The “FAE-EFB” Cipher in Variation XIII (✡ ✡ ✡)

Joseph Joachim (circa 1890)

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Carl Sagan

The English composer Edward Elgar excelled at cryptography, the science of coding and decoding secret messages. His obsession with ciphers merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s book Unsolved! Bauer devotes much of the third chapter to Elgar’s meticulous decryption of a purportedly insoluble Nihilist cipher released by John Holt Schooling in the April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. A Nihilist cipher is built on a Polybius square key. Elgar was so gratified by his decryption of Schooling’s impenetrable code that he mentions it in his first biography released by Robert J. Buckley in 1905. Elgar painted his solution in black paint on a wooden box, an appropriate medium as another name for the Polybius square is a box cipher.

Elgar’s meticulous decryption of Schooling’s cryptogram is summarized on a set of nine index cards. On the sixth card, Elgar likens the process to “working (in the dark).” Note his use of the word dark as a synonym for cipher.

Elgar’s parenthetical remark is revealing as he employs that same language in the original 1899 program note to characterize the Enigma Theme. It is an oft-cited passage that warrants revisiting as he lays the groundwork for his tripartite riddle:

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; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some later dramas–e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’–the chief character is never on the stage.

Elgar wields the words dark and secret interchangeably in a letter to August Jaeger penned on February 5, 1900. He wrote, “Well—I can’t help it but I hate continually saying ‘Keep it dark’—‘a dead secret’—& so forth.” One definition of dark is “secret.” A saying is a series of words that form a coherent phrase or adage. Based on these definitions, Elgar’s odd expression—“dark saying”—may be interpolated as coded language for a cipher. In a roundabout way, Elgar hints that the Enigma Theme conceals a secret message.

Mainstream scholars insist there are no valid solutions to the Enigma Variation because Elgar allegedly concocted the notion of an absent principal Theme as an afterthought, practical joke, or marketing ploy. The editors of the Elgar Complete Edition preemptively deny the likelihood of any stealthy counterpoints or cryptograms. Relying on Elgar’s recollection of playing new material at the piano to gauge his wife’s reaction, they tout the standard lore that he must have extemporized the idiosyncratic Enigma Theme mirabelle dictu without any forethought or planning:

There seems to have been no specific ‘enigma’ in mind at the outset: Elgar’s first playing of the music was hardly more than a running over the keys to aid relaxation. It was Alice Elgar’s interruption, apparently, that called him to attention and helped to identify the phrases which were to become the ‘Enigma’ theme. This suggests it is unlikely that the theme should conceal some counterpoint or cipher needed to solve the ‘Enigma’.

Such a blanket renunciation conveniently relieves musicologists of any duty to probe for counterpoints and ciphers. Prominent offenders include such luminaries as Robert Anderson, Jerrold Northrop Moore, and Julian Rushton. The unavoidable irony is that proponents of such denialism extol the validity of their position based on a dearth of evidence for which they never executed a diligent or impartial search. Such a ridiculous state of affairs is a textbook case of confirmation bias pawned off as “scholarship.” Carl Sagan warns against that perilous persuasion with the antimetabole, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

Embraced by those who take Elgar at his published word, the more sensible view accepts the challenge of a famous melody lurking behind the Variations’ contrapuntal and modal facade. In his sanctioned 1905 biograph, Elgar plainly states, “The theme is a counterpoint on some well-known melody which is never heard . . .” Most scholars insist the answer can never be known because Elgar allegedly took his secret to the grave. This supposition precludes from consideration the prospect that he encoded the solution within the Enigma Variations for posterity to discover. Indeed, such a rigid judgment glosses over or blatantly ignores Elgar’s obsession with cryptography. That incontestable facet of his psychological profile enhances the possibility that solutions are skillfully encoded by the Enigma Variations’ orchestral score.

A compulsion for cryptography is a reigning facet of Elgar’s personality. Trawling the Enigma Variations for over a decade netted over one hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. Although that figure may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s fascination for ciphers. Solutions encoded by these cryptograms answer the riddles posed by the Enigma Variations. What is the secret melody to which the Enigma Theme is a counterpoint and serves as the melodic foundation for the ensuing movements? Answer: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German reformer Martin Luther. What is Elgar’s “dark saying” concealed within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius cipher situated in the opening six bars. Who is the secret friend and inspiration behind Variation XIII? Answer: Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith.

Some “EFB” Ciphers

A distinct subset of ciphers sprinkled throughout the Enigma Variations encode the initials of Ein feste Burg. Some noteworthy examples are the Enigma Theme Keys Cipher, Nimrod Timpani Tuning Cipher, Variation XII through XIV Letters Cluster Cipher, Mendelssohn Fragments Scale Degrees Cipher, and the Original and Extended Ending Ciphers. The Enigma Theme is written in the parallel modes of G minor and G major. The accidentals for those two key signatures (B♭, E♭, and F♯) are an anagram of “EFB.” The keys of the Enigma Theme unlock the initials of the covert Theme. It is also significant that the first three letters of the Theme’s title (Enigma) are an anagram of the Ein, the first word from the covert Theme’s title.

Variation IX (Nimrod) begins in measure 308 at Rehearsal 33. Elgar specifies the tuning of the timpani for this elegiac movement as E♭, B♭, and F. Those three note letters are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. The first three letters in the timpani’s tuning directions (“in E♭ . . .”) is a thinly disguised anagram of Ein, the first word in the covert Theme’s title. This mirrors the same pattern observed with the first three letters of the Theme’s title “Enigma” which form an anagram of “Ein”. The E♭in the timpani’s tuning supplies Elgar’s initial and the three pitches are separated by two perfect fifths. Two intervals of a perfect fifth suggest a coded form of Elgar’s initials (EE) as E is the fifth letter of the alphabet. Consistent with that pattern, the Rehearsal number (33) is also the mirror image of two capital cursive Es.

Variation XIII (✡ ✡ ✡) has a cryptic title of three black hexagrammic asterisks enclosed by parentheses. The absent initials signified by those starry asterisks are conveniently supplied as an acrostic anagram by the titles of the adjoining movements, XII (B. G. N.) and XIV (E. D. U. & Finale). Elgar frames the mystery posed by the cryptic title with the correct solution as an acrostic anagram using the titles of the neighboring movements.

There are four incipits in Variation XIII sourced from a subordinate theme of Felix Mendelssohn’s concert overture Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage). Two quotations are performed in A♭ major, one paraphrase in F minor, and another quotation in E♭ major. These Mendelssohn fragments encode the initials for Ein feste Burg using the number of statements in a given key to designate the scale degree of that particular mode. Two Mendelssohn fragments in A♭ major specify the second scale degree of that key which is B♭. One Mendelssohn fragment in F minor identifies its first degree of F. A single Mendelssohn quotation in E♭ major designates its first scale degree of E♭. The notes selected by this encipherment system—B♭, F, and E♭—are an anagram of “EFB”. These are the same three notes chosen by Elgar to define the timpani’s tuning in Variation IX.

There is an “EFB” acrostic anagram on the final page of the manuscript score with the original ending of Variation XIV. On that closing page, Elgar penned Fine, an Italian paraphrase from Torquato Tasso’s La Gerusalemma Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) beginning with the word Bramo, and his autograph. The first letters of these three entries (Fine, Bramo, Edward) generate the acrostic anagram “EFB”, the initials of the covert Theme.

The anomalous date on that page—“FEb 18 1898”—furnishes yet another anagram of “EFB” coinciding with the anniversary of Luther’s death in 1546. As documented on the cover of the autograph score, Elgar completed the Enigma Variations on February 19, 1899. The erroneous date on the last page is one year and one day earlier than the actual completion date, a whopping discrepancy of 366 days. Luther is interred in front of the pulpit of Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in the city of Wittenberg. A coded reference to Luther’s death points to his resting place where “EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT” is emblazoned around the church tower. Luther’s resting place supplies the title of the covert Theme.

The tower of Schlosskirche (Castle Church)

Like the original ending, Elgar inserted another acrostic anagram of “EFB” on a 96-bar addendum to the Finale composed in June and July 1899. His signature on the final page of this addition is accompanied by the word Fine and the location (Birchwood Lodge) where he completed the manuscript. The first letters of these three entries form an acrostic of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. The L in “Lodge” even divulges the initial of its composer (Luther). That same initial is reinforced by the quotation at the upper right of the page from stanza XIV of the poem Elegiac Verse by Longfellow.

Three musical friends depicted in the Enigma Variations attended constituent colleges of Oxford University. The dedicatee of Variation II is the pianist Hew David Steuart-Powell who graduated from Exeter College. The dedicatee portrayed in Variation XII is the cellist Basil George Nevinson, another graduate of that same institution. The friend sketched in Variation V is the pianist Richard Penrose Arnold, a student of Balliol College. All three were active in the Oxford University Musical Society (OUMS) founded in 1872. Another Oxford graduate portrayed in Variation VII of the Enigma Variations is Troyte Griffith who attended Oriel College. Unlike his three Oxford peers, Troyte was unmusical and not actively engaged in the Oxford University Musical Society. The musical trio of Oxford students—Steuart-Powell, Arnold, and Nevison—were friends of Elgar’s wife and entered his social sphere following their marriage in May 1889.

Exeter College was founded in 1314 and adopted the Latin motto “Floreat Exon” (Let Exeter Flourish). Balliol College was founded in 1263 but does not advertise a collegiate motto. It is possible to obtain the initials “EFB” as an acrostic from the first letters of Exeter, its Latin motto “Floreat Exon”, and Balliol.

Exeter

Floreat Exon

Balliol

It is equally feasible to generate the acrostic anagram “EFB” using Exeter’s motto and the name Balliol.

Floreat Exon
Balliol

Elgar ingeniously encodes the initials of Ein feste Burg as an acrostic anagram using the college names and motto associated with three Oxford friends portrayed in Variations II, V, and XII.

This overview showed how Elgar encodes the initials “EFB” through a variety of different cryptograms. Most rely on the use of anagrams and acrostics to encode information. These ciphers represent a set of variations on the covert Theme’s initials. The “EFB” decryption is consistent with the majority of the titles from the Enigma Variations which are comprised of different sets of initials. This pattern of anagrams is consistent with the name “Craeg Lae” coined in March 1899 by Elgar for his new residence. The unusual moniker is an anagram of his forename spelled backward (Craeg Lea) mingled with the initials of Carice, Edward, and Alice (Craeg Lea).

Joachim’s Motto “EFB” Cipher

Another “EFB” cipher was recently discovered In Variation XIII (✡ ✡ ✡) of the Enigma Variations. Before presenting this discovery, it is necessary to revisit two related cryptograms. In Variation XIII, Edward Elgar openly cites a four-note melodic fragment from the concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Felix Mendelssohn. As shown earlier, the key letters of those Mendelssohn fragments encipher an anagram of “FAE”, the initials of Joseph Joachim’s romantic motto “Frei aber einsam” (Free but lonely). Elgar scholars should have easily spotted this simple musical cryptogram but were too preoccupied with denying the existence of ciphers in the Variations to mount even a cursory search. The “FAE” Cipher furnishes valuable clues about the covert Theme’s title and its composer. The discovery of the “FAE” Cipher embedded within the Mendelssohn fragments verifies that they harbor cryptograms.

There is a slightly more sophisticated cipher in the Mendelssohn fragments that encodes the initials of Ein feste Burg. This cryptogram relies on the number of times an incipit is stated in a given key to encode the scale degree of that particular mode. Two quotations in A♭ major pinpoint its second scale degree of B♭. One paraphrase in F minor points to its first scale degree of F. A third quotation in E♭ major identifies its first scale of E♭. These three note letters (B, F, E) are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. This set of initials supplies the absent letters in the cryptic title of three hexagrammic asterisks.

The latest “EFB” cipher found in Variation XIII bridges the “FAE” and Mendelssohn fragments “EFB” ciphers. Elgar devised a straightforward method to identify specific scale degrees from the three different keys of the Mendelssohn fragments to encode the covert Theme’s initials (EFB). What makes his formula even more extraordinary is that it also works with Joachim’s motto. The first scale degree of F minor is F, the same as the first letter in Frei. The second scale degree of A♭ major is B♭ which corresponds to the second letter in aber. The first scale degree of E♭ major is E, the same as the first letter of einsam. Applying the specific scale degrees associated with each key letter (one for F and E, and two for A) to letters from each corresponding word in “Frei aber einsam” highlights F, b, and e. These three letters are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. The methodology used to encode “EFB” in the Mendelssohn fragments also transfers seamlessly to Joachim’s German motto. This synchonous treatment of the FAE and Scale Degrees ciphers located in the Mendelssohn fragments yields identical decryptions that validate both cryptograms and illustrate Elgar’s mastery of cryptography.

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.

Soli Yah Gloria

Elgar’s “Turin Shroud” Enigma Titles Ciphers

Turin Shroud Face Negative and Positive Images

During railway journeys amuses himself with cryptograms; solved one by John Holt Schooling who defied the world to unravel his mystery.

Robert J. Buckley in his biography Sir Edward Elgar (1905)

The English composer Edward Elgar (187–1934) excelled in cryptography, the science of coding and decoding secret messages. His obsession with ciphers merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s book Unsolved! Bauer devotes much of the third chapter to Elgar’s meticulous decryption of an allegedly insoluble Nihilist cipher presented by John Holt Schooling in the April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. A Nihilist cipher is based on a Polybius square key that resembles a checkerboard grid. Elgar was so gratified with his solution to Schooling’s impenetrable code that he mentions it in his first biography by Robert J. Buckley published in 1905.

Elgar painted his decryption in black paint on a wooden box which is an appropriate medium given that another name for the Polybius square is a box cipher. His process for cracking Schooling’s cryptogram is summarized on a set of nine index cards. On the sixth card, Elgar likens the task to “. . . working (in the dark).” Note how he uses the word dark as a synonym for cipher.

This parenthetical remark is illuminating as he deploys that same language in the original 1899 program note to characterize his eponymous Enigma Theme. It is an oft-cited passage that deserves revisiting as Elgar lays the groundwork for his three-part riddle:

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; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some later dramas – e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’ – the chief character is never on the stage.

Elgar deploys the words dark and secret interchangeably in a letter to August Jaeger penned on February 5, 1900. He wrote, “Well—I can’t help it but I hate continually saying ‘Keep it dark’—‘a dead secret’—& so forth.” One of the definitions for dark is secret, and a saying is a series of words that form a coherent phrase or adage. Elgar’s odd expression—“dark saying”—is coded language for a cipher. In a roundabout way, Elgar hints there is a secret message enciphered by the Enigma Theme.

A compulsion for cryptography is a towering pillar of Elgar’s psychological profile. A decade of systematic analysis of the Enigma Variations netted over a hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. Although this figure may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s fascination for ciphers. More significantly, their solutions supply definitive answers to the core questions posed by the Enigma Variations. What is the secret melody to which the Enigma Theme is a counterpoint and serves as the melodic foundation for the work? Answer: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German protestant reformer Martin Luther. What is Elgar’s “dark saying” concealed within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius cipher situated in the opening six bars. Who is the secret friend and inspiration behind Variation XIII? Answer: Jesus Christ, the sacrificial Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith.

Some Exemplary Ciphers

The initials of Elgar’s secret friend are transparently encoded by the Roman numerals of Variation XIII using an elementary number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.). “X” is the Roman numeral for ten—the tenth letter of the alphabet is J. “III” represents three—the third letter is C. The Roman numerals XIII is a coded form of “JC,” the initials for Jesus Christ. This is not an isolated instance of this encipherment technique in the Enigma Variations. Elgar uses the same number-to-letter key to encode August Jaeger’s initials in Variation IX (Nimrod). The Roman numeral “I” represents one, and the first letter of the alphabet is A. “X” stands for ten, and the tenth letter is J. The Roman numerals “IX” encode “AJ,” the initials of August Jaeger.

With the secret friend’s initials casually disguised by the Roman numerals of Variation XIII, what could be the significance of its cryptic title consisting of three hexagrammatic asterisks (✡ ✡ ✡)? That question was resolved in July 2013 by the discovery of the Letters Cluster Cipher that confirms the three asterisks represent the initials of Elgar’s mysterious missing melody. The absent initials denoted by the asterisks are those for the absent principal Theme. The missing letters are encoded by the first letters from the titles of the adjoining movements: Variations XII (B. G. N.) and XIV (E. D. U., and Finale). The first letters of each title entry are an acrostic anagram of “EFB,” the initials of Ein Feste Burg. Elgar brilliantly frames the question posed by the three starry asterisks with the answer hidden in plain view. This is one of many instances where Elgar encodes information using adjacent title letters.

Elgar prepared five different lists of the movements for the Enigma Variations. The discovery of the Letters Cluster Cipher shows that his varying lists were generated to construct that particular cryptogram. Such a possibility eluded scholars like Julian Rushton who naively insist Elgar lacked the time to construct ciphers. Rushton’s rush to judgment is unsupported by the historical timeline. Elgar officially began composing the Enigma Variations on October 21, 1898. The orchestration was completed on February 19, 1899. From inception to completion, the process took 121 days or four months. Such a lengthy period afforded more than ample time and opportunity for Elgar to indulge his passion for cryptography. Rushton’s hasty verdict is at odds with the facts.

By proffering the false supposition that there was insufficient time for Elgar to devise any cryptograms within the Enigma Variations, legacy scholars like Rushton conveniently relieve themselves of the duty to mount a diligent search for ciphers. The inevitable outcome is a dearth of evidence that is blithely misconstrued as proof there are no ciphers to detect or decrypt. The impulse to preemptively rule out the possibility that Elgar may have embedded ciphers in the Enigma Variations is a flagrant case of confirmation bias passed off as “scholarship.”

The acrostic anagram “EFB” encoded by the titles of Variations XII and XIV is an elementary cryptogram called the Letters Cluster Cipher. The Letters Cluster Cipher proved to be the tip of a much larger iceberg of coded information. Its discovery triggered a broader analysis of the titles to uncover other meaningful and relevant groupings of proximate letters. This approach differs from Stephen Pickett’s surgical cherry-picking of single initials from titles and names to assemble a purported solution for the absent Theme. Instead, text strings from adjacent title letters are analyzed for relevant and meaningful anagrams. This line of inquiry uncovered solutions linked to the absent Principal Theme, the Enigma’s “dark saying,” and the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII. There are over thirty-six cryptograms embedded within the titles of the Enigma Variations. One of the more sophisticated encodes “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” (Pious Christ Abide) from proximate title letters from the Theme, Variations I, II, and III.

The first two terms are Latin, a language Elgar studied at three Roman Catholic schools during his formative years. “PIE” is Latin for pious. There is a passage from the final couplet of the Latin hymn “Dies Irae” that pairs pious with Jesus under the title Pie Jesu. That text is set to music by such luminaries as Charpentier, Cherubini, Dvořák, and Fauré. Elgar was certainly familiar with the Catholic hymn “Dies Irae” and its many settings by great composers. Elgar used Christi (Christ) in the title of his first sacred oratorio, The Light of Life (Lux Christi) Op. 29, a work premiered in 1896. Elgar revised some of the libretto and vocal solo parts for a Worcester Festival performance in 1899 the same year the Enigma Variations premiered on June 19th. The encoding of “CHRISTI” is accompanied by the Christograms “IHC” and “IHS” enciphered by proximate title letters from Variations I and II. The word abide is conspicuous because “Abide with me” was General Gordon’s favorite hymn that was sung at his memorial service on September 4, 1898. That widely reported event occurred 48 days before Elgar began composing the Enigma Variations. At that time, Elgar was seriously planning to write a symphony in honor of General Gordon before he abruptly altered course and composed a set of orchestral variations.

Ongoing research uncovered related English and Latin terms encoded by proximate title letters from the Theme and Variations I and II. One of the many titles for Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” given by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 9:6:

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The word “PEACE” is formed by contiguous letters from the titles of the Theme, Variations I and II. The English decryption of “PEACE” overlaps with the English encryption of “CHRIST” by adjacent title letters from Variations I, II, and III. In addition to the passage in Isaiah 9:6, there is another scriptural basis for associating peace with Christ as the Apostle Paul mentions the “peace of Christ” in Colossians 3:15. When Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves in Mark 4:39, he said, “Peace, be still.” At this command, the tumultuous sea suddenly became calm. This and other passages (e.g., Psalm 65:5-8, Psalm 89:8-9, Psalm 107:28-30) provide a compelling theological foundation for Elgar’s sonic portrayal of a calm sea in Variation XIII to represent Christ.

The Italian translation of peace as “PACE” is also encoded by contiguous letters from the titles of the Theme, Variations I and II. The Italian decryption “PACE” overlaps with the Latin encryption “CHRISTI” by neighboring title letters from Variations I, II, and III. The Latin and Italian languages both originated from Italy. Remarkably, Elgar encodes the English terms “PEACE” and “CHRIST” with proximate letters from the same titles where he also enciphers their Italian and Latin translations “PACE” and “CHRISTI.”

The twin solutions “CHRIST PEACE” and “CHRISTI PACE” encoded in the opening four titles of the Enigma Variations are framed in three languages: English, Latin, and Italian. The first letters of those three languages are an acrostic of “ELI,” a term used by Jesus at the beginning of his fourth saying from the cross. The Gospel of Matthew records that as Jesus hung on the cross, he cried out around the ninth hour in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?). “Eli” is Aramaic for “My God.” This was Christ’s fourth declaration out of seven as he languished on the cross. Four corresponds to four titles used to encode four words in two comparable decryptions. Christ’s fourth saying from the cross is the first sentence from Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm that prophesied numerous events about his crucifixion. Based on this citation, Matthew 27:46 is inextricably linked to the Book of Psalms. The verse number (46) from Matthew 27 combined with “Psalm” furnishes a coded form of Psalm 46, the chapter that inspired Luther to compose Ein feste Burg.

Elgar was certainly aware of the linkage between Matthew 27 and Psalm 22. He spent many years studying the Bible, the Apocrypha, biblical commentaries, and other theological texts in preparation for writing his sacred oratorio The Apostles. Shortly before its premiere in October 1903, he remarked about the libretto, “I have been thinking it out since boyhood, and have been selecting the words for years, many years.” As Reed recalled about Elgar:

. . . his knowledge of the Bible and the Apocrypha was profound. He certainly consulted his friends also, both in his own Roman Catholic church and in the Anglican . . . 

Elgar wrote above five bars in the vocal score of The Apostles the fourth saying of Jesus from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

A cryptanalysis determined it is feasible to assemble the three-word German title of the covert Theme from adjacent letters from seven titles of the Enigma Variations. The first (EIN) is an anagram of the opening three letters from Enigma. Alternatively, it may be obtained from the E in E. D. U., N from B. G. N., and the last I from Variation XIII. The second (FESTE) is encoded by proximate title letters in Variations XIV, the Theme, and Variations I, II, and III. The third (BURG) is enciphered by adjacent title letters in Variations XII, XIII, and XIV. Enigma is spelled the same way in English and German. Consequently, the German titles “Enigma” and “E. D. U” from the German forename Eduard hint at the national origin of the secret melody. The gap between Variations IV and XII was ostensibly designed to foil recognizing the covert Theme’s name spliced in among the titles of the Enigma Theme, Variations I through III, and XII through XIV.

The name of the covert Theme’s composer is encoded as “Dr. Martinus” by adjacent title letters. Elgar concealed “MARTINUS” by enciphering it in three groups of three letters situated next to three iterations of “DR,” the standard abbreviation of doctor. Three letters in three groups present a coded form of Elgar’s initials as “33” is the mirror image of two capital cursive Es. The first “DR” from titles II and III is followed by “MAR” from titles IV and V. A second “DR” formed by titles X and XI is preceded by “TIN” from titles VII, VIII, and IX. The third and final “DR” from titles XIII and XIV is next to “NUS” from titles XI, XII, and XIV. In all, three coded versions of “DR” are placed next to the three-letter text strings “MAR,” “TIN,” and “NUS.” The merger of ten discrete letters in “DR,” “MAR,” “TIN” and “NUS” produces “DR MARTINUS.”

Martinus is a Latinized version of Martin. Luther identified himself as “Dr. Martinus” in speeches and publications as exemplified by the following excerpt:

However, I, Dr. Martinus, have been called to this work and was compelled to become a doctor, without any initiative of my own, but out of pure obedience. Then I had to accept the office of doctor and swear a vow to my most beloved Holy Scriptures that I would preach and teach them faithfully. While engaged in this kind of teaching, the papacy crossed my path and wanted to hinder me in it. How it has fared is obvious to all, and it will fare still worse. It shall not hinder me. In God’s name and call I shall walk on the lion and the adder, and tread on the young lion and dragon with my feet.

This overview showed how the titles of the Enigma Variations encode titles for the secret friend depicted in Variation XIII (Christ, Christi, Pace, Peace), the German initials and title of the covert Theme (EFB and Ein feste Burg), and its author (Dr. Martinus). The specificity and coherence of these decryptions verify that Elgar encoded compelling solutions within the titles of the Enigma Variations using proximate title letters. He experimented with five differing orderings of the Enigma Variations to construct these ciphers.

The “Turin Shroud” Enigma Titles Cipher

A special subset of cryptograms from the Enigma Variations encodes references to the Turin Shroud, a sacred burial cloth that many Christians believe wrapped the body of Christ as he rested in the tomb. An excellent example is the Romanza Cipher in Variation XIII, a movement that has three Mendelssohn quotations with four notes each for a total of twelve notes enclosed by quotations. These sums correspond to the standard German title of the covert Theme which has three words and twelve letters. Uncanny numeric parallels between the Mendelssohn quotations and the covert Theme’s title led to the discovery of an elimination cipher. Six discrete note letters (A, B, C, E, F, and G) from the Mendelssohn quotations serve as the basis for eliminating matching letters from the title Ein feste Burg. The remaining six letters (I, N, S, T, U, R) form an anagram of “TURIN S.” Turin is a city in Italy, and the initial S suggestively shrouds the rest of the decryption.

Elgar’s interest in the Turin Shroud was undoubtedly aroused by widespread press coverage of Secondo Pia’s astonishing photographic negatives of that sacred burial cloth. Pia produced the first official photographs of the Turin Shroud in May 1898, five months before Elgar began work on the Enigma Variations. When Pia developed his first batch of glass plates in a dark room, he was shocked to discover that the photographic negatives displayed positive images. This inversion is only possible if the anterior and dorsal images on the Turin Shroud are photographic negatives on a non-photographic medium. Pia’s discovery became an international sensation in the secular and Catholic press.

The Osservatore Romano at the Vatican was the first to announce Pia’s photographic marvel at Turin. In July 1898, the Catholic Champion reported on the amateur photographer Secondo Pia and his miraculous photographic negatives of the Turin Shroud. A similar report appeared in the July 1898 issue of The Photographic News published in London. On August 6 of that year, Scientific American reported on Pia’s lifelike photographic negatives of the Holy Shroud. Extensive coverage by newspapers and magazines ensured that Elgar was apprised of Pia’s remarkable photographs of the Turin Shroud.

The prestigious British technical magazine The Photogram covered the Turin Shroud on page 267 of its August 1898 issue with this opening sentence, “The Osservatore Romano, the official organ of the Vatican, has announced a remarkable miracle at Turin, by which ‘after eighteen centuries, an authentic likeness of Jesus Christ has been obtained.’” In their December 1898 issue, The Photogram published the article “Photographic Miracles” accompanied by one of Pia’s certified photographic negatives of the Turin Shroud. The London journal English Mechanic and Mirror of Science reported on December 9, 1898, that The Photogram published a 20-inch by 5.5-inch image of Pia’s incredible negative “intended for framing.” By Christmas of that year, many Roman Catholic households in England proudly displayed reprints of Pia’s photographic negative of the Turin Shroud to venerate the Holy Face of Jesus.

Secondo Pia posing with his camera

Pia’s Photographic Negative of the Turin Shroud (Face)

Pia’s famous photographs of the Turin Shroud likely motivated Elgar to add the word “pictured” in his dedication of the Enigma Variations: “Dedicated to my Friends pictured within.”

Proximate letters from titles I and II spell “PIA”, the surname of the first official photographer of the Turin Shroud. His forename is furnished by the Roman numeral for Variation II which translates as Secondo in its Italian masculine form.

The dedicatee of Variation II (H. D. S-P.) is Hew David Stuart Powell. Elgar inserted a dash between the S and P even though Powell did not use one as shown by his published Exeter College record. Elgar added the dash to associate the letters S and P, the initials of Secondo Pia. The P furnishes the first letter of Pia which is encoded by proximate title letters from Variations I and II. The S is the initial for Secondo, the Italian translation for the Roman numeral assigned to Variation II. Elgar accomplishes a second purpose by linking the initials S and P with an anomalous dash in the title of Variation II because it is a reverse spelling of “PS”, a standard abbreviation of Psalm.

Adjacent letters from titles II, III, and IV encipher “SHRWD”, a phonetic realization of shroud. This decryption is consistent with Elgar’s proclivity for phonetic spellings observed in his correspondence. Some examples of his atypical spellings are listed below:

1. Bizziness (business)
2. çkor (score)
3. cszquōrrr (score)
4. fagotten (forgotten)
5. FAX (facts)
6. frazes (phrases)
7. gorjus (gorgeous)
8. phatten (fatten)
9. skorh (score)
10. SSCZOWOUGHOHR (score)
11. Xmas (Christmas)
12. Xqqqq (Excuse)
13. Xti (Christi)

The decryption “SHRWD” begins with the same letter that furnishes the initial for Secondo. “SHRWD” also symbolically overlaps with the encoding of “CHRIST” by proximate title letters from Variations I, II, and III. Title letters forming “SHRWD” follow a 90-degree track reminiscent of a capital L, a glyph appearing as four L-shaped burn hole patterns on the Turin Shroud. There are five letters in Elgar’s phonetic rendering of shroud as “SHRWD”. Elgar obscures this cryptogram using a phonetic spelling that replaces ou with w.

Contiguous letters from titles V, VI, VII, and VIII generate “TVRIN”, a spelling of Turin that relies on the classical Latin alphabet by substituting V for U. Like the phonetic spelling of shroud as “SHRWD”, there are five letters in the Latinized spelling of Turin as “TVRIN”. Two five-letter decryptions (TVRIN SHRWD) suggest a coded form of Elgar’s initials (EE) as E is the fifth letter of the alphabet. Other cryptograms in the Enigma Variations bear the composer’s initials.

Elgar substitutes U with W in his phonetic spelling of shroud as “SHRWD”. The pronunciation of the letter u is echoed by w (double-u). He also substitutes v for u in his spelling of Turin as “TVRIN.” In both instances, u is replaced by either v or w, two glyphs that immediately follow u in the alphabet.

The decryptions for “Turin Shroud” and “Secondo Pia” from proximate title letters from Variations I through VIII are highlighted in the table below. These solutions do not appear obvious, for if they did, they would not constitute a cipher. These answers are camouflaged as anagrams sourced from adjoining title letters. Added layers of concealment are provided by phonetic spellings and solutions in English, Italian, and Latin.

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.

Soli Yah Gloria

Elgar's Variation XII Optional Ending Initials Ciphers

BASIL G. Nevinson, an amateur cello player of distinction and the associate of H. D. S.-P. and the writer (violin) in performances of many trios—a serious and devoted friend. The variation is a tribute to a very dear friend whose scientific and artistic attainments, and the whole-hearted way they were put at the disposal of his friends, particularly endeared him to the writer.

Edward Elgar in My Friends Pictured Within

Elgar the Cryptographist

The English composer Edward Elgar was a self-taught expert in cryptography, the science of coding and decoding secret messages. His obsession with that esoteric discipline merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s book Unsolved! Bauer devotes most of the third chapter to Elgar’s meticulous decryption of an allegedly insoluble Nihilist cipher by John Holt Schooling from the April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. Elgar was so gratified by his solution that he specifically mentions it in his first biography published in 1905 by Robert J. Buckley. Elgar painted his solution in black paint on a wooden box, an appropriate medium as the Nihilist cipher is based on a Polybius square which is also known as a box cipher.

Elgar summarizes his comprehensive decryption on a set of nine index cards. On the sixth card, he relates the task of cracking the cipher to “. . . working (in the dark).” His use of the word dark as a synonym of cipher is significant as he employs that same language in the original 1899 program note to describe the Enigma Theme. It is an oft-cited passage that warrants revisiting because Elgar lays the groundwork for his three-part riddle:

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; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . . So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some later dramas – e.g., Maeterlinck’s ‘L’Intruse’ and ‘Les sept Princesses’–the chief character is never on the stage.

A compulsion for cryptography is a reigning pillar of Elgar’s psychological profile. Over a decade of analyzing the Enigma Variations netted over one hundred cryptograms in multiple formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. Although that figure may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s lifelong fascination with ciphers. More importantly, the solutions give concrete answers to the core questions posed by the Enigma Variations. What is the secret melody to which the Enigma Theme is a counterpoint and serves as the melodic foundation for the ensuing movements? Answer: Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German reformer Martin Luther. What is the “dark saying” hiding within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius cipher in the opening six bars. Who is the secret friend and inspiration behind Variation XIII? Answer: Jesus Christ, the Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith. The cryptographic evidence supporting these discoveries is diverse yet mutually consistent, multivalent, and decisive. Such a vast cache of cryptograms verifies that the Enigma Variations is Elgar’s musical homage to cryptography.

A recurring feature of some of Elgar’s ciphers is their proximity to double barlines, particularly those near the beginning or end of a variation. A double bar typically indicates the end of a movement or section, making the insertion of a double barline at the end of bar 6 in the Enigma Theme rather conspicuous. Encased within those opening six bars is a cornucopia of cryptograms, most notably the Psalm 46, Locks, and Polybius ciphers. Based on this pattern, a double barline located just two bars into Variation XII suggests the presence of ciphers. A meticulous study of these opening two bars uncovered a nexus of cryptograms. One of the most remarkable is constructed from performance directions assigned to the cello solo in bar 465 that encode the acrostic anagram “E’s Psalm.” With E as the initial for Elgar, the acrostic anagram may be read as “Elgar’s Psalm.” The first two digits of bar 465 implicate Psalm 46, the scriptural catalyst for Ein feste Burg.

The acrostic anagram “E’s Psalm” in bar 465 is virtually identical to another in the first bar of the Enigma Theme that enciphers “EE’s Psalm.” EE are the initials for Edward Elgar. This other acrostic anagram obtained from seven performance directions uses 46 characters. That precise sum implicates Psalm 46.

The notes from the cello solo’s second phrase in bars 466 and 492 are A, B-fat, A, and C. Remarkably, those four note letters furnish in order the ABA’C structure of the Enigma Theme. Section A is bars 1-6. Section B in bars 7-10. Section A’ is bars 11-17. Section C is the bridge passage in bars 18-19. 

The Enigma Theme’s structure is significant because it divulges a crucial trait of Elar’s unusual contrapuntal treatment of Ein feste Burg. The sequence “ABAC” is the phonetic equivalent of aback, a term defined by Merriam-Webster as “backward” and “by surprise.” The ABA’C structure of the Enigma Theme hints at Elgar’s surprising backward mapping of Ein feste Burg “through and over” the Enigma Theme as a retrograde counterpoint.

A retrograde mapping satisfies both definitions of aback as “backward” and “by surprise.” Retrograde motion is the rarest form of counterpoint and is strenuous to construct and detect. As Kent Kennan explains on page 133 of the third edition of his textbook Counterpoint:

Retrograde motion (cancrizans) is rare in tonal music. Not only is it difficult to write, but the average ear has trouble in recognizing a melodic line when it is played backwards; consequently the point of the device tends to be lost.

The opposing directionality of the Enigma Theme and its much older contrapuntal antecedent may have triggered Elgar’s recollection of an unusual dance program he attended in Leipzig in early 1883. In a letter to August Jaeger written sixteen years later on February 4, 1899, he recounts that unusual experience:

I saw two dancers . . . came down the stage in antique dress dancing a gavotte. When they reached the footlights they suddenly turned around & appeared to be two very young & modern people & danced a gay & lively measure: they had come down the stage backwards, & danced away with their (modern) faces towards us—when they reached the back of the stage they suddenly turned around & the old, decrepit couple danced gingerly to the old tune.

The timing of Elgar’s letter recalling that bemusing dance routine is remarkable because he began orchestrating the Enigma Variations the very next day on February 5 and completed the orchestration two weeks later on February 19, 1899. The dancers portrayed an elderly couple by descending the stage backward and turning around to face the audience to abruptly become a young couple. The Enigma Theme was then a young melody, and Ein feste Burg was much older dating back 370 years to around 1529. Akin to the young couple, the Enigma Theme proceeds forward. Like the old couple, Ein feste Burg moves backwards. In bars 1-6 and 11-16, the Enigma Theme’s palindromic structure alternates between a rhythm played forward (two eighth notes and two quarter notes) and backward (two quarter notes and two eighth notes). This rhythmic see-saw affirms of sense of directionality by moving forward and backward.

Variation XII Optional Ending Initials Ciphers

Variation XII (B. G. N.) is dedicated to Basil G. Nevison, an amateur cellist who performed in trios with Elgar (violin) and Hew David Stuart Powell (piano), the friend sketched in Variation II (H. D. S-P.). The first two measures of Variation XII are sectioned off by a double bar at the terminus of bar 466. In these opening two bars, the principal cellist performs an introductory solo with a sparse accompaniment played by the viola and cello sections. Double barlines in the Enigma Variations often serve as signposts for ciphers. As mentioned earlier, prior research discovered that these opening two bars encode references to the covert Theme and its scriptural inspiration.

The cello solo with two descending sevenths is reprised in bars 491-492 followed by a second double barline and an optional ending bar when this movement is performed separately. Variation XII is the only movement with an alternative ending that is usually omitted as it is routinely followed without interruption by Variation XIII. Like the first double barline, this second one at the end of bar 492 suggests the presence of cryptograms.

Three black hexagrammic asterisks are dispersed at the end of the orchestral score of Variation XII. The first appears at the bottom of bar 491 followed by the directive, “This bar should be omitted except when Var. XII is played separately.” The accompanying German translation below bars 489-491 is flagged by an eight-pointed asterisk and reads, “Dieser Takt wird nur im Falle einer Separat Aufführung dieser Var. XII gespielt.” The first word from the covert Theme’s title is subtly divulged by the first three letters of einer, the seventh word in the German translation. The remaining two hexagrammic asterisks are in bar 492b which comprise the optional ending. The sum of three hexagrammic asterisks at the end of Variation XII is intriguing because the title of the next movement also consists of three hexagrammic asterisks.

The optional ending in bar 492b has in the uppermost principal flute staff a horizontal bracket, a starry asterisk, a fermata above a semibreve rest, a double bar line, and an end barline. Three of those elements—end bar line, fermata, and bracket—generate the acrostic anagram “EFB”. Those three letters are the initials of Ein feste Burg, the covert principal Theme of the Enigma Variations.

Those same three elements in bar 492b of the first violin staff encipher a second “EFB” acrostic anagram. In all, the optional ending bar of Variation XII encodes two iterations of “EFB” precisely where the asterisks are positioned.

The uppermost starry asterisk in bar 492b of the principal flute staff is preceded by “attacca” and is followed by a semibreve rest. The first letters of these elements—attacca, star, and semibreve rest—generate the acrostic anagram “ASS.” The initials “ASS” is an acronym of two English translations of Ein feste Burg as A Safe Stronghold and A Stronghold Sure. Thomas Carlyle published his translation A Safe Stronghold in 1831. Novello published Bach’s sacred cantata Ein feste Burg BWV 80 in 1876 using the translation A Stronghold Sure by Reverend Doctor John Troutbeck.

An attacca, star, and semibreve in bar 492b of the first violin staff encipher a second acrostic anagram of “ASS.”

In an October 24, 1898 letter to Jaeger, Elgar uses the plural form of ass to describe his friends’ imagined attempts at composing variants of the Enigma Theme. This missive was penned three days after Elgar first performed the Enigma Theme on the piano for his wife Alice. Elgar explains in his letter to Jaeger the creative genesis of the Enigma Variations:

Since I’ve been back I have sketched a set of Variations (orkestry) on an original theme: the Variations have amused me because I’ve labelled ’em with the nicknames of my particular friends–you are Nimrod. That is to say I’ve written the variations each one to represent the mood of the ‘party’–I’ve liked to imagine the ‘party’ writing the var: him (or her) self & have written what I think they wd. have written–if they were asses enough to compose – it’s a quaint idee & the result is amusing to those behind the scenes & won’t affect the hearer who ‘nose nuffin’. What think you?

This use of the word ass in connection with the Enigma Variations is a superb example of Elgar’s knack for wordplay because two English translations of Ein feste Burg generate the acronym “A. S. S.”

A third set of initials is encoded in bar 492b by the asterisk, fermata, and semibreve rest. These three items generate the acrostic anagram “AFS,” the acronym for “A Fortress Sure”, the title of an 1882 English translation of Ein feste Burg by the Anglican hymnist Godfrey Thring. The first “AFS” is encoded by the asterisk, fermata, and semibreve rest in bar 492b of the principal flute staff.

A second “AFS” is encoded by the asterisk, semibreve rest, and fermata in bar 492b of the first violin staff.

Thring’s “A Fortress Sure” is included in the 1886 book The Congregational Psalmist Hymnal published in London.

This analysis showed how the optional ending of Variation XII encodes three pairs of initials associated with four different titles of the covert Theme. The first is “EFB” encoded twice as an acrostic anagram in the principal flute and first violin staves by the end bar, bracket, and fermata. “EFB” is the acronym of Luther’s original German title Ein feste Burg. The second set of initials “ASS” is encoded twice in the principal flute and first violin staves by attacca, a starlike asterisk, and semibreve. “ASS” is the acronym for the English translations A Safe Stronghold by Carlyle and A Stronghold Sure by Troutbeck. The encoding of “ASS” at the rear end of Variation XII is a double-cheeked entendre. The third set of initials “AFS” is encoded twice in the principal flute and first violin staves by the asterisk, fermata, and semibreve rest. “AFS” is the acronym for Thring’s English translation A Fortress Sure

The sums of initials enciphered for the hidden melody in the optional ending bar are significant because they revolve around the numbers three, four, and six. There are six sets of three-letter initials for the covert Theme associated with four different renderings of the title. The numbers four and six may be combined to generate 46, the chapter of the Psalms that inspired Luther to compose Ein feste Burg. The merger of the integers three and six produces 36, the opus number of the Enigma Variations. An emphasis on the number six resonates with a six-by-six checkerboard key for a musical Polybius cipher embedded in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme. This Polybius key has 36 cells containing fifteen containing plaintext letters, totals corresponding to the Opus number and sum of the movements, respectively.

The numbers six and 36 are emphasized by another six-by-six checkerboard key for a second musical Polybius cipher in the Mendelssohn quotations of Variation XIII. In this key, three rows have plaintext letters in three contiguous cells followed or preceded by three null or blank cells. There are also three rows with six null cells. It is telling that these empty cells are grouped in three threes and three sixes. Two threes may be combined to generate the mirror image (33) of Elgar’s initials consisting of two capital cursive Es with rounded corners. The fusion of the numerals 3 and 6 generates the opus number 36. Even the blank cells in Elgar’s Polybius key convey information relevant to his Enigma Variations.

The encoding of the initials for Ein feste Burg in bar 492b is accompanied by coded allusions to Luther’s initial. The bracket above that optional ending bar is conspicuous because it mirrors two horizontal capital Ls fused at the top. One L is rotated 90 degrees to the right to form the left side of the bracket, and the second is rotated 90 degrees to the left and inverted. Reorienting that bar vertically allows viewing the bracket more readily as the merger of two L glyphs. L is the initial for Luther, the composer of Ein feste Burg. The reorientation of the L glyphs in this manner to resemble something else is reminiscent of how Elgar rotated the letter E in his Dorabella cipher to resemble the letters M and W and the numeral 3.

Like the bracket above the optional ending bar in Variation XII, Elgar places a bracket to the right of the start and end dates of the orchestration on the autograph score’s title page. This bracket on the cover is constructed from two capital Ls divided by a small notch. The uppermost L is upside down and backward, and the lower L is upright but facing backward. These backward-facing Ls subtly hint at Elgar’s contrapuntal mapping of Luther’s Ein feste Burg in retrograde above the Enigma Theme. The squared-off area on the cover page has two abbreviations of February as “FEb”, an anagram of “EFB.” The tilted square on the title page harbors two stealthy capital Ls accompanied by two coded forms of “EFB” that encipher the initials of Luther and his greatest hymn Ein feste Burg

Bottom of the title page from the Enigma Variations (autograph score)

The brackets over the optional ending of Variation XII transparently furnish four glyphs of the capital letter L, the initial of the composer of the hidden melody. This conclusion is supported by the asterisks accompanying the brackets because Luther wrote a defense of his Ninety-Five Theses and gave it the title Asterisks. On the earliest surviving short score sketch of Variation XIII, Elgar titled it in blue pencil with three asterisks and a capital L. The cryptic title of three asterisks hints at a title by Luther whose initial is writ large in blue pencil. On later sketches, Elgar appended “ML” to the solitary L. It is not a coincidence that “ML” are the initials for Martin Luther.

Variation XIII short score sketch

Luther designed a personal seal in 1530 that uses the color blue. His circular emblem is bordered by a gold ring that encloses a blue field around a large five-petaled white rose with five green leaves. At the center of the rose is a red heart with a black cross. Luther explained the symbolism of his seal in a July 1530 letter to Lazarus Spengler. This seal is also called the Luther rose due to its prominent floral symbolism. The eight-pointed asterisk below bar 489 is also floral in appearance.

Luther’s seal

Elgar was fond of initialing or signing various cryptograms in the Enigma Variations, and those ensconced in the optional ending bar of Variations XII are no exception. The double bar and end bar lines furnish a reverse acrostic of “ED,” a short form of Edward. The alternate ending bar has five semibreves or whole notes: Two Gs, Two Ds, and one B-flat. The violas play G a perfect fourth above D. The solo cello plays B-flat a minor third above the G in the viola staff. The cello section plays D a perfect fifth over G. When converted into its corresponding letter of the alphabet using a number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.), the sum of five whole notes in bar 492b produces E. The letter E is the initial for Elgar and Enigma. The intervals of the double stops in the viola and cello section staves are a perfect fourth and a perfect fifth. Transcribing those intervals into their corresponding letters yields the plaintext D and E. Those two letters may be combined to spell Ed. Based on this analysis, the optional ending bar enciphers two iterations of Elgar’s forename as Ed, and the initial E.

The optional ending bar encodes three sets of three initials for the covert Theme (EFB, ASS, and AFS) and two single initials (L and E) for Luther and Elgar. Five discrete sets of initials hint at Elgar’s initial E, the fifth letter of the alphabet. Why would Elgar encode those particular initials in the optional ending bar of Variation XII? His fascination with anagrams leads to a credible explanation. When treated as an anagram, those five sets of initials may be reshuffled to form the phrase “Baffles asses.”

Merriam-Webster defines the verb baffle as “to defeat or check (someone) by confusing or puzzling: to confuse or frustrate completely: disconcert.” The Cambridge Dictionary defines baffle as “to cause someone to be completely unable to understand or explain something.” These definitions of baffle complement the meaning of enigma as “something that is mysterious and seems impossible to understand completely.” It was previously mentioned that in a letter to Jaeger written in late October 1898, Elgar employs the phrase “asses enough to compose” to characterize his friends’ imagined attempts at writing their respective variations. Elgar’s use of the word ass is a clever wordplay on two English translations of the hidden melody’s title that form the acronym A. S. S. The anagram “Baffles asses” is an apt description of how the covert Theme confounds Elgar’s friends who only manage to vary the exterior original Theme while struggling in vain to unmask its interior melodic undercarriage.

Summation

A cryptanalysis of the optional ending for Variation XII (B. G. N.) uncovered six coded references to three different acronyms for four versions of the covert Theme’s title. Two are given in German as “EFB” (Ein feste Burg). Two are presented in English as “ASS” (A Safe Stronghold and A Stronghold Sure). Two more are framed in English as “AFS” (A Fortress Sure). Luther’s initial “L” is encoded twice by the ends of the L-shaped brackets in the optional ending bar. The initial for Elgar and Enigma is encoded by five whole notes in bar 492b using a number-to-letter key (5 = E).  These five discrete sets of initials (EFB, ASS, AFS, L, and E) point to the fifth letter of the alphabet, the initial E for Elgar and Enigma. This profusion of initials for the covert Theme, its composer Luther, and Elgar comports with most of the titles in the Enigma Variations which also consist of initials.

The breakdown of these enciphered acronyms for the hidden melody in Variation XII’s optional ending bar emphasizes the numbers three, four, and six. There are three pairs of three-letter initials for a total of six acronyms associated with four different titles of the covert Theme. Pairing three and three together (33) generates the mirror image of Elgar’s initials of two capital cursive Es. Uniting three with six (36) yields the opus number of the Enigma Variations. Blending four with six (46) produces the chapter from the Psalms known as “Luther’s Psalm” that served as the scriptural catalyst for Ein feste Burg.

This analysis also showed how the optional ending bar encodes three sets of three-letter initials for the covert Theme (EFB, ASS, and AFS), and two single initials (L and E) for Luther and Elgar. These five discrete sets of initials yield the anagram “Baffles asses.” The verb baffle means to totally bewilder or perplex, a definition that echoes the meaning of enigma. In an October 1898 letter, Elgar likened his friends to “asses” when describing their imagined attempts at composing the Enigma Variations. The decryption “Baffles asses” synchronizes with Elgar’s account of the creative genesis of the Enigma Variations and his audience who “nose nuffin.”

Some cryptograms in the Enigma Variations bear the composer’s initials, forename, or surname. The Optional Ending Initials Ciphers in Variation XII continue this pattern as it is tagged by his initials and two coded spellings of his forename Ed. The encoding of three pairs of three-letter acronyms furnishes two threes (33), the mirror image of Elgar’s initials. The double bar line and end bar line that encloses the optional ending bar spell Ed as a reverse acrostic. The intervals of a perfect fourth and perfect fifth in the optional ending’s G minor triad encode Ed using a number-to-letter key (4 = D, 5 = E). These two coded references to Elgar’s forename are a stealth form of his signature, an insight affirmed by the title of Elgar’s musical self-portrait in Variation XIV (E. D. U.) which begins with those identical two letters. Elgar initialed and autographed his optional ending ciphers as an internal form of authentication.

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.

Soli Yah Gloria