Elegies

In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead. However, according to The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometimes used as a catch-all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual monumentalizing, and sometimes strictly as a sign of a lament for the dead". "Elegy" may denote a type of musical work, usually of a sad or somber nature. A well-known example is the Élégie, Op. 10, by Jules Massenet. This was originally written for piano, as a student work; then he set it as a song; and finally it appeared as the "Invocation", for cello and orchestra, a section of his incidental music to Leconte de Lisle's Les Érinnyes. Other examples include the Elegy Op. 58 of Edward Elgar and the Elegy for Strings of Benjamin Britten. Though not specifically designated an elegy, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings has an elegiac character.