Variation II H.D.S-P. with 'Ein feste Burg'

Doubting Thomas inspecting the wounds to Jesus Christ

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29 (NIV)

Variation II of Elgar’s Enigma Variations is dedicated to Hew David Steuart Powell (1851 – 1924), a gifted amateur pianist who met Alice before her marriage to Elgar. Although he resided in London, Powell regularly took part in the musical life of Malvern throughout the 1890s, often in a trio with Elgar and Basil Nevison (the friend pictured within Variation VII).[1] Elgar wrote this variation “is a tribute to a very dear friend whose scientific and artistic attainments, and the wholehearted way they were put at the disposal of his friends, particularly endeared him to the writer.”[2] Powell’s routine of warming up by playing quick, toccata passages is captured by the fugue-like pattern of running sixteenth notes.

Figure 4.1 shows how Ein feste Burg plays “through and over” Variation II. A Finale sound file of this melodic solution is available here.

 Figure 4.2 presents evidence for this particular interpolation of the missing Principal Theme. The rendering of Ein feste Burg over Variation II was deduced based on a combination of melodic interval mirroring, similar and contrary motion. Melodic interval mirroring occurs when intervals in Ein feste Burg are mirrored or reflected in the variation. Similar motion occurs when voices from Ein feste Burg and the variation move in the same direction, but not necessarily by the same interval or degree. Contrary motion takes place when Ein feste Burg moves in the opposite direction of the variation's melody, again not necessarily by the same interval. In some cases, the upper voice of the variation moves parallel with Ein feste Burg while the base line moves in a contrary manner. An effective counterpoint typically employs a fairly balanced combination of contrary and parallel motion, something that is clearly present in this analysis.

Table 4.1 documents 45 shared melody notes between Ein feste Burg and Variation II. These melodic conjunctions are found in bars 51 through 82, a span of 31 measures.  Variation II is 55 measures in length, and it was determined the missing Principal Theme is dormant in the first ten measures (41-50), and the last fourteen (83-96). Theses inactive sections are symmetrical because both consist of ten measure segments at the beginning and end of Ein feste Burg, the last dormant section being followed by a four bar codetta. In measures 51 through 82 there are 190 melody notes in Variation II. There are 76 melody notes in this version of Ein feste Burg. Therefore, 59.2% of the melody from Ein feste Burg overlaps with 23.7% of the melody of Variation II. This sizable discrepancy is not unexpected since the melody line of Variation II is made up almost entirely of sixteenth notes streaming in toccata fashion.

TABLE 4.1
45 Melodic Conjunctions between Ein Feste Burg and the H.D.S-P.
Measure Number	Beat	Shared Melody Note
51	2.5	G
52	1.5	D
	3.5	E
53	1	F#
	2.5	G
54	1	F
	2.5	E flat/D#
55	1	G
	2	F
	3	E flat
56	1.5	E flat
	3	C
57	1	B flat
	2	A
	3.5	A
58	1.5	G
59	2.5	G
60	1.5	D
	2.5	E flat/D#
61	1	G
	2	F
	3	E flat
62	1.5	D
63	3	E flat
64	1.5	D
65	1.5	B flat
66	2	G
67	2.5	E flat
	3	D
68	3	D
69	1.5	G
	3	D
70	3	F#
71	2.5	G
72	1	F#
	1.5	G
73	3	E flat
74	2	D
75	3	E flat
76	2	D
78	1	G
79	2	D
80	1	C
	2	B flat
82	1	G
Totals
30 Measures	45 notes

Table 4.2 breaks down melodic conjunctions between Ein feste Burg and Variation III by note type. There are 9 types of shared melody notes with E-flat/D-sharp treated as a single category with frequencies ranging from 1 to 11. It is remarkable all 9 note types are shared by both melodies.

TABLE 4.2
Total melodic conjunctions by note type between Ein Feste Burg and H.D.S-P.
Notes	A	B flat	C	D	D sharp/E flat	E	F	F sharp	G
Frequency	2	3	2	10	9	1	2	3	11

Table 4.3 identifies 65 shared notes between Ein feste Burg and Variation II in measures 51 through 82. It was determined the missing Principal Theme is dormant in the first ten measures (41-50), and the last 14 measures (83-96). Melodic conjunctions are indicated in bold enclosed in a double box. All other conjunctions are shown in bold within in a single box. Note conjunctions not occurring between both melody lines are also known as chordal conjunctions. There are at least 65 notes from the piano reduction of Variation II matching 46 out of 76 melody notes from Ein feste Burg. This means an astounding 60.5% of the melody notes from Ein feste Burg are embedded sequentially into the melody and score of Variation II. This outcome is far beyond the reach of random chance or the capricious application of "free rhythm" to force a fit where none exists.

Table 4.4 condenses data from Table 4.3 according to note type and frequency with a total of 9 shared note types with frequencies ranging from 1 to 21.  D sharp/E flat are consigned to a single category because they are enharmonic equivalents. It is worth mentioning that all 9 note types are shared by both melodies.

Conclusion
Based on Figures 4.1-4.2 and Tables 4.1-4.4, the preponderance of the evidence shows Variation II is a convincing and credible counterpoint to Ein feste Burg.

The Mysterious Hyphen

The initials for Variation II (H.D.S-P) contain an oddly placed hyphen between the letters S and the P. Patrick Turner confirmed Powell’s college records have no hyphen between those letters.[3] Why would Elgar place a hyphen where one obviously did not belong? As my investigation has shown, the insertion of double bars and quotation marks serve as the harbinger of a cryptogram.
Is the hyphen another deliberate puzzle, and a clue?
There is at least one connection between the letters S and P that dovetails with my discovery that Elgar was inspired by the Shroud of Turin when composing the Enigma Variations. He hyphenated the letters S and P to show they belong together as part of another  person's name: Secondo Pia. The first name Secondo is all but spelled out by the Roman numeral assigned to this variation (II for second). Pia was the amateur photographer who took the first photograph of the Shroud of Turn on May 28, 1898. The famous negative of this photograph was widely reported in the Catholic and international press in 1898, and it was distributed widely as an icon among the faithful. The date May 28, 1898 was five months before Elgar began composing the Enigma Variations, so the timing is credible. Is it possible Elgar was so moved by the face of Christ hidden in plain sight on the holy Shroud that he conceived a symphonic work to honor that discovery? The Enigma theme is essentially a contrapuntal "negative" of a famous melody, much like the Shroud of Turin is a photographic negative of a crucified man many believe to be Jesus. It took the passage of millenia before technology and modern photography could unlock the secrets of the Shroud. In contrast, it took the passage of only 110 years to discover the hidden theme of the Enigma Variations.

Dante and Virgil meet Pia dei Tolomei

There are numerous allusions to Dante's Divine Comedy throughout the Enigma Variations as I explain here. Elgar's cryptic reference to Secondo Pia name may be linked to Dante's greatest poetic work. In Purgatorio 5:134-136, Pia dei Tolomei tells Dante about her tragic life, a drama portrayed in various artistic works such as a play by Carlo Marenco, an opera by Donizetti, and a painting by Rossetti. The Roman numerals for Elgar's second variation are two I’s. The hyphenation of the letters S and P combined with these Roman numerals alludes to Pia’s historic experience of seeing the photographic negative of the Shroud of Turn with his own two eyes. Note the presence of two e's in the words "seeing" and "eyes". The epigraph comes from the account of Thomas, the doubting disciple who insisted he would not believe Jesus rose from the dead unless he first saw the holes in his hands, feet and side. When Jesus finally presented himself to Thomas, Thomas believed and professed, “My Lord and my God!”[4] Elgar believed before seeing the amazing photographic negative of the Shroud of Turin, and for that he is truly blessed.

Soli Deo Gloria

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[1] Turner, Patrick. Elgar’s Enigma Variations: A Centenary Celebration (Thames Publishing, London, 2007), p. 130.

[2] Kennedy, M. (1993). Portrait of Elgar (Clarendon Paperbacks) (3 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, p. 91.

[3] Turner, Patrick. Elgar’s Enigma Variations: A Centenary Celebration (Thames Publishing, London, 2007), p. 130.

[4] John 20:28 NIV