Pomp and Circumstance Marches march to the first, and thought this the finest of all the marches. After a loud call to attention from the brass, a simple "staccato" theme, tense and repetitive, is played quietly by the strings, being gradually joined by other instruments before building up to an abrupt climax. This section is repeated. The second theme, confidently played by horns and clarinets, with contrasting triple and duple rhythms, is one which was sketched by Elgar a few years before: this is developed and ends with flourishes from the strings and brass joined by the glockenspiel. The opening "staccato" theme returns, concluded
Pomp and Circumstance Marches clarinets in A, bass clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in F, 2 cornets in A, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani (3), percussion (2 side drums, triangle, glockenspiel & jingles, bass drum & cymbals), and strings. It was first performed, as was March No. 1, by the Liverpool Orchestral Society conducted by Alfred Rodewald, in Liverpool on 19 October 1901. Both marches were played two days later at a London Promenade Concert. The second is the shortest and most simply constructed of the marches. The composer Charles Villiers Stanford is said to have preferred this