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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.
We've gone through four important parts — representing important parts of Elgar's life — in the work so far: the theme, C.A.E., Nimrod and Dorabella. Today, we're looking at the final variation of the work, titled "E.D.U." Who could that variation represent?
It turns out that it was his wife's pet name for him. The German form of Edward is Eduard. And she would call him Edu. This variation is basically Elgar's musical selfie!
He chose to create his own theme by combining two earlier themes — those of his wife and his good friend and publisher who is described in the Nimrod variation. He wrote that they were "two great influences on the life and art of the composer."
Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations: Variation XIV. "E.D.U."
This week's Mystery Melody
Congratulations to this week's Golden Ears who guessed the Mystery Melody correctly! Listen for the song title revealed at the end of today's podcast episode.
