"Pomp and Circumstance." Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches were originally composed for the British military during World War I but the tunes, just like his unmistakably distinguishable mustache, spread far and wide, eventually becoming a staple in American society, among others.

Elgar grew up under the influence of classical music; his father was a church organist and owned a music shop, teaching Elgar to play the piano, organ and violin at a young age. A musical prodigy, Elgar quickly picked up other instruments, starting his official career at age 16 by establishing himself as a freelance musician while constantly working on compositions. Marrying the renowned novelist Caroline Alice Roberts in 1889, Elgar then moved to London, where he suffered from bouts of depression and self-doubt until publisher August Jaeger picked up his Imperial March, Op. 32, whereby Elgar then composed his Enigma Variations, Op. 36, which led him into the depths of classical music success.

Continuing to create musical masterpieces, Elgar brought his music into the 1900s with the first four Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901-1907), the first of which even became the unofficial second national anthem for Britain. Jaded by the monstrosities of the war and Alice's and Jaeger's deaths in the early 1900s, however, Elgar's late works became more melancholy and gloomy. Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 relates to this saddening time in the musician's life, and a downward spiral brought Elgar into the last years of his life, his death in 1934 cutting short his third and final symphony, which was eventually finished and recorded by the great Anthony Payne in the late 1990s.