[4] The motto written by Elgar on the manuscript score is a quotation from an 1817 poem by Keats: "When Chivalry lifted up her lance on high".
W. H. Reed singles out 'the quick rise from G sharp through two octaves and a semitone to the top A at the ninth bar after letter B', and notes a 'growing habit of scattering expression marks in great profusion', leaving conductors 'very little room for the introduction of their own idiosyncrasies'.
[6] However, it is generally agreed that the piece shows immaturity: Michael Kennedy comments on the 'weak and too-lengthy development' and the 'half digested' influence of other composers.
'[1] Froissart is not a programmatic work: unlike the later Falstaff or even Cockaigne it does not tell a detailed story; it evokes a mood and manner in broad terms.
Perhaps the best-known version in more recent years has been the 1966 EMI recording by the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.