Pomp and Circumstance Marches
The Pomp and Circumstance Marches are a series of five marches for orchestra composed by Edward Elgar between 1901 and 1930, together with a sixth march created in 2006 by Anthony Payne from Elgar's sketches. The five original marches were dedicated to the composer's friends the conductor Alfred E. Rodewald, the composer Granville Bantock and the organists Ivor Atkins, G. R. Sinclair and Percy Hull.
In England, the first, and best-known, of the marches is an established feature at the Last Night of the Proms every year, and in the US and elsewhere its slow middle section is traditionally played as the processional tune at most high school and college graduation ceremonies.