Awake,
my St.John! leave all meaner things
To low
ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us
(since Life can little more supply
Than just
to look about us and to die)
Expatiate
free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.
There are some who maintain Edward
Elgar did not deliberately plan his Enigma
Variations based on an unstated Principal Theme, and that the
idea only occurred to him as an afterthought or publicity stunt. What did Elgar
have to say on this important subject? A great deal, and all of it points to
premeditation and planning. In private and public venues, Elgar consistently
explained the Enigma Variations are based on a clandestine famous melody. The
dedicatee of Variation X, Dora Powell (née Penny), categorically stated, “Elgar
told me personally more than once that the enigma concerned another tune.”[1] His
first public remarks in the 1899 program note for the premiere makes this fact
unequivocal:
It is
true that I have sketched for their amusement and mine, the idiosyncrasies of
fourteen of my friends, not necessarily musicians; but this is a personal
matter, and need not have been mentioned publicly. The Variations should stand
simply as a ‘piece’ of music. 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, even as in some later dramas –
e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’ – the chief character
is never on the stage.[2]
Elgar plainly states the Theme may be played through and over the
entire set of Variations, yet remains silent with often the slightest
connection between them. Only a musical theme may be played, unlike those of a
literary, symbolic, or mathematical nature. In 1923 Troyte Griffith, the friend
portrayed in Variation VII, asked if the missing melody was God save
the King. Elgar replied, “No, of course not; but it is so well-known
that it is extraordinary no one has spotted it.”[3] Besides establishing
its fame, such a reply suggests that fragments of the absent Theme are present
in the Variations, for otherwise, there would be nothing to spot.
This hunch is bolstered by the original program note that describes the link
between the absent Theme and the Variations as being “. . . often of the slightest
texture . . .” Merriam-Webster defines slight as “very
small in degree or amount”, and one definition for texture is
“the various parts of a song . . . and the way they fit together.” Elgar’s
judiciously parsed words specify the discernable bond between the Variations
and the absent Theme is comprised of short sequences of shared notes or fragments.
This condition is further alluded to by the brief four-note Mendelssohn
fragments quoted in Variation XIII.
In an interview published in the October 1900 issue of The
Musical Times, Elgar clarified how the absent Theme fits into the overall
design:
In
connection with these much discussed Variations, 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.’[4]
Notice the terms phrase and theme are
used interchangeably in the context of a melody that may be added above the
original Enigma Theme. This narrative dovetails precisely with the original
program note stating “. . . through and over the whole set another and larger theme
‘goes’, but is not played . . .” Only a musical theme can be played, a
quality irreconcilable with something symbolic, figurative, mathematical, or
literary. The insistence by some that the solution could be something other
than a famous melody is utterly incompatible with this stipulation.
More evidence confirming the enigma must be a melody is found in
Elgar’s 1905 biography compiled by Robert J. Buckley. As the music critic for The
Birmingham News, he first met Elgar in 1896 and knew him for almost a
decade prior to publication.[5] In the introduction, Buckley confidently
declares:
Whatever
this book states as fact may be accepted as such. The sayings of Elgar are
recorded in the actual words addressed directly to the writer, and upon these I
rely to give to the book an interest it would not otherwise possess.[6]
This biography was available during Elgar’s lifetime, and it is
important to recognize he never disputed or disavowed any part of Buckley’s
reportage. Dora Powell confirmed the biography was sanctioned by the composer.[7] Buckley
could not have offered such intimate details such as quotations, anecdotes,
personal photographs, and copies of unpublished scores without Elgar’s personal
assistance. Following Buckley’s introduction, Elgar’s cooperation is established
by a facsimile of a handwritten autographed note in German and English.[8] On
the subject of the Enigma Variations, Buckley records Elgar’s description as
follows:
The
‘Enigma’ orchestral-piece is Op. 36. What the solution of the ‘Enigma’ may be,
nobody but the composer knows. The theme is a counterpoint on some well-known
melody which is never heard, the variations are the theme seen through the
personalities of friends, with an intermezzo and a coda, the last added at the
request of friends aided and abetted by Dr. Richter, who accepted the work on
its merits, having received the score in Vienna from his agent in London, and
who at the time had not met with the composer.[9]
A counterpoint is by definition a counter-melody,
so logic requires the unstated principal Theme must also be a melody. This
is consistent with Elgar’s character as a composer for he composed
counterpoints to famous themes like Handel’s Messiah and
Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. A counterpoint requires both a
vertical and horizontal fit between the two themes. Like a home resting on its
foundation, the Enigma Theme rests on its foundational principal Theme. This
demands that each share the same length to ensure a precise
horizontal fit. The long and short of it is that one tune cannot be longer or
shorter than the other. Elgar’s standard reply to enigma solutions invokes this
fundamental idea of a fit between the two melodies:
No: nothing like it.
I do not see the tune you suggest fits in the
least.
E.E. [10]
Merriam-Webster defines the
verb fit as “to be suitable for or to harmonize with”, and “to
conform correctly to the shape or size of.” Elgar’s language leaves no room for
doubt. Both themes must be the same length with a suitable counterpoint.
The final condition comes from descriptive notes Elgar supplied
for a set of pianola rolls published in 1929. Concerning the first Variation he
states, “There is no break between the theme and this movement.”[11] That
disclosure is crucial because it confirms the Enigma Theme does not end until
Variation I begins. As the first variant of the Enigma Theme is not introduced
until measure 20, this would mean he defined the length of the Enigma Theme as
the opening nineteen measures. The two-bar bridge in measures 18 and 19 does
not belong to Variation I (something deceptively implied by the layout of the
score), but rather represents an elaboration of the Enigma Theme’s closing
cadence. A conspicuous tie between the notes of measures 17 and 18 supports
this observation, linking the Enigma Theme and the bridge in a way not found
with Variation I. The bridge serves to unwind the Picardy cadence, returning it
back to the minor mode in preparation for the first variation from which it is
separated by a conspicuous double bar. At first glance measure 17 only appears
to mark the end of the Enigma Theme, but in light of Elgar’s published
statement, it is actually a faux ending. The correct melodic
mapping of the covert principal Theme must account not only for the Enigma
Theme’s Ternary ABA structure in measures 1 through 17, but also the two bar
bridge (Section C) in measures 18 and 19 that precede the launch of Variation
I.
A meticulous analysis of
four primary sources – the original 1899 program note, the October 1900
interview in The Musical Times, the 1905 biography, and descriptive
notes for the 1929 pianola notes – clarifies six conditions regarding the
relationship between the Enigma Variations and the covert principal Theme.
These conditions are:
- The Enigma Theme is a counterpoint to the principal Theme.
- The principal Theme is not heard.
- The principal Theme is famous.
- Fragments of the principal Theme are present in the Variations.
- The principal Theme is a melody that can be played through and over the whole set of Variations, including the entire Enigma Theme.
- The Enigma Theme comprises measures 1 through 19.
Any alleged solution that violates any of these
six conditions may only be proffered in direct conflict with the recorded words
of the composer by multiple, independent, unimpeachable sources. In light of
these conditions, all prior melodic solutions may be safely ruled out as
unsound because they invariably overlook the bridge in measures 18 and 19. This
clears the decks for a new solution, but which tune out of a vast sea of
possibilities could conceivably satisfy all of these exacting stipulations? A
fresh reassessment of the anomalous Mendelssohn fragments in Variation XIII yields
a surprising answer.
[1] The Musical
Times 80 (1939), 60.
[2] Original 1899
program note by C. A. Barry citing an unsourced letter by Elgar.
[3] Kennedy, Portrait
of Elgar, 66.
[4] The Musical
Times (October 1, 1900), 647.
[5] Turner, Elgar's
'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration, 51.
[6] Buckley, Sir
Edward Elgar, xi.
[7] Rushton, Elgar:
Enigma Variations,105.
[8] Buckley, Sir
Edward Elgar, ix.
[9] Ibid, ix.
[10] Turner, Elgar's
'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration, 146.
[11] Elgar, My
Friends Pictured Within, 6.
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