Monday Music Appreciation #5 -- Nimrod?

Have I mentioned that I love my job? Here comes more good music that I heard because of it.

The music below was written by Sir Edward Elgar and is just one piece of his 14 "Enigma variations" that he wrote to honour his wife and friends. The other variations evoke his friends' laughter or mannerisms, and one even tells a humorous story of a particular friend's bulldog falling into the river, climbing out, and shaking himself off, bells on his collar chiming.

But the Nimrod variation, so named for a music publisher friend who gave him valuable advice, is the variation that is probably best known, and loved by many people, myself included. I always thought Nimrod a disparaging name to call someone foolish, but turns out it's actually the name of a man in the bible (Genesis 10) who was a skillful hunter.

Be that as it may, it's also the title of a beautiful adagio! (See the fancy words I'm learning?)

Enjoy!