Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, “Enigma Variations”
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

THE STORY

     Not yet having had his “big break” as a composer, Elgar, at age 41, was teaching music lessons to make ends meet. One evening, exhausted from a long day with his violin and viola students, he came home and began absent-mindedly improvising tunes at the piano. One melody caught his wife’s ear—and that was the beginning of the “Enigma Variations,” the work that would finally bring him international recognition.
     Starting with that one tune, Elgar brilliantly spun out 14 musical caricatures of his family and friends—his wife, his publisher, even his friend’s bulldog. Each variation is titled with the initials, name, or nickname of the person depicted, and as Elgar explained: “The sketches are not 'portraits' but each variation contains a distinct idea founded on some particular personality or perhaps on some incident known only to two people.”
     The “enigma” of the title refers to a hidden melody. The theory—based on a hint given by Elgar—is that there is a well-known tune that would be perfectly harmonized when played together with the theme of the “Enigma Variations.” Guesses have ranged from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” to “God Save the Queen,” to the slow movement from Beethoven’s “Pathétique.” In 2019, a convincing argument was made for Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. In his lifetime, Elgar rejected all of the guesses and he took the answer to his riddle to his grave.

LISTEN FOR

• The theme’s four-note motive that matches the syllables of “Edward Elgar”—he sometimes signed his letters with these four notes

• The romance and delicacy of Variation I, dedicated to Elgar’s wife, Alice

• Rapid 16th-note passages in Variation II, which imitate the runs on the keyboard that amateur pianist Hew David Steuart-Powell always played before beginning a performance

• In Variation III, the depiction of an older gentleman, Richard Baxter Townshend, with a deep register that occasionally flies off dramatically into higher pitches

• The quick pace of Variation IV, to match William Meath Baker’s energetic personality

• Haunting mystery alternated with moments of playfulness in Variation V, dedicated to Richard Penrose Arnold, who would interject his typically serious conversation with witty remarks

• The viola string-crossings, emulating student exercises, in Variation VI—written for viola student Isabel Fitton

• A wild romp in Variation VII depicting failed attempts to teach Arthur Troyte Griffith to play the piano

• The imitation of the characteristic laugh of society-lady Winifred Norbury in Variation VIII

• The emotional and poignant “Nimrod” Variation, written for Elgar’s publisher, Augustus J. Jaeger, who was a great inspiration to the composer

• The stutter of Dora Penny, good-naturedly parodied in the woodwinds in Variation X

• A tumbling figure that opens Variation XI, representing Dan—George Robertson Sinclair’s bulldog—as he fell down a bank and landed in the river, recovering with a joyous bark

• The cello solo in Variation XII, representing the amateur cellist Basil George Nevinson

• In Variation XIII, a quote from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage in the clarinet—a tribute to an unnamed woman who Elgar explained was on a sea voyage at the time of composition

• Echoes of Alice’s and Jaeger’s variations in the finale, which is named for Elgar himself (Edu was Alice’s nickname for her husband)

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, organ, strings