Elgar Salut d'Amour - Easy Piano Arrangement

Edward Elgar: "Salut d'Amour" Op. 12

PDF Sheet music, piano solo
Simple Solutions piano arrangement by Henrik Kilhamn

Approximate Grade: 4
Scale 1 - 8: Beginner - Advanced

Key: Easy key C major + Original key E major included

There is a great story around this piece. Elgar wrote it as an engagement present to his then fiancé, but when he published it with the German title Liebesgruss (Love’s Greeting) it didn’t do very well in sales. He then changed the title to the love language of French, and it started flying off the shelves and into the hearts of people for generations to come! It’s originally for violin and piano, but Elgar also made a version for piano solo himself. It is however very difficult with wide spreads of harmony for both hands between the high melody and deep bass. So here we have a classic Simple Solution of the sole melody in RH over a compressed setup of bass and chords in LH.

I would recommend the Easy Key version in C major over the original E major. The melody was written for the violin, and Elgar’s piano version works by activating a lot of sound from different registers on the piano. Without the possibility to cover all that, it actually comes out better if we take it down a few scale degrees to C major, since the harmony sounds better when it’s centered a little bit lower.

This arrangement is included in Simple Solutions Volume 4 - An Orchestral Orchard (Intermediate ~ Grade 4-5)

Also, check out:
Simple Solutions Volume 1 (Elementary ~ Grade 3)
Simple Solutions Volume 2 (Intermediate ~ Grade 5)
Simple Solutions Volume 3: Nights & Dreams (Intermediate ~Grade 5)

ABOUT SIMPLE SOLUTIONS

The Simple Solutions series came from the idea that even not-professionally trained pianists should be able to enjoy the feeling of playing great music from the piano repertoire with their own hands. This is possible with some clever rearranging of the musical material: reducing the range of independent voices and jumps while preserving core ideas of melody and rhythm. In this easier setting, you will instead have enough time on your hands (literally!) to bring the music to life and care about those aspect that often otherwise come second: phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and balance. This will help you develop your over-all musicality, which will be of great value in all other pieces as well.

In the end, if you feel ready for a challenge and want to go forward with proper piano studies that requires years of practice – you can always move on to more advanced arrangements or original piano compositions. They will always be there. In the meantime, these arrangements will bring you close to the same enjoyment as the full versions, because all musical ideas are carefully conserved.

They are just a little bit easier.

The arrangement comes in two versions: both transposed to an easier key signature as well as kept in the original key.

The "Easy Key" transposed version is recommended for the most comfortable Simple Solutions experience. It's much easier to read notes without many sharps or flats, which frees up a lot of attention for all other musical aspects solely at a cost if you have perfect pitch. The version in original key serves the purpose of constituting a proper stepping stone if you wish to continue with the original version / more advanced arrangements in some capacity later on.