2007 is the 150th anniversary of Edward Elgar's birth. This
series of caches celebrates the countryside that so inspired him
and his first widely recognised work, Variations on an Original
Theme, more commonly known as The Enigma Variations.
One account of the piece's genesis is that after a tiring day of
teaching in 1898, Elgar was daydreaming at the piano. A melody he
played caught the attention of his wife, who liked it and asked him
to repeat it for her. So, to entertain his wife, he began to
improvise variations on this melody, each one either a musical
portrait of one of their friends, or in the musical style they
might have used. Elgar eventually expanded and orchestrated these
improvisations into the "Enigma" variations. One enigma was the
initials placed after each variation and which of Elgar's friends
they represented. The music itself could be related to the person
in their mannerisms, abilities or even one event associated with
them.
To find this the final cache in the Elgar Enigma Series, you
will need to find the first fourteen variations (caches) on an
original theme. These are:
These fourteen caches may be found in any order and the order
shown is definitely not the shortest. In part they are in groups:
VI and XI; X and XIV; V, I and VII; III, IV and XIII; II and IX;
VIII and XII. The coordinates for variation VIII are in one of the
other caches so you may want to leave this to the end. Some of the
caches are on the
Elgar route, a signed circular road trip. Each variation is at
a location either assoicated with the person that Elgar wrote about
for the equivalent variation or a place associated with Elgar
himself. You may wish to search the web to gain additional
information but this should not be necessary unless otherwise
stated.
For this cache we have written our own piece of music, the theme
of the caches, which comprises 19 notes:
In each of the fourteen caches you will find a series of numbers
showing which notes have been changed in that variation; some will
also be underlined. Originally the intention was to get you to
write down the changed notes themselves but H is feeling kind. You
do not need to know music to find the cache. Five of the caches
also contain clues (labelled A to E) on how to obtain the final
coordinates from the numbers. Solving this should not be too
difficult if you have all the numbers and clues and read the cache
pages for each variation. You can always email us for help.
The terrain for the final cache is probably 3 but we have made
the whole cache 5-4 because of the amount of travelling and problem
solving required.
We hope you enjoy the areas this cache takes you to. As an extra
incentive there are certificates for 1st, 2nd and 3rd to find and a
first to find prize of a box set of Elgar's works including the
Enigma Variations.
Please email us if you need help or details you have
forgotten to take from the other caches in the series and we will
send you the appropriate information.
UPDATE: We have created a badge for the profile page of people
who have solved the enigma; this requires just one line of text to
be added. We will contact people who log the final cache with the
details.
