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Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Wikipedia’s Enigma Embargo

The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism. 

A fan of my blog and YouTube channel recently professed, “After reading much of your blog and listening to all your videos on YouTube I am fascinated by your theory and convinced that you are absolutely right!” She then asked why Wikipedia makes no mention of my numerous discoveries. That is a very good question worthy of a reply.
The short answer is Wikipedia’s anonymous editors refuse to mention my original research because they maintain there are no reliable, published sources. On its face, such an objection is manifestly groundless. To publish means to make generally known and disseminate to the public. Clearly, my blog and YouTube Channel more than meet the threshold of that definition. Like Wikipedia, my findings are published virtually and made available to the world via the Internet. A global audience reads my blog which recently surpassed 150,000 page views. How could there be so many page views for something allegedly unpublished? One important reason for this rising tide of interest is the major search engines routinely rank my blog number one in the world. That is the case not only for Google searches of Elgar Enigma Theme and Elgar Enigma Solution, but also for comparable Bing, Yahoo, and Dogpile queries.
The real hang-up for Wikipedia’s editors is my research has not undergone any formal peer-review process prior to publication. There is little chance any of my findings will ever crop up in the pages of a recognized journal due to the overwhelmingly secular bias of academia. The results are far too Christian to excite the slightest sympathy of post-modern scholars steeped in a secular humanistic worldview. The scholars may retreat behind the walls of their ivory towers and pretend nothing has changed, but the reality is far different. The power and reach of the Internet make academia’s monopoly on research and discovery a relic, a thing of the past that no longer dominates or defines the debate. That debate has left them far behind in the digital dust of the Information Age.
Unlike all other purported solutions to Elgar’s Enigma Variations, my blog and YouTube Channel offer a readily accessible forum to share and evaluate my findings. Such a fortunate condition grants the academic community a golden opportunity to critically evaluate any and all aspects of my original research. Towards that end, I am publicly inviting that silent minority to speak now with the caveat they may only do so publicly. There will be no hiding behind the veil of anonymity. Tell us who you are, and you will be granted an open forum to comment about my solutions to Elgar’s enigmas. My conclusions will thrive or wilt under academia’s heated criticisms if only they would be willing to radiate them in the light of day. As Elgar's secret friend is famous for saying, there is no virtue in hiding your lamp under a basket. There, the proverbial gauntlet has been cast down. My experience has shown time and again that closed minds studiously avoid open forums. Perhaps the academics are merely following the proverbIt is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Wikipedia's insistence on citing only peer-reviewed sources is fatally undermined by one unavoidable fact: Prominent Elgar scholars agree the answer to the Enigma Variations is unknowable because the composer died without revealing the answer. Michael Kennedy writes, “People have ingeniously been trying to guess the tune ever since, a harmless but pointless recreation since the secret, if there was one, died with him.” J. P. E. Harper-Scott echoes this sentiment:
Although human nature guarantees that attempts to solve it will never end until the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail are on permanent display in the British Museum, they all somehow fail to convince. It is easy to carp, since the riddle cannot be answered now its perpetrator is dead, but the evidence supporting all of the ‘solutions’ is weak.
According to these respected authorities, all purported solutions to the Enigma Variations amount to nothing more than pure speculation. Even Julian Rushton contends, “The only solutions which it may be safe to rule out are those based on false chronology; yet even here we cannot be perfectly certain . . .” The experts agree the solution to Elgar’s Enigma Variations cannot be identified with any degree of certainty. If that is indeed the case, then how could this inexplicable matter be plausibly subjected to the peer-review process as Wikipedia’s editors demand? Such an undertaking would be as frivolous as debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. According to some critics, the head of one of Wikipedia's editors would also suffice for just such a thought experiment.
Wikipedia’s embargo of my discoveries is not a fatal blow, but rather a badge of honor since its reputation as a reliable source is marred by controversy. While it continues to serve as an important online resource, Wikipedia exercises no express monopoly on reliable knowledge. Multiple sources should be consulted before formulating an informed opinion on any given subject. As long as that remains the case, my blog and YouTube Channel will continue to offer a counterweight to Wikipedia’s outdated article on Elgar’s Enigma Variations. In the final analysis, Wikipedia’s staid reliance on secondary sources ensures its continued dominance of second place (or worse) in the web rankings. Their anonymous editors should be asking why their work lags behind my own. If web rankings are any measure, then in the free marketplace of ideas my theory has already won the day if not the argument. 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.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Top Twelve Enigma Solutions Refuted

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

Some of the most prevalent solutions to Elgar’s Enigma Variations are listed by Wikipedia, a virtual clearinghouse of peer-reviewed theories. Could any of the following tunes be the unstated covert principal Theme to the Variations?
  1. Pop goes the Weasel
  2. For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow 
  3. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star 
  4. Beethoven’s Pathétique Piano Sonata 
  5. Now the Day is Over 
  6. Mozart’s Prague Symphony 
  7. God Save the King 
  8. Rule Britannia 
  9. Dies Irae 
  10. Auld Lang Syne 
  11. Tallis Canon 
  12. Pergolesi's Stabat Mater 
Before being recognized as the solution, the correct melody must first satisfy six specific conditions issued by Elgar describing the special relationship between the covert Theme and the Enigma Variations. These conditions come from three primary sources: The original 1899 program note, the 1900 interview for The Musical Times, and Elgar's 1905 biography. A credible case can be made if and only if it can be shown a candidate melody effectively satisfies all six conditions. Secured directly from Elgar’s recorded words by multiple, independent, unimpeachable sources, those six conditions are summarized below:
  1. The Enigma Theme is a counterpoint to the principal Theme. 
  2. The principal Theme is not heard. 
  3. The principal Theme is famous. 
  4. Fragments of the principal Theme are present in the Variations. 
  5. The principal Theme is a melody that can be played through and over the whole set of Variations including the entire Enigma Theme. 
  6. The Enigma Theme comprises measures 1 through 19.
Any theme that violates just one of those six conditions must be ruled out as invalid. The first and foremost test is to play a candidate melody “through and over” the Enigma Theme to assess whether there is credible evidence for both a contrapuntal and horizontal fit. Before attempting such a mapping it is first necessary to adapt a prospective melody to mirror the Enigma Theme’s shifts between the major and minor modes of G. These modulations are necessitated by the structure of the Enigma Theme which opens in G minor (bars 1-6), continues in G major (bars 7-10), returns to G minor (bars 11-16), cadences in G major (bar 17), and modulates back to G minor in the bridge (bars 18-19) leading to Variation I that beings in measure 20. Even when granting these generous accommodations to facilitate a contrapuntal mapping, the top eleven solutions fail to establish a credible counterpoint with the Enigma Theme.

Top Twelve “Solutions” to Elgar’s Enigma Theme

Theme

Audio

Length

Harmony

Counterpoint

Pop goes the Weasel

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Beethoven’s Pathétique

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Now the Day is Over

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Mozart’s Prague Symphony

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

God Save the King (or Queen)

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Rule Britannia

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Dies Irae

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Auld Lang Syne

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Tallis Canon

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible

Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater

Listen

Short

Dissonant

Incompatible


So much for Wikipedia’s staid reliance on the peer review process, an abject travesty that places all the emphasis on peer and nothing on review. In post-modern academia peer review has become a euphemism for straining out a gnat to drink a camel. Such a desperate condition was diagnosed long ago by Allan Bloom who warned, “Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.” Academics have grown far too comfortable with their pet theories to permit any light to chase away the darkness of their shrinking and shriveled intellects. Their unchanging mantra is to publish or perish. Predictably they publish, and just as predictably the truth perishes. Yet in the end, who needs them? With Google, Blogger, and YouTube serving as a virtual ten-pound sledgehammer, one may apply the necessary force to obliterate these obsolete theories propped up by the peer review process and Wikipedia.
The only theme that successfully satisfies all of Elgar’s conditions is Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German Reformer Martin Luther. That well-known hymn successfully plays one complete cycle through and over the Enigma Theme, establishing an uncanny horizontal fit. A precise vertical alignment between the two melodies illustrates Elgar's unique treatment of Ein feste Burg in an augmented form as a retrograde counterpoint. This unconventional method accounts for the profound difficulty in detecting a contrapuntal fit because one typically plays the beginning of a prospective melody over the beginning of the Enigma Theme. Such a predictable approach produces a mismatch, throwing off researchers even when the right melody is assessed.
The case for Ein feste Burg as the covert principal Theme to the Enigma Variations is extensive and persuasive. Confirmation that Ein feste Burg is the hidden theme is given by a diverse range of music ciphers in the Enigma Theme and Variation XIII. Within the Enigma Theme is concealed a Music Box Cipher, Elgar’s dark saying linked to the Enigma mentioned in the original 1899 program note. Incredibly, Elgar did not take his secret to the grave, but rather enciphered the answer in the orchestral score. When discovered, the decrypted answer would remain unguessed just as Elgar prescribed. He even went so far as to encode the initials for the hidden melody in the Enigma Theme which modulates between the minor and major modes of G. The accidentals for those two keys are E-flat, F-sharp, and B-flat. Remarkably, the letters of those accidentals furnish the initials for Ein feste Burg.
The odd nickname for August Jaeger’s movement (Nimrod) is linked to the title A Mighty Fortress by one of Elgar’s favorite pastimes, wordplay. When he gave a copy of Longfellow’s novel Hyperion to the conductor Hans Richter following the premiere, Elgar literally gave away the answer. No wonder he suspected the solution would soon be found. Even the wrong date on the original score is a revealing clue since it falls on the anniversary of Luther’s death. According to a scale degrees cipher within the Mendelssohn fragments, the missing initials for Variation XIII (✡ ✡ ✡) are EFB”, the initials for Ein feste Burg. The mapping of Ein feste Burg over Nimrod is so self-evident that the melodic solution to Elgar's Enigma Variations is as plain a pikestaff.
If he were alive today, Elgars reply to this panoply of alleged melodic solutions would likely be, “No, nothing like it. I do not see how the tunes you suggest fit in the least.” To learn more about the secrets behind one of Elgar’s most celebrated symphonic achievements, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas ExposedLike my heavenly Father’s gift of salvation and forgiveness, the price is freePlease support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.


About Mr. Padgett

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Mr. Padgett studied violin with Michael Rosenker (a student of Leopold Auer), and Rosenker’s pupil, Owen Dunsford. Mr. Padgett studied piano with Sally Magee (a student of Emanuel Bay), and Blanca Uribe (a student of Rosina Lhévinne). He attended the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California, and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in psychology. At Vassar he studied music theory and composition with Richard Wilson. Mr. Padgett has performed for Joseph Silverstein, Van Cliburn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Steve Jobs, Prince Charles, Lady Camilla, Marcia Davenport, William F. Buckley, Jr., and other prominent public figures. His original compositions have been performed by the Monterey Symphony, at the Bohemian Grove, the Bohemian Club, and other private and public venues. In 2008 Mr. Padgett won the Max Bragado-Darman Fanfare Competition with his entry "Fanfare for the Eagles." It was premiered by the Monterey Symphony under Maestro Bragado in May 2008. A member of the Elgar Society, Mr. Padgett is married with five children.