69, is a work for contralto or mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra composed by Edward Elgar.
The text of the work is the 1874 poem Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy, which Elgar set in its entirety.
Early criticism of the work was directed more at the words than at the music, but it was also dismissed as tawdry and self-centred.
[2] The music also quotes the first and second symphonies, the Violin Concerto, "Nimrod" (from the Enigma Variations), Rule, Britannia and La Marseillaise.
The self-quotations inevitably[citation needed] bring to mind Strauss's Ein Heldenleben, but with different intent; Elgar is depicting the artist not as hero but as bard.