Elgar’s 1899 Program Note Ciphers

    On being asked for some elucidation of “the composer’s intentions,” Mr. Edgar [sic] replied: “It is true that I have sketched for their amusement and mine, the idiosyncrasies of fourteen of my friends, not necessarily musicians; but this is a personal matter, and need not have been mentioned publicly. The Variations should stand simply as a ‘piece’ of music. The Enigma I will not explain—its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played. . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas—e.g., Maeterlink’s [sic] ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’—the chief character is never on the stage.”

1899 program note by Charles Ainslee Barry

The Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar is a musical homage to cryptography, the art of encoding and decoding secret messages. Trawling that symphonic masterpiece netted over one hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. Although that sum may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s obsession with ciphers. More significantly, their solutions give definitive answers to the riddles posed by the Enigma Variations. What is the secret melody to which the Enigma Theme is a counterpoint and serves as the melodic foundation for the ensuing movements? Answer: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by Martin Luther. What is Elgar’s “dark saying” ensconced within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius cipher positioned in the opening six measures. Who is the secret friend and inspiration behind Variation XIII? Answer: Jesus Christ, the Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith.

June 19 marks the 126th anniversary of the Enigma Variations’ premiere in 1899 at St. James Hall in London. At that historic Monday evening concert, Dr. Hans Richter led a substantial orchestra with over 100 members.

The program began with the Carnival Overture by Antonín Dvořák followed by Legend for Orchestra “Zorahayda” by Johan S. Svendsen. The third item on the program was the Closing Scene from the opera Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner. As one of Wagner’s protégés, Maestro Richter specialized in directing works by his renowned mentor. Rounding out the first half of the concert was the first performance of the Variations for Full Orchestra (Op. 36) by Edward Elgar. The second half of the concert opened with the “Snow Maiden” Suite by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The final work of the evening was the Symphony No. 38 in D major by Amadeus Mozart, commonly referred to as the “Prague” Symphony because it was first performed in that Bohemian city.

Detailed program notes by Charles Ainslee Barry supply analytical commentary with ample musical excerpts in short score format. Sections written by Barry conclude with his initials “C. A. B.” Virtually all of the program notes were supplied by him except for those concerning the “Prague” Symphony supplied by George Grove. Unlike other parts of the program, Barry’s sixteen pages of analysis regarding the Enigma Variations ends with his initials enclosed in brackets, a feature possibly added to signify that the program note was for a novel work.

The most important part of Barry’s program is his citation of Elgar’s introductory remarks on page 206, a passage often quoted in scholarly discourse on the Enigma Variations. This section is cited below as it appears in the original program.

    On being asked for some elucidation of “the composer’s intentions,” Mr. Edgar [sic] replied: “It is true that I have sketched for their amusement and mine, the idiosyncrasies of fourteen of my friends, not necessarily musicians; but this is a personal matter, and need not have been mentioned publicly. The Variations should stand simply as a ‘piece’ of music. The Enigma I will not explain—its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played. . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas—e.g., Maeterlink’s [sic] ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’—the chief character is never on the stage.”

There are two conspicuous misprints marked in blue pencil. The first is the composer’s name shown erroneously as Edgar instead of Elgar. The second is the misspelling of the playwright’s name Maeterlinck with the c ommitted. It is highly unlikely that Barry misspelled these names as Elgar is printed correctly at the top of page 204. Both misprints pertain to surnames that were probably unfamiliar to the printer and resulted in compositing errors and omissions.

Barry’s education, vocational experience, and flair for writing enabled him to pursue a career focused on music criticism and analysis. C. A. Barry was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied music under the composer and organist Thomas Attwood Walmisley. Barry continued his musical studies at Leipzig and Dresden before returning to London to serve as the organist and choir director at Forest School. He composed sacred chants, hymn tunes, pieces for piano, cantatas, and large scale works for orchestra. One of his specialties was writing in-depth analyses of compositions by Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner, and other leading composers. He contributed articles to The Guardian, served as editor of The Monthly Musical Record, and compiled programs for the Richter Concerts. Below are some specimens of Barry’s sacred compositions.

Elgar received a letter dated 10 April 1899 from Barry soliciting his assistance with the program note for the Enigma Variations’ premiere. The date of Barry’s letter is 50 days after Elgar completed the orchestration on February 19. In anticipation of Elgar visiting London, Barry wrote:

    I shall be very pleased if during your visit to Town you will come here some day to lunch, at which I shall be glad of any hints as to the ‘composer’s intentions.’ It would be best if you could send me your score in advance, as in that case I should perhaps be prepared with some questions on moot points. I will send you some Variations of mine thirty years ago. Don’t think me impudent that I think I discovered a ‘trick’ which I will impart to you. You won’t guess it, so I am glad to think that there is something enigmatical about my Variations as well as yours.

Far from being an afterthought, the Theme’s unusual title “Enigma” was clearly on Barry’s mind when he first invited Elgar to comment on the work. Elgar realized he was answering to a professional intimately familiar with the covert principal Theme and its diverse quotations by members of the German School such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Joachim Raff, Richard Wagner, and Carl Reinicke. In his carefully scripted reply, Elgar resorted to cryptic language and obscure literary references in French, sowing ambiguities mingled with hints to insulate his secrets from easy discovery.

Elgar’s Program Note Languages Cipher

The Elgar quotation is drawn from an unsourced letter directed to Barry that encapsulates the composer’s intentions. Prior research uncovered various cryptograms embedded within Elgar’s remarks supplied expressly for the June 1899 program. The most basic of these ciphers relies on the languages employed in Elgar’s commentary which consists of 119 words in English, French, Latin, and Belgian. 111 terms are in English covering slightly over 93% of the quotation. Five words are in French (‘L’Intruse’ & ‘Les sept Princesses’) representing slightly over 4%. Two are a Latin abbreviation (e.g.) for just under 2%. One is Belgian (Maeterlinck) representing slightly less than 1%. These four languages—Belgian, English, French, & Latin—generate the acrostic anagram “EFB L”, the initials of Ein feste Burg followed by Luther’s initial. These solutions are in the form of initials, a trait shared by ten out of fifteen titles from the Enigma Variations. This cryptogram is called the 1899 Program Note Languages Cipher. The discovery of this cryptogram strengthens the suspicion that it is not an isolated case. As Warren Buffet famously said, “There’s never just one cockroach in the kitchen.”

Elgar’s Program Note Italics Ciphers

The Elgar quotation in the 1899 program note features four italicized letters, two in the word is and two in e.g., the Latin abbreviation of exempli gratia (for example). Elgar wrote during a period when underlining was used for emphasis with a single underline denoting italics. It was also standard practice in England during the 1890s to italicize Latin abbreviations, a convention stemming from italicizing foreign phrases to distinguish them from surrounding English text. Style guides followed by major publishers during the close of the 19th century recommended italics for Latin abbreviations to maintain clarity and typographical norms. Barry dutifully preserved Elgar’s italicizations of “is” and “e.g.” from his letter. The significance of these four italicized letters (is and e.g.) is that they are an anagram of the German word “Sieg,” meaning victory and triumph. Sieg refers to the act of winning or achieving success in a battle, competition, or struggle.

Why would Elgar encode the German noun Sieg in remarks that he knew would be published in the program for the first performance? Following his May 1889 marriage at the Brompton Oratory to Alice Roberts, the couple moved to London to pursue Elgar’s ambition of becoming a professional composer. When those efforts failed, Elgar beat a retreat back to Worcestershire to resume his work as an itinerant music teacher and concert violinist. He undoubtedly viewed the premiere of one of his symphonic works at a London Richter Concert as a major triumph and the realization of his nuptial aspiration a decade earlier.

The term Sieg is German, the language of the covert Theme’s title (Ein feste Burg) and Richter’s native tongue. Martin Luther famously translated the Bible into German, employing the word Sieg in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “Aber Gott sei’s gedankt, der uns den Sieg gegeben hat durch unsern Herrn Jesum Christum” (But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ). Luther also employed Sieg in his sermons and treatises. Wagner used the word Sieg in the libretto of his opera Lohengrin where it appears in the phrase, “Durch Gottes Sieg ist jetzt dein Leben mein” (Through God’s victory, your life is now mine). Lohengrin sings this line in Act III, Scene 3, after defeating Telramund in a trial by combat, declaring that Elsa’s life is now his through God’s victory. Associations of Sieg with God observed in Luther’s translation of 1 Corinthians 15:57 and Wagner’s libretto reflect the influence of the Luther Bible on German culture and art. Wagner was born and baptized into the Lutheran faith and required that his second wife Cosima convert from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism. Elgar’s encoding of “Sieg” via italicized letters in his program note envelops the teutonic associations between the covert Theme, Luther, Wagner, and Richter.

The German word Sieg is identical to the first four letters of Siegfried, the protagonist placed on a funeral pyre and set ablaze in Brünnhilde’s immolation scene from Act III Scene 3 in Wagner’s Gӧtterdӓmmerung (Twilight of the Gods). This was the third work on the program slated immediately before the Enigma Variations. One wonders if Barry apprised Elgar in advance that this scene would be performed at the premiere of the Enigma Variations. The German name Siegfried is derived from two Old High German words sigu meaning “victory” and fridu meaning “peace”, “protection,” and “security.” The name Siegfried may be understood as “victorious peace” or “protected by victory.” Siegried is the legendary hero in the Germanic epic Nibelungenlied. Wagner composed a set of four operas to dramatize this epic known as the Ring cycle. In the second installment Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), there is a set of twins named Siegmund and Sieglinde, the mother of the hero Siegfried.

The martial tone of Ein feste Burg imbued with themes of resilience and divine protection engendered a close association with German identity and national pride. Its stirring melody and lyrics resonated with the dominant military ethos of the German Empire (1871-1918). These bonds elevated Ein feste Burg to a patriotic hymn and paean of the Imperial German Army. Wagner composed his Kaisermarsch in 1871 to celebrate Germany’s decisive victory in the Franco-Prussian War. In recognition of the cultural and martial significance of Ein feste Burg, Kaisermarsch features four prominent quotations from Ein feste Burg in the contrasting major keys of B♭, E♭, and A♭. Remarkably, these quotations half cadence on the dominant chords of F, B♭, and E♭. Those chord letters are an anagram of “EFB,” the initials for Ein feste Burg. The Mendelssohn quotations in Variation XIII share some striking parallels with Wagner’s quotations from Ein feste Burg in Kaisermarsch.

Elgar heard Kaisermarsch in the years leading up to the genesis of the Enigma Variations. As documented in Christopher Fifield’s thoroughly researched and endlessly fascinating biography, Hans Richter conducted no less than fifteen performances of Kaisermarch at Richter Concerts in London between 1879 and 1897. The dates of those performances are listed below:

1. May 7, 1877
2. May 28, 1877
3. May 5, 1879
4. May 3, 1882
5. July 2, 1883
6. April 21, 1884
7. October 24, 1885
8. October 23, 1886
9. May 7, 1888
10. June 24, 1889
11. July 14, 1890
12. July 20, 1891
13. May 30, 1892
14. May 20, 1895
15. May 31, 1897

Elgar attended some of those concerts in his quest to immerse himself in Wagner’s music. Richter’s towering influence assured that the Kaisermarsch would also be programmed by other orchestras throughout England during that era. The August 1, 1889 issue of The Monthly Musical Record contains a glowing review of a June 24 Richter Concert in London that was capped off with Kaisermarsch:

The “Kaisermarsch” — that grand page of brilliant orchestral writing to celebrate a grand page in German history — again produced its overpowering effect at the conclusion of one of the finest concerts of the season.

That article further mentions the premiere of Hubert Parry’s Symphony No. 4 in E minor dedicated to Hans Richter. It describes “the diffuse finale” of that work with “its marked reminisces from . . . ‘Kaisermarsch’ . . .” Elgar attended that premiere after only recently settling in Kensington with his wife following their marriage in May 1889. Elgar gleaned insight and knowledge from Parry’s contributions to Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, performed his music as a sectional violinist, and publicly acknowledged Parry as “the head of our art in this country.” As evidence of his enduring respect for Parry, Elgar orchestrated his Jerusalem which is now a fixture at the Last Night of the Proms.

Another prospective anagram obtained from the four italicized letters (is & e.g.) in Elgar’s 1899 program note is “gise,” a phonetic approximation of guise. It is widely acknowledged that Elgar employed phonetic spellings in his correspondence. For instance, he substituted “frazes” for phrases, “gorjus” for gorgeous, and “xqqq” for excuse. The Cambridge Dictionary defines guise as “the appearance of someone or something, especially when intended to deceive.” Synonyms of guise listed by Merriam-Webster include pretense, facade, disguise, camouflage, and cloak. The definition of guise and its synonyms are apt descriptors of a cipher.

The Maeterlinck Phrase “Psalm 46” Cipher

For a symphonic work dedicated to Elgar’s friends, it is decidedly odd that the only person mentioned in his 1899 program note is the foreign poet and dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck and two of his French plays: L’Intruse (The Intruder) and Les sept Princesses (The Seven Princesses). Why would Elgar refer to a stranger to characterize a work dedicated to his friends? One explanation draws on his expertise in cryptography, the art of encoding and decoding secret messages. Elgar’s obsession with hidden codes merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s treatise Unsolved! As an accomplished cryptographer, Elgar devised baffling coded messages like the Dorabella Cipher. Could Elgar’s anomalous references to Maeterlinck and two of his plays be a cipher? And could it be connected to the secret melody of the Enigma Variations and the hidden friend?

The phrase “Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’” stands out because it is enclosed by two long em dashes. The label “em dash” was in common usage when Elgar penned his program note as it is described in reference volumes published in London such as Practical Printing (1884) and Lloyd’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary (1896). Two em dashes present a coded form of Elgar’s initials as each “em” begins with an e. These two em dashes further encipher the initials of Maurice Maeterlinck as a telestich acrostic. When distilled down to its unique initials, the Maeterlinck clause harbors a reverse spelling of “PsaLM” (Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’). The seven-word Maeterlinck phrase consists of 46 characters excluding spaces. That total implicates chapter 46 called “Luther’s Psalm” by Thomas Carlyle because it inspired the composition of Ein feste Burg.

A related cryptogram is formed by seven discrete performance directions in the first bar of the Enigma Theme’s orchestral score. In that opening measure, Elgar uses the following seven terms: Andante, legato e sostenuto, molto express., and Piano. The first letters of these seven Italian words are an acrostic anagram of “EE’s Psalm.” The dual Es followed by an s indicate the possessive form of Elgar’s initials.

Elgar indicated the tempo for the Enigma Theme by writing a quarter note followed by an equals sign (=) and the number 63. This adds four more characters to the seven other performance directions in the Enigma Theme’s opening bar for a grand total of 46 characters, a sum that points to Psalm 46. The Maeterlinck Phrase Cipher also employs 46 characters in combination with an encoding of Psalm to specify that special chapter. These coded references to “psalm” are significant because the title of the hidden melody (A Mighty Fortress) originates from the first line of Psalm 46.

Seven initials from Elgar’s Maeterlinck phrase appear in the following order and case: M, L, I, a, L, s, and P. It is noteworthy that the first two initials in that phrase correspond to those of Martin Luther. When treated as an anagram, those seven initials may be reorganized as “L PsaLM I.” “L” is the initial for Luther. “PsaLM” refers to a particular chapter from the Book of Psalms. “I” is a homonym of aye which is another word for yes. Following this analysis, the anagram “L PsaLM I” may be interpreted as “Luther Psalm Aye.” Psalm 46 is called “Luther’s Psalm” because the title of Ein feste Burg originates from its first line. Precisely 46 characters in the Maeterlinck phrase bolsters the authenticity of this anagram cipher. With the coded message “Luther Psalm Aye,” Elgar is covertly signaling his assent to Ein feste Burg as the melodic solution to the Enigma Variations.

A second anagram that may be secured from the initials of the Maeterlinck phrase is “I L PsaLM.” “I” is a homonym of eye. When treated as a verb, eye means to “fix the eyes on” and “look at” something. The anagram “I L PsaLM” may be interpolated as “Eye Luther Psalm,” a command to look at Luther’s Psalm. Following Elgar’s coded directive will lead to Psalm 46, the inspiration behind the covert Theme by Luther. The first verse of that chapter supplies the title of the famous hidden melody of the Enigma Variations.

Elgar’s 1899 Program Note Quotations Ciphers

Elgar’s published remarks in the June 1899 program feature nine terms enclosed by five sets of single quotation marks. Those nine terms are listed below in order of appearance.

1. ‘piece’
2. ‘dark saying’
3. ‘goes’
4. ‘L’Intruse’
5. ‘Les sept Princesses’

It is intriguing that the English terms piece, Enigma, dark saying, and goes appear in various translations of the Book of Psalms. The first letters of words enclosed in quotations are “pdsgLILsP.” A promising anagram sourced from those initials is “Ls ps gd L PI.” It was observed earlier that “L” is the initial for Luther, the author of Ein feste Burg. Consequently, “Ls” may be read in a possessive format as “Luther’s.” This is followed by a standard abbreviation for psalm as “ps.” Next is a phonetic spelling of God as “gd.” “L” is a homonym of El, the Hebrew word for God found in words like Elohim and Israel. Pi is a mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Elgar encodes a rounded form of Pi (3.142) in bars 1 and 11 of the Enigma Theme via the scale degrees (3124) of the melody. In Christian theology, a circle represents God’s infinite nature, eternity and unity as it has no beginning or end. The chord progressions in bar 1 begin on the downbeat with G minor and modulates on beat 3 to a D dominant seventh in second inversion. The letters of those two opening chords (G-D) present a phonetic spelling of God. These observations make it feasible to interpolate the nine-letter acrostic anagram “Ls ps gd L PI” as “Luther’s Psalm, God, El, & Pi.”

A second prospective anagram sourced from the initials “pdsgLILsP” is “L Ps gIld ps.” This anagram may be decrypted as “Luther Psalm Guild Psalm.” The term “gild” means to overlay with a thin covering of gold. “Gild” is also a phonetic realization of guild, a medieval association of craftsmen, merchants, or artists. One of Elgar’s favorite operas was Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg), WWV 96. In Wagner’s longest music drama, an elite group of singers and poets belong to the Meistersinger Guild to guard and promote the highest standards of their art. In Act III Scene 5 during the procession of the guilds, the Meistersingers enter carrying their banner emblazoned with King David holding his harp to symbolize the art of song and poetry. This procession is soon followed by a performance 0f the chorus “Wach Auf” in honor of Hans Sachs, the head of the Meistersinger Guild.

The libretto for “Wach Auf” originates from the first seven lines of the 700 line long poem Die Wittenbergisch Nachtigall (The Wittenberg Nightingale) by Hans Sachs. In his allegorical polemic, Sachs lauds and defends Martin Luther against attacks by the Roman Catholic Church. When Elgar was appointed artistic director of the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society in late 1897, he selected “Wach Auf” as its motto and signature song. It is significant that Elgar conducted performances of that chorus in the months before, during, and after composing the Enigma Variations. Elgar’s selection of a Lutheran anthem as the theme song of the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society resonates with the discovery of Ein feste Burg as the covert Theme of the Enigma Variations. Dr. Julian Rushton’s objection that Elgar would not choose a Lutheran anthem as the covert Theme of the Enigma Variations is decisively refuted by Elgar’s selection of “Wach Auf” as the theme song of the Society, yet Rushton has yet to tender a public retraction. The significance of Elgar’s choice is explored in my essay “Wach Auf!”: Elgar’s Lutheran Lied and Lead.

The final eight letters of terms in quotation marks are “ekgseste”. It is feasible to construct the telestich anagram “ee k gses t” from those ending letters. Elgar’s initials in lower case are “ee”. Anthony Payne observes in his elaboration of Elgar’s Third Symphony that Elgar would write “K” in red-crayon on his musical sketches as an abbreviation of kopiert to indicate that they had been copied elsewhere. The word kopiert is German for “copied.” A phonetic realization of Jesus is “gses”. Such a decryption is nearly identical to “GSUS” encoded in the first bar of the Enigma Theme by a musical Polybius cipher. A lower case “t” resembles a Latin cross. Based on these insights, the telestich anagram “ee k gses t” may be read as “EE kopiert Jesus’ cross.” This is likely a coded reference to the sign of the cross, a ritual blessing practiced by various Christian denominations including Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran.

The Enigma Theme is in common time (4/4) with four quarter beats per bar. An alternative symbol for that time signature is a capital C. That letter serves as the initial for Christ, cross, crux, and is also a homonym of sea. It is significant that the pattern for conducting common time replicates the sign of the cross. The Enigma Variations has five movements performed in common time:

1. Enigma
2. I. (C. A.E.)
3. V. (R.P.A.)
4. XII. (B.G.N.)
5. XIV. (E.D.U.) Finale

Although Variation V. (R.P.A.) is in 12/8, it is conducted in four as compound quadruple time. Eight staves in that movement are actually set in 4/4 time: Bassoons I and II, Contrabassoon, Trombones I and II, Tuba, Viola, Cello, and Bass. Popular renderings of Ein feste Burg by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn are set in common time. Consequently, Elgar’s use of common time for the opening and closing movements of the Enigma Variations ingeniously hints at the time signature of the covert Theme.

The letters “ekgseste” are also a telestich anagram of “e kst gses”. Elgar signed some of his correspondence with his initial “E”. The term “kst” is a phonetic spelling of kissed. The word “gses” is a phonetic spelling of Jesus, the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII and mentioned in the second stanza of Ein feste Burg. The telestich anagram “e kst gses” may be read as “E kissed Jesus.” As an act of veneration, Roman Catholics kiss sacred images of Jesus including icons, statues, and crucifixes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that venerating representations of Christ honors God. Elgar was born, married and buried as a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Summation

When preparing the program for the June 1899 premiere of the Enigma Variations, C. A. Barry wrote to Elgar requesting an explanation of his objectives. In his reply cited in the program, Elgar seasoned his prose with perplexing words and foreign terms to both confound and supply subtle clues about his enigmas. This essay identified how Elgar framed his 1899 program remarks in four languages (Belgian, English, French, and Latin) that yield the acrostic anagram “EFB L”, a linguistic solution that unveils the initials of the covert Them (Ein feste Burg) and its composer (Luther). It was also shown how four italicized letters (is and e.g.) yield anagrams of the German word “Sieg” (victory or triumph) and “gise”, a phonetic rendition of guise. Elgar’s anomalous reference to Maeterlinck and two of his French plays supply a reverse acrostic spelling of “Psalm” constructed from discrete initials. The sum of 46 characters in this Maeterlinck phrase implicates Psalm 46, a chapter known as “Luther’s Psalm” as it inspired the composition and title of Ein feste Burg. The initials from Elgar’s Maeterlinck phrase generate the anagram “L PsaLM I” (Luther Psalm Aye), signaling Elgar’s affirmation that Ein feste Burg is the covert Theme of the Enigma Variations. Another possible anagram is “I L PsaLM” (Eye Luther Psalm), an order to look at Psalm 46, a chapter that supplies the covert Theme’s title in its opening verse.

It was also demonstrated how English and French terms enclosed by quotation marks (piece, dark saying, goes, L’Intruse, Les sept Princesses) generate the acrostic anagrams “Ls ps gd L PI.” (Luther’s Psalm, God, El, Pi) and “L Ps gIld ps” (Luther Psalm Guild Psalm). These anagrams resonate with other coded references to God, Pi, and the Psalms in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme. The final letters from words in quotations generate the telestich anagrams “ee k gses t” (EE kopiert Jesus cross) and “e kst gses” (E kissed Jesus). These solutions allude to various Roman Catholic acts of veneration such as the ritual sign of the cross and kissing crucifixes, icons, and sacred images of Jesus.

To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please help support and expand my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

Elgar’s Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers

On being asked for some elucidation of the composer’s intentions, Mr. Elgar replied: “The Enigma I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some later dramas – e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’ – the chief character is never on the stage.”

1899 program note prepared by Charles Ainslie Barry

The English composer Edward Elgar reveled in phonetic spellings, wordplays, and anagrams. One notable example is the appellation “Craeg Lea” that he bestowed on his Malvern residence where his family resided between 1899 and 1904. That strange moniker is an anagram sourced from a reverse spelling of “Elgar” (Craeg Lea) mingled with the initials for his daughter (Carice), wife (Alice), and himself (Edward). Elgar challenged Rosa Burley to decipher the meaning of his home’s odd name. Rosa caught on quickly as recounted in her memoir Edward Elgar: The Record of a Friendship:

Edward called the place Craeg Lea and challenged me to guess how he had found the name. By some stroke of luck, I realized that the key lay in the unusual spelling of “Craeg” and immediately saw that the thing had been built up anagrammatically from (A)lice, (C)arice, (E)dward ELGAR. I think he was a little annoyed that this mystification had fallen flat.

Elgar’s enthusiasm for word games spilled over into the field of cryptography, the discipline of coding and decoding secret messages. Ciphers elevate wordplay to a higher plane of complexity that conceals words behind a smokescreen of seemingly disorganized letters or symbols. His obsession with that esoteric discipline merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s treatise Unsolved! The bulk of its third chapter is devoted to Elgar’s skillful decryption of an allegedly insoluble Nihilist cipher unfurled by John Holt Schooling in an April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. Elgar was so pleased with his solution that he mentions it in his first biography published in 1904 by the music critic Robert J. Buckley. Elgar painted the solution in black paint on a wooden box, an appropriate medium as another name for the Polybius checkerboard is a box cipher.

Elgar’s methodical decryption of Schooling’s cipher is summarized on a set of nine index cards. On the sixth card, Elgar relates the task of cracking the cipher to “. . . working (in the dark).”

His use of the word dark as a synonym for a cipher is revealing as this same adjective turns up later in Elgar’s 1899 program note for the premiere of the Enigma Variations. It is an oft-cited passage that deserves revisiting as he lays the groundwork for his threefold riddle:

The Enigma I will not explain — it’s ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the connexion between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some later dramas — e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’ — the chief character is never on the stage.

Elgar composed the Enigma Variations in 1898-99. That extraordinary work elevated him from provincial obscurity to international acclaim, transforming his career from an itinerant music teacher to a respected composer. The original title appears on the autograph score as “Variations for orchestra composed by Edward Elgar Op. 36”. With the opening theme dubbed “Enigma,” it is popularly referred to as the Enigma Variations. In the 1899 program note and other primary sources, Elgar explained the Theme is called “Enigma” because it is a counterpoint to a famous melody that is not heard but can play “through and over” the Variations. This absent tune is the cornerstone underlying the whole work, a subject that has provoked considerable debate about what could possibly be the correct melodic solution.

Some contend there is no solution by insinuating that Elgar concocted the notion of an absent principal Theme as an afterthought, practical joke, or marketing ploy. These myths obdurately reverberate in the echo chamber of academia where they are repeated ad nauseum. Others take Elgar at his published word and accept the challenge that there is a famous melody lurking behind the Variations’ contrapuntal and modal facade. Regardless of what side is taken in this debate, conventional scholarship stalwartly maintains the solution is unfathomable because Elgar allegedly took his secret to the grave in February 1934. They insist Elgar never wrote down the answer for posterity to discover. However, that opinion overlooks his documented obsession with cryptography, an incontestable fact that raises the probability that the solutions are encoded within the orchestral score of the Enigma Variations.

A decade of trawling the Enigma Variations has netted over one hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. While that figure may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s lifelong passion for ciphers. More significantly, their solutions provide definitive answers to the central riddles posed by the Enigma Variations. What is the secret melody to which the Enigma Theme is a counterpoint and serves as the melodic foundation for the ensuing movements? Answer: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German reformer Martin Luther. What is Elgar’s “dark saying” ensconced within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius box cipher embedded in its inaugural bars cordoned off by an oddly placed double barline at the end of measure 6. Who is the secret friend and inspiration behind Variation XIII? Answer: Jesus Christ, the Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith. The cryptographic evidence supporting these discoveries is diverse, prodigious, and decisive. The Enigma Variations is Elgar’s symphonic homage to cryptography.

The Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers

In celebration of the 168th anniversary of Elgar’s birth, it is a privilege to announce the discovery of more cryptograms in the opening six measures (Section A) of the Enigma Theme. These ciphers are constructed from twelve main chord progressions positioned on the strong beats (1 and 3) of each bar. The Enigma Theme is framed in common time with four quarter beats per measure. In that meter, the strong beats are one and three. The first strong beat is called the downbeat, and the second is labelled the backbeat. Elgar structured the chief chord progressions in the accompaniment of bars 1-6 to unfold on the first and third strong beats. An emphasis on beats 1 and 3 hints at the number thirteen (13), the only variation dedicated to an anonymous friend. Displayed below is a harmonic analysis of these twelve chord progressions on strong beats in Section A of the Enigma Theme.

The Enigma Theme’s accompaniment begins in the first bar with a tonic G minor chord in root position on beat 1 followed on beat 3 by a dominant D dominant seventh chord in second inversion. The downbeat of bar two is a G minor chord in first inversion followed by a C minor chord on the upbeat. Measure three opens on beat 1 with a G minor triad in second inversion followed on beat 3 by the first inversion of a C minor chord with an added sixth. The downbeat of bar four is a G dominant seventh in first inversion followed on the upbeat by a C minor triad in root position. Beat 1 of bar five is a German sixth chord (the third inversion of an E-flat major triad with an augmented sixth on C-sharp) that resolves on beat 3 to a G minor chord in second inversion.

The accompaniment in bar six continues on the downbeat with a C minor triad in first inversion followed on the upbeat by a C minor chord in root position that sets up a Plagal cadence leading to Section B (bars 7-10). The Plagal cadence is known as the Amen cadence due to its formulaic usage to the text “Amen” at the end of Christian hymns. In his early career between 1872 and 1889, Elgar served as a church organist at St. George’s Catholic Church in Worcester where he undoubtedly performed the Amen cadence. Elgar’s extensive use of the Plagal cadence throughout the Enigma Variations discretely hints at the hymnodic origins of the absent principal Theme. These twelve chord progressions on strong beats in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme are summarized in the following table.

Twelve chord progressions in Section A highlights the number twelve. The placement of these chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 deftly alludes to the number thirteen (13). The application of a basic number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.) to the sums twelve and thirteen yield the plaintext letters L and M. Those two letters furnish the initials of Martin Luther, the composer of the covert principal Theme. On the earliest short score sketch of Variation XIII, Elgar gave it the title “L” and later appended “ML”—the initials of Martin Luther.

An analysis of opening twelve principal chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme determined that they encode words and initials associated with the absent principal Theme, its “dark saying” and the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII. The first decryption in bar 1 combines the chord letters G and D to produce a phonetic spelling of God. Jewish tradition uses an incomplete spelling of God as “G-d” to show reverence for the divine name, the Tetragrammaton. In the Hebrew Bible, God’s name in the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה‎ which is transliterated as “YHWH” or “YHVH.” Scholars debate the precise pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as the vowels are omitted from most manuscripts. The leading translations are “Yahweh” and “Jehovah.” Many editions of the Bible avoid this dilemma by substituting “LORD” in place of the divine name. The location of the opening “G-D” chord sequence cipher in bar 1 emphasizes God’s preeminence, unity and oneness. This solution is linked to the covert principal Theme as God is the sixth word in the title Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God). In Ein feste Burg, Luther depicts God as a towering refuge against spiritual and worldly adversaries.

I was first apprised of the existence of Enigma Theme ciphers in 2009 by Richard Santa, a retired engineer and Elgar enthusiast. He discovered that the scale degrees of the melody (3-1-2-4) in bars 1 and 11 encode a rounded version of Pi (π) as 3.142. Santa presents his remarkable discovery in the 2010 paper Solving Elgar’s Enigma published by Columbia University in the journal Current Musicology. Pi is the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Circles are associated with chords because a line connecting two endpoints on a circle is called a chord. According to that definition, a diameter is a type of geometric chord. A circle has 360 degrees, a figure that mirrors the Enigma Variations’ opus number (36) with the circular zero omitted. Santa’s discovery of Pi in bars 1 and 11 hints at the letter O as it is the alphabet’s only circular letter. When an O is added to the chord letters in bar 1 (G and D), it neatly rounds out the spelling of GOD.

Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith provides a rationale for encoding Pi in the opening bar of the Enigma Theme. In Christian symbolism, a circle represents eternity, unity, and divine perfection. Lacking a beginning or ending, a circle elegantly aligns with God’s infinite and eternal nature. In Christian iconography, the halo (or nimbus) is a radiant disk or circle around the head of a holy personage such as Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels, or saints. The discovery of a rounded form of Pi in combination with a phonetic spelling of God by primary chord letters in the Enigma Theme’s first bar present mutually supportive and overlapping decryptions.

Prior research uncovered a musical Polybius cipher in Section A (bars 1-6) of the Enigma Theme that encodes a series of four-letter anagrams obtained from the covert Theme’s complete German title: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Bar 1 encodes the four-letter solution “GSUS”, a phonetic realization of Jesus. The encoding of God and Jesus in the same measure reflects their co-equal and co-eternal nature within the Trinity. In John 10:30, Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one.” A hidden reference to Jesus in the first measure is redolent of the episode when he hid himself from an angry mob who threatened to stone him to death. John 8:59 reads, “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

There is an old saying, “Jesus always gives enough of himself to make faith possible, and yet he always hides enough of himself to make faith necessary.” Concealed references to God and Jesus in the first bar of the Enigma Theme resonate with the Christian concept of the hidden God. The 16th century German theologian Martin Luther introduced and developed this idea under the Latin rubric “Deus Absconditus” (The Hidden God), drawing on Isaiah 45:15, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” Hidden references to God and Jesus in the first bar of the Enigma Theme nimbly allude to Luther, the composer of Ein feste Burg.

A coded reference to Jesus in the Enigma Theme’s first bar is not an isolated instance. Primary chord letters (G and C) in bars 2, 3, and 4 furnish the Italian initials of Gesù Cristo (Jesus Christ). An Italian set of initials for Elgar’s secret friend is consistent with his extensive use of Italian nomenclature for the instrumentation and performance directions throughout the published score. The discovery of Ein feste Burg as the covert Theme decisively answers Elgar’s ancillary riddle regarding the secret friend of Variation XIII. In its second stanza, Luther extols Jesus Christ as God’s triumphant champion and savior.

Three consecutive repetitions of the Italian initials for Jesus Christ in bars 2-4 emphasizes the number three, a symbolically important sum in Christian theology and tradition. A central Christian doctrine is the Trinity that defines the Godhead as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was tempted three times by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). On the eve of his arrest, Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-44). The Apostle Peter denied Jesus three times after his arrest (John 18:15-27), and the Lord restored Peter after asking him three times, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). There were three crosses at Golgotha where Jesus was crucified between two criminals (Luke 23:32-43). There were three hours of darkness during the crucifixion (Matthew 27:45). Jesus was entombed for three days, a duration foreshadowed by the prophet Jonah who spent three days and nights in the belly of a large fish (Jonah 1-2). Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. The threefold office of Christ encompasses Priest, Prophet, and King.

The Enigma Theme’s accompaniment in Section A (bars 1-6) consists of a series of nine quarter note chords in bars 1 through 5, and three half note chords in bars 4 and 6. The distribution of these nine quarter and three half note chords over bars 1-5 and 4-6 respectively hints at 1546, the year of Martin Luther’s death. Such an observation is consistent with the anomalous completion date of “FEb 18 1898” on the last page of the original Finale because “FEb 18” marks the anniversary of Luther’s death. Elgar first performed the Enigma Theme for his wife on 21 October 1898, 245 days after the erroneous completion date. Remarkably, the abbreviation “FEb” is an anagram of the initials for Ein feste Burg.

The rhythmic distribution of chord progressions in Section A consists of three half notes and nine quarter notes. When the sums of three and nine are converted into their corresponding letters of the alphabet, they produce C (3) and I (9). The letters “IC” are the initials of Jesus Christ in Latin (Iesus Christus) and Greek (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός). In a twenty-four character cipher alphabet that conflates similar letters (I/J and U/V), nine converts to I/J. The combination of C and J permits the “JC”, the English initials of Jesus Christ. It is significant that the twin decryptions “IC” and “JC” are reciprocally corresponding. The initials “IC” are a homonym of the phrase “I see.” When the two possible solutions “IC” and “IJ” are merged together as “ICJC”, they generate the phrase “I see J[esus] C[hrist].” The solutions “IC”, “IJ”, and “IC JC” are initials and phoneticisms in English, Latin, and Greek. It is noteworthy that those three languages furnish an acrostic anagram of the first three letters from Elgar.

The first chord in bar 5 is a German augmented sixth. The significance of this particular augmented sixth chord is that it subtly hints at the title of the covert Theme which consists of six German words. The German sixth is formed by an E-flat major triad with an added C-sharp a sixth above E-flat. The second chord on beat three in bar 5 is a G minor triad in second inversion. The letters of the two chords on beats 1 and 3 are E and G, a truncated spelling of egg. Adding the initial G from the German sixth label to the chord letters E and G permits a complete spelling of EGG. The signficiane of this decryption is that the Easter egg is a traditional symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ. As noted earlier, Jesus is the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII (✡✡✡).

The chord letters in bar 6 on beats 1 and 3 are C and C. The acronym “CC” is associated with various Latin references to the cross and Jesus and the cross. “CC” furnishes the initials for the Latin phrases crux commissa. The crux commissa is the T-shaped cross known as St. Anthony’s cross, one of the four iconographic representations of the cross. Roman Catholic tradition holds that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, the sixth day is the week. Therefore, it is contextually appropriate that the “Crux Commissa” chords cipher appears in bar 6.

The initials “CC” are also the Latin acronym for Corpus Christi (Body of Christ). The Latin phrase “Corpus Christi” refers to the Eucharisitic presence of Christ. As the Lamb of God, the body Christ hung on the cross as the ultimate Paschal sacrifice. The phrase “Corpus Christi” appears in the Roman Catholic Mass during the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, a section referred to as “Corpus Christi.” Liturgical texts also feature “Corpus Christi” such as the sequence Lauda Sion by St. Thomas Aquinas, sung or recited during the Mass. Eurcharistic prayers and hymns also feature the phrase. Premiered in September 1896, Lux Christi is Elgar’s first sacred oratorio which was marketed under the Anglicanized title The Light of Life.

The acronym “CC” may aso represent the Latin expression Crux Christi (Cross of Christ). “Crux Christi” appears in some Roman Catholic liturgical celebrations, antiphons, hymns, and devotional practices, particularly those connected to the Holy Cross. During a pilgrimage to Jerusalm, Saint Helena is credited with discovering the true cross on which Jesus was crucified. This event is celebrated on the Christian liturgical calendar as the “Office for the Finding of the Holy Cross.” The discovery of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, is celebrated on the Christian liturgical calendar as the “Office for the Finding of the Holy Cross.” The liturgy for this celebration includes antiphons such as “Crux Christi, qua ex profundo interius extracti sumus” which highlight the Cross as God’s salvation.

A musical Polybius cipher encodes the four-letter decryption “GRTS” in bar 2, a phonetic approximation of gratius (thanks) with the vowels omitted. Combining the decryptions from bars 1 and 2 yields “GSUS GRTS”, a phonetic version of the phrase “Jesus gratius” (Thanks be to Jesus). The encoding of the Italian initials for Jesus Christ in bar 2 complements and expands the bilingual decryption to “Gratius Gesù Cristo” (Thanks to Jesus Christ). In bars 3-4, the Polybius cipher encodes “INOU BETR”, a phonetic rendering of the English phrase, “I know you better.” The identity of “you” is affirmed by the Italian initials for Jesus Christ encoded by the chord progressions in those same two measures.

Why would Elgar encode the declaration “Thanks be to Jesus, I know you better” in the opening four measures of the Enigma Theme? The answer is supplied by the first official photographs of the Shroud of Turin by Secondo Pia taken in May 1898, five months before Elgar began seriously working on the Enigma Variations. The Turin Shroud bears faint ventral and dorsal images of a crucified man with wounds consistent with the Gospel account. When Pia developed his first batch of glass plates in a dark room, he was shocked to discover that the photographic negatives displayed positive images. Such an inversion is only possible if the anterior and dorsal images on the Turin Shroud are photographic negatives. Pia’s remarkable discovery became an international sensation in the secular and Catholic press. In July 1898, the Catholic Champion reported on Pia’s miraculous photographic negatives of the Turin Shroud. A similar report appeared in the July 1898 issue of The Photographic News published in London. On August 6 of that year, Scientific American also reported on Pia’s lifelike photographic negatives of the Holy Shroud.

The prestigious British technical magazine The Photogram covered the Turin Shroud on page 267 of its August 1898 issue with this opening sentence, “The Osservatore Romano, the official organ of the Vatican, has announced a remarkable miracle at Turin, by which ‘after eighteen centuries, an authentic likeness of Jesus Christ has been obtained.’” In their December 1898 issue, The Photogram published the article “Photographic Miracles” accompanied by one of Pia’s certified photographic negatives of the Turin Shroud. The London journal English Mechanic and Mirror of Science reported on December 9, 1898, that The Photogram published a 20-inch by 5.5-inch image of Pia’s incredible negative “intended for framing.”

Secondo Pia’s Turin Shroud Ventral Negative (The Photogram)

By Christmas of 1898, many Roman Catholic households proudly displayed reprints of Pia’s photographic negative of the Turin Shroud to venerate the Holy Face of Jesus. Pia’s iconic negatives of the Turin Shroud made it possible for Christians like Elgar to look back through the eons and view the lifelike face of Jesus for the first time.

Coded references to the Turin Shroud in the orchestral score bolster the hypothesis that Pia’s remarkable photographic negatives triggered the genesis of the Enigma Variations. The timing is credible as Pia took his riveting photographs five months before Elgar began openly composing the Enigma Variations. Ample coverage in the Catholic and secular press assured that Elgar was made aware of Pia’s discovery. Indeed, the Turin Shroud is a type of cipher as it conceals a lifelike image of a crucified man only revealed through advances in photography. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of Elgar, Pia’s picture of the Turin Shroud inspired thousands of notes.

Encrypted mentions of Christ’s name and initials in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme are augmented by other coded references to Jesus via the opening titles of the Enigma Variations. The titles of Variation I and II encode the Christograms “IHC” and “IHS” via proximate title letters. “IHC” and “IHS” are widely used trigrams of the Greek spelling of Jesus (ἸΗΣΟΥΣ).

Consistent with the formation of “IHC” and “IHS” Christograms in the opening titles of the Enigma Variations, its first four titles produce the more expansive anagram “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE”. This is a hybrid phrase in Latin and English that means, “Pious Christ Abide.” The virtually identical decryptions Pie and Pi cannot be casually chalked up to coincidence.

Discrete chord letters from the strong beats in bars 1-6 are C, D, E, and G. These four letters encode anagrams of Elgar’s forename (ED) and the Italian initials of Jesus Christ (GC). These anagrams indicate a close friendship between Elgar and Jesus, one corroborated by the placement of their respective movements. Dedicated in secret to Christ, Variation XIII is followed by Variation XIV which is Elgar’s musical self-portrait. Another anagram obtained from these four chord letters is “E C GD.” The letter “E” is Elgar’s initial. “C” is a homonym of see. “GD” is a phonetic rendering of God. The anagram “E C GD” generates the phonetic decryption “E[lgar] see God.” This solution resonates with the discovery of coded references in the Enigma Variations to the Turin Shroud, a sacred burial cloth that bears pale images of a crucified man that many believe depicts the body of Christ. A central tenet of the Christian canon is the belief that Jesus is the Incarnation of God. Elgar was an observant Roman Catholic when he composed the Enigma Variations in 1898-99. For a Roman Catholic, to see Christ is akin to seeing God.

Elgar employs three languages in his Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers: English, Italian, and Latin: The use of multiple languages is an effective stratagem for foiling decryption. These three languages yield the acrostic anagram “ELI”, an Aramaic word that Jesus uttered twice in his fourth saying from the cross when he asked, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” The English translation reads, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The quotation originates from the opening sentence of Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm that presents a prophetic portrayal of the crucifixion. The encoding of Eli is a theological clue that hints at the identity of Elgar’s secret friend and the lyrics of the covert principal Theme. The biblical source of “Eli” from Psalm 22 further hints at another Psalm that inspired Ein feste Burg. This solution is not a solitary instance as Eli is also encoded as an acrostic anagram by other ciphers in the Enigma Variations that rely on English, Italian, and Latin terms. One example is the Organo Label Cipher, and another specimen is the performance directions for the solo cell at Rehearsal 52 in Variation XII.

The agonizing question “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” is famously set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach in his St. Matthew’s Passion. Elgar revered Bach’s music and his setting of that psalm. Above the orchestral introduction to Part V. “Golgotha” of his oratorio The Apostles, Elgar wrote “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” The appeal of that Aramaic question to Elgar is perfectly understandable as the opening two words “Eli, Eli” produce an acrostic of his initials (EE). The Apostles premiered in October 1903.

A musical Polybius box cipher at the outset of the Enigma Theme encodes “TENI” in bar 5, the first word spoken by Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-25). Popular biblical commentaries in the 1890s assert that when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, he began his request with that exact word by saying, “Teni li listosh.” Teni is indelibly linked to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman when he plainly revealed his identity to her as the Messiah (John 4:25-26). Elgar’s personal library housed as many as 100 religious texts including Bibles, theological works and biblical commentaries, so he was well versed in theology.

In what language is the word teni? Multiple commentaries available during the closing decade of the 19th century asserted that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. The Pulpit Commentaries dating from 1897 furnishes the following analysis of John 4:

The Samaritan woman therefore saith to him, How is it (compare this “how” with that of Nicodemus. Jesus had at once provoked inquiry, which he was not unwilling to gratify)—How is it that thou, being a Jew? She would have known that he was a Jew by his speech, for the Samaritans were accustomed to turn the sound of sh into that of s; and so, when Jesus said in Jewish Aramaic, Teni lishekoth, “Give me to drink,” while she would herself have said, Teni lisekoth, his speech would betray him.

Another instance is found in The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary on St. John dating from 1892 which also advises that the word teni is Aramaic:

The woman knew He was a Jew probably by His dress, but it may be also by His accent. It has been pointed out that the words of the question asked by Jesus in Aramaic would be תני לי לשׁחת (Teni li lish'ḥoth), whereas the woman would have said לשׂחת (lis'ḥoth) (vide Jud 12:5-6).

While these and other commentaries would have reasonably compelled Elgar to conclude that the term teni is Aramaic, the international correspondent Daniel Estrin verified it is in fact Hebrew. Charles C. Torrey of Yale University lays out a compelling case that the Gospel of John was originally written in Aramaic, the vernacular of Judea in the first century. It is universally acknowledged that Jesus and his disciples conversed in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Holy Land during the first century. For this reason, the biblical commentaries correctly report that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. However, the translation given is mistakenly in Hebrew, a language very similar to Aramaic. The correct version of this passage from the Aramaic Peshitta is, “Hav li maya, eshteh,” which means, “Give me water, I will drink.”

It was shown how two different ciphers in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme encode words spoken by Jesus at the beginning and end of his ministry. A musical Polybius box cipher encodes teni in bar 5, the first word said by Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well. Three languages used by the Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers generate the acrostic anagram Eli, a word Jesus spoke twice from the cross at the culmination of his ministry at the cross. The musical Polybius Cipher in bars 1-6 employs four languages: Aramaic, English, German, and Latin. Those four languages are an acrostic anagram of ELGAr: English, Latin, German, and Aramaic. The solution to Elgar’s musical Polybius cipher is autographed by the composer using a second tier of encryption.

The Common Time Movements Enigma Cipher

It was previously observed that the Enigma Theme is in common time (4/4) with four quarter beats per bar. An alternative symbol for that time signature is a capital C. That letter serves as the initial for Christ, crux, cross, and is also a homonym of sea. It is significant that the pattern for conducting common time replicates the sign of the cross. This prayer and ritual blessing is practiced by major Christian denominations such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglican and Episcopal traditions. Elgar’s choice of time signatures for the Enigma Theme supplies the letter C which is the initial of Christ, alludes to the marine atmosphere of Variation XIII (✡✡✡) as that same letter is a homonym of sea, and hints at the symbol of the cross because conducting common time employs a cross pattern.

Pattern for conducting common time

The Enigma Variations has five movements performed in common time:

1. Enigma
2. I. (C. A.E.)
3. V. (R.P.A.)
4. XII. (B.G.N.)
5. XIV. (E.D.U.) Finale

Although Variation V. (R.P.A.) is in 12/8, it is conducted in four as compound quadruple time. Eight staves in that movement are actually set in 4/4 time: Bassoons I and II, Contrabassoon, Trombones I and II, Tuba, Viola, Cello, and Bass. Popular renderings of Ein feste Burg by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn are set in common time. Consequently, Elgar’s use of common time for the opening and closing movements of the Enigma Variations ingeniouelsy hints at the time signature of the covert Theme.

There are five movements in the Enigma Variations set in common that time supply the following fourteen initials in alphabetical order: A, A, B, C, D, E, E, E, F, G, N, P, R, and U. When treated as an anagram, those fourteen initials generate “C PAEAN EFBURG ED.” As noted earlier, “C” is the symbol for common time, the meter of Luther’s most famous hymn. Merriam-Webster defines paean as “a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph.” “EFBURG” is an abbreviated version of the hymn title Ein feste Burg as “E[in] F[este] BURG”. “ED” is a short form of Edward. Elgar signed some of his letters as “Ed. Elgar.” Initials from five movements in common time generate an anagram that identifies the meter, character, and truncated title of the covert Theme and ends with a short form of Elgar’s forename. This cryptogram is labeled the Common Time Movements Enigma Cipher.

The Enigma Pisces Cipher

When coded references to Pi in bars 1 and 11 of the Enigma Theme are paired with the symbol for common time, the result is “Pi-C” which spells pic. The term pic is a common abbreviation of picture, the fifth word in the dedication to the Enigma Variations: “DEDICATED TO MY FRIENDS PICTURED WITHIN.” Elgar’s most famous friend and dedicatee of Variation XIII is mysteriously pictured on the Turin Shroud. Pia’s pictures of that sacred burial cloth taken in May 1898 received extensive coverage in the Christian and secular press. Pia’s photographs likely inspired Elgar’s word choice regarding the dedication.

Pisces is the twelfth and final sign in the Zodiac represented by two fish with their tails joined by a cord. It derives its name from the Latin plural form of fish. Pisces is pronounced “Pie-seez” in English. Its astronomical symbol (♓︎) resembles two back-to-back curved capital Es connected by their center line, suggesting a coded form of Elgar’s initials (EE). Someone born between February 19 and March 20 is a Pisces. Remarkably, Elgar finished orchestrating the Enigma Variations on February 19, 1899. When Pi is paired with C, it generates a nearly complete phonetic rendering of Pisces (Pi-C) with the final s absent. The equivalent of “Pi-C” is pisce, the ablative singular of piscis, the singular case of fish in Latin. A coded reference to fish in the Enigma Theme alludes to the identity of the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII because the fish is an early Christogram known by its Greek name Ichthys.

The Ichthys Christogram

The letters of Ichthys (ἸΧΘΥΣ) are an acronym or acrostic of the Greek words for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” (Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ). These five Greek letters may be stacked atop each other to generate an Ichthys wheel. The encoding of Pi in the Enigma Theme subtly hints at this circular Christogram. Like the Zodiac, the Ichthys wheel is circular.

The Zodiac Wheel

Pi is encoded twice by the Enigma Theme in bars 1 and 11. The sum of these two bar numbers (1+11) is twelve, a figure that corresponds to the position of Pisces in the Zodiac. The bass line in bars 1 and 11 consists of the first (G) and second (A) scale degrees of G minor. These two scale degrees (1 and 2) also spell twelve (12). As previously observed, the Enigma Theme is framed in common time which may be denoted by the letter C. The encoding of two sets of “Pi-C” in bars 1 and 11 presents its plural form as “Pi-Cs”, a phonetic realization of Pisces. The encoding of “Pi-C” in bars 1 and 11 are symbolically tied together by the same numeral in their bar numbers, melodic motif and chord sequences. This particular cryptogram is called the Enigma Theme Pisces Cipher.

Pisces is the last constellation on the Zodiac represented by two fish with their tails tied together. Elgar’s coded reference to Pisces in the Enigma Theme subtly emphasizes the preeminence of the ending over the beginning. This message is delivered overtly by a quotation from stanza XIV from Elegiac Verse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned by Elgar on the last page of the extended Finale: “Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.” This clue hints at how Elgar mapped Ein feste Burg above the Enigma Theme as a retrograde counterpoint. Instead of starting Luther’s hymn from the beginning as everyone would reasonably expect, Elgar began with its ending phrase and worked his way backward towards its beginning. The symbolism of the constellation Pisces is exquisitely appropriate, for like the two fish tied together by a cord, the Enigma Theme and Ein feste Burg are connected by an ingenious counterpoint and shared chord progressions.

Pisces from a set of constellation cards published in London (c. 1825)

Summation

Elgar’s zeal for cryptography and composition elegantly coalesced in his Enigma Variations, a symphonic masterpiece permeated with ciphers that answer riddles about its absent principal Theme, “dark saying” and secret friend depicted in Variation XIII. A survey of the Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers revealed how Elgar uses twelve chord progressions on strong beats in Section A (bars 1-6) to encode God in bar 1, three sets of Italian initials (GC) for Jesus Christ in bars 2-4, the Christogram Egg in bar 5, and the initials (CC) for Corpus Christi, Crux Commissa, and Crux Christi in bar 6. It was also shown how the rhythmic distribution of these twelve chord progressions as nine quarter notes and three half notes supply the initials of Jesus Christ in Latin (IC) and English (JC) using 26 and 24 character number-to-letter keys. When combined, “IC JC” generates the phrase “I see Jesus Christ.” Twelve principal chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 implicate the numbers twelve and thirteen, sums that convert into the initials of Martin Luther (ML) using a basic number-to-letter key. The Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers employs three languages (English, Italian and Latin) which generate an acrostic anagram of Eli, an Aramaic word Jesus spoke twice in his fourth saying from the cross.

An introduction to the Common Time Enigma Cipher identified five of the fifteen movements from the Enigma Variations which are set in common time: The Enigma Theme, Variations I, V, XII, and XIV. Elgar’s fivefold use of common time, particularly for the beginning and ending movements, hints at the metric provenance of the covert principal Theme because popular versions of Ein feste Burg by J. S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn are written in that meter. Fourteen initials sourced from the titles of those five movements in common time generate the anagram “C PAEAN EFBURG ED.” This anagram specifies the pulse (common time), disposition (paean), and abbreviated title (E F Burg) of the covert Theme. The solution is autographed by Elgar using a short form of his forename (Ed). This follows a pattern found with 0ther cryptograms from the Enigma Variations that are stamped by some form of his name or initials.

An overview of the Enigma Theme Pisces Cipher began with Richard Santa’s discovery that Elgar encodes a rounded form of Pi (3.142) using the scale degrees of the melody in bars 1 and 11. The Enigma Theme is in common time, a meter represented by a capital C. That initial can represent Christ, Christogram, cross, crux, and the homonym sea. Pairing C with Pi yields “Pi-C”, a phonetic equivalent of pisce, the singular ablative case of fish in Latin. The fish is a historic Christogram called Ichthys in Greek. Two sets of “Pi-C” netted in bars 1 and 11 intimate the plural form “Pi-Cs”, a phonetic version of Pisces. The twelfth sign in the Zodiac is Pisces represented by two fish with their tails tied together by a cord. Similarly, the encoding of “Pi-C” in measures 1 and 11 of the Enigma Theme are tied together by shared chord progressions, the same melodic motif, and a common numeral in their bar numbers. The sum of bars 1 and 11 is twelve, a figure that matches the position of Pisces in the Zodiac. The scale degrees of the bass line in bars 1 and 11 are one and two, numerals that may be paired together to encode twelve. Elgar completed orchestrating the Enigma Variations on February 19, the first day of Pisces on the zodiac calendar. Similar to the Zodiac wheel, the Greek letters from Ichthys may be stacked to reproduce a wheel. The encoding of Pi in the Enigma Theme cleverly hints at both the Zodiac and Ichthys wheels.

To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please help support and expand my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria