In January 1920 Elgar began arranging, for Chorus and Military Band, a much-shortened version of ‘For the Fallen’ from his Spirit of England. These were wartime settings of verses by Laurence Binyon. This new version had been commissioned to be performed at the unveiling of the Cenotaph in London on 11 November 1920 and was arranged, for Military Band, by Frank Winterbottom. As it was, the ceremony at the Cenotaph was curtailed and Elgar’s music never performed. Although he arranged With Proud Thanksgiving for orchestral accompaniment, this is the first time the listener can hear how Elgar originally conceived the piece. Twelve years later Elgar set, for similar forces, a poem by John Masefield, the Poet Laureate, written to commemorate the unveiling of the memorial to the dowager Queen Alexandra who had died in 1925. Unfortunately, the arrangement for Military Band has been lost and conductor Tom Higgins has made his own arrangement especially for this recording. Arrangements of Pomp and Circumstance Marches