Elgar | Salut d’Amour, Op. 12 (Violin & Piano)

In the summer of 1888, before Edward Elgar and Alice Roberts were married, Alice presented Edward with a poem she had written, entitled ‘Love's Grace’. Edward reciprocated by writing a short piece of music for her, which he called Liebesgruss  (Love's Greeting). Edward presented the work to his wife and proposed to her. They married in May the following year.

Towards the end of 1888, Elgar submitted three arrangements of the work – for solo piano, for violin and piano, and an orchestral arrangement – to the music publishing firm of Schott, which agreed to buy the work outright for a fee of two guineas. At first, the work sold slowly. Apparently with Elgar's approval, Schott retitled the work Salut d'Amour and gave the composer's name as Ed. Elgar, believing that the French title and a less obviously English composer would help the work gain wider international approval. It did.