Enigma Variations

Edward Elgar’s breakthrough masterpiece was originally a lighthearted diversion from writing large-scale choral works which had failed to raise more than polite interest. Sometime in 1898, he came home, tired from a day of violin teaching, and was absent-mindedly extemporising at the piano when his wife, Alice, called out, “Edward, that’s a good tune.” Elgar began to imagine how certain friends might play that tune: the resulting Enigma Variations for orchestra (1899) he dedicated “to my friends pictured within”. After the opening theme comes a gentle yet richly textured variation depicting Alice, a woodwind countermelody imitating Elgar’s own characteristic whistle as he arrived home. Then follows several of his friends—some of them eccentric or “characters” such as “R.B.T.”; or gentler souls such as the stuttering “Dorabella”; then those most dear to him, such as his warmly supportive music editor, Augustus Jaeger, recalled in “Nimrod” (the Bible’s mighty hunter—hence the pun on Jaeger’s surname); or even their trusty companions, such as Dan the bulldog, the real hero in “G.R.S” (the initials of his master, the organist George Robertson Sinclair). Variation “***” Elgar eventually “admitted” is a portrait of Lady Mary Lygon, whom he claimed was on a sea voyage when he composed it (hence the quotation from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage); however, evidence has since emerged that it in fact recalls his one-time fiancée Helen Weaver, who sailed to New Zealand after breaking their engagement in 1884. Finally, Elgar’s self-portrait—grand and vigorous.