1. Elgar's Enigma Variations (EV) written in 1898 were about his circle of friends. Pi is a constant in all circles. Pi is the circumference divided by its diameter.
2. Pi is usually approximated as 3.142 as a decimal, or 22/7 as a fraction.
3. The first four notes of EV are scale degree 3-1-4-2, decimal Pi.
4. There is a drop of a seventh in bars 3 and 4.
5. These two sevenths follow exactly after the first 11 notes. ie: 11 x 2/7 = 22/7, fractional Pi. (The first seven bars may be viewed by clicking on the site below.)
6. Elgar wrote EV in the year following the Indiana Pi Bill of 1897 which attempted to legislate the value of Pi. This humorous incident was widely ridiculed and Elgar was fond of such japes/jokes.
7. In a program note for the 1899 first performance, Charles A. Barry rendered Elgar's own words:
The Enigma I will not explain - its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another a 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.
8. Elgar's dark saying could be, Four and twenty blackbirds (dark) baked in a Pie (Pi). Within the first six bars there are exactly Four and twenty black notes (with wings as ties/slurs) baked in a Pi.
9. Theme in the literary sense is the central concept or idea of a work. Pi fits the second hint as the Theme which never appears, although the melody based on Pi is heard throughout. Pi would also fit the third hint, So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas ... the chief character is never on the stage. Obviously Pi is never on the stage.
10. Elgar often said that the enigma was