Sir Edward Elgar & the Enigma Fountain, Great Malvern, Worcestershire, England - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

From a local website:-
The fountain was commissioned by Malvern Hills District Council and designed by Rose Garrard to celebrate Sir Edward Elgar, his music the Enigma Variations written in 1900 in Malvern, and Malvern's pure spring water. The Variations themselves are made up of fourteen sections, each a musical portrait of a local friend represented as an 'enigma' by only their initials, and these letters are each carved on the fourteen sides of the fountain in a facsimile of Elgar's own handwriting, beginning and ending with the initials of himself and his wife Alice, meeting at the feet of his bronze figure.
Transcription of the plaque:-
The Enigma Fountain celebrates three themes: Sir Edward Elgar, the world famous composer, his music The Enigma Variations, and Malvern's pure spring water. A local resident, Elgar was inspired by the Malvern Hills and countryside and loved walking beside nearby rivers and streams. The Enigma Variations were written here in 1898 when he was forty, and brought him international recognition. A life size bronze figure of Elgar at that age looks across the water feature towards the Blue Bird Tea Rooms where he regularly had tea. The fountain rim has fourteen sides each bearing the initials of a local friend, his wife or himself. They are all 'pictured within' the fourteen parts of his composition 'Variations on an Original Theme'. SITTING BY DESOLATE SPRINGS The quotation from 'The Music Makers' by Arthur O'Shaughnessy was a favourite of Elgar which he began to set to music in 1893. In the prelude and other parts of the score Elgar quoted the Enigma theme once again. The Enigma Fountain has no pump but is fed by natural pressure from 3 pure springs on the Malvern Hills above the town. The water rises to a height of 3 metres before trickling over a slate arch which symbolises the Priory. This arch spans the centre of a horizontal cross paved in slate, celebrating the Millennium and ecclesiastical origins of the town whih grew up around its pure springs. Beneath the archway a central spring waterjet is flanked by four standing stones which help shelter the jet from prevailing winds and suggest the source of these springs beneath the ancient Malvern Hills. The sculptor Rose Garrard developed these themes from suggestions made to Malvern residents while she was Artist in Residence. She conceived the Enigma Fountain, created working designs for it, directing the project and modelled the lifesize figure of Sir Edward Elgar. The Enigma Fountain, unveiled by Prince Andrew in May 2000, is part of the Malvern Spring Water Arts Project established to bring back spring water to Great Malvern. Supported by the public, Severn Trent Water, Waitrose, BOSS, Malvern Hills District Council.

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Belle Vue Gardens, Great Malvern

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