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Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”), Op. 36 I: Caroline Alice Elgar (wife) |
Composed: 1898-99 Estimated length: |
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Born on June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, England; Died on February 23, 1934, in Worcester, England |
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First performance: June 19, 1899, in London, with Hans Richter conducting. |
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First Nashville Symphony performance: January 26, 1954, with Guy Taylor conducting at War Memorial Auditorium. |
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This set of orchestral variations gave Edward Elgar his breakthrough to international fame and has remained one of the most-popular works in the repertoire. The nickname “Enigma” has come to refer to the entire piece, though the composer initially meant it to refer only to the theme itself. In fact, more than one enigma is associated with the Enigma Variations. Each of the 14 variations is linked to a particular friend or loved one, whose identities Elgar codes into the score using only initials. (These have, for the most part, long since been decoded.)
Yet in his note for the premiere, the composer hinted at a larger, still-debated enigma that he refused to explain: “Its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes,’ but is not played—so the principal Theme never appears,” is Elgar’s tantalizing description. Proposed solutions to this “unheard” theme vary widely—they include tunes like “Auld Lang Syne” (which Elgar categorically denied) and “Rule Britannia.” As with an unsolved math problem, Elgar’s enigma regularly attracts musical sleuths claiming to have cracked the code.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Divided into three sections, including a contrasting middle section and a reprise of the opening, the “Enigma” theme oscillates between the minor and major key. Each of the 14 variations involves a musical portrayal of friends and loved ones from Elgar’s inner circle in provincial central England. (See title page for a guide to the 14 variations.)
Personal interrelationships between some of the subjects are also part of this domestic scenario. In the first variation, for example, Elgar bestows on his beloved wife, Caroline Alice, a romanticized, harmonically richer development of the theme. No. 3 plays off extremes of high and low woodwinds to etch a portrait of amateur actor Richard Baxter Townshend, who could vary the pitch of his voice across an astonishing spectrum.
The most famous variation is No. 9 (“Nimrod”), the emotional core of the set, which is often played independently for funerals and serious ceremonial occasions. “Nimrod” is one of Elgar’s puns for his closest friend, the publisher A. J. Jaeger (his name is the German word for “hunter,” which is what the biblical “Nimrod” means). This variation recalls a deep conversation Elgar recalled from a summer walk in the evening as Jaeger described the sublimity of Beethoven’s slow movements.
Elgar complements the portrayal of his wife at the beginning with a self-portrait in the final variation. A magnificent summation, this music suggests how deeply Elgar’s personality is entwined with those of his wife and his friend Jaeger. The full apparatus of the orchestra contributes to this energetic and most comprehensive expansion of the theme.
Scored for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, organ, and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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