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Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

Edward Elgar (1857–1934) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 3–9
  • Passages 19

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Edward Elgar, English romantic (1857–1934). The reading release has 19 passages from this piece at levels 3–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the right hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 9.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 1–8 level 3
  2. Left hand alone · bars 17–20 level 3
  3. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 4
  4. The hardest bars · bars 1–24 level 9

How to play Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

  1. For the trio, take a broad, unhurried tempo with a dignified, noble character; for the opening march, a crisp and much quicker pulse with sharp accents.
  2. In piano versions the right hand usually carries the tune in full chords or octaves while the left hand plays a walking bass; keep the top note of each chord louder than the others so the melody sings.
  3. Hands miss notes on the large leaps; look ahead to the next landing spot and move early rather than jumping at the last moment.
  4. Learn the tune alone first, naming each interval as you play it, then add the bass, saving full volume for the final statement.

Structure

The original march, in D major, opens with a fast, bustling section full of sudden accents, then gives way to the broad trio melody in G major, the part most people know. The fast music returns, and the trio comes back once more, now in D major and at full orchestral strength, before a quick coda. The whole march runs about six minutes.

About Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

Elgar's first Pomp and Circumstance march was premiered in 1901, and its trio tune was so popular that he reused it the next year in his Coronation Ode for Edward VII, where it became the song Land of Hope and Glory. In the United States its graduation tradition is usually traced to 1905, when it was played at Yale as Elgar received an honorary degree.

Why the first passage is level 3

That passage is level 3 rather than 2 because a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a fourth, the line roams across the staff, it leaves the five-finger position.

The trio melody of Elgar's first Pomp and Circumstance march is the tune played at graduations. It moves in wide, stately steps and large leaps, so it is a good place to practise reading intervals instead of individual notes. Keep the quarter-note pulse broad and steady.

Questions about Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

How hard is Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 to play?
Its passages grade from level 3 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 1–4 for the right hand alone, the level-3 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 3 because a hand covers more than one position and it leaps a fourth.
What key and time signature is Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1?
Edward Elgar, English romantic (1857–1934). Elgar's first Pomp and Circumstance march was premiered in 1901, and its trio tune was so popular that he reused it the next year in his Coronation Ode for Edward VII, where it became the song Land of Hope and Glory.
Can I practice Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 19 graded passages from Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 19 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 3
bars 1–8 right hand · bars 1–4 right hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 17–20 left hand
Level 4
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 5
bars 1–8 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–16 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands
Level 9
bars 1–24 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands · bars 25–28 both hands · bars 25–32 both hands · bars 29–32 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261001-mutopia-ly reading release.

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