"In Moonlight" is a song with music written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1904 to words from the poem "An Ariette for Music. To a Lady singing to her Accompaniment on the Guitar", by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and published in 1832.
The song is adapted to a central section of Elgar's concert-overture "In the South (Alassio)" where the "Canto Popolare"[1] melody is introduced by a solo viola with a delicate and imaginative accompaniment, which could be likened to Shelley's "...accompaniment on the Guitar."
The first performance of "In the South" was in March 1904. In July that year Elgar made different versions of the "Canto Popolare" section. These were variously for small orchestra, for piano and for various instrumental combinations.
In August 1905 the song was reviewed in the London "Times":
The same poem was set by many others including the American composer Amy Beach ("Mrs. H. H. A. Beach"), as her Op. 1 No. 4, with the title "Ariette".
Elgar used only the first and third stanzas of Shelley's poem, "An Ariette for Music".
IN MOONLIGHT (ARIETTE)
