It has long been a curiosity that in England, with its rich—one might even say dominating—literary history, music should suffer in pronounced comparative inferiority. Since the death of Henry Purcell in 1695, England’s greatest musical voices seemed to come from abroad, beginning with Handel, later Haydn, and eventually Mendelssohn. Had not Mozart died so young, even he—with urgings from his friend Stephen Storace—would have crossed the channel to ply his trade in the English capital. (Mozart did visit London as a child of 8 and established a life-long cordial and mutually respectful relationship with Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of the great Johann Sebastian.) Not until the closing years of the 19th century did Great Britain renew its native voice in the person of Sir Edward Elgar, the first in a succession of English worthies whose music has regained an international foothold in our own century. Elgar enjoyed a special niche. Not only did he achieve high status among the cognoscenti for his orchestral and chamber works, but the English laity found immediate (and lasting) favor with his lighter works. He was, in his own ripely romantic way, a throwback to the 18th century, when the line between “popular” and “serious” music was not so firmly maintained by the guardians of culture. By the time he wrote his Introduction and Allegro for Strings in 1905, he had already established himself firmly in the musical public’s consciousness through such major works as the Variations on an Original Theme (aka Enigma Variations, 1899) and the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900). Long after Elgar’s passing in 1934 musicians and music lovers have argued or simply scratched their heads trying to f igure out the meanings of the 14 variations that comprise the Enigma Variations. Elgar hinted at layers of meaning for the set of variations. His biographer W.H. Reed opines that his subject enjoyed leading his friends and musicologists down a path of intentional detours on the road to solving the mysteries of all of the episodes. “To my friends pictured within” was Elgar’s teasing description of the score. The genesis of the Enigma Variations grew from a theme he noodled while sitting at the piano one evening in 1898. Some commentators have suggested that the theme itself scans to the shapely rhythm of his name, Ed-ward-EL-gar!

I. L’istesso tempo: a loving portrait of his wife
II. Allegro: his pianist friend H.D. Stuart-Powell
III. Allegretto: Richard Baxter Townshend, an amateur actor
IV. Allegro di molto: William Baker, an English squire
V. Moderato: Richard Arnold, a blend of the man’s reputed dreaminess and vigor
VI. Andantino: Isabel Fitton, an amateur violist
VII. Presto: Arthur Troyte Griffith, a pugnacious friend
VIII. Allegretto: Winifred Nobury, an aging but statuesque amateur violinist
IX. Adagio: the most beautiful of the variations, often played on its own as an elegy
X. Intermezzo—Allegretto: named after the character Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Elgar’s pet name for Dora Penny, described as speaking with a “fetching hesitation of speech”
XI. Allegro di molto: Ostensibly organist Dr. George Robinson Sinclair, though more likely his bulldog Dan
XII. Andante: Elgar’s frequent partner in chamber music, cellist Basin Nevinson
XIII. Romanza—Moderato: Lady Mary Lygon, an acquaintance on an ocean liner heading toward Australia
XIV. Finale—Allegro—Presto: a self-portrait of sorts, presumably the personal and professional struggles and ideals of the composer.

Adding to the mystery of Elgar’s intention is his comment that there were darker implications of the music. So the guessing game continues more than a century after its composition. The ongoing popularity of Enigma Variations ultimately rests on the rich musical tapestry of the score: highly varied and appealing orchestration, a tender and yet vigorous manner of exploiting the capabilities of an orchestra, and a gift for variation form (a clue to a much-used characterization of Elgar as “the English Brahms,” the German composer being a consummate of master of the genre).