The third part in this series takes a look at the first movement from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, following on from Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in part I and his Chaconne in D minor in part II. This was a request from group member Tony Mizen, I hope it helps you understand the music a bit more Tony. Feel free to request other pieces and I’ll get to them eventually.
The theme is well used in film today and is often accompanied by shocking or emotional footage of one calamity or another, so the emotional impact of the piece is well known. The theme has such a short duration that my analysis shall cover the whole piece. It is in ABA form, with parallel modulations separating the sections:
G minor – (Parallel Major) G Major – (Parallel minor) G minor
The first six bars are in G minor and the first alteration shows the F# from G Harmonic minor, reached by raising the root of the F Mixolydian mode (Bb Major mode V), shown in bar 1:
F Mixolydian (+1) = F# Alt bb7 (G Harmonic minor mode VII)
This F# is part of the chord with notes of: A G C F#. The next chord is G minor in first inversion which gives us a clue to how the chord before it is functioning. It is a disguised perfect cadence, D7 – G minor. D7 = D F# A C and the G would make it D11, without its root. So, it is D11/A (Second inversion without a root) – G minor (1st inversion), a really nice change and one that causes an emotional response in the listener, the rising bass line adding to the effect.
The next change doesn’t occur until bar 4 when an F is finally played as an F natural, so back to Bb Major, but with the simultaneous change of B natural. This gives us C Melodic:
Bb Ionian (+1) = B Altered (Mode VII of C Melodic)
Now, as this is part of the chord with the notes of B G F, this is mode V of C Melodic, G Mixolydian b6 (G7in first inversion), which resolves to C minor, chord I of C Melodic, just a couple of beats later. So another V – I, G7/B (1st inversion) to C minor. Again, a nice change, all from the alteration of Bb to B.
Bar 4 returns to Bb Major (G Aeolian) and then in bar 5 a C# appears. This takes us into D Neapolitan minor and the heart strings are pulled again:
C Dorian (Mode II of Bb Major) (+1) = C# Alt bb37 (D Neapolitan minor Mode VII)
Now, after the C# of the D Neapolitan minor, often what occurs in music is the change to the parallel D Harmonic minor by raising the b2 of the Neapolitan minor, in this case Eb to E. It is basically an incremental way of shifting up a fifth into the next minor key. Instead, Elgar returns to Bb Major with a C natural, and so the longing heard in the music is unresolved and instead curls back inside itself, resolving in the next section to the parallel Major key of G Major, where the music stays for four bars, without any alterations, until it returns to the parallel minor of G minor in bar 11.
This is pretty much a restatement of the first six bars, but with a subtle difference. This time there is no change to G Harmonic minor, instead we go straight into the C Melodic, same as bar 4. Then back to Bb Major and now Elgar follows the more usual route when using the D Neapolitan minor scale (C Dorian (+1) = C# Altbb37), as he follows it with the D Harmonic minor, as mentioned above, and returns back the way he came via nice simple symmetrical sequence to close:
Bb Major – D Neapolitan minor – D Harmonic minor – D Neapolitan minor – Bb Major
You can see the pivot is the Harmonic minor scale, then back to the start. He then ends on the parallel Major of G Major. Remember, this simple piece is the material for a set of variations and so is justified in being short in duration, but its use of inversions during modulations is ingenious. I have not seen these specific changes before in these inversions, particularly the first change to the Harmonic minor and will definitely be using it in my latest composition. Here it is again:
(Bb Major) – F Mixolydian (+1) = F# Altbb7 (D11 or D7add11 no root/A = 2nd inversion) – G minor/Bb (1st inversion)
The important thing about that change is to remember the rising bass notes, G in the bass with G minor, then A with D7add11/A and then G minor again with Bb in its first inversion. Really dramatic. I think Elgar is seldom mentioned today, which I shall try to remedy as his music is really first class. Thanks for reading, see you next time. Leave any emotional suggestions below, my friends, and I’ll get to it.
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