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Welcome to Intermezzo from Interlochen Public Radio, where we take a few minutes to bounce some ideas around about classical music.
This week, Christy L'Esperance and her co-host Quinn celebrate this Thursday's National Puzzle Day with a musical puzzle — “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside of an enigma," Sir Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Elgar loved puzzles. He was a member of the London Cipher Club and often incorporated hidden messages into his compositions. Elgar's Enigma Variations start with a theme — which has an unsolved riddle embedded into it. That's followed by 14 mysterious variations labeled with initials and nicknames.
Elgar dedicated the piece to "my friends pictured within." We'll look at the theme and four of those variations this week on Intermezzo. Today, we'll examine the opening theme.
He claimed the main theme is not the real theme, but counterpoint to a secret larger theme that is never played. The variations that follow are based on that unplayed mystery theme. People have made guesses for decades, but the puzzle of the mystery theme has never been solved. Let's listen to the opening "counterpoint" theme (aptly called "Enigma") to Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations: Theme - Andante
This week's Mystery Melody
It's time to test your ears. Each week we have a mystery melody that we have to figure out together. It relates to our topic. (We'll make the melody less mysterious each day.)
If you know the mystery melody, text your name and the title and we’ll give you a shout out on Friday. The number to text is (833) 490-4718.
