Description
Can The Solution to Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma Be As Easy As Pi?
On June 19, 1899, Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, Opus 36, was introduced to the public for the first time. The piece was an immediate success and it is still very popular today. An interesting side note to his music is the fact that Sir Edward told the world that there were two enigmas contained in this music. The first enigma involved determining which of his friends each variation represented. This enigma was quickly solved as Sir Edward provided initials on each section of the score to help identify each friend/variation. The second enigma though has never been solved. Many solutions were offered to Sir Edward during his lifetime but he always insisted that they were not correct. Before his death in 1935, he said he was surprised that no one had found the correct solution because it was "so simple."
Sir Edward wrote a dedication on the score, "To My Friends Pictured Within". As the entire piece is about variations, he could have written, "To My Circle of Friends." This variation includes the word "circle." In math, characteristics of all circles are related by a universal constant, Pi. Pi can be approximated as 22/7 which equals 3.142857. When the first four numbers 3-1-4-2 are played on a musical scale with 1 being the root, 3 being the third, etc., we hear the opening Theme of his Enigma Variations.
A story is told that Sir Edward at one time, had numbered the keys of his piano to help a friend play a tune. His "student" gave up in confusion when he noticed the same numbers repeated in other octaves. Sir Edward laughed so hard that he rolled on the floor. This shows that he was very familiar with the note/number relationship and he had a great sense of humor.
In order to confirm that the Pi solution is correct, it must be shown to answer all of the clues which Sir Edward gave us during his lifetime. None of the previously suggested solutions has been able to answer these clues which casts doubt on their being the correct solution.
Sir Edward gave his first two direct clues when he wrote this note for the first performance, "The Enigma I will not explain- its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set (of variations) another and larger theme 'goes' but is not played....So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas...the chief character is never on the stage."
This note actually contains two clues, the "dark saying" and "the chief character (who) is never on the stage". Pi could be described as the chief character as it never appears on stage and this theme is the basis for all of the variations. The second clue, the "dark saying" could be a clever reference to the line from the very familiar English nursery rhyme "Four and twenty BLACKbirds baked in a pie/Pi."
In 1929, Sir Edward wrote, "The alternation of the two quavers and two crotchets in the first bar and their reversal in the second bar will be noticed; references to this grouping are almost continuous (either melodically or in the accompanying figures- in Variation XIII, beginning at bar 11 [503], for example). The drop of the seventh in the Theme (bars 3 and 4) should be observed. At bar 7 (G major) appears the rising and falling passage in thirds which is much used later, e.g. Variation III, bars 10.16 [106,112]- E.E." Actually, there are two drops of the seventh after the first eleven notes. Perhaps Sir Edward was suggesting, 11 notes times two sevenths = 11 x 2/7 = 22/7, the approximation of Pi.
Dora Penny Powell said in November of 1899 that Sir Edward, speaking of the Enigma, told her, "It is so well known that it is extraordinary that no one has spotted it." Later, when Troyte Griffith suggested, "God Save the King" was the answer, Elgar responded, "Of course not…but it is extraordinary that no one has found it." Shortly before he died, Sir Edward again said that he was surprised that no one had correctly solved the enigma because it was so simple. Pi is universally taught as part of primary education.
Dora said that Sir Edward told her privately, "I thought that you of all people would guess it." Why would he say that? There are two very good reasons. Two years before composing the Enigma Variations, Sir Edward had written a code puzzle for Dora Penny which is still unsolved. "The Dorabella Cipher" is famous in its own right, and it has become one of cryptography's most intriguing puzzles. This hinted at the solution being a cipher. Additionally, in two separate letters to Dora written in 1901, Sir Edward used the first measure of the Enigma Variations as his signature. (The falling third, rising fourth, the 3-1-4-2). That is why he thought that Dora, of all people, would guess it.
What do you think about this solution and its confirmation in the clues?
Dick Santa
Revised June 7, 2007
dnlsanta
hotmail.com
