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Fun!
I like the play on words of the ninth variation, "Nimrod." Written for his friend and editor August Jaeger. Jaeger is German for hunter. In Genesis, Nimrod is a great hunter.
(We now think of a nimrod as less than clever. Bugs Bunny facetiously referred to Elmer Fudd's misguided attempts to shoot him with "poor little Nimrod." Bugs was mocking his hunting. The power of cartoons.)
I took the name Nimrod since I was hunting for the solution to Elgar's enigma. Nimrod knew the solution but he would not tell Dorabella although she tried to get him to reveal it.
Jaeger was the one who Elgar directed to write the word ENIGMA on the original score. He wrote it centered over the second/third bars which happens to be the middle of the fractional Pi. 11notes x 2/7 all happens in the first four bars.
I am more convinced by the late Denis Stevens' suggestion that the hidden them was the rising statement from "Rule Britannia": http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/175/ .
John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile
Thank you for your comment. I am troubled by Stevens lack of addressing Elgar's 1929 comments which were most likely additional hints/confirmation. Why else would Elgar write such trite comments about his music which had been performed thousands of times around the world if it were not to leave confirmation of his enigma solution? Could it just be coincidence that each sentence can be related to fractional Pi, 22/7?
One of my online friends observed another Pi in Elgar's enigma. He released his 1929 hints/confirmation of Pi (22/7) with the issuance of his Pianola (Pi-anola) rolls. Could this be a coincidence or one more link in the enigma chain??
The Pi solution (Solving Elgar's Enigma)is in the latest edition of Current Musicology published by Columbia University.