What the meaning of Edward Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ is within his ‘Enigma Variations’ has fascinated musicologists and enthusiasts ever since the piece’s first performance in 1899. In this essay, I look at the background behind the Enigma and consider, in turn, three main musical solutions that each suggest a melody that could work in counterpoint with the original theme.

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ENIGMA THEORIES

Richard Powell (Auld Lang Syne): https://academic.oup.com/ml/article-a...
Robert Padgett (Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott) http://enigmathemeunmasked.blogspot.com/
Charles Richard Santa and Matthew Santa (Pi / π): https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/...
Ed Newton-Rex (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater) :   / pergolesis-stabat-mater-the-solution-to-el...  
Byron Adams (The "Dark Saying" of the Enigma: Homoeroticism and the Elgarian Paradox): https://www.jstor.org/stable/746879?s...
Mark Pitt (Liszt’s 'Les Préludes'): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019...

FURTHER READING/RESEARCH

Roger Fiske (The Enigma: A Solution): https://www.jstor.org/stable/951679?s...

#Elgar #Nimrod