure to a vast number of people than the promise of a new Military March by the Master of the King's Music". Its first broadcast performance took place on 19 March 1931.
A PACK comprises one full score, all wind brass and percussion parts and string parts 4/4/3/4/2.
- ISMN: 9790222300231 (M222300231)
