Edward Elgar -- Variations on an Original Theme ("Enigma" Variations) -- Score

When performing a piece of music, an overriding question is "What were the composer's intentions?" Italian words describing tempo can only go so far, and even metronome markings can be subject to interpretation. Even more so questions of phrasing, articulation, rubato. Even composers like Mahler, famous for leaving stylistic notes throughout his scores, can produce widely varying performances, depending on the conductor. But what if you could listen to the composer conducting their own music? Easy enough nowadays, but we can go back to 1926 and have the same experience, with the first composer who took recording technology seriously.

Edward Elgar began composing this piece with some random piano noodling that caught his wife's attention, which he later expanded into a theme and fourteen variations. Each variation was inspired by a friend; Variation I is his wife, IX is his publisher, and XIV is himself. The title of "Enigma" comes from one of Elgar's comments in the program notes at the piece's premiere:

"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[.]"

An article for which he was interviewed in the following year stated: "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."

There have been numerous attempts to decipher which tune this is, with suggestions including "God Save The Queen", "Auld Lang Syne", "Hearts of Oak", "Rule, Britannia", "Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott", and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". Unlike his conducting practices, Elgar never revealed the answers.

0:10 Theme Andante "Enigma"
1:41 Variation I L'istesso tempo "C.A.E."
3:44 Variation II Allegro "H.D.S-P"
4:27 Variation III Allegretto "R.B.T."
5:33 Variation IV Allegro di molto "W.M.B"
6:23 Variation V Moderato "R.P.A."
8:17 Variation VI Andantino "Ysabel"
9:38 Variation VII Presto "Troyte"
10:30 Variation VIII Allegretto "W.N."
12:13 Variation IX Adagio "Nimrod"
15:01 Variation X Intermezzo: Allegretto "Dorabella"
17:29 Variation XI Allegro di molto "G.R.S."
18:22 Variation XII Andante "B.G.N."
20:37 Variation XIII Romanza: Moderato "* * *"
22:40 Variation XIV Finale: Allegro "E.D.U."

Score sourced through the International Music Score Library Project/Petrucci Music Library: https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:Imagef...

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