Music Director
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma)
Sir Edward Elgar was the first English composer to achieve international recognition since the days of Henry Purcell (1659-1695). He was the first nineteenth century composer to contribute significant works to the choral and orchestral repertoire.
Elgar was raised in Worcester, where he succeeded his father as organist of St. George's Roman Catholic Church in 1885. He left that post in 1889, after he married and decided to devote his time to composing. He tried to establish himself in London but was not immediately successful.
Elgar's overture Froissart attracted some attention, but it was not until 1899, when Hans Richter conducted Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme at St. James's Hall in London, that he received significant recognition. Elgar had been composing narrative choral works, and the formal discipline of writing a set of variations resulted in a work that became immensely popular.
Elgar improvised a theme, and then presented it as though it were being played by fourteen different people. The work was dedicated "To my friends within." Each variation was given initials representing the person he had in mind.
The First Variation was C.A.E., Elgar's wife Alice, and the Fourteenth Variation was E.D.U., for Elgar himself. Edoo was Alice's nickname for him. The Eleventh Variation, G.R.S., for George Sinclair, the organist at Hereford Cathedral, but allegedly depicted Sinclair's bulldog Dan paddling in the River Wye after falling in!
The subtitle Enigma refers first to the identities of the 'friends pictured within,' and second to Elgar's claim that the main theme is the counterpoint to a popular tune. Elgar loved puzzles. Many have sought to discover what that tune is. Some have suggested Auld Lang Syne. The Elgar Society Journal published an article in 1975 making a good argument for Rule Britannia. Elgar never revealed what the tune is to anyone, and it is entirely possible that his theme was not counterpoint for any preexisting tune. We will never really know for sure!
Beth Bergman Fisher