Variaciones enigma edward elgar biography

Musical composition by Edward Elgar

For the Enigma Records compilation album, see Enigma Variations (album).

Edward Elgar composed his Variations on an Original Theme, Op.

36, popularly known as the Enigma Variations,^[a] between October 1898 and February 1899. It is an orchestral work comprising fourteen variations on an original theme.

Variaciones enigma edward elgar biography

Elgar dedicated the work "to my friends pictured within", each variation being a musical sketch of one of his circle of close acquaintances (see musical cryptogram). Those portrayed include Elgar's wife Alice, his friend and publisher Augustus J.

Jaeger and Elgar himself. In a programme note for a performance in 1911 Elgar wrote:

This work, commenced in a spirit of humour & continued in deep seriousness, contains sketches of the composer's friends. It may be understood that these personages comment or reflect on the original theme & each one attempts a solution of the Enigma, for so the theme is