Although Elgar liked to try to persuade his friends that his light orchestral pieces and partsongs were 'rot', composed in order to pay the household bilis, the truth is that he put much of himself into these smaller forms, which contain several masterpieces. He grew up at a time when people still made their own music, so that it was natural for a composer to turn to the partsong not only as a means of selling many copies of sheet-music but for the pleasure of providing worthwhile fare for small amateur choral societies up and down the country. The compositions on these recordings cover a span of time from 1889 to 1932, the forty-three years from Elgar's emergence from obscurity after his marriage until his final almost silent years when, as Master of the King's Musick, he preferred his dogs and going to the races to the world of music—or so he said. They are significant tributaries from the main stream of his larger works.