Elgar's Enigma Knights

“When Chivalry lifted up her lance on high.”

Edward Elgar’s inscription on the original score of Froissart

There are credible allusions to five knights in Elgar’s Enigma Variations. These direct and indirect references are to Sir Richard Grenville, Godfrey of Bouillon, General Charles Gordon, Geoffroi de Charny, and Junker Jörg (Knight George). Virtually of these allusions are literary, while one is musical and two are cryptographic. These knightly allusions are not out of character for Elgar who composed multiple works dwelling on noble and chivalrous themes. These include Froissart (1890), The Black Knight (1893), King Olaf (1896), The Banner of St. George (1897), Caractacus (1898), music for Authur (1923), and The Severn Suite (1930). The respected Elgar scholar Robert Anderson wrote a volume exploring this very subject in depth, Elgar and Chivalry. To discover the source of Elgar’s chivalrous character, one need not look further than his own mother. In her youth, Ann Elgar enjoyed reading chivalric romances and passed this literary passion onto her children. It is conceivable these noble references within the Variations are a discrete element of the “dark saying” mentioned in the original 1899 program, for knight is the phonetic equivalent of night. Knightly allusions in the Variations proved prophetic for Elgar who was knighted in 1904 in recognition of his impressive musical achievements. In addition to a Knighthood and the Order of Merit, Elgar was also cited by the Catholic Directory as a Catholic Knight.

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595)

The richest source of these knightly allusions in the Variations is a literary quote cited at the end of the original score. At the conclusion of Variation XIV, Elgar wrote a paraphrase of a passage from Torquato Tasso’s epic Christian poem La Gerusalemme liberata. The altered quotation appears in the following form:

‘Bramo assai, poco spero, nulla chieggio’ ‘(sic, 1595)’ [Tasso]

On the next page, Elgar gives the translation as “I essay much, I hope little, I ask nothing.” The original passage reads, “Brama assai, poco spera, e nulla chiede,” and is correctly translated as “I desire much, I hope little, I ask nothing.” The source for the modified Tasso quote was accidentally discovered by Geoffrey Hodgkins while browsing through one of Elgar’s large account books that had the following entry:

‘Bramo assai, poco spero, nulla chieggio’ Tasso
See ‘Sir Rich Grenville’15 –
Mrs Browning 

“Mrs. Browning” refers to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browing. She used the original Tasso quotation at the beginning of An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems, her first published volume at seventeen years of age. Elgar’s extensive literary appetite assures he was familiar with Browning’s poetic exploits. “Sir Rich Grenville” refers to a text by Gervase Markham entitled The Most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinville, Knight. This book has on the title page the Tasso quotation in the very same form used by Elgar, establishing an indirect link to Sir Richard Grenville. This English sailor and explorer died at the Battle of Flores in 1591 where he commanded the Revenge, a galleon with 46 guns, in a heroic last stand. In this daring engagement, Grenville’s lone ship defiantly opposed a fleet of Spanish ships, permitting the rest of his outnumbered English naval force to escape. Patrick Turner wisely points out, “Elgar may well have felt some affinity with Sir Richard Grenville in the matter of facing up to overwhelming odds, as he was given to complaining the fates were against him and that his work was to no avail.”[1]

Sir Richard Grenville (1542–1591)

 

Jerusalem Delivered is an epic Christian poem by Tasso that mythologizes the First Crusade (1096-1099) that involved a number of famous knights. The most popular is undoubtedly Godfrey of Bouillon, a medieval knight who led the First Crusade in the successful capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. Tasso conceived an elegantly romanticized account of Godfrey’s exploits and how he liberated Jerusalem from Muslim occupation.

Godfrey of Bouillon (1060–1100)

Tasso describes how after the city was saved, Godfrey and his troops piously shed their armor and knelt beside devout pilgrims to worship at the Holy Sepulcher. Godfrey’s overarching goal was to secure unfettered access to the tomb of Christ and other holy sites for traveling pilgrims to venerate and at which to pray. The capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade prompted the founding of another legendary chivalric order, the Knights Templar.

A Templar Knight

 

A sacred relic directly associated with the tomb of Jesus is the Turin Shroud, a sacred cloth many believe to be the burial shroud of Christ. According to some historians, the Knights Templar hid the Turin Shroud for over a century following the Crusades. Elgar cryptically mentions it with an ingenious elimination cipher in Variation XIII, a movement secretly dedicated to Jesus. The common three-word title for the unstated principal Theme (Ein feste Burg) is the key, and the Mendelssohn fragments are the lock. The Mendelssohn fragments come from Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, a concert overture inspired by the poetry of Goethe. There is an intriguing literary connection between Tasso and the great German dramatist, for in 1790 Goethe completed a play about the tragic poet's life called simply Torquato Tasso.

It is intriguing that the word Shroud is incomplete, represented only by its initial. In essence, it remains shrouded in mystery, revealing its meaning only figuratively rather than being fully spelled out. Identifying the Shroud by its initial is a similitude shared by the Variations that identifies the majority of Elgatr's friends by their initials. The inclusion of Turin is sufficient to hint at both the artifact’s location and absent five letters.

Full-length view of the Turin Shroud prior to the 2002 restoration.

The setting for the grand finale of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered is directly connected with the Shroud, for Christ rested in the tomb while wrapped in the shroud before his miraculous resurrection. The first known historical owner of the Turin Shroud was Geoffroi de Charny, a knight who reportedly obtained this relic during a crusade in 1345-46. He authored three works on chivalry, and Europe’s most heralded knights during his lifetime. He was renowned not only for his skill in battle but also for his profound piety and sense of honor. Froissart’s Chronicles document de Charny visited Scotland twice and was once held for ransom in England at Goodrich Castle. He would later fall at the Battle of Poitiers, but not before writing Pope Clement VI for permission to build a church at Lirey, France, to house the Shroud.

Geoffroi de Charny (1306–1356)

  

There is a revealing historical connection between the Turin Shroud and Torquato Tasso. In 1578 on the day the Shroud was delivered to the city of Turin, the city was host to a very famous guest: Torquato Tasso. A special Mass was held the next day to celebrate the arrival of Christendom’s most sacred relic, and Tasso was among those present to receive Communion. When the Exposition of the Shroud was conducted, Tasso venerated the cloth by kneeling before it, weeping, and kissing it over and over again.

Martin Luther disguised as Junker Jörg

  

In Variation XIII, the keys of the Mendelssohn fragments transparently encode the letters of the well-known music cryptogram “FAE”. Those initials originate from the romantic motto “Frei aber einsam” coined by the famed violinist Joseph Joachim. His initials are “JJ,” the same shared by an alias adopted by Martin Luther when he hid out at Wartburg Castle under the title of Junker Jörg (Knight George). The coded reference to Joseph Joachim provided by the Mendelssohn fragments contains a code within a code because Joachim’s initials also point to an alias used by the composer of the covert principal Theme to the Enigma Variations. Joachim’s conversion into the Lutheran faith in May 1855 further augments this coded allusion to Luther.

General Gordon (1833–1855)

The last and perhaps least obvious of Elgar’s Enigma knights is General Charles George Gordon, a companion of the chivalrous Order of the Bath. In October 1898, Elgar was not planning a set of symphonic Variations, but rather his first major symphony in honor General Gordon. Even after beginning work on the Variations, he continued to mention the “Gordon Symphony” in his letters. The covert reference to “Knight George” in Variation XIII is likely a coded allusion to General Gordon who shared the name George. Various allusions to General Gordon in Variation XIV suggest Elgar saw the Finale as a partial fulfillment of that ambitious project.

The first and most obvious of these martial allusions is the rousing Finale sounds like of a military march. The second is found in the initials for this movement (E. D. U.) which originate from the first three letters in the German version of Elgar’s first name, Eduard. In his correspondence, Gordon often wrote the Latin acronym “D. V.” which stands for Deo Volente. Not only does this apotropaic appear in Elgar’s personal correspondence, but it is also cleverly concealed in the initials “E. D. U.” In the classical Latin alphabet, the letter U is the equivalent of V. Consequently, “D. U.” may be read alternatively as “D. V.” A second reference is Elgar’s choice of key (G Major), for Gordon was a Major-General at the time of his death. A third allusion to General George Charles Gordon is intimated by the chords on beats 1 and 3 of the first two measures at rehearsal 62 which form his initials.

The placement of these initials on beats 1 and 3 suggests the number for Variation XIII, a movement secretly dedicated to Jesus, the bedrock of the faith of both Elgar and Gordon. Before he embarked on his final ill-fated campaign in the Sudan, Gordon went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Lytton Strachey deftly describes Gordon’s sojourn in Jerusalem:

During the year 1883, a solitary English gentleman was to be seen, wandering with a thick book under his arm, in the neighborhood of Jerusalem . . . To the friendly inquirer, he would explain, in a low, soft, and very distinct voice, that he was engaged in elucidating four questions – the site of the Crucifixion, the line of division between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, the identification of Gibeon, and the position of the Garden of Eden. He was also, he would add, most anxious to discover the spot where the Ark first touched ground, after the subsidence of the Flood: he believed, indeed, that he had solved that problem, as a reference to some passages in the book which he was carrying would show.

That singular person was General Gordon, and his book was the Holy Bible.[2]

Gordon spent an entire year investigating various theological questions, most famously the location of the Garden Tomb. Today the Garden Tomb is popularly known as Gordon’s Calvary due to his powerful influence in publicly promoting the place as the genuine resting place of Christ. This direct connection with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is critical because it is also associated with Elgar’s other knightly allusions linked to the Tasso paraphrase and Tasso’s public veneration of the Shroud on its arrival in Turin in 1578.

The Garden Tomb 

 

Gordon's Calvary (Golgotha) 

Elgar personally identified with icons of Christian heroism like Gordon who chose a martyr’s death over surrender and conversion to Islam. An annotated copy of Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius was on Gordon’s person when Khartoum fell to the Mahdist army. Elgar owned a copy of that annotated text, shared a copy of it with his future wife when her father died, received a copy as a wedding present, and later referred to it when composing his sacred oratorio with the same title. Like many patriotic Englishman, Elgar owned a bust of General Gordon. Elgar imitated Gordon’s manners and martial bearing. For instance, when Gordon was on campaign, he would place a flag on his tent to show he should not be disturbed. Elgar adopted the same practice when composing in a tent erected outside his home during the warm summer months. Elgar adopted a military bearing, emulating respected military figures like his wife’s father (Major-General Sir Henry Gee Roberts), and General Gordon. Sending secret messages in code is standard operating procedure for the military, and Elgar was fascinated by secret codes.

Elgar’s identification with Gordon’s faith and noble is clearly consistent with the artistic vision of many of his works. More relevant to this discussion is the fact the fall of Khartoum shares some distinct parallels with the Crusades and the historic clash between East and West, Christianity and Islam, broad sword and scimitar, and the conquest of Jerusalem. As one writer describes it, “The narrative of Gordon in China, in Africa, at home in Christian England, or abroad in the service of the Khedive or of his own sovereign, reads like a page torn from medieval history, when a religious fervor moved prince and knight to take up the crusade against the defilers of the Holy Sepulchre.”

This analysis shows the Tasso paraphrase at the conclusion of the original score of the Enigma Variations is an effective literary device that ties together famous knights, the tomb of Christ, and the Turin Shroud. The Tasso paraphrase deftly alludes to Sir Richard Grenville, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Geoffroi de Charny. Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered establishes a distinct connection to the Tomb of Christ, and the poet’s public veneration of the Turin Shroud completes the connection to Christendom’s most sacred relic and shrine, the Garden Tomb. Various allusions to General Gordon in Variation XIV revisit and reinforce these literary associations because of his well-known public promotion of the Garden Tomb, and heroic last stand at Khartoum against the marauding Mahdist army. As an aside, it is remarkable the name Khartoum contains the phonetic equivalent of tomb. Elgar’s Enigma knights share some common traits. For instance, at least one of their names begins with G:

1. Sir Richard Grenville 
2. Godfrey of Bouillon 
3. Geoffroi de Charny 
4. Knight George (Junker Jörg) 
5. General Charles Gordon

Could this be why Elgar chose the key of G major for the Finale? At least three of these historic figures died in battle against overwhelming odds: Grenville, Gordon, and de Charny. One Arab historian records Godfrey was killed by an arrow at the siege of Acre, but this account is disputed by others who suggest he was poisoned or died in Jerusalem after a lengthy illness. Who could ever imagine that such a little literary thread spun by Tasso, dyed by Gervase Markham, and woven by Elgar into the Variations could contain so many reams of meaning? To learn more about the secrets behind one of Elgar’s most celebrated symphonic achievements, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

Autograph Score:  The Enigma Theme (bars 1-3)

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Footnotes

[1] Turner, Patrick. Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration. London: Thames Publishing, 1999, p. 100.

[2] Strachey, Lytton. Eminent Victorians (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin). London: Penguin Classics, 1990, p. 189.

Elgar's Enigma Code Signature

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see.

Martin Luther

In the opening six measures of the Enigma Theme from the Enigma Variations, Edward Elgar encodes his “dark saying” using a breathtakingly original Music Box Cipher. This “dark saying” linked to the Enigma Theme is first mentioned in the original 1899 program note for the premiere. Elgar's coded message is an anagram of the 24-letter title of the unstated principal Theme, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Martin Luther. The secret message is a series of phonetically spelled words and phrases in English, Latin, and Hebrew. 

The plain text solution derived from measure 1 is “GSUS”, a phonetic rendering of Jesus, the secret friend and inspiration for Variation XIII and Elgar’s Violin Concerto that followed in 1910. A primary language spoken by Jesus was Aramaic. The plain text solution obtained from measure 2 is “GRTS”, a phonetic version of the Latin gratias. Combining the plain text results from measures one and two produces the phrase “GSUS GRTS” (Jesus gratias), meaning “Thanks be to Jesus.” Such a message is hardly unexpected coming from a devout Roman Catholic like Elgar who dedicated the majority of his works to God. 

The plain text solution from measure 3 is “INOU”. When translated phonetically, it reads as “I know you.” In measure 4, the plain text result is “BETR”, phonetic for better. When combined together, the plain text results for measures 3 and 4 generate the phrase “I know you better.” Following the plain text results from measures 1 and 2 that give thanks to Jesus, this phrase definitely implies Elgar knows Jesus better. A historic photograph taken five months before Elgar began work on the Enigma Variations provides an explanation for this cipher revelation. Secondo Pia took the first picture of the Turin Shroud in May 1898, and the photographic negative revealed a miraculous image of what many to be the crucified body of Jesus. This photographic negative became an international sensation in the media, and devout Catholics displayed copies as part of their devotion to the Holy Face.

Left: Face region on the Turin Shroud
Right: Photographic negative

For Roman Catholics like Elgar, the opportunity to gaze at the actual face of their Savior would be a deeply moving spiritual experience and a powerful confirmation of their faith. To see the actual face of Jesus would certainly motivate a Roman Catholic like Elgar to declare he knows Jesus better. Elgar's allusion to the Turin Shroud is bolstered by the discovery in Variation XIII of an elimination cipher that spells “TURIN S”. The name Turin paired with the letter S cleverly suggests the missing letters of the second word which is symbolically shrouded in mystery. This cipher references to Jesus contained within the Enigma Theme and Variation XIII are mutually reinforcing, proving both ciphers are genuine. 

The plain text solution from measure 5 is “TENI”. Popular biblical commentaries during Elgar's lifetime explain that when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink of water, he began his request with that exact word by saying, “Teni li listosh.” The word Teni is indelibly linked to encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well when he plainly revealed his identity to her as the Messiah. In view of the plain text results in measures 1 through 4 referring to Jesus, the theological context of “TENI” is undoubtedly what Elgar intended. His personal library contained as many as 100 religious texts including Bibles, theological works, and biblical commentaries, so Elgar was well-versed in theology. In what language is the word Teni? Multiple commentaries available during the 1890s claim that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. For instance, The Pulpit Commentaries dating from 1897 states: 

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 example occurs in The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary on St. John dating from 1892 which also claims 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 of his era would have reasonably lead Elgar to believe the word teni is Aramaic, it is actually 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. Indeed, it is well established that Jesus and his disciples spoke primarily Aramaic. For this explicit reason, the commentaries correctly report that Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. However, the translation provided was mistakenly in Hebrew, a language very similar to Aramaic. The correct version from the Aramaic Peshitta is, "Hav li maya, eshteh," which translates as, “Give me water, I will drink.” 

In measure 6 the plain text solution is “FETE”, a term Merriam-Webster defines as “a lavish party or religious festival.” When treated as a grand anagram, the plain text results from measures 1 through 6 (GSUS, GRTS, INOU, BETR, TENI, FETE) may be reorganized to form the 24-letter title Ein feste Burg ist Unser Gott.

When factoring in the German title of the covert Principal Theme, there is a total of four languages used in Elgar’s Music Box Cipher: English, Latin, German, and Hebrew. As previously mentioned, contemporary commentaries would have led Elgar to reasonably conclude the Biblical term teni was Jewish Aramaic, not Hebrew. A box has four sides, so the use of four languages offers a certain symbolic symmetry. From a cryptographic vantage point, the use of multiple languages in combination with phonetic spellings was a stroke of genius because it hardens the cipher and vastly complicates detection and decryption. Elgar's choice of cipher languages presents a classic example of wordplay because the first letters of each language are an acrostic anagram of  “ELGAr” (English, Latin, German, Aramaic). This is just the sort of wordplay “four” which Elgar was renowned. For example, in March 1899 he named his new home Craeg Lea. This unusual title was created by reversing the letters of his last name (Craeg Lea) and adding the first letters of the first names of his daughter, wife, and himself (Carice, Alice, and Edward). Comparable traits are present in the spelling of his name by the first few letters of the Enigma Cipher languages. It is exquisitely appropriate that Elgar stealthily autographed his Music Box Cipher using the four cipher languages disclosed by its solution. To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

Elgar’s Enigma Initials

Thanks be first to God our Lord, who created [the nightingale] by his Word to be his own beloved songstress and of musica a mistress. For our dear Lord she sings her song in praise of him the whole day long; To him I give my melody and thanks in all eternity. 

Martin Luther

In November 1899 Elgar conceded the hidden principal Theme to his Enigma Variations “. . . is so well known that it is extraordinary no-one has spotted it.” His choice of titles for the oddly structured Theme – Enigma – is almost certainly an element in that appraisal. Initials for his “Friends pictured within” serve as titles for nine out of fourteen of the Variations. Titles, like names, may be represented by initials. For instance, OM stands for one of Elgar’s honors – the Order of Merit. This raises the prospect that the peculiar title for the opening Theme – Enigma - may hold the initials for Elgar’s hidden melody. Original research shows the covert Principal Theme to the Enigma Variations is Martin Luther’s hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God. Is it conceivable to make some connection between the letters in Enigma and the initials “AMFIOG”? 

The answer is yes.

Four letters from Enigma are exact matches with “AMFIOG”, and it is extraordinary they are clustered together (Enigma). Although the first two letters (e and n) do not match the remaining initials (f and o), it is remarkably coincidental both immediately precede the correct letter in the alphabet. Each unmatched letter is just one small step away in the alphabetical sequence – e comes before f, and n before o. In summary, Enigma has four letters from “AMFIOG”, or 66.66% of the initials for the unstated principal Theme, with the remaining two (e and n) alphabetically contiguous with the correct initials (f and o).

There are some interesting numerological parallels within the Variations relating to the numbers 6 and 24. There are two unmatched and four matching initials between Enigma and “AMFIOG”. The German title Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott consists of 24 letters. The opening six measures of the Enigma Theme have 24 melody notes. Two of the four sides of Elgar’s 6-by-6 Music Box Cipher form the basis of the cipher key. Elgar’s music box cipher is based on the Polybius square, the original version of which encoded the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet in use during that era. Four of six letters from Enigma match those in “AMFIOG”, yielding a matching percentage of 66.66%. Remarkably, the sum of four sixes is 24. There are six 6-letter titles in the Variations (Enigma, Ysobel, Troyte, Nimrod, Eduard, and Finale), and the opus number is 36, the product of 6 multiple by 6. The music box cipher is a 6-by-6 configuration, and within in are 15 plain text solution letters. There are fifteen movements in the Variations, and the number 15 is reducible to 6, i.e., 1 plus 5. Nine of the fourteen variations have initials for subtitles, and 6 is 9 upside down. The ninth Variation – Nimrod – has a six-letter title. Clearly, Elgar wished to draw attention to the number six. Even the Roman numerals for his variation (XIV) may be interpreted as a mirror image of SIX when V is replaced by 5 (XI5). 

There is an element of Elgar’s wordplay involving the title Enigma. The first three letters – Eni – may be reorganized to spell Ein, the first word in the German title Ein feste Burg. The literal translation of Ein (a) is conveniently furnished by the last letter in Enigma. Concerning the four matching letters (a, i, m and g) between Enigma and the hidden Theme’s initials, these may be reshuffled to spell gaim, the phonetic equivalent of game. When the remaining two letters from enigma (e and n) are added to gaim, the combination forms engaim, a phonetic approximation of endgame. In Elgar's era, the term endgame was commonly used to describe the concluding sequence of moves in a game, specifically a game of chess. This association is revealing because a chessboard is indistinguishable from a checkerboard, and Elgar employs a checkerboard cipher to encrypt his dark saying.

Checkerboard grid

A Polybius square is also known as a Polybius checkerboard because it resembles a checkerboard.

A 6-by-6 Polybius Square

 

The location of chess pieces is indicated by a special notation combining column letters with row numbers. In a similar fashion, musical notes are identified by letter or interval number.

Like chess notation, Elgar encodes plain text solution letters in his music box cipher table using melody and bass note pairs. This ingenious music box cipher is a variant of the Polybius square with bass notes designating rows, and melody notes the columns. For example, the bass/melody note combination A/C produces the plain text solution u.

Around the year 1927, Elgar encoded the 14-letter phrase “A-V-E-R-Y-O-L-D-C-Y-P-H-E-R”in one of his exercise books using symbols originally devised in 1897 for his Dorabella Cipher. The number fourteen is tantalizing because there are fourteen numbered variations in the Enigma Variations. The Polybius square is emphatically a very old cipher, one Elgar studied carefully in an 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. That popular magazine ran a series of articles in 1896 called Secrets in Cipher, and the fourth and final installment featured an allegedly unbreakable box cipher by John Holt Schooling.

An example of a checkerboard cipher is shown on the lower left corner of page 615.

Elgar retained that issue of The Pall Mall Magazine in his personal library, and it is now in possession of the Elgar Birthplace Museum. He successfully decoded John Holt Schooling’s baffling box cipher, a feat important enough to merit mention almost a decade later in his first biography released in 1905. In retrospect, it appears Elgar retained the 1896 cipher article and made specific mention of it in his 1905 biography to hint at the nature of his music box cipher. There is a numerological connection between the cipher article and the Enigma Variations. The fourth installment of Secrets in Cipher appears in Vol. XIII – No. 36 of The Pall Mall Magazine. In a stunning coincidence, the Opus number for the Enigma Variations is also 36. To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria