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Celebrating Bonds Through Music

Celebrating Bonds Through Music

English composer Edward Elgar (1847-1954) was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, near Worcester, England. Elgar’s most popular orchestral compositions include Variations On An Original Theme ("Enigma Variations)," "Pomp and Circumstance," and his cello concerto. 

Elgar was a self-taught composer whose second wife, Caroline Alice Roberts, was the daughter of a senior British officer. She inspired him both musically and socially; however, Elgar did not achieve musical success until his 40s. "Enigma Variations" was his breakout success as a composer, becoming popular in 1899 both in Britain and overseas. 

"Enigma Variations" has been described by some as a “musical portrait gallery” of the composer’s friends. Elgar dedicated the piece to "my friends pictured within," and in the score each variation is prefaced with the initials, name, or nickname of the friend depicted. Each movement conveys an impression of its subject's personality. Many variations also contain a musical reference to a specific characteristic or event, such as a laugh, a habit of speech, or a memorable conversation. 

Many of Elgar’s subjects were musicians, and their varied and vivid personalities shine through the 14 variations. The warm lyricism of the first variation represents Elgar’s wife, followed by skittering passages in the second depicting H.D. Stuart-Powell’s enthusiastic piano exercises. In “R.B.T.,” Elgar uses woodwinds to mimic Richard Baxter Townshend’s ability to break into falsetto. Another of Elgar’s friends, Arthur Troyte Griffith, was an architect and amateur painter, and in the stormy seventh variation, thundering timpani gives us a peek into one aspect of his personality. 

At the heart of "Enigma Variations" is the ninth variation, entitled "Nimrod." Many audience members will surely recognize this tender passage, which was played at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and funeral and has been used in movies like Dunkirk and Elizabeth. The variation is a portrait of his close friend, A.E. Jaeger. Elgar named the variation Nimrod because Jaeger was German, and in German, Jaeger means "hunter." Nimrod was the "mighty hunter" mentioned in the Bible. Elgar wrote that the variation was a portrait of a long summer evening talk, “when my friend discoursed eloquently on the slow movements of Beethoven.”