Elgar’s “DR. MARTINUS” Enigma Cipher

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)

Wordplay, anagrams, spoonerisms, ciphers, and puzzles were fun and remained a lifelong fascination. Wulstan Atkins gives an account of how Elgar solved a crossword clue with the unusual engineering word ‘caisson’ in 1930. He had come across the word some time before, consulted a dictionary and remembered it. This was his invariable practice.

Kevin Mitchell

April 2021 issue of The Elgar Society Journal

The late romantic composer Edward Elgar excelled 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 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. Elgar was so gratified by his solution to Schooling’s purportedly impenetrable code that he specifically mentions it in his first biography released by Robert J. Buckley in 1905.

Elgar painted his decryption in black paint on a wooden box, an appropriate medium considering 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).” It is significant that he used the word “dark” as a synonym for cipher.

This parenthetical remark is revealing as he employs 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 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 uses 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 an oblique manner, Elgar hints there is a secret message enciphered by the Enigma Theme.

A compulsion for cryptography is a reigning facet of Elgar’s psychological profile. A decade of systematic analysis of the Enigma Variations has netted over a hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. Although this figure may seem astronomical, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s fascination for ciphers. More significantly, their solutions provide 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 ensuing movements? 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 Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith.

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. This cryptanalysis shows that 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). “I” is the Roman numeral for one. The first letter of the alphabet is A. “X” stands for ten, and the tenth letter is J.

With the secret friend’s initials thinly 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 cryptogram divulges that the three asterisks signify the initials of Elgar’s mysterious missing melody. The absent 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 letters are an acrostic anagram of “EFB,” the initials of Ein Feste Burg. Elgar deftly frames the question posed by the three asterisks with the answer hidden in plain view. This is one of many instances of how Elgar encodes information using proximate title letters.

Elgar’s sketches document five lists of the movements for the Enigma Variations. The discovery of the Letters Cluster Cipher shows that these divergent lists were generated to construct that particular cryptogram. This prospect eluded scholars like Julian Rushton who naively insist Elgar lacked the time to construct any ciphers. Rushton’s speculative rush to judgment is unsupported by the known timeline. Elgar began composing the Enigma Variations in earnest on October 21, 1898. The orchestration was completed on February 19, 1899. From inception to completion, the process consumed 121 days or four months. Such a lengthy period afforded more than ample time and opportunity for Elgar to indulge his passion for cryptography.

By proffering the false supposition that there was insufficient time for Elgar to devise any cryptograms within the Enigma Variations, scholars like Julian Rushton relieve themselves of the obligation to mount a systematic search for ciphers. The inevitable result is a dearth of evidence that is myopically misconstrued as proof there are no ciphers to detect or decrypt. The decision to preemptively rule out the possibility that Elgar may have embedded ciphers in the Enigma Variations is a transparent case of confirmation bias.

The acrostic anagram “EFB” from the titles of Variations XII and XIV that encodes the initials of Ein feste Burg is an elementary cryptogram called the Letters Cluster Cipher. Its discovery precipitated a broader analysis of the Enigma Variations’ titles with the goal of uncovering other meaningful and relevant groupings of proximate title letters. This approach is markedly dissimilar from Stephen Pickett’s surgical cherry-picking of single initials from titles and names to assemble a purported solution for the absent Theme. My investigation uncovered words linked to the absent Principal Theme, the Enigma’s “dark saying,” and the secret friend. The Letters Cluster Cipher proved to be the tip of a much larger iceberg of coded information. This assessment uncovered over thirty-six cryptograms embedded within the titles of the Enigma Variations. One of the most sophisticated is formed by title letters from the opening four movements and encodes “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” (Pious Christ Abide).

Elgar used the Latin word Christi (Christ) in the title of his first sacred oratorio, The Light of Life (Lux Christi) Op. 29, which premiered in 1896. Some of the libretto and vocal solo parts were revised for a Worcester Festival performance in 1899. The Enigma Variations premiered on June 19th of that same year.

The “DR. MARTINUS” Enigma Cipher

This June 19th marks the 124th anniversary of Enigma Variations’ premiere in London under the baton of the Wagnerian protégé Hans Richter. In honor of that watershed moment, I am announcing the discovery of the “DR. MARTINUS” Enigma Cipher expertly woven into the titles of the Enigma Variations. This discovery was triggered by prior research that identified how titles of Variations XII, XIII, and XIV encipher “RX EFB” as an acrostic anagram. The abbreviation “RX” comes from the Latin word recipe (“Take thou”), a term used by doctors to issue prescriptions. “EFB” represents the initials of Ein feste Burg, the secret melody of the Enigma Variations. The acrostic anagram “RX EFB” consists of initials, a feature shared by the majority of the Enigma Variations’ titles. Based on this understanding, “RX EFB” may be fully decoded as “Take thou Ein feste Burg.” This solution is Elgar’s coded prescription for solving the contrapuntal conundrum posed by the Enigma Variations.

A major implication of the “RX EFB” cipher is that the hidden melody must have been written by a doctor. Consistent with that impression, a thread of letters woven through the titles of Variations II through VIII spells out “DR MARTIN” as a thinly disguised anagram. Scanning from top to bottom and left to right, the sequence of the letters appears as “DRMRAITN,” an anagram that may be easily reshuffled to spell “DR MARTIN.”

Martin Luther was awarded a Doctor of Theology degree on October 19, 1512. Two days later on October 21, Dr. Luther was admitted to the senate of the theological faculty at the University of Wittenberg where he served his entire academic career. That date is intriguing as Elgar first performed the Enigma Theme at the piano for his wife on October 21, 1898. The proximate title letters anagram “DR. MARTIN” provides an academic title and first name for the composer of Ein feste Burg.

A survey of all fifteen titles from the Enigma Variations revealed that each occurrence of D is accompanied by a neighboring R. The first “DR” is formed by letters from the titles of II and III. The second “DR” is created by adjacent letters from the titles of X and XI. A third “DR” is generated by contiguous letters from the titles of XIII and XIV. In all, three “DR” letter pairs are embedded within six adjacent titles of the Enigma Variations: II and III, X and XI, and XIII and XIV.

The number six is subtly emphasized by the Enigma Variations which has six 6-letter titles: Enigma, Ysobel, Troyte, Nimrod, EDU[ard], and Finale. The number six is also cryptically emphasized by a six-by-six Polybius cipher in the opening six bars of the Enigma Theme that encodes the entire 24-letter title of the covert Theme. The most prevalent key signature is G minor which is used for six of the movements. In Variation XII, there are precisely six discrete notes in melodic fragments cited by Elgar from Mendelssohn’s concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt). The ostinato figure accompanying those quotations consists of undulating harmonic sixths that reprise the palindromic rhythm of the Enigma Theme, further highlighting the number six. The use of six titles to encode the “DR” anagram is consistent with this trend. It is remarkable that each word in “Doctor Martin Luther” has exactly six letters.

The R from the third repetition of “DR” stands out as it adjoins three starry asterisks (✡ ✡ ✡) that denote three absent letters. The asterisks are a nuanced allusion to Luther who penned a defense of his Ninety-five Theses that was given the title Asterisks. One nebulous title hints at another. The subtitle of XIII is Romanza, an Italian term that resonates with Luther’s Roman Catholic faith and calling based in Rome, the spiritual capital of the Holy Roman Empire. The Roman Catholic Church prosecuted and excommunicated Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 for publicly exposing corruption and erroneous teachings that flagrantly contradicted scripture. The church left Luther no option but to institute sound doctrines by founding the Lutheran faith.

Three asterisks next to the third “DR” suggests an ingenious mode of encipherment in which three-letter fragments are strategically positioned next to each “DR.” Following this hunch, a search for three-letter fragments was conducted around each “DR” in the titles of the Enigma Variations. The first “DR” from the titles of II and III is followed by “MAR” from the titles of IV and V. The second “DR” formed by the titles of X and XI is preceded by “TIN” from the titles VII, VIII, and IX. The third and final “DR” from the titles of XIII and XIV is next to “NUS” from the titles of XI, XII, and XIV.

In all, three coded versions of “DR” are placed next to the three-letter text strings “MAR,” “TIN,” and “NUS.” These text strings are linked by virtue of each being positioned next to “DR.” The merger of the ten discrete letters in “DR,” “MAR,” “TIN” and “NUS” produces “DR MARTINUS.” The name Martinus is a Latinized version of Martin.

Some nineteenth-century German texts refer to the great Reformer as “Dr. Martinus Luther.” Other German books refer to him as “Doctor Martinus Luther.” Luther used the signature “Dr. Martinus Luther” in his letters. Frederick the Wise called Luther “Dr. Martinus.” In his public speeches and writings, Luther also identified himself as “Dr. Martinus” as illustrated 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.

Elgar studied Latin at three different Roman Catholic schools between 1863 and 1872. He grew up attending Latin Mass, a practice he continued when composing the Enigma Variations in 1898-99. His reading habits would have certainly familiarized him with Luther’s doctorate and Latin name. As Kevin Mitchell explains in the April 2021 issue of The Elgar Society Journal:

Elgar had a quicksilver mind, that encompassed many disciplines. He was a voracious reader. His reading, although perhaps undisciplined, was wide-ranging and eclectic as befits a self-educated man.

In a letter to Frances Colvin, Elgar explains how his passion for old books extended to some that were stridently Protestant:

When I write a big serious work e.g. Gerontius we have had to starve & go without fires for twelve months as a reward: this small effort [The Crown of India] allows me to buy scientific works I have yearned for & spend my time between the Coliseum & the old book shops: I have found poor Haydon’s Autobiography — that which I have wanted for years & all Jesse’s Memoirs (the nicest twaddle possible) & metallurgical works & oh! All sorts of things — also I can more easily help my poor people [his sister and brother and their families] — so I don’t care what people say about me — the real man is a very shy student & now I can buy books — Ha! Ha! I found a lovely old ‘Tracts against Popery’ — I appeased Alice by saying I bought it to prevent other people from seeing it — but it wd. make a cat laugh.

In his essay “Everything I Can Lay My Hands On’: Elgar’s Theological Library” from the July 2003 issue of The Elgar Society Journal, Geoffrey Hodgkins studiously documents an immense assortment of religious texts that filled Elgar’s personal library. Based on available records, Hodgkins concludes “. . . there could have been more than one hundred bibles and theological books in Elgar’s collection . . .” Elgar referred to these and other borrowed books to compose the librettos for choral works and sacred oratorios. It is significant that many of these resources were written or edited by Protestant scholars. William H. Reed, an accomplished violinist and confidant, recalls how Elgar consulted Roman Catholic and Anglican experts when compiling the libretto for The Apostles:

On 31st July, it is recorded, Elgar, wishing to write his own libretto for the oratorio, The Apostles, began to collect material. As is well known, 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, for instance Canon Gorton, who helped him a great deal in his researches.

Elgar’s interest in Protestant editions of the Bible and biblical commentaries spilled over into Protestant music. Professor Charles Edward McGuire of Oberlin College and Conservatory observes “. . . Elgar began distancing himself from elements of Catholicism both in private and public communication for the last three decades of his life.” McGuire further notes that Elgar “. . . publicly presented himself as someone who, though Catholic, could appreciate the art and cultural offerings of Protestants . . .” To drive home that point, McGuire refers to remarks by Elgar to Rudolph de Cordova in the May 1904 issue of The Strand Magazine:

I attended as many of the [Anglican] Cathedral services as I could to hear the anthems, to get to know what they were, so as to become thoroughly acquainted with the English Church style. The putting of the fine organ into the Cathedral at Worcester [1874] was a great event, and brought many organists to play there at various times. I went to hear them all. The services at the Cathedral were over later on Sunday than those at the Catholic church, and as soon as the voluntary there was finished at the church I used to rush over to the Cathedral to hear the concluding voluntary.

Additional evidence affirms that Elgar was captivated by Protestant themes. When appointed the chief conductor and artistic director of the Worcestershire Philharmonic Society in the Fall of 1897, Elgar selected the chorus “Wach auf” from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg) as the signature song for the new society. The lyrics were penned by Hans Sachs, a contemporary of Luther and a Germain Meistersinger, who composed a 700-line long poem called Die Wittenbergisch Natchtigall (The Wittenberg Nightingale) in defense of the German Reformation. Sachs’ allegorical poem depicts Luther as a singing Nightengale heralding the dawn of biblical truths that displace the darkness of a decadent religious cabal that exploits the people for profit. It is highly germane (pun intended) that “Wach auf” is a poetic and musical homage to Luther, the composer of Ein feste Burg. Elgar’s enthusiasm for Protestant tracts, Bibles, and Biblical commentaries included Protestant anthems like “Wach auf” and Ein feste Burg. The program note for the first performance in May 1898 confirms that Elgar was fully aware that “Wach auf” is a “Reformation Song.” On the official letterhead, the singing bird perched atop the “E” in “SOCIETY” represents Luther. 

The “DR. MARTINUS” cryptogram expertly woven into the titles of the Enigma Variations shares some remarkable parallels with the Mendelssohn quotations in Variation XIII from the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. There are three Mendelssohn quotations, and each has three distinct notes. Similarly, there are three fragments from “MARTINUS” positioned next to “DR” in three different places among the titles, and each consists of three distinct letters. The third spelling of “DR” overlaps with Variation XIII, a movement with a cryptic title of three asterisks and the subtitle Romanza. The Mendelssohn fragments are a veritable treasure trove of cryptograms that encode a variety of solutions such as the initials “EFB”, the English translation of Ein feste Burg as A Strong Tower, and a reference to the Sudarium of Oviedo.

The Mendelssohn quotations in Variation XIII furnish massive clues about the hidden melody and its composer. Felix Mendelssohn was baptized a Lutheran at the age of seven and remained a staunch Protestant throughout his life. He composed the Reformation Symphony in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a founding document of the Lutheran Church. The fourth movement opens with a citation of Ein feste Burg followed by a set of variations. Elgar quotes Mendelssohn to imply by imitation that Mendelssohn cites the covert Theme. 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