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| Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream |
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search out a matter is the glory of kings."
to search out a matter is the glory of kings."
Secret codes and puzzles
have captivated the human intellect since the beginning of recorded time. From
the riddle of the Sphinx in Homer’s Odyssey to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, people
exercise a constant fascination for riddles, ciphers, and secrets of all kinds.
Towering intellects like Sir Isaac Newton succumbed to their irresistible allure.
After laying down the major laws of physics, he dedicated the bulk of his
adult life to studying the Bible in search of secret codes and messages. Blaise Pascal is yet
another great mind shared in this view, for he confessed, “The Old
Testament is a cipher.”[1]
Like Newton
Words, numbers, and
symbols can be used to create secret messages, and so too can musical
notes. Dora Penny was the subject of Variation X in Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations Opus 36 composed in 1898-99. Known under the
subtitle Dorabella (taken from a character in
Mozart’s opera Cozì van
Tutte), Variation X also contains a secret - a missing melody - one that
has baffled experts for over a century.
My interest in Edward
Elgar’s Enigma Variations began in 1995 when I first performed it as a
sectional violinist with the Monterey Symphony.
For many years Elgar worked as a concert violinist, and I was immediately
struck by his subtle and lucid scoring for strings. My experience performing
the Variations on violin in the midst of a symphony
orchestra gave me a much deeper appreciation than the average passive listener
for that work’s contrapuntal complexity, melodic diversity, and harmonic
splendor.
Over a decade would pass
before I played the Enigma Variations again in 2006 with the Bohemian Club Orchestra under the direction of
Maestro Richard Williams. As a former conductor of the London Symphony
Orchestra, his enthusiasm for Elgar’s music was pronounced and
contagious. The LSO was first conducted by Hans Richter (who
directed the premier of the Enigma Variations in 1899), and he was succeeded by
none other than Elgar himself in 1911. Maestro Williams shared fascinating insights
about the enigmatic theme and variations during rehearsals—affairs at the
Bohemian Club “commenced in a spirit of humor and continued in deep
seriousness.”[2] His passion and
perceptive commentary served as the catalyst to transform my curiosity about
the enigma into an obsession. No matter the obstacles, I resolved then and
there to discover the identity of the famous hidden theme.
From the start of
my research, I found on closer inspection that many hypothetical solutions
were neither convincing nor fitting. The vast majority of alleged solutions are
nothing more than negligible guesses, and Elgar emphasized the solution “must
be left unguessed.”[3] One that ventures a little further
than a guess is Dr. Clive McClelland's theory, yet
it can hardly be called a solution since it fails to address the full seventeen
measures of the Enigma Theme. From such themes as Auld Lang Syne, Twinkle,
Twinkle Little Star to Now the Day is Over, I
contemplated each one to better understand the contrapuntal, melodic and
harmonic restrictions imposed by the Enigma theme. Investigating and
identifying specific reasons why various guesses were incorrect was hardly a
waste of time because knowing the wrong answers is helpful in unmasking the
correct resolution. That the puzzle was musical in character rather than
allegorical or symbolic was never at issue. Elgar was a composer of music, and
the Enigma Variations is a symphonic work. Indeed,
just as the friends pictured within each variation were real enough, so
too must be the missing Principal Theme. Given the nebulous nature of the
conundrum, it is unsurprising some resort out of desperation to extra-musical
explanations, ones that uniformly fall flat.
For over a century the
correct solution has remained a riddled wrapped in an enigma shrouded in
mystery. If the best and brightest minds failed to untie this melodic Gordian
knot, how could I hope to do otherwise? For three years I struggled in
vain to unmask the solution, and was forced to recognize that by myself I was
no more capable than my more accomplished and talented predecessors in
unlocking this heavily armored melodic vault. If I merely persisted in
relying on my own ability and wits, I would fail just as surely they did.
In that moment I realized a genuine breakthrough required the help of someone
callously ignored in this secular age — God.
Being a person of faith,
I prayed to God for help and searched his word for guidance. In Proverbs I
learned “the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding.”[4] I asked Him
for the wisdom to discover the correct answer to Elgar’s enigma. My faith was
strengthened by a promise Jesus gave his disciples: “Ask and it will be given
to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”[5] I found encouragement in the book of Daniel in which we learn he was confronted by a
seemingly impossible puzzle, yet managed to solve it by placing his
faith in God instead of scholars, astrologers, magicians and others who pretend
to be wise. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
After appealing to the
Almighty for His help in solving Elgar's Enigma Variations (and who wouldn't
given the Enigma's overwhelming challenge), next I dug deep into Elgar's life
story to gain a clearer understanding of his music and motives underlying it.
Just as in World War II when generals such as Patton and Rommel had opposition
research done on each other to acquire an edge in battle—such as reading each
other's books and finding out all they could about their opponents life—finding
out all I could about Elgar's personal and professional life provided rich
insights that proved helpful in cracking the Enigma. Just as faith without works is dead,
belief alone is insufficient to arrive at the correct solution. [7] To truly appreciate Elgar's music, it
is vital to understand the composer. As I read about Elgar's life, I was
amazed to discover he and I share an unusually high number of similar
experiences as I explain here. Here
was a composer I could personally relate to on multiple levels despite being
separated by cultures, continents, and centuries.
Elgar was extremely inventive, and for that reason reminds me of one of my
other heroes, Thomas Alva Edison.
That great American inventor conducted thousands of experiments before
hitting on the correct material for his renowned incandescent light bulb. When
asked why he continued his experiments in the face of so many failures, he countered
that each failure was a success by showing how not to make a light bulb.
If Edison taught the world anything, it is the
most essential ingredient to success is failure. Edison Edison 's
attitude towards life. Like Elgar, Edison Edison achieved his famous
breakthrough with the incandescent light bulb,[8] and in 1898 when Elgar first played
the Enigma theme on the piano for his wife.[9] Their
signatures share at least one similarity with the cursive
capital E beginning each last name that looks like a reversed number 3.
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| Edward Elgar's signature |
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| Thomas A. Edison's signature |
In these posts I describe a new and compelling melodic solution to Elgar’s Enigma Variations: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by Martin Luther. During this decidedly secular era, I anticipate the academic community will not grant my discovery a warm reception since speaking in absolutes to the high priests of relativism is anathema. Those lacking any foundation for offense hypocritically claim to be offended whenever their preconceptions are countered by truth and common sense. In his prescient work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, historian Max Weber describes how an “iron cage” of reason would serve as a corrosive acid that eats away and destroys traditions and faiths, culminating in the “disenchantment of the world.”[10] A belief in unbelief becomes the absurd and conflicted outcome of the abandonment of virtue, truth, and God. Modern academia wanders aimlessly in the darkness of its own making because it has unilaterally and brazenly rejected the Light of Life — Lux Christi. David describes this perverse condition in these words, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'."
Julian Rushton's wholesale rejection of all enigma solutions embodies such a perverse form of intellectualized blindness, making him the Richard Dawkin's of Elgar pseudo-scholarship. For instance, he opines in the November 2010 edition of The Elgar Society Journal, "I am delighted to have got through five years without printing any more purported enigma 'solutions', especially as some that have recently come to my attention tend to the increasingly tortuous, despite Elgar's claim that the solution, once spotted, would seem obvious." Considering Elgar's public statements on this subject, Rushton's insistence there can be no melodic solution is an obvious case of academic malpractice. Indeed, what was obvious to Elgar may seem far less so to the rest of us, particularly Rushton and his fellow travelers in academia. Rushton's hyper-critical attitude towards enigma solutions reminds us of an admonition by the famed cryptographer Charles Babbage:
Julian Rushton's wholesale rejection of all enigma solutions embodies such a perverse form of intellectualized blindness, making him the Richard Dawkin's of Elgar pseudo-scholarship. For instance, he opines in the November 2010 edition of The Elgar Society Journal, "I am delighted to have got through five years without printing any more purported enigma 'solutions', especially as some that have recently come to my attention tend to the increasingly tortuous, despite Elgar's claim that the solution, once spotted, would seem obvious." Considering Elgar's public statements on this subject, Rushton's insistence there can be no melodic solution is an obvious case of academic malpractice. Indeed, what was obvious to Elgar may seem far less so to the rest of us, particularly Rushton and his fellow travelers in academia. Rushton's hyper-critical attitude towards enigma solutions reminds us of an admonition by the famed cryptographer Charles Babbage:
Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it uselesss, because it will not slice a pineapple.Rushton is an Englishman, so Babbage's criticism is exquisitely appropriate. I suspect most academics in this post-modern age devote far too much time burnishing the bars of their deconstructive cages to experience the spiritual and creative freedom that Weber extolled and Elgar exercised in his compositions. Secular academics gaze proudly inwards for answers when they should be humbly looking upwards. They have forgotten the words of the Psalmist:
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées (Penguin Books, London, 1995), p. 87
[2] The phrase comes from a program note by Elgar for a performance in 1911.
[3] From C. Barry’s program note for the 1899 premiere citing a letter from Elgar
[4] Proverbs 2:6 New International Version
[5] Matthew 7:7 New International Version
[6] Daniel 2:22 New International Version
[7] Diana McVeagh, Elgar the Music Maker (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
[8] Matthew Josephson, Edison (History Book Club, New York
[9] Diana McVeagh, Elgar The Music Maker (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
[10] Mark Irving Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman, Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture and Structure (The Cambridge Press, Cambridge and New York, 1997), 267-269.
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