Sir Edward and the six-foot tamale

[calimac]

Today is the 150th birthday anniversary of Sir Edward Elgar, the great English composer, whose works include the Enigma Variations, a work I've argued would have made a better Lord of the Rings score than anything by Howard Shore, plus some charming miniatures, powerful oratorios, and three decreasingly pompous symphonies. The British government is commemorating this anniversary by taking Elgar's mug off of the £20 bank note where it has been residing for some years, deluding tourists into thinking that they're in a country that cares about its cultural heritage.

Norman Lebrecht poured cold water on the anniversary by opining that Elgar isn't such a great composer at all. But that is Lebrecht's wont: he seems to loathe good news or celebration of any kind.

And I celebrated Elgar's birthday by going to see the six-foot tamale.

Today was the east side Latino community's big annual family-friendly (no alcohol allowed) day out in the local park, you see, the tamale festival, and this year the event has been built up for by press accounts of the small legion of chefs employed over the last few days to prepare and cook a traditional ceremonial Mexican six-foot-long pork tamale.

It made its entrance to the festival carried on a litter by eight men to the beating of Aztec drums, and then rested on a table, slowly cooling, as various local dignitaries made mutually congratulatory speeches. Finally the wrappings were peeled off, a small army of serving spoons were wielded, and anyone who cared to line up for it got a plateful of six-foot tamale. My bite came from near the west end. It tasted pretty good.

Perhaps next year they will give us the big enchilada.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

Is there a particular recording of the Enigma Variations you’d recommend? Now I’m curious...

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The Enigma is a fairly foolproof work. I'm happy with an old recording by the venerable old Elgarian Sir Adrian Boult and the London Symphony (Seraphim); a recommended recent was is Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony (Apex).

Here's part of what I said about Elgar and Tolkien in a Mythcon presentation a few years ago:

The somber nobility that pervades much of his work is a perfect match for Tolkien's. If you want symphonic music for the death of Thorin or the funeral of Theoden, or for the end of The Lord of the Rings, where solemn joy, for victory won, mixes with tears of sadness, I don't think you can do any better than Variation IX, Nimrod.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are actually works of a great variety of moods, but then so is the Enigma Variations. It would fit splendidly with the books. You could have, say, comfortable hobbit living (Variation III, R.B.T.), Bilbo running down to the Green Dragon (Variation II, H.D.S.-P.), the tremendous learning of Gandalf (Variation V, R.P.A.), a pleasant stay in Rivendell (Variation VIII, W.N.), a fast ride on Shadowfax (Variation VII, Troyte), those cutesy Elves from The Hobbit singing in the trees (Variation X, Dorabella), Bilbo struggling to stay on top of his barrel in the River Running (Variation XI, G.R.S.), Frodo and Sam trudging towards Mordor (Variation XII, B.G.N.), and many more. Elgar has it all, and all of them are variations on the same theme.

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

Dang, I forgot about the tamale festival.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Then don't forget the Portuguese Festival next weekend. Linguiça!

[19-crows.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! We both missed the Greek Festival this weekend, apparently.

[sirbongzalot.livejournal.com]

Just wondering... 6 foot tamale is wrapped in corn husk or banana leaf as is the tradition in Central America? Just seems the banana leaf would be easier as it is usually made large anyway and then served in slices.

I got the Mischa Maisky performance with Sinopoli and put it on now as I write. Not sure that so called purists like this recording but I find it inspiring.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

The May 2007 issue of BBC Music Magazine has an interesting wad of pages devoted to Elgar, as well as a CD of his second symphony. The feature includes several lists of ten, including one devoted to films that have incorporated his music. One of the "10 curious facts to bamboozle and delight" is "He was such a keen supporter of the football team Wolverhampton Wanderers that he cycled from Worcester to watch them in the 1890s. He wrote the first-ever recorded football chant." Gee, that predates Cole Porter composing pep songs for Yale.

a CD of Elgar's Second

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

An uninspiring performance, unfortunately, and dismally recorded. I was just listening to it yesterday.

[rwl.livejournal.com]

Here's (http://community.livejournal.com/classical_music/311079.html) what I wrote of Elgar two years ago.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

A well-informed and thoughtful article.

I've read that Elgar had originally intended to save the famous "Pomp & Circumstance" tune for a symphony, but it's not very developable and was much better utilized in its eventual role as a march trio.

I think there's a little confusion over the Enigma Variations title, "Variations on an Original Theme," though. The theme that the strings actually play at the beginning, that's the "original theme," i.e. a theme composed by Elgar. He said that he wrote it to go in perfect counterpoint with some other, already well-known theme, but wouldn't say what that theme was, and his refusal to say is the enigma that gives the work its nickname. And as one of your commenters noted, "Rule Britannia" is a candidate for the other, unheard theme.

The other enigma of the Enigma Variations was: who do the initials and code-names on the individual variations stand for? But that question has, since Elgar's death, been pretty securely answered.