# The enigma in the Enigma Variations



## Algonquin (Apr 10, 2021)

Having viewed the funeral of the Duke of Edinborough and having been greatly moved by the music, I decided to listen once again to Elgar's Enigma Variations and it suddenly struck me what the enigma could be. One of the popular theories is that it involves a hidden theme within the work though I'm sure that many on this forum have their own theories, which I'd like to hear. Here's mine.
On my second listen I perceived that the theme sounded more like a variation on a theme, and then I became philosophical about it all and reasoned that even the aria from the Goldbergs or the Paganini in Rach's Rhapsody were themselves variations on all the other variations. The Paganini and the aria were simply starting points for the variations. I believe that the starting point in Elgar's set is not the one with which he commences but is in fact "hidden" amongst the subsequent "variations". And what do I believe the real starting point is? Our dear, darling, sublime Ninrod.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Algonquin said:


> Having viewed the funeral of the Duke of Edinborough and having been greatly moved by the music, I decided to listen once again to Elgar's Enigma Variations and it suddenly struck me what the enigma could be. One of the popular theories is that it involves a hidden theme within the work though I'm sure that many on this forum have their own theories, which I'd like to hear. Here's mine.
> On my second listen I perceived that the theme sounded more like a variation on a theme, and then I became philosophical about it all and reasoned that even the aria from the Goldbergs or the Paganini in Rach's Rhapsody were themselves variations on all the other variations. The Paganini and the aria were simply starting points for the variations. I believe that the starting point in Elgar's set is not the one with which he commences but is in fact "hidden" amongst the subsequent "variations". And what do I believe the real starting point is? Our dear, darling, sublime Ninrod.


That doesn't seem in keeping with what Elgar himself said:

"The Enigma I will not explain - its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion 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, even as in some late dramas . . . the chief character is never on the stage."


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## brahms4 (May 8, 2017)

Interesting that Elgar never revealed the answer.He never put the answer in a sealed envelope to be opened 100 years after his death or such.Back in early 70s interview,Sir Adrian Boult scoffed at the whole idea.He believed Elgar was pulling everybody`s leg.What was the point if Elgar never gave the answer to this puzzle?The best theory I have heard, if you believe that Elgar was serious,is the very opening of Pergolesi`s Stabat Mater.


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## Algonquin (Apr 10, 2021)

amfortas said:


> That doesn't seem in keeping with what Elgar himself said:
> 
> "The Enigma I will not explain - its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion 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, even as in some late dramas . . . the chief character is never on the stage."


Thanks for your reponse but with all due respect to Sir Edward I'd think you'd be hard pressed to find a set of variations by any composer that did not have a larger unheard theme pervading the entire work. That's the nature of theme and variations. I do agree that this nature is substancially magnified when one places the theme upon which the other variations are based in a place other than at the start. My guess is that Elgar started with Nimrod. Just my opinion.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Algonquin said:


> I'd think you'd be hard pressed to find a set of variations by any composer that did not have a larger unheard theme pervading the entire work.


Can you name one T & V by any composer and identify this "larger unheard theme"? I don't understand your statement at all.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Me? I can never hear this work without imagining the syllables _Ed-ward El-gar_ passing by prominently. Is the composer, then, the "dark saying" behind this portrait piece? Is Elgar mirroring himself in the images of the friends and acquaintances of the variations?

I'm reminded that ten years prior to Elgar's composition of the _Enigma Variations_, the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov composed his _Scheherazade_. I have long listened to this tone poem as a set of variations on a single theme, that theme being the melody representative of storyteller Scheherazade. The irony of the work is, of course, that the Sultan's theme is a variant of the Scheherazade-tune, and so are all other themes in the piece. Why is it that the Sultan releases Scheherazade from the usual circumstance of death? Because she tells a great story, one in which the Sultan (by way of his theme, which on surface seems the "main" theme) is always the hero. Of course, when we realize that the Sultan's theme is no more than a reshaping of the story-teller's theme (the actual "main" theme), we know who is the real hero (and controller of fate) in this tale. Somehow, I hear the _Enigma Variations_ in this same light.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I enjoy listening to _Enigma Variations_ and Sir Edward is a great 20th century composer. I think the "enigma" is a clever "marketing spin" to promote the music.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I'm no expert but this is what Wikipedia says:


> Elgar provided another clue in an interview he gave in October 1900 to the editor of the Musical Times, F. G. Edwards, who reported:
> 
> 
> > Mr Elgar tells us that the heading Enigma is justified by the fact that it is possible to add another phrase, which is quite familiar, above the original theme that he has written. What that theme is no one knows except the composer. Thereby hangs the Enigma.[24]
> ...


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