Sailing Westward

"Sailing Westward" is a poem written by Alfred Noyes, and set to music by the English composer Edward Elgar. It was one of the songs (also known as the "Pageant of Empire") written to be performed in the Pageant of Empire at the British Empire Exhibition on 21 July 1924.

The song descriptively commemorates the adventurous English sea-captains who sailed to "... chase the setting sun ... westward, thro' the thund'ring gales".

Elgar used exactly the same music for another song in the set, called "The Islands".

This song was also arranged by the composer as a part-song.

References

• Foreman, Lewis (ed.),"Oh, My Horses! Elgar and the Great War", Elgar Editions, Rickmansworth, 2001 ISBN 0-9537082-3-3
• Kennedy, Michael "Portrait of Elgar" (Oxford University Press, 1968) ISBN 0-19-315414-5
• Moore, Jerrold N. "Edward Elgar: a creative life" (Oxford University Press, 1984) ISBN 0-19-315447-1
• Richards, Jeffrey "Imperialism and Music: Britain 1876-1953" (Manchester University Press, 2002) ISBN 0-7190-4506-1

Recordings

• The CD "The Unknown Elgar" has Sailing Westward and The Immortal Legions, Tudor Choir directed by Barry Collett, with Ken Burley (piano) PEARL SHE CD 9635