Hunting for Hidden Friends in Elgar's Enigma Variations: Variation IX "Nimrod"
The Backstory
Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36
I'm Edward Elgar, and this is the backstory of Enigma Variations: Variation IX "Nimrod". Here you'll discover how a conversation with my friend August Jaeger about Beethoven, at a time when I nearly gave up composing, became this slow and tender music. Here on this site my fellow composers and I also teach you to recognize our pieces the moment they begin, so why not take a turn at the Trainer ?
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A Teacher With a Piano and No Patrons
I should tell you first that I was mostly self-taught, and nobody important was paying my bills. I gave violin lessons to keep money coming in, which means a lot of my days were spent listening to other people's scales. Just before all this, my cantata Caractacus had been performed at the Leeds Festival in October 1898, and I was tired in the pleasant, wrung-out way that follows a big event. So the music I'm about to describe didn't start with a grand plan at all.Alice Notices a Tune
On the evening of 21 October 1898, I came home from a day of teaching and sat down at the piano to fiddle about. My wife Alice was in the room, and she picked out one little melody from my wandering and asked me what it was. I played it again and began to turn it this way and that, and that tune became the theme of the whole work. Alice backed me in practical ways as well as artistic ones, and I doubt I would have finished much without her.Portraits of My Friends in Disguise
Once the theme was there, I had an idea that felt almost like a parlour game. I would write variations on it, and each one would portray a friend, or a small circle of friends, in musical form. I dedicated the whole piece "to my friends pictured within", and most of them were identified only by initials or nicknames. The ninth in the series is the one I care about most, and it belongs to a man named August Jaeger.The Man from the Publisher's Office
August Jaeger worked as a music editor at Novello & Co., the publishers who handled my music. We met in late 1897, and over the next eleven years we wrote each other so many letters that someone later collected them in a book called "Letters to Nimrod". He was honest with me in a way that stung, which is exactly why I trusted him. I even called him a "stern critic", and I meant it as a compliment.A Pun Hidden in Plain Sight
Here is the joke behind the title, and it only works if you know a little German. Jäger is the German word for "hunter", and Nimrod is the "mighty hunter" from the Old Testament. So the name is a pun on his surname, and it has nothing to do with the biblical Nimrod's own character. I rather enjoyed slipping a friend's name into the music where only he would spot it.An Evening Spent Talking About Beethoven
People often assume this variation is a plain portrait of Jaeger, but I'd describe it differently. To me it tells the story of something that actually happened, which was a conversation between us about Beethoven's slow movements. I had been very low, and Jaeger reminded me that Beethoven kept on composing through far worse troubles than mine. He even sang the slow-movement theme of the Pathétique Sonata to make his point, and the music remembers that moment.Finished, Scored and Handed to Richter
By February 1899 the score was written out in full for orchestra, and the sound of it was beginning to feel real to me. The first performance took place on 19 June 1899 at St James's Hall in London, with Hans Richter conducting. I was nervous, as anyone is when a piece they have carried around for months finally meets an audience. A piano version appeared from Novello that same year, so friends could try the music at home without hiring an orchestra.The Critic Who Wanted More Finale
Jaeger came away from that first performance feeling that the finale was too short, and he said so plainly. I thought it over and decided he was right, so I made the ending larger. The longer version was heard in September 1899 at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival, and this time I conducted it myself. Having a friend who would tell me the truth, even when I didn't want it, was worth more than any amount of polite applause.The Word That Started a Puzzle
You may wonder where the name Enigma comes from, and the answer is a bit of a surprise. Jaeger wrote that word above the opening theme while the full score was being prepared, so it refers to the theme and not to the whole piece. The theme is supposed to hide a puzzle, and nobody has solved it to this day. I never accepted anyone's proposed answer while I was alive, and I'm not about to give one away now.Music for Saying Goodbye
Jaeger died in 1909, and later I wrote that his place "has been occupied but never filled". I brought his variation back in my choral work The Music Makers in 1912, because I couldn't quite let it rest. These days the piece is played at funerals and memorial services all over the place. It is always heard at the Cenotaph in Whitehall during the annual National Service of Remembrance, and I find that very moving.---
I hope you enjoyed learning about the story behind Enigma Variations: Variation IX "Nimrod". I've told you how a tired teacher at the piano, a watchful wife and a loyal friend all played a part in it, and I'm glad you stayed with me. Looking back, I think that is what the piece is really about: someone who believed in me when I had stopped believing in myself. There is still a good deal more to explore in Enigma Variations: Variation IX "Nimrod". You could follow the friendship between August Jaeger and me through our long exchange of letters, or find out why the music is played so often at moments of remembrance. There is also the puzzle of the Enigma itself, which nobody has ever solved, and I never told anyone the answer. If any of that makes you curious, please click on the links provided and carry on exploring. And the next time you hear those slow strings begin, I hope you'll think of a good friend and the quiet way he lifted my spirits.