Editing Edward Elgar (section)

===Growing reputation===
{{listen|type=music
|filename=Serenade for Strings -mvt-1- Elgar.ogg
|title=Serenade for Strings (Op. 20, mv 1)
|description=Elgar's [[Serenade for Strings (Elgar)|Serenade for Strings]], movement 1, performed by the [[United States Army Band]] Strings ensemble
}}
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the [[English Midlands]]. ''[[The Black Knight (Elgar)|The Black Knight]]'' (1892) and ''[[Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf|King Olaf]]'' (1896), both inspired by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]], ''The Light of Life'' (1896) and ''Caractacus'' (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in [[Novello and Co]].<ref name=mtobit>''The Musical Times'', obituary of Elgar, April 1934, pp. 314–18</ref> Other works of this decade included the ''[[Serenade for Strings (Elgar)|Serenade for Strings]]'' (1892) and ''[[Three Bavarian Dances]]'' (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer [[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]] to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career.{{refn|Elgar, in recommending Coleridge-Taylor for a commission from the festival, said, "He is far and away the cleverest fellow going among the young men."<ref>[[Jessica Duchen|Duchen, Jessica]]. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/talking-classical-501427.html "Talking classical"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319060520/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/talking-classical-501427.html |date=19 March 2021 }}, ''The Independent'', 5 October 2011.</ref>|group= n}} Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend [[August Jaeger]] tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues&nbsp;... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."<ref>Kennedy (1987a), p. 50</ref>

[[File:A-J-Jaeger.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A Victorian man of middle age, with a moustache, seated, reading a newspaper, viewed in profile from his left|[[August Jaeger]], Elgar's publisher and friend, and "Nimrod" of the ''[[Enigma Variations]]'']]
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the ''[[Enigma Variations]]'', which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]]. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends&nbsp;... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person)&nbsp;... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose".<ref>Kennedy (1987a), p. 55</ref> He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations.<ref>McVeagh (1987), p. 51; Hughes, p. 72</ref> The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.<ref name=grove/>

The work is formally titled ''Variations on an Original Theme''; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard.{{refn|It is not known whether Elgar meant a musical theme or a more general non-musical theme such as that of friendship. Many attempts have been made to find well-known tunes that can be played in counterpoint with Elgar's main musical theme of the piece, from [[Auld Lang Syne]] to a theme from [[Symphony No. 38 (Mozart)|Mozart's ''Prague'' Symphony]].<ref>Whitney, Craig R., [https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/arts/new-answer-to-a-riddle-wrapped-in-elgar-s-enigma-variations.html?pagewanted=1 "New Answer to a Riddle Wrapped in Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319060521/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/arts/new-answer-to-a-riddle-wrapped-in-elgar-s-enigma-variations.html?pagewanted=1 |date=19 March 2021 }}, ''The New York Times'', 7 November 1991; Portnoy, Marshall A., [https://www.jstor.org/stable/948136 "The Answer to Elgar's 'Enigma'"], ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'', Vol. 71, No. 2 (1985), pp. 205–10. Retrieved 24 October 2010 {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319060521/https://www.jstor.org/stable/948136 |date=19 March 2021 }}; and [[Jack Westrup|Westrup, J. A.]], "Elgar's Enigma", ''Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 86th Session (1959–1960)'', pp. 79–97. Retrieved 24 October 2010 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of [[Richard Strauss]].<ref name=dnb/><ref name=grove/> The ''Enigma Variations'' were well received in Germany and Italy,<ref>Atkins, Ivor, "Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations", ''The Musical Times'', April 1934, pp. 328–30</ref> and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.{{refn|For example, according to the [http://www.elgar.org/4welcome.htm Elgar Society]'s website, in April and May 2010, the Variations were programmed in New Orleans, New York, [[Vancouver]], [[Denver]], Moscow, Washington D.C. and [[Kraków]].|group= n}}