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| Jesus heals the blind beggar |
"They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell."
Elgar dedicates Variation I of the ‘Enigma’ Variations to his wife (Caroline Alice Elgar)
using her initials (C.A.E.) as the title for this poignant movement.
Remarkably, two of her initials are exact sequential matches for those secretly
enciphered in Variation
XIII: F.A.E. More intriguing still is these hidden initials (***)
are encoded by musical fragments that sonically portray the sea, the
phonetic equivalent of Alice
In the orchestral score three of the four Mendelssohn fragments are enclosed
within quotations and are performed on clarinet. Two of these quotations are in A-flat major and begin on the major third of that key, C, the phonetic equivalent of sea.
Coincidence? Certainly not.
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| Clarinet Bell |
The connection to the
letter C ventures beyond Elgar’s symbolic use of the clarinet to begin two of
the Mendelssohn fragments on C, the major third of the A-flat major scale. The
two A-flat major quotations are buoyed by an accompaniment figure provided by
the violas and cellos. In an interesting twist, both instruments have C-bouts
and C strings.
The sound of a passing steamship's engine is deftly
portrayed by a timpani roll on C with coins placed near the edge
of the rim. Notice that coin begins with the letter c, and the
secret friend of Variation XIII was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, i.e., coins. The sea picture is
intimately linked to Jesus as he compared
his death to the plight of Jonah who spent three days in the belly
of a whale. What happened when Jonah was cast into the raging sea and swallowed
by the great fish? The storm subsided and the waters became calm.
In Variation XIII Elgar makes this theological allusion by quoting Mendelssohn
fragments that portray a calm sea. Elgar was also fond of quoting scripture,
particularly in his many sacred oratorios.
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| C bouts |
The accompaniment figure
mimics the palindromic rhythm of the Enigma Theme, alluding to the presence
of a cipher. Unlike the Enigma cipher marked off by double bar lines, this
one is identified by double apostrophes in the form of quotation marks. The
cipher solution points to the burial cloth of Elgar's hidden friend, the Turin Shroud. One
combination of the unique letters from the initials C.A.E. and F.A.E. spells
the word FACE, a subtle reference to the Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. These
devotions were first approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1895. It is conceivable that
the number thirteen and capital letter L to identify Variation XIII may allude
to this pope and these devotions. Elgar did not begin work on the Variations
until 1898, five months after Secondo Pia took his famous photographic negative
of the Turin Shroud. That picture became an international sensation in the
secular and Catholic press, so Elgar was aware of this incredibly discovery in
the months immediately preceding the Variations. The subtitle for Variation
XIII, Romanza, is easily
identified with Elgar's Roman Catholic faith.
The notes forming the marine accompaniment for the A-flat major Mendelssohn quotations are A-flat, C, and E-flat. Sound familiar? They should be, for they are the
initials for Elgar’s wife: C.A.E. This observation should decisively extinguish
any speculative claims regarding Elgar’s alleged longing for Helen Weaver or some
other long lost love interest. Among the Mendelssohn fragments, Elgar only
quotes the A-flat major fragment twice. This is revealing on one level because
C.A.E. is the second movement of the Enigma Variations. Why
would Elgar allude to his wife in a Variation secretly dedicated to Jesus? One
likely explanation involves his Christian view
of marriage that sees the union
between a husband and wife as ordained by God, and symbolizing the union of
Christ and the Church. An another level, Elgar’s use of the A-flat major key for
the Mendelssohn fragments places extra emphasis on A-flat, or A tone. Could this
be a musical reference to the word atone, as in atonement, one of the few theological terms coined in the English language? It would
certainly be a fitting gesture in a movement dedicated to Christ. Interestingly, the Christian symbol for marriage somewhat resembles a treble clef, the same used for the clarinet.
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| Christian Symbol for Marriage |
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| Treble Clef |
Jesus began his ministry at the Wedding Feast at Cana by
miraculously turning water into wine. The word Cana
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| Jesus calms the sea |
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