Can you think of great composers who had relatively little formal training?
Edward Elgar,arguably the savior of English music at that time, was largely self taught. He received no formal musical education except for a few violin lessons These being provided by his father who was an organist,music seller and amateur violinist. As a young boy surrounded by sheet music, instruments, and music textbooks in his father’s shop in Worcester’s High Street, Elgar taught himself music theory. Through the opera and the concert hall, he was able to absolve the works of all the contemporary and past masters. Lacking the means to study at London the young Edward experimented endlessly with sound thereby developing his own unique blend of styles By all accounts he began to compose even before he learned how to notate his compositions.
