August Jaeger

Who was August Jaeger?

August Jaeger was an Anglo-German music publisher, who developed a close friendship with the English composer Edward Elgar.

Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, Jaeger met Elgar through his employment at the London music publisher Novello. His advice and friendship became invaluable to Elgar, causing the composer to rework many famous musical passages, including the finale to his Variations on an Original Theme and the climax of The Dream of Gerontius. Jaeger has been immortalized in the famous ninth variation "Nimrod" from the first above-mentioned work, recalling a conversation on the slow movements of Beethoven.

Jaeger championed the work of the young black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; to Elgar he claimed that Coleridge-Taylor was "a genius".

He married Isabel Donkersley, a pupil of Henry Holmes in the Royal College of Music.