"The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.' For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
Following my historic discovery of Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) as the missing Principal Theme of the Enigma Variations, the next important step to confirm my find was to successfully map A Mighty Fortress "through and over" each of the variations. One of the earliest candidates to undergo such an analysis was C.A.E., the first of the variations.
The initials for Variation I stand for the name of Elgar’s wife and dearest friend, Caroline Alice Elgar. She was an early and enthusiastic supporter of his compositions, recognizing well before her contemporaries her husband’s gift eclipsed that of a mere, provincial composer. Her family practically disowned her for stooping to the level of marrying a ‘jobbing’ musician with no wealth, no prospects, and no future. In the end she proved them wrong by exercising a faith in her own judgment and heart, and by unselfishly supporting her husband’s work against what seemed like impossible odds. She remained a source of strength and inspiration for Elgar throughout his most productive years. It is not coincidental Elgar’s first major work, Froissart, was completed the year of his marriage toAlice
The initials for Variation I stand for the name of Elgar’s wife and dearest friend, Caroline Alice Elgar. She was an early and enthusiastic supporter of his compositions, recognizing well before her contemporaries her husband’s gift eclipsed that of a mere, provincial composer. Her family practically disowned her for stooping to the level of marrying a ‘jobbing’ musician with no wealth, no prospects, and no future. In the end she proved them wrong by exercising a faith in her own judgment and heart, and by unselfishly supporting her husband’s work against what seemed like impossible odds. She remained a source of strength and inspiration for Elgar throughout his most productive years. It is not coincidental Elgar’s first major work, Froissart, was completed the year of his marriage to
Ein feste Burg plays through and over C.A.E. as shown in Figure 6.1. A sound file of this melodic solution is available here.
Figure 6.2 shows how the notes from Ein feste Burg were meticulously mapped over C.A.E. based on a combination of melodic interval mirroring, and the contrapuntal devices of contrary and similar motion. Melodic interval mirroring occurs when intervals in Ein feste Burg are mirrored or reflected in the variation over similar or identical durations between notes. For the purposes of this analysis, similar motion is when voices from Ein feste Burg and the variation move in the same direction, but not necessarily by the same interval. Contrary motion takes place when Ein feste Burg moves in the opposite direction than the variation, again not necessarily by the same interval. In some cases, the upper voice of the variation moves parallel with Ein feste Burg while the base line moves in a contrary manner. One important observation is an effective counterpoint typically employs a fairly balanced combination of contrary and similar motion, something that is very evident in Figure 6.2.
Table 6.1 documents 28 shared melody notes between Ein feste Burg and C.A.E., an amount equal to two times plus two of that found with the Enigma theme (13). These melodic conjunctions are present from measures 20 to 39, a span of 19 measures. C.A.E. is 21 measures in length excluding the two bar bridge with the Enigma Theme (measures 18 and 19). It was determined the unstated Principal Theme is dormant in those two transitional measures. There are 90 melody notes in C.A.E., and 75 melody notes in this version of Ein feste Burg. Therefore, 37.3% of the melody from Ein feste Burg overlaps with 31.1% of the melody of C.A.E. Such a high percentage supports the conclusion Variation I is in fact a deliberate counterpoint to Ein feste Burg.
Table 6.2 condenses the data from Table 6.1 by note type and frequency. There are 11 types of shared melody notes with frequencies ranging from 1 to 11. Such a high incidence of numbers based on 1 is very appropriate for Variation I, for Alice was closest to Elgar's heart as his wife and helpmate.
Table 6.3 identifies 140 shared notes between Ein feste Burg and C.A.E. occurring in measures 20 through 40. It was determined the missing Principal Theme is dormant in the two bar introduction found in measures 18-19. Melodic conjunctions are indicated in bold enclosed in a double box. All other conjunctions are shown in bold within a single box . Matching notes not occurring in both melody lines are also known as chordal conjunctions. There are at least 140 notes from the piano reduction of C.A.E. matching 62 out of 75 melody notes from Ein feste Burg. That means that an astounding 82.6% of the melody notes from Ein feste Burg are embedded sequentially into the melody and score of C.A.E. For such a high percentage of melody notes to appear in order throughout the melody and score of Variation I defy the boundaries of random chance or the capricious application of free rhythm. This was deliberate.
Table 6.4 condenses data from Table 6.3 according to note type and frequency. It shows there are 11 shared note types with frequencies ranging from 2 to 43. It is remarkable that all 11 note types are shared by both melodies.
Conclusion
Based on Figures 6.1-6.2 and Tables 6.1-6.4, the preponderance of the evidence proves C.A.E. from Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations is a clear and convincing counterpoint to Ein feste Burg.
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