Most of Elgar's early years were spent living above the Elgar Brother's Music Shop in Worcester, at the age of 16 Elgar chose to pursue a career in music. By 1877, Elgar was accompanying the Worcester Glee Club and he became leader of the new Worcester Amateur Instrumental Society. He began coaching the Instrumental musicians in the summer and took up the bassoon. Twelve musicians were out as Waits that Christmas and it was probably from that that Elgar formed a wind quintet with friends: Hubert A. Leicester (first flute), Francis (Frank) T. Exton (second flute), Francis (Frank) Thomas Elgar (oboe), William (Willie) B. Leicester (clarinet in C), and Edward Elgar (bassoon, later cello). The group was known at ‘The Brothers Wind’ or ‘The Sunday Band’. The father of the Leicester brothers was a bookseller and printer at 6 High Street, Worcester; Hubert (later Sir Hubert) was the leader of the quintet, had the group photographed at his expense (in 1878, by T. Bennett) and looked after the music books, not only through the life of the ensemble but throughout his life. He later became several times Mayor of Worcester, and was responsible from Elgar's being awarded the Freedom of Worcester in 1905. Elgar borrowed the parts on several occasions to extract pieces for other projects. The group were joined in 1880 by their violinist friend Karl Bammert, and the group appears to have ended about 1882.

In 1877, he also began to take lessons on the violin with Pollitzer in London. Elgar's early experiences in London would appear in at least one of the Promenades - No. 2, titled ‘Madame Taussaud’s [sic]’ in Hubert Leicester's hand in the first flute part and, later, ‘Waxworks’ in Elgar's hand in the bassoon/cello volume. It may have been either from Pollitzer or from his going to rehearsals for the Promenade Concerts at the Crystal Place that he learned of l8th and early 19th century wind music being called ‘Harmoniemusik’ in the German-speaking areas, the Anglicised version of which he used for three of his early compositions for the quintet.

Elgar describes the quintet in the interview he gave in The Strand Magazine, 1905, p. 540

"In the early days of which I have been speaking five of us established a wind quintet. We
had two flutes, an oboe, a clarionet, and a bassoon, which last I played for some time, and
afterwards relinquished it for the ’cello. There was no music at all to suit our peculiar
requirements, as in the ideal wind quintet a horn should find a place and not a second flute,
so I used to write the music. We met on Sunday afternoons, and it was an understood thing
that we should have a new piece each week. The sermons in our church used to take at least
half an hour, and I spent the time composing the thing for the afternoon. It was great
experience for me, as you may imagine, and the books are all extant, so some of that music
still exists. We played occasionally for friends, and I remember one moonlight night stopping
in front of a house to put the bassoon together. I held it up to see if it was straight before
tightening it. As I did so, someone rushed out of the house, grabbed me by the arms, and
shouted, ‘It will be five shillings if you do.’ He thought I had a gun in my hand.

Despite Elgar's statement, a 30 minute sermon at St George's Church would not have been sufficient to compose and copy out his own works. Instead, it was certainly the 18 glees and partsong arrangements that Elgar prepared on Sundays. It is likely that Elgar arranged these directly - mostly from The Musical Times - onto separate small pieces of manuscript paper. These were later copied into the books, usually by each performer. The order of the works is quite different in each book. (Sarastro Music publishes the arrangements as SAR0122).

All of Elgar's own pieces were copied into the books by the composer. A number of the pieces composed by Elgar have names. However these usually appear only in Elgar's bassoon/cello part in pencil; they appear to be of a later date. It is impossible to tell whether these names were all given by Elgar or whether they were (often wry) comments on the pieces by members of the group after they had performed them. There are several works in the sketchbooks, generally from 1878, that are incomplete or mere sketches.

They rehearsed in a shed behind the Elgar music shop and ‘Shed’ became the title for Elgar's long pieces after Harmony Music No. 3. Compositions for the group finished in 1879, except for the two movement Shed No. 7, composed in 1881 with added violin. Elgar became ‘Bandmaster’ of the Attendants’ Orchestra at the Country Lunatic Asylum in 1879, at a salary of £32 pounds a year plus 5 shillings for every polka or quadrille he composed for them. It may have been this appointment that curtailed the Quintet; moreover the other members may have had work or other interests that also led to its decline. A sheet, possibly in Elgar's handwriting, is pasted in each part book detailing the order for copying out the works; this is followed in these volumes.

These important early Elgar works are all available from Sarastro Music: