In 1900 the Royal Philharmonic Society offered Elgar a commission for a new orchestral work, and although the young composer was really trying to write a symphony a number of stepping-stones were necessary on the way, of which Cockaigne was the first (and In the South, below, another). He would naturally have taken it first to Novello, but there had been unpleasant wranglings over royalties for both Enigma and Gerontius, and financial worries compelled him to seek more favourable terms, so he enquired elsewhere. Schott had already published a few of his works and were in principle interested, but Booseys offered a better deal, and as a result went on to secure other profitable works such as the Pomp and Circumstance marches.

sources

A  Autograph score (1901), in the British Library

E,P  Full score and parts, published by Boosey & Co. in 1901

Ue  Urtext edition, edited by Sarah Thompson and published by the Elgar Society in 2013. See Froissart above for general comments on Ue; for Cockaigne Ue also used an earlier (unpublished) version of the present report

A contains engraver's markings concerning layout and pagination which correspond with those of E, indicating that A was the Stichvorlage for E.