Description

In the autumn of 1920, at the time the Unknown Warrior was being prepared to be returned to Britain and laid to rest in Westminster Abbey as a symbolic Everyman, and when the manner and ceremony of modern Remembrance commemorations were being established, Ivor Gurney composed his War Elegy for orchestra.  Having himself seen service in the war, during which he was shot and gassed, this War Elegy was one of a few musical works written in the 1920s in which he seeks to express and come to terms with something of his war experience.

War Elegy has been recorded for CD by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Dutton Epoch CDLX7172), broadcast, and performed widely, including at the BBC Proms, Three Choirs Festival, and internationally.

The photograph on the cover of the score depicts the events of 11 November 1920; the casket of the Unknown Warrior, laid upon its processional gun carriage, the King, and others at the just-unveiled Cenotaph on Whitehall, London.