Sullivan and Elgar - Connections?

It is interesting, for me, to see that the big discussion on Elgar's qualities as a composer were questioned during his time by comparing him to predecessors such as Parry.  Not once is Sullivan mentioned as a worthy predecessor, which of course has me a bit irked.  So, I looked for possible writings out there connecting the two.  I didn't find much, but one thing I did find proved a little interesting, more for where it lead than for the brief discussion given of Elgar and Sullivan.

In December of 1988, Nigel Burton, a musicologist noted for his writings on the music of Sullivan, contributed an article to The Musical Times entitled 'The Yeomen of the Guard': apogee of a style.  This article discusses Sullivan's music through a focus on Yeomen (personally my favorite of the Savoy Operas).  Points are made about his music that are very fascinating, and certainly something I will go into in more detail on my own (perhaps to be shared here, as well), but for the sake of this week's topic, I focus on a brief discussion found near the end of the article.  Burton writes refers to Edgar as Sullivan's "greater successor".  There is no doubt that by and large Elgar is considered the next great British composer, and it can be argued that his music surpassed Sullivan's music of a similar nature.  However, Burton states that Elgar's "debt to Sullivan is still underestimated" and even provides a direct example in which he feels Sullivan is anticipating Elgar: apparently Sullivan's 'Imperial Institute Ode' at one point "seems to anticipate Elgar's motif for Henry V in Falstaff."  Not being familiar with Elgar's Falstaff, I cannot confirm or deny this assessment; however, it is interesting to see the noted similarity.

By looking further in Nigel Burton's background, I discovered that he is a Vice President with the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, the very group that produced the Grammy-nominated recording of Ivanhoe that I blogged about previously.  This society was under the presidency of the late Sir Charles Mackerras, the noted Mozart and G&S conductor and authority.  Other notable officers of the Society include Vice President Dr. David Russell Hume, who is a regular contributor to Savoynet; Vice President Dr. Ian Bradley, who is possibly the most-published authority on G&S; Secretary Stephen Turnbull, another regular Savoynetter; and Librarian and Archivist Robin Gordon-Powell, the noted conductor and the man who arranged the full-score for multiple Sullivan works, including the Grammy-nominated version of Ivanhoe (also a regular Savoynet contributor).  This Society will be a major resource for my Fulbright, should I get it.