Lionel Tertis, in his transcription of the Elgar cello concerto, wrote the slow movement with the ' C ' string tuned down to B flat, enabling the viola to play one passage an octave lower.

In ' My Friends Pictured Within ' Elgar wrote, " The variation is really a prolongation of the theme with what I wished to be romantic and delicate additions ; those who knew C. A. E.

In ' My Friends Pictured Within ' Elgar wrote, " Hew David Steuart-Powell was a well-known amateur pianist and a great player of chamber music.

In 1899, when the Variations were being finished, Elgar wrote to Lady Mary Lygon to ask permission to use her initials, but as she and her brother were on the point of leaving for Australia ( he had been appointed Governor of New South Wales ) and there was not time for a reply Elgar used "***" instead.

", referring to Jaeger and Elgar ´ s wife Alice, " two great influences on the life and art of the composer ", as Elgar wrote in 1927.

Elgar also wrote the following, in a set of notes issued with the Aeolian Company pianola rolls published in 1929:

Julian Rushton suggests that any solution must satisfy five criteria, three of which stemming from the above quotations: a " dark saying " must be involved ; the theme " is not played "; the theme should be " well known ", as Elgar stated multiple times ; Dora Penny ( to whom Elgar also wrote the Dorabella Cipher ) should have been, " of all people ," the one to solve the Enigma ; and finally, the details mentioned in the notes accompanying the pianola rolls may be part of the solution.

Edwards wrote, " In connection with these much discussed Variations, Mr Elgar tells us that the heading Enigma is justified by the fact that it is possible to add another phrase, which is quite familiar, above the original theme that he has written.

" Buckley, in his Elgar biography of 1905, wrote, " The theme is a counterpoint on some well-known melody which is never heard ".

Professor Ian Parrott, former vice-president of the Elgar Society, in his book on Elgar ( Master Musicians, 1971 ) wrote that the " dark saying ", and possibly the whole of the Enigma, had a biblical source, 1 Corinthians 13: 12, which reads according to the Authorised Version of the Bible: " For now we see through a glass, darkly ( enigmate in the Latin of the Vulgate ); but then face to face: now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

The English composer Edward Elgar wrote an overture entitled Froissart.

When Delius wrote to Elgar in 1933 of the " beautiful four-part harmonies " of the black plantation workers, he may have been unconsciously alluding to the spirituals sung by the Fisk group.

Lady Elgar wrote, " that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing.

The music scholar David Russell Hulme wrote of German that French influences are clearly apparent in his music " and there are even occasional reminders of Tchaikovsky but paradoxically he was, like Elgar, a stylistic cosmopolitan who wrote music that is quintessentially English ".

At the age of eleven he wrote a piano sonata that won praise from Edward Elgar.

Lady Elgar wrote, " that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing.

Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Josef Suk, Edward Elgar and others wrote serenades for strings only, as did Hugo Wolf, who wrote one for string quartet ( the Italian Serenade ).

Elgar was present, and he wrote " It completely bore out my idea of the work: the chorus was very fine ".

36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898 – 1899.

Elgar eventually expanded and orchestrated these improvisations into the Enigma Variations.

She described the ' Friends Pictured Within ' and ' The Enigma ' in two chapters of her book Edward Elgar, ' Memories of a Variation '.

This solution was favoured by Sir Charles Mackerras, who conducted a concert entitled " Elgar – The Enigma Solved?

The real theme of the Enigma Variations which is present everywhere throughout the work in different shapes, is rather short: it consists of only nine notes ( the first nine notes of Nimrod with added crotchet rests ) on the rhythm of Edward Elgar ’ s own name (" short-short-long-long ", and the reverse of it, " long-long-short-short " and an endnote ).

By doing so, the artist triumphs over depression and discouragement in the Finale, " E. D. U. " So, like some works of Elgar ’ s contemporaries Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, the Enigma Variations are about the artist himself: ( almost ) all the themes of the work are in fact derived from the ‘ Elgar theme ’.

Another literary theme was suggested by Edmund M. Green in The Elgar Society Journal ( November 2004, Vol. 13, No. 6 ) in which he suggested that the " larger " theme is Shakespeare's sixty-sixth Sonnet and that the word " Enigma " stands for the real name of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets.

Elgar: Enigma variations.

Edward Elgar attempts to use the timpani to imitate the engine of an ocean liner in his " Enigma " Variations by requesting the timpanist play a soft roll with snare drum sticks.

* Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Edward and Dora liked one another and remained friends for the rest of the composer's life: Elgar named Variation 10 of his 1899 Variations on an Original Theme ( Enigma ) Dorabella as a dedication to Dora Penny.

* Enigma Variations, a musical work by Edward Elgar

* The 9th variation in the composition Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

A sculpture group by artist Rose Garrard comprising the Enigma fountain together with a statue of Elgar gazing over Great Malvern stands on Belle Vue Terrace in the town centre.

Among her sculptures are the statue of Sir Edward Elgar and the Enigma Fountain ( Unveiled by Prince Andrew, Duke of York on Belle Vue Terrace, Malvern on 26 May 2000 ).

The last movement of this work is a theme and variations depicting in music the personalities of the five players and their respective instruments, much in the manner that Elgar portrayed his friends in the Enigma Variations.

All Saints, the parish church, was built by a local builder, William Porter, to a design by Troyte Griffith-a friend of Edward Elgar who is depicted in the " Enigma Variations ".

There is evidence to suggest that Elgar composed part of the " Enigma Variations " in the church, but his offer of the original manuscript of his oratorio " The Apostles ", as a gift to the church, was refused by the Anglican church authorities because Elgar was a Roman Catholic and the oratorio was heavily based in that tradition.

The identities of all are known, and Elgar himself even provided brief notes on the subjects to accompany the five Duo-art pianola rolls of the Variations that the Aeolian Company introduced in 1929.

Elgar was a practising Roman Catholic and on 12 February 1899, eight days before the completion of the Variations, he attended Quinquagesima Mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Malvern.

On 24 May 1912 Elgar conducted a performance of the Variations at a Memorial Concert in aid of the family survivors of musicians who had been lost in the Titanic disaster.

Lloyd Webber has made many recordings, including his BRIT Award winning Elgar Cello Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin ( chosen as the finest ever version by BBC Music Magazine ), the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Václav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the London Symphony Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich and a coupling of Britten's Cello Symphony and Walton's Cello Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which was described by Gramophone magazine as " beyond any rival ".

He has also published several editions and arrangements, principally for Faber Music, and was an advisor on new editions of Beethoven ’ s Cello Sonatas and Cello Variations, as well as the Cello Concertos of Dvořák and Elgar.

It was during the ' Forli ' years that Elgar composed many of his works, including, among others, The Black Knight ( 1892 ), Sursm Corda ( 1894 ), and in 1898 the Variations on an Original Theme that gained him his international reputation.

Soon after Butterworth ’ s appointment he suggested that the orchestra should play Elgar ’ s Enigma Variations for the first time.