The Pageant of Empire was a set of historical pageant

Procession

A procession is an organized body of people advancing in a formal or ceremonial manner.-Procession elements:...

s organised by the British government for the huge British Empire Exhibition

British Empire Exhibition

The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley, Middlesex in 1924 and 1925.-History:It was opened by King George V on St George's Day, 23 April 1924. The British Empire contained 58 countries at that time, and only Gambia and Gibraltar did not take part...

 held at the Empire Stadium (later Wembley Stadium) in 1924. The Exhibition was opened on 23 April, and the Pageant was performed between 21 July and 30 August. Its full title was The Pageant of Empire: An Historical Epic.

The Pageant had a cast of 15,000 people, 300 horses, 500 donkeys, 730 camels, 72 monkeys, 1000 doves, seven elephants, three bears and one macaw

Macaw

Macaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...

. It took three days to see the whole performance.

The music for the pageants was selected by Henry Jaxon assisted by I. A. de Orellana. There was an orchestra of over a hundred musicians selected from three London orchestras. The large choir was selected from local choral societies, who gave their services free.

The pageants included "The Days of Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

", "The English Fleet in the Mediterranean - Blake and the Barbary Pirates", "George III and the Departure of Captain Cook" and "A Pageant of Hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

es". There were pageants for the countries of the Empire: South Africa, India, New Zealand and Australia, and the first musical item in each was a poem by Alfred Noyes

Alfred Noyes

Alfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...

 set to music by Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

. Other composers represented (they were all British) included Eric Coates

Eric Coates

Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...

 (Merrymakers overture), Edward German

Edward German

Sir Edward German was an English musician and composer of Welsh descent, best remembered for his extensive output of incidental music for the stage and as a successor to Arthur Sullivan in the field of English comic opera.As a youth, German played the violin and led the town orchestra, also...

 (a song from Merrie England

Merrie England (opera)

Merrie England is an English comic opera in two acts by Edward German to a libretto by Basil Hood. The patriotic story concerns love and rivalries at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who is portrayed as jealous of the affection of Sir Walter Raleigh for Bessie Throckmorton. Its sunny depiction of...

), Percy Fletcher

Percy Fletcher

Percy Eastman Fletcher was a British composer of classical music, born in Derby. He is known best for his many theatre works.- Works :*Vanity Fair*Labour And Love*Folk Tune and Fiddle Dance*An Epic Symphony...

 (Sylvan Scenes), Henry Smart

Henry Smart

Henry Thomas Smart was an English organist and composer.Smart was born in London, a nephew of the conductor Sir George Smart. He studied first for the law, but soon gave this up for music...

, Samuel Coleridge Taylor (Bamboula

Bamboula

A bamboula is a kind of drum made from a section of giant bamboo with skin stretched over the ends. It is also a secular dance accompanied by the drums. Both were brought to the Americas by African slaves....

), Hubert Parry

Hubert Parry

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...

 (War and Peace), Alexander Mackenzie

Alexander Mackenzie

Alexander Mackenzie, PC , a building contractor and newspaper editor, was the second Prime Minister of Canada from November 7, 1873 to October 8, 1878.-Biography:...

 (Britannia overture), Hamish McCunn, Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...

, Amy Woodforde-Finden

Amy Woodforde-Finden

Amy Woodforde-Finden was a composer who is best known for writing the music to "Kashmiri Song" from Four Indian Love Lyrics by Laurence Hope....

 (Indian Love Lyrics), Herman Finck

Herman Finck

Herman Finck was a British composer of Dutch extraction.Born Hermann Van Der Vinck in London, he began his studies training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established a career as the musical director at the Palace Theatre in London , with whose orchestra he made many virtuoso...

, Granville Bantock

Granville Bantock

Sir Granville Bantock was a British composer of classical music.-Biography:Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was a Scottish doctor. He was intended by his parents for the Indian Civil Service but was drawn into the musical world. His first teacher was Dr Gordon Saunders at...

, Leslie Stuart

Leslie Stuart

Leslie Stuart was an English composer of early musical theatre, best known for the hit show Florodora and many popular songs. Stuart began writing songs in the late 1870s, including songs for blackface performers, such as "Lily of Laguna"; songs for musical theatre; and ballads such as "Soldiers...

, Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...

 (Imperial March) and Edwin Lemare

Edwin Lemare

Edwin Henry Lemare was an English organist and composer who lived the latter part of his life in the United States.-Biography:...

 (Solemn March for organ). The concluding pageants were "A Pageant of Heroes" and "An Empire's Thanksgiving". For "A Pageant of Heroes" there were settings of Alfred Noyes' poem "The Immortal Legions", and Laurence Binyon

Laurence Binyon

Robert Laurence Binyon was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. His most famous work, For the Fallen, is well known for being used in Remembrance Sunday services....

's "With Proud Thanksgiving" both set to music by Elgar. For "The Empire's Thanksgiving", an "Anthem of the Sister Nations" by Laurence Binyon was set to music by Nicholas Gatty

Nicholas Gatty

Nicholas Comyn Gatty was an English composer and music critic. As a composer his major output was opera, which was generally musically undistinguished but well-presented theatrically...

, and there was a "Recessional

Recessional

Recessional may refer to:*Recessional , a novel by James A. Michener, published in 1994*"Recessional" , a poem by Rudyard Kipling*"Recessional", a song by Vienna Teng...

" with words by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

 to music by Herbert Bunning.

Pageant of Empire

Pageant of Empire (Elgar)

Pageant of Empire is the title given to a set of songs, to words by Alfred Noyes, written by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar and given important positions in the Pageant of Empire at the British Empire Exhibition.-Details:...

is also the title given to the set of songs, to words by Alfred Noyes, written by Sir Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

 and included in the Pageant. Elgar conducted the massed choirs at the opening ceremony of the Exhibition, including Land of Hope and Glory

Land of Hope and Glory

"Land of Hope and Glory" is a British patriotic song, with music by Edward Elgar and lyrics by A. C. Benson, written in 1902.- Composition :...

, but the songs were not performed there until 21 July, when they were conducted by the composer.

Three movements from Elgar's "The Crown of India

The Crown of India

The Crown of India, was a masque, an elaborate theatrical presentation, staged in 1912 to celebrate the visit the preceding December of King George V and Queen Mary to Delhi for their coronation as Emperor and Empress of India. For this masque, the English composer Edward Elgar wrote the music as...

" were included in the pageant representing "The Early Days of India": the Introduction, the March of the Mogul Emperors and the Crown of India March.

Elgar composed his Empire March for the same occasion, and this march was at the time considered part of the Pageant of Empire. However the Empire March was not performed then and Elgar's Imperial March

Imperial March (Elgar)

Imperial March is a piece for full orchestra written by the English composer Edward Elgar to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, as his Op. 32....

took its place.

Recordings

• The CD with the book Oh, My Horses! Elgar and the Great War has many historical recordings including two of the songs from Pageant of Empire