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