Perhaps no mature composition of Elgar arouses mixed feelings, even among stalwart Elgarians, as does "The Music Makers". By 1912 the sentiment stated in the text, a poem by Arthur O'Shaughnessy of several decades previous, seemed dated and naove: that the creative artist's output has an immense influence on the destiny of mankind. There is also the fact there is arguably not enough interesting or emotionally stimulating new material in the forty-five odd minutes of the work, for the composer extensively quotes from many of his most important and popular works to build the structure of this, his last big choral work. For this reason it is often compared to Richard Strauss' "Ein Heldenleiben". But whereas the Strauss work has much new music to offer, the proportion is not the same in the Elgar and the quotes do not often come off as well as they could. Add to this the nature of the text; one of the most disparaged-of lines is "With wonderful deathless ditties, we build up the world's great cities" (interestingly the rock group Jefferson Starship would say something similar in the 1980's with "We Built this City on Rock and Roll"). At best though there are some effective moments, and one feels that given more thought this could have been a very touching review of the composer's creative life.

From the very start a determined martial theme, a new one, suggests that music-making is going to be a much more weighty affair than the joyous "mensch-fest" of, say, Wagner's "Die Meistersingers". Not far into this orchestral prelude the theme from the "Enigma Variations" emerges into the fabric. Eventually the chorus enters solemnly to the lines "We are the music-makers, we are the dreamers of dreams". This leads to a section in feverish, rapid > time which is robbed of much of its effectiveness by the "ditties" line. As the line "We fashion an empires glory" is intoned Elgar quotes "Rule Britannia" and "La Marseillaise". Following this extrovert section is the very expressive entry of the contralto which eventually leads to what is perhaps the most meaningful and touching quote in the work. At the words "But on one man's soul it hath broken, a light that doth not depart." the Nimrod theme from the "Enigma Variations" is quoted. In that earlier work this music was the representation of Elgar's best friend Augustus Jaeger who encouraged him the see his course through during difficult times. The composer here seemed to be paying a tribute of gratitude to his late friend. It would be out of the scope of this description to cite every quote which is taken from "Gerontius", the two symphonies, "Seas Pictures", the violin concerto, et al., but some of the more effective quotes are the opening theme of the First Symphony at the words "Out of the infinite morning" and, near the end, the sensitive allusion to "Angel's Farewell" from "Gerontius" as the soprano sings bring us hither your sun and your summers". The work ends quietly yet still brooding with the opening lines rounding it off.

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