Music Man.

Enigma Variations - Elgar, yes? And yet that's not what he called it - the proper title is "Variations on an Original Theme". So where does the "enigma" come from? Well the piece starts out with a statement of the "original theme", and in his hand-written score, Elgar wrote "Enigma" over the top of this. Explaining this, Elgar said that the theme was itself a variation on another well-known piece of music, but he always refused to say what it was. About the only definite statement he made on the subject was that it was not the National Anthem, and he several times expressed surprise that nobody had guessed it. He took the secret to the grave with him, but that hasn't stopped people speculating. "Auld Lang Syne" has been mentioned more than once, and the other day I read an article which makes a good case for "Rule Britannia". Myself, I would incline towards the slow movement of Beethoven's "Pathetique" sonata. We'll never know of course, and that is part of the mystique of this ever-popular piece of music.