 Since the poem is long , there have been few musical settings . Musicians during the 1780s adopted the solution of selecting only a part . W.Tindal 's musical setting for voices was of the " Epitaph " ( 1785 ) , which was perhaps the item performed as a trio after a recitation of the poem at the newly opened Royalty Theatre in London in 1787 . At about that time too , Stephen Storace set the first two stanzas in his “ The curfew tolls ” for voice and keyboard , with a reprise of the first stanza at the end . At the period there were guides for the dramatic performance of such pieces involving expressive hand gestures , and they included directions for this piece . There is also an item described as " Gray 's Elegy set to music " in various settings for voice accompanied by harpsichord or harp by Thomas Billington ( 1754 @-@ 1832 ) , although this too may have only been an excerpt . A member of the theatrical world , Billington was noted as " fond of setting the more serious and gloomier passages in English verse ” 
