The most well-known of the Elgar's six marches, March No. 1 in D was completed in July 1901. Its central melody hails from before these dates, and as Elgar told a friend, “I've got a tune that will knock'em flat—knock'em flat!…a tune like that comes once in a lifetime….” It was premiered in October 1901 in Liverpool and was repeated in London a few days later. The result was sensational and had to be played a third time to restore order to the audience.

In the United States, the trio section ...