# Enigma?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I was wondering of anyone has figured out the original theme of the enigma variations? Wasn't it supposed to be a well known theme in reverse or something like that?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

There was somebody on the forum a while ago who, through an impressive display of casuistry, illogic, and irrationality, had me totally convinced that it had _nothing_ to do with the number pi, but I haven't heard of it actually being 'solved'.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

There probably is a definitive definition out there, but I'm happy thinking when Elgar said, "I'll never, never, never tell" what the Enigma is corresponds with the "never, never, never" musical phrase in Rule Brittania: "England never, never, never shall be slaves."


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Not yet but I've been working meticulously trying to find the answer!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I read it could have been something mathematical - a theory which helped to deaden my curiosity straight away.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

We wouldn't know even if someone really did find the answer, that is the nature of an enigma.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Every time someone thinks they have the answer, a child dies in Africa.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

It's just fun to think about . I haven't heard it in awhile, and I need to listen again.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Polednice said:


> Every time someone thinks they have the answer, a child dies in Africa.




Occasionally it becomes obvious that you are a 'weird dude', Noon Witch.

A child dies in Africa much more often than that. Every time I exhale, a child dies in Africa - and my breath is sweet.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Occasionally it becomes obvious that you are a 'weird dude', Noon Witch.
> 
> A child dies in Africa much more often than that. Every time I exhale, a child dies in Africa - and my breath is sweet.


I'm not weird, just endearingly morbid.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Polednice said:


> I'm not weird, just endearingly morbid.


'Endearingly'?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Klavierspieler said:


> 'Endearingly'?


Oh fine - I'm _adorably_ morbid!


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

Polednice said:


> There was somebody on the forum a while ago who, through an impressive display of casuistry, illogic, and irrationality, had me totally convinced that it had _nothing_ to do with the number pi


It had that effect on me too.

There's a sensible book on the _Enigma Variations_ by Julian Rushton (CUP 1999) who devotes a chapter to considering the various putative 'enigma' solutions proposed up to that time and concludes that while he was 'as much impressed by the persistence and intelligence of some solutions as by the ineptitude of others ... only rarely do they suspend my scepticism'.

He reviews the material and sets up a series of five criteria that any convincing solution should meet. He suggests it must:
1. unveil a 'dark saying'.
2. find 'another and larger theme' which _goes_ over the whole set.
3. involve well-known music, or at least, something 'well-known'.
4. be clear why Dora Penny _of all people_ should guess it.
5. explain Elgar's comment about the significance of a drop of a seventh in the Theme (bars 3 and 4).

He goes on to add that in addition to these, a convincing solution must be multivalent, must deal with musical as well as cryptological issues, must produce working counterpoint, _and must seem obvious_ (and not just to the composer).

The issue is further obfuscated by the (no doubt deliberately) cloudy character of Elgar's own comments; by the description of how he came to discover the theme in the first place, apparently by improvising at the piano (as opposed to working out and planting some sort of encrypted puzzle); by his comment to Dora that it was 'extraordinary that no one had spotted it' - as if it were something that any attentive listener could hardly miss; by the anecdote of Dora Penny's insistence, long after Elgar's death, that he'd lied about it, etc etc.. In all this, it's hard to find any solid ground. In some ways it's easier to believe that it was a joke that got out of hand: that there was some kind of elementary 'enigma' indeed which started out as a small private joke but which, as the piece ballooned into fame, would have seemed a bit silly in hindsight. Speaking personally, I can readily imagine Elgar digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole that he couldn't get out of, and eventually becoming resentful of the embarrassment that the whole business was causing (even sufficiently so to lose the friendship of Dorabella when her husband proposed his _Auld Lang Syne_ solution).

Rushton admits that a solution may yet be found that undermines his scepticism, but meanwhile a reading of the relevant chapter in his book is a good starting point for anyone who's interested.


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