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

The Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”) is one of Elgar’s most popular and frequently performed compositions. It is a set of fourteen variations, each named for a personal friend or relation and representing some quirk in their personality or a personal remembrance.For example, the first variation, titled “C.A.E.” for Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife, contains a four-note phrase which Elgar whistled to his wife when he returned home. Elgar extended the tune in the variation, saying of it, “I wished (it) to be romantic and delicate; those who knew C.A.E. will understand this reference to one whose life was a romantic and delicate inspiration."

The most famous is variation 9, Nimrod, a remembrance of Elgar’s music publisher Augustus J. Jaeger who inspired Elgar to continue writing in the face of a depressing period in the composer’s career. In German, Jaeger (Jäger) means “hunter” and Nimrod is a Biblical figure described as a “mighty hunter”. This moving variation is often played as a stand-alone piece at state funerals or on state occasions in Britain. It stands apart from the rest of the composition much like Rachmaninoff’s Eighteenth Variation in the Paganini Variations.

But it is the title of the Variations that is most enigmatic. Elgar said, “The ‘Enigma’ I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion (sic) 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, e.g., Maeterlinck’s L’Intruse and Les Sept Princesses – the chief character is never on the stage.”This, of course, ignited a century-long debate about the nature of the enigma, the meaning of Elgar’s words “dark saying” and the identity of the unwritten theme which most musicologists think is hidden somewhere in the score or hinted at by some phrasing Elgar used.Theories abound, most beginning with a futile attempt to find a well-known melody buried in Elgar’s music or a tune like Rule Britannia, Ein Feste Burg or Auld Lang Syne which is cryptically suggested somewhere in the score or could be played effectively in counterpoint to one of Elgar’s main themes. No-one has yet found a generally accepted solution; but the answer, if one exists at all, may lie in a completely non-musical direction and may be quite simple and obvious.

Notwithstanding the majestic beauty of Nimrod, no name is associated with variation 13, Romanza, but it is believed to be Elgar’s wistful farewell to his first lost love, Helen Weaver, who broke her engagement to the composer in 1884 and subsequently left for New Zealand. The drums near the end of the variation suggest the distant throb of a ship’s engines as it sails far out to sea and the orchestra quietly quotes a wishful phrase from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Why the engagement failed is unknown – perhaps religion caused the break, perhaps her health, perhaps Elgar’s poverty and lack of prospects at the time – theories exist but no-one can say for certain. Elgar mourned his loss for many months and, for the rest of his life, it seems Helen was never far from his mind. Hic iacet solutionem.