Links between the 'Enigma' Variations and the Turin Shroud

"The Shroud is an Icon written in blood; the blood of a man who was scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and whose right side was pierced. The Image impressed upon the Shroud is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life."

Pope Benedict XVI from his Veneration of the Holy Shroud

During my in-depth study of Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations, I arrived at the rather startling conclusion the Turin Shroud was a significant source of inspiration for the composer. This was not a preconceived assumption, but rather one crystallized over time by multiple observations. How could the Turin Shroud conceivably inspire Elgar to compose the Variations? As a practicing Roman Catholic, he was certainly aware of that relic’s importance to the Vatican as evidence of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Secondo Pia’s famous photographic negative of the Shroud become international news a mere five months before Elgar began work on the Variations. The Enigma Theme imitates a key feature of the shroud since it is a contrapuntal ‘negative’ of a famous theme. Similarly, the shroud is a photographic negative of a famous person. It is hardly coincidental that the famous theme (Ein feste Burg) on which Elgar based his counterpoint glorifies the famous personage on the Holy Shroud and even names Him in its lyrics. Consider the following observations to determine if one of the greatest orchestral works ever written by an Englishman was inspired by the single greatest relic of Christendom.

The Romanza Cipher

An ingenious elimination cipher embedded in Variation XIII forms the anagram S TURIN, a veiled reference to the Shroud of Turin. This anagram may alternatively be spelled as TURIN S, as in Turin Shroud. The cipher reference to the burial cloth of Jesus is supported by the fact that Variation XIII is surreptitiously dedicated to Jesus Christ. The initials for Elgar’s hidden friend are revealed by the Roman numerals. X is ten, and the tenth letter in the alphabet is J. III is three, and the third letter in the alphabet is C. Together the Roman numerals X and III may be interpreted as the initials J.C. for Jesus Christ. The references to Jesus and the Turin Shroud in Variation XIII are mutually reinforcing.

3-in-1 Herringbone Twill on the Turin Shroud

3-in-1 Herringbone Twill and Numerology

Elgar’s allusions to the Turin Shroud in the Enigma Theme and Variation XIII are bolstered by his use of numerological symbolism. The Turin Shroud is woven in a three-in-one herringbone twill. The numbers one and three turn up again and again within the Variations. The first two notes of the Enigma Theme are the third and first degrees of the G minor scale. The Enigma Theme is in common time with the strong beats falling on the first and third beats of the measure. Variation XIII refers to Jesus Christ and the Turin Shroud, and the number thirteen is the combination of the numerals one and three. Within that same variation are three Mendelssohn quotations in the major mode, and one in the minor mode. Modulations in Variation XIII cycle between the intervals of a first and third. Elgar’s repetitive use of the numbers one and three reflect a central tenant of the Roman Catholic faith, the doctrine of the Trinity. In the original sketch of Variation XIII, Elgar identified it with a solitary capital L. Why the letter L? The Turin Shroud is composed of linen, contains a negative image of Elgar’s Lord mentioned by name in Luther’s famous hymn, and contains a set of L-shaped burn holes.

L-shaped burn holes on the Turin Shroud

Picture this: Pi & C in the Enigma Theme

Richard Santa made the brilliant discovery that Elgar encrypted the number Pi (3.142) in the first four notes of the Enigma Theme by means of scale degrees (B flat = 3, G = 1, C = 4, A = 2). Pi (π) is a mathematical constant that precisely describes the ratio between any circle's circumference to its diameter. The Enigma Theme is in common time, a meter shown either by two fours in the time signature or by a capital C representing a broken circle. Combining Pi and C forms the phonetic equivalent for the Latin singular of the word fish (pisce). The Fish is one of the most popular symbols for Jesus. More relevant to this discussion is that obvious fact Pi and C are the first three letters in the word picture. This is a remarkable coincidence since Pia's famous photographic negative of the Turin Shroud became an international sensation in the secular and Catholic press just under five months before Elgar began composing the Enigma Variations. Pia's photographic revelation preceded Elgar's first performance of the  Enigma Theme by 150 days, the equivalent of 4 months 27 days, 21 weeks or 3600 hours.

Flower Images on the Turin Shroud

Flowers and Asterisks

To the left and right sides of the face on the Turin Shroud appear the faint outlines of blooming petal flowers indigenous to the Holy Land. The Passover takes place in March-April, and these flowers only bloom during those months. According to scripture, Jesus was crucified right before Passover. Researchers believe the flowers were used as a funeral bouquet for his hasty internment in the Garden Tomb. Elgar uses three asterisks to anonymously identify the hidden friend of Variation XIII, and it is remarkable that an asterisk (*) resembles a petal flower. There is a well known floral connection with Christ since he is identified as the Rose of Sharon, and a Lily of the Valleys. Even if the floral impressions on the shroud were not visible during Elgar’s era, they serve as a prominent motif in Christian mosaics, icons and epitahios.

Flower images on the Turin Shroud

Floral images on a Christ Pantocrator Icon

Floral motif on an epitaphios

Length and Number

The Turin Shroud is just over fourteen feet in length. The Enigma Variations are fourteen in number.

H.D.S-P. and the Mysterious Hyphen

There is a revealing connection between the mysterious hyphen in the initials for Variation II and the Turin Shroud. 

Turin and Lady Elgar’s Obituary

Lady Elgar's obituary in The Musical Times specifically mentions her accompanying Elgar on a trip to Turin where he conducted the local orchestra in a performance that included his 'Enigma' Variations. Why mention Turin in his wife's obituary? Elgar probably asked The Musical Times to cite this particular trip because of that city’s special connection to the Holy Shroud, a place where he conducted his first great orchestral work, one inspired by that sacred relic. According to Michael Kennedy, Elgar conducted the Turin orchestra in October 1911, nine years before Lady Elgar's death in 1920. Shortly after her passing, Elgar burned his musical notebook covering the period when the Variations were composed. If Lady Elgar was privy to the secret of the 'Enigma' Variations, the decision to burn that notebook assured the secret would die with her unless someone could decode Elgar's baffling musical Enigma cipher.

A Thin Connection

The caramel colored image of a crucified man on the Turin Shroud is extremely thin, ranging between 200 and 600 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, and 200 to 600 nanometers is the thickness of the wall of a soap bubble. In the original 1899 program note Elgar said, “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.” One definition of slight is slim or thin. My discovery of a musical checkerboard cipher in the opening measures of the Enigma Theme reveals a ‘dark saying’, i.e., a hidden message. One of the six plaintext solution words is teni, an approximate phonetic spelling of the Latin word tenuis meaning thin. The word teni is also an anagram for nite, a fitting link with Elgar’s reference to a dark saying. Just as the image on the Holy Shroud is thin, so too is the link between the unstated Principal Theme and the Variations. Similarly, just as the hidden image on the Holy Shroud was brought to light in a dark room, so is the hidden message of the Enigma Variations contained in a dark saying – a cipher.

Tasso, Turin and the Holy Shroud

At the conclusion of the original score of the Variations, Elgar quotes from the epic Christian poem La Gerusalemme liberate (Jerusalem Delivered) by Torquato Tasso. My most popular post describes the very special connection between Tasso and the Holy Shroud on its arrival to the city of Turin in 1578. For a person of Elgar’s literary breadth and sensitivity, the Tasso quote serves as another marker of his Shroud epiphany.

Elgar's Veiled Dancer

Elgar once said if the Variations were a ballet, the Enigma Theme should be represented by 'a veiled dancer'. A veil is a piece a cloth used to cover or conceal the body, usually the face. In a similar fashion a shroud is a cloth that covers or conceals the body before burial. Some interpret Elgar's reference to a veiled dancer as a suggestion the hidden friend from Variation XIII was a woman. On the contrary, multiple veiled references to the Turin Shroud within the Variations confirms the reference is not to a lady, but instead a lord – the Lord.

Soli Yah Gloria

A Rose of Sharon

The Luther Rose