Hiding in plain sight- Elgar's Enigma Solution

[nimrod]

I like the observation that I came across many years ago (and I don't remember the source) that the real enigma of Elgar's piece is why it's called the Enigma Variations.

Well, it is. And while Elgar may indeed have loved nursery rhymes and puns, he doubtless wrote music for the same reason that any composer writes music, because he thinks in tones and rhythms and harmonies and such. (Most composers nowadays being more interested in the "and such," of course.)

All very true.  However Elgar told us there was an enigma (riddle/puzzle) contained in the work.  He thought it would be solved at the first performance.  Here we are more that 111 years later and many people cannot find the solution when it is laid out for them.  I find it fascinating that such a simple puzzle took so long to solve, and so many people distort the "counting" and other evidence to try to disprove it. 

[nimrod]

I will not claim that this theory can be disproved, but it relies on the pretence that various capricious associations are obvious or unambiguous.  The double bar, for instance, marks the end of the first strain of the melody seems perfectly normal to me, I see numerous instances of double bars at similar points in the score, such as on page 4.  The assumption that the "dark saying" is "Sing a song of sixpence" strikes me as entirely arbitrary.  The fact that the two descending sevenths mean 11 times 2 divided by 7 seems equally capricious.  The most convincing argument to me is that people who knew Elgar at the were absolutely sure that the "enigma" was a musical theme which could be played as a counter-melody to the played theme.    With that assumption all of the statements which the Pi theory interpret in some mysterious, symbolic manner, are correct in their normal sense.

Yes, these are the same people who could not solve the enigma.  Elgar NEVER said the enigma was a melody, but he denied every melody that was proposed to him as a solution during his lifetime.  That should be a clue in itself.  Elgar said it was a "theme."  Theme can also be defined as the central idea of a work, as a melody created around the idea of Pi.

[nimrod]

But why stop at three decimals? After all, if the theme were truly based on pi, I would think Elgar would want to stretch it out as long as he could.

Some composers have tried what you suggest but the music was rather tedious and soon forgotten.  Elgar's idea was to compose a melody consisting of three forms of Pi.  Decimal Pi, fractional Pi, and Pi as a pun in a nursery rhyme.  He did all that in the first six bars then he inserted a double bar although the first phrase was complete in bar seven.  Elgar was quite clever.

[karlhenning]

I am not aware of any music that use a double bar to indicate a shift from minor to major before the melody is complete. (in bar 7.)  Please refer to some for my benefit.

If there is a notated change in key signature, the tradition is to underscore that with a double-bar; that will be the case even when the key change does not coincide with the melodic cadence.

[Philoctetes]

[nimrod]

Correct!!!  The genius who discovered this "conspirancy" can't even count!!!

Please count them for yourself.  Don't be misled by others.  There are 11 notes before the "drop" of the seventh.

[karlhenning]

There are 11 notes before the "drop" of the seventh.

No way could that be a coincidence!

[nimrod]

If there is a notated change in key signature, the tradition is to underscore that with a double-bar; that will be the case even when the key change does not coincide with the melodic cadence.

True, but there is no notated change in key signature that I could find.   Did you find one?

[Philoctetes]

[Scarpia]

All very true.  However Elgar told us there was an enigma (riddle/puzzle) contained in the work.  He thought it would be solved at the first performance.  Here we are more that 111 years later and many people cannot find the solution when it is laid out for them.  I find it fascinating that such a simple puzzle took so long to solve, and so many people distort the "counting" and other evidence to try to disprove it.

As you say, Elgar thought it would be solved by people at the first performance, yet the score had not been published and no one knew of your "mysterious" double bar marking off the 24 notes, which tied in with the "dark saying" which refers to "sing a song of sixpence" which refers to 24 black birds baked in a pie, which refers to Pi. 

[karlhenning]

I haven't seen that portrait of Elgar in a while . . . .

[(poco) Sforzando]

If one turns to the Wikipedia on this piece, one finds (among dozens of solutions proposed) the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_variation

Another theme that has been suggested is the mathematical constant pi, which is "well known". The first four notes of the Variations are the scale degrees 3-1-4-2, which correspond to an approximation of pi. The commonly used fractional approximation is also observed in the two "drops of a seventh" that follow exactly after the first eleven notes– 11 x 2/7, or 22/7. In this proposal, the "dark saying" is a pun on the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, found in "Four and twenty blackbirds (dark) baked in a pie (Pi)", used to refer to the first twenty-four black notes. Elgar wrote his Enigma Variations in the year following the Indiana Pi Bill of 1897, and noted in 1910 that the work was "commenced in a spirit of humour."[30]

^ Santa, Charles Richard; Matthew Santa (Spring 2010). "Solving Elgar's Enigma". Current Musicology (89).

So unless you're one of the two Santas, or you're Santa Claus, you're not only proposing an improbable solution, but you're plagiarizing Wikipedia and not giving the authors due credit.

[Philoctetes]

I haven't seen that portrait of Elgar in a while . . . .

True, you never usually see portraits that are so exact.

[nimrod]

No way could that be a coincidence!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[karlhenning]

(psst! I wasn't serious . . . .)

[karlhenning]

If one turns to the Wikipedia on this piece, one finds (among dozens of solutions proposed) the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_variation

Another theme that has been suggested is the mathematical constant pi, which is "well known". The first four notes of the Variations are the scale degrees 3-1-4-2, which correspond to an approximation of pi. The commonly used fractional approximation is also observed in the two "drops of a seventh" that follow exactly after the first eleven notes– 11 x 2/7, or 22/7. In this proposal, the "dark saying" is a pun on the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, found in "Four and twenty blackbirds (dark) baked in a pie (Pi)", used to refer to the first twenty-four black notes. Elgar wrote his Enigma Variations in the year following the Indiana Pi Bill of 1897, and noted in 1910 that the work was "commenced in a spirit of humour."[30]

^ Santa, Charles Richard; Matthew Santa (Spring 2010). "Solving Elgar's Enigma". Current Musicology (89).

So unless you're one of the two Santas, or you're Santa Claus, you're not only proposing an improbable solution, but you're plagiarizing Wikipedia and not giving the authors due credit.

Zowie!

[nimrod]

So unless you're one of the two Santas, or you're Santa Claus, you're not only proposing an improbable solution, but you're plagiarizing Wikipedia and not giving the authors due credit.

Zowie!

I am Charles Richard Santa.  I posted the information to inform and invite discussion.  Is that against the rules?

[nimrod]

(psst! I wasn't serious . . . .)

Neither was I.

[Scarpia]

I am Charles Richard Santa.  I posted the information to inform and invite discussion.  Is that against the rules?

It's not against the rules, of course, but it is useful information.  Having seen the Wikipedia entry I inferred there are two people in the world that believe this theory, you and whoever put that in the Wiki page.  Now I see there is only one.   

[karlhenning]

I am Charles Richard Santa.  I posted the information to inform and invite discussion.  Is that against the rules?

You posted that onto Wikipedia?  Is that ethical?