The Wind at Dawn

"The Wind at Dawn" is a poem written by Caroline Alice Roberts, and set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1888.

The poem was written in 1880 by Roberts before she had met Elgar, though they were married in the year after the song was written.

Roberts offered the poem to Edward when they were engaged, and such was the quality of the work that he put into it—the independent brilliant piano part, the voice in turn subtle and heroic—that it won the first prize of £5 in a competition organised by the publishers Joseph Williams. The song consequently appeared in the Magazine of Music of July 1888. Elgar in turn presented her with "Salut d'Amour" as an engagement present, and Jerrold Northrop Moore finds a resemblance in parts between the two works.

It was published by Boosey & Co. in 1907, when the dedication to the German tenor Ludwig Wüllner was added.

Elgar arranged the song for orchestra in 1912.

THE WIND AT DAWN

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Wikipedia