The work was commissioned by Herbert Whiteley of the National Brass Band Championship committee and head of the brass band publishers R. Smith & Company. Although it is likely that Elgar originally expected only to supply a "short score" to be orchestrated by a brass band expert, in fact Elgar ultimately performed all the orchestration himself.
Henry Geehl, a brass band composer and employee of R.Smith, later claimed to have orchestrated the piece, giving a highly circumstantial account of his involvement to several newspapers. However, in 1995 the original manuscript, entirely in Elgar's hand, resurfaced at auction — its emergence demonstrates that Geehl's longstanding claim to have orchestrated the work was in fact fraudulent. The manuscript was subsequently acquired by the Elgar Birthplace Museum, where it now resides. The first performance was at the National Brass Band Championship at the
Crystal Palace on 27 September 1930, which was won by the
Foden's Motor Works Band. They then recorded excerpts from the work. It was published by R. Smith & Co. that year. Following an invitation to record the work, the composer arranged it for symphony orchestra in 1931, and this had its first performance on 14 April 1932 with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. The full score of this version, first published by Acuta Music in 1991, was based on a handwritten publisher’s fair copy. This publication was subsequently revised following the reappearance of the composer”s original orchestral MS in 2010. Elgar's friend
Ivor Atkins suggested that the Suite should be transcribed for organ. Elgar asked Atkins to work with him on the arrangement. The resulting work was completed in 1932 and published as Elgar's 'Second Organ Sonata'. In 2019 Professor Stephen Arthur Allen (Rider University) prepared a new 90th Anniversary Critical Edition of the brass band score correcting all errors made by Geehl when preparing the original published version of 1930. == Instrumentation ==