# "Nimrod" Variation



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

This is just a casual question. I have long enjoyed Elgar's "Enigma" Variations. Even sat in the front row when Solti/CSO played it during a tour concert long ago and was nearly blown through my seat back. The variation nicknamed "Nimrod" is especially beloved -- powerful, majestic, regal -- and seems to have a totemic, almost holy status in the UK, Is this true? And is there any story behind why?
cheers -


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

As far as I know, the only story is of Elgar's dear friend, who he took a night walk with, and it changed him as a composer forever. For me, the music doesn't need a story, it so beautiful, so soulful- and I too will be seeing the CSO perform it this January, though sadly not with Solti of course.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Not just a friend: It was August Jaeger who was an editor at Novello music publishing who was a great source of encouragement and solace to Elgar. It was at Jaeger's behest that much of Elgar's music was written and polished. The original ending of the entire work was quite abrupt - it was Jaeger who had him add a significantly longer ending. Elgar trusted Jaeger's musical and ethical sensibility; they were quite close.

Since Elgar's time, this grandly noble variation has been a de facto work to play in honor of people, after tragic events, etc. An orchestra I was with back in 2001 had a concert scheduled the weekend following 9/11 - Nimrod was added into the program in honor of the dead; there were a lot of tears in the audience and the orchestra. It is a profoundly moving piece. "Nimrod" was the name of someone in the Bible who was a hunter and the German word for hunter is Jaeger. Elgar loved word puzzles.


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

MarkW said:


> The variation nicknamed "Nimrod" is especially beloved -- powerful, majestic, regal -- and seems to have a totemic, almost holy status in the UK, Is this true? And is there any story behind why?


Firstly and obviously, because it is a great piece of music.

Secondly, because Elgar is our national composer, being the first indisputably great one we produced since the death of Purcell 200 years earlier. His face was on the 20 pound note for some time recently, e.g.. And when I listen to his symphonies, his violin concerto and so on, including Nimrod, which is his most popular piece (perhaps after Pomp and Circumstance No. 1, which is almost a second national anthem, and I guess he also reorchestrated Parry's setting of Jerusalem if you want to count that), Elgar's music does feel very English to me. It embodies a certain side of the English national character as we may like to imagine ourselves: our quiet nobility in the face of adversity, that "keep calm and carry on" Blitz spirit, which is what the Nimrod variation is about very strongly. This might be partly why Elgar is one of the composers I feel the most affinity with, other composers I admire more but Elgar is to me a dear and intimate friend.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Thank you all! .


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

BTW, for a detailed examination of the Enigma Variations, try this podcast:

https://stickynotespodcast.libsyn.com/episode-32-elgar-enigma-variations


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I hate to be unpatriotic but it is just a beautiful piece of music. It is not especially English and I am very suspicious of any claims that it has totemic status or is almost holy for my compatriots - even if one of them makes the claim! As a country we were a musical desert for centuries and Elgar, followed by Vaughan Williams and those who followed his lead, marked an end to that bleak period. But it was only with the arrival of Ben Britten that British music came into its own again. What a shame, then, but how very British, that many of his countrymen loathe _his _music.


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