Elgar's Star Cipher

Dante and Virgil beholding the stars.

From the most holy water I returned
    Regenerate, in the manner of new trees
    That are renewed with new foliage,
Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars

Dante Alighieri 

Purgatorio XXXIII, lines 142-145 

Translated by Henry W. Longfellow 

In the original full score of the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, the subtitle of Variation XIII consists of three asterisks (✡ ✡ ✡) enclosed by parentheses. The word asterisk comes from the Greek asterikos, meaning little star. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that these asterisks resemble diminutive stars.

Published title of Variation XIII.

The late Patrick Turner, if he were still with us today, would likely interpret these starry asterisks as evidence for his theory the missing melody to the Enigma Variations is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. When that popular children’s melody is played “through and over” the Enigma Theme, it fails to establish a credible contrapuntal fit even when allowing for the shifts between the minor and major modes of G. The first published score reflects the same type of stars Elgar used on the original full score. Observe that the initials “L.M.L.” do not appear anywhere on the Autograph Score.

Title of Variation XIII from the Autograph Score

The asterisks on the original full score and first published orchestral score are six-pointed stars known as hexagrams. On the piano reduction, the asterisks are more floral in appearance with eight end-points. Like the full score, the asterisks on the piano reduction are framed by parentheses. Unlike the full score, however, the term Romanza is absent.

Title of Variation XIII from the Elgar's piano reduction 

According to notes supplied by Elgar in 1927 for a set of Duo-Art Pianola rolls, the asterisks ostensibly represent the initials of a secret friend. What those missing letters are has been the subject of intense debate since its premiere in June 1899.

The three cryptic asterisks evoke the three principal riddles posed by the Enigma Variations:

1. What is the covert principal Theme?
2. What is the “dark saying” concealed within the Enigma Theme?
3. Who is the secret friend embodied in Variation XIII?

Could the asterisks conceivably serve as lodestars that illuminate the course for discovering the solutions to these conundrums? There is an obvious parallel between the three asterisks and Variation XIII, for in this movement Elgar openly quotes three times a fragment from Mendelssohn’s concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. This seemingly extraneous work to the Enigma Variations was inspired by the poetry of the towering German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In his poem with the original German title Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Goethe describes the plight of a sailing vessel stranded on a windless sea. The sixth line describes the ocean’s “Terrifying, deathly stillness” in German as “Todesstille fürchterlich!” This alarming image of a ship lost at sea invites a vigilant reassessment of the asterisks because sailors routinely look to the stars to find their way in a process known as celestial navigation. Could these three little stars in the form of asterisks serve in some manner of cryptographic navigation to navigate Elgar's placid, sonic sea?

There are three asterisks, three Mendelssohn fragments in quotations, and three enigmas. Is there some possible way to connect these outwardly disparate dots like stars in a constellation? There is indeed. Mendelssohn was a radiant star in the constellation of great German composers, and Elgar was an ardent disciple of the German School who clearly looked up to him for inspiration and guidance. Elgar's passion for all things Teutonic was equally matched by his obsession for ciphers. A careful investigation of the Mendelssohn fragments uncovered some intriguing cryptograms that furnish mutually reinforcing answers to all three of Elgar’s baffling riddles:

1. The Fragments Cipher hints at the fact Mendelssohn quotes the unstated principal theme in one of his works, specifically his Reformation Symphony.
2. The “FAE” Cipher encodes the English initials for the unstated principal theme, A Mighty Fortress by Martin Luther. The lyrics of that epic Christian hymn name Elgar’s secret friend – Christ Jesus – in the second stanza.
3. The “FAE” Cipher also encodes the romantic motto of Joseph Joachim, a famous Jewish violinist who converted to Lutheranism. This sect of Christianity was founded by Martin Luther, the composer of the unstated principal theme. Like Jesus, Joachim was Jewish. Joachim’s first name is also the name of Jesus’ earthly father, the husband of Mary. Elgar openly suggested the movement was dedicated to Lady Mary Lygon when the evidence clearly ruled her out as a credible candidate. Elgar’s misdirection conveniently provided one of the Roman Catholic titles for the Mother of Jesus, Lady Mary.
4. The Mendelssohn “EFB” Cipher cleverly enciphers the German initials for Ein feste Burg.
5. The Keynotes Cipher encodes the three last notes of the ending phrase of Ein feste Burg.
6. The Music Anagram Cipher encodes the entire ending phrase of Ein feste Burg.
7. The Mendelssohn Pi-C Cipher enciphers the Latin word for fish (Pisces), and the Ichthys (Jesus Fish) is a universally recognized Christian symbol. Pisces is a constellation of the zodiac, a clear reference to the stars suggested by the asterisks.
8. The Romanza Cipher encodes a reference to the Turin Shroud, the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

The ciphers embedded within the Mendelssohn fragments are diverse and yet deliver a uniform, interwoven tapestry of mutually reinforcing answers. The asterisks of Variation XIII are in reality a cipher, the fortieth to be uncovered in the Enigma Variations. Three asterisks of two different types found in the full score and piano reduction come to a total of six. In a remarkable parallel, there are six words in the title Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. The three eight-pointed asterisks on the piano reduction have a combined total of 24 end-points, presenting another incredible parallel with the full title of the covert principal theme which has 24 letters. Pairing the end-point totals for both sets of asterisks, i.e., 18 and 24, produces the year 1824. In that year Mendelssohn completed his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor Op.11 at the tender age of 15. This year appears to serve as a coded suggestion to search out one of Mendelssohn's symphonies for the covert principal theme.

On the original full score, the asterisks are hexagrams, the compound of two equilateral triangles. By the 1890s this symbol was commonly recognized as the Seal of Solomon, the Shield of David (Magen David), and the Star of David. At the First Zionist Congress in 1897 it was chosen as the principal symbol on their flag. This public use of the hexagram to represent the Jewish people predated the genesis of the Enigma Variations by at least two years. By the time the Enigma Variations were published in 1899, the hexagram was widely known as a symbol of the Jewish people. This is a profoundly revealing insight because multiple lines of evidence point to Jesus Christ – a Jew - as the secret friend personified in Variation XIII. The three asterisks are collectively known as the Star Cipher.

Jesus pictured within a hexagrammic star

There is a robust theological association between Jesus and the stars. His miraculous birth was heralded by the Star of Bethlehem which attracted the attention of the Three Wise Men or Biblical magi. In Revelation 22:16 Jesus is called the bright Morning Star. In that same passage he is also described as the Root and Offspring of David, so the Star of David strongly hints at the genealogy of Elgar’s not-so-secret friend. Bethlehem is called the City of David, so the Star of David further suggests the birthplace of Christ. The image of a calm sea depicted in Variation XIII is theologically relevant because Jesus commanded the raging winds and roaring waves to be still, and immediately there was a great calm (Mark 4:35-41). Psalm 107:29-20 describes how God “made the storm be still” and brought sailors on their ships safely “to their desired haven.” That is an apt illustration of Elgar's theological imagery in Variation XIII.

The hexagram is also a Christian symbol. Known as the Star of Creation, its six points represent the six days of creation as well as the six attributes of God: Power, wisdom, majesty, love, mercy and justice. According to Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith, Jesus is both God and Man – the Incarnation – who was present at the Creation. In John 1:3 it declares that through Christ “. . . all things were made . . .” The meanings attached to the hexagram from the Jewish and Christian traditions are both relevant to Jesus because he is Jewish, Divine and the Creator.

A depiction of the Star of Bethlehem.

The eight-pointed star intimated by the asterisks on the piano reduction serves as a Christian symbol called the Star of Redemption or Regeneration. Eight is the number of regeneration, and for this reason, many baptismal fonts have an octagonal base. In Variation XIII the portrayal of a body of water in the form of a placid sea deftly compliments this interpretation.

Octagonal baptismal font

The parentheses enclosing the asterisks appear to serve no apparent purpose, yet a reassessment is now in order because the Mendelssohn fragments prove the seemingly extraneous denotes the presence of a cipher. By placing the top of the right and left parentheses together and overlapping them at the bottom, the combination forms the Jesus Fish. With its sonic pictorial of the sea, there was always something fishy about Variation XIII.

The Jesus Fish.

The Jesus Fish is a popular Christogram, and Christ is undoubtedly the secret friend portrayed in Variation XIII. The Latin word for fish is cleverly encoded in the Mendelssohn fragments combining the mathematical ratio Pi with the musical excerpts clearly intended to depict the sea, a word that sounds like the letter C. The combination of Pi and C creates the phonetic equivalent of Pisces, the Latin word for fish. That this clever Pi-C Cipher is aptly situated in the Mendelssohn fragments specifically intended to represent the sea is hardly a coincidence. There is another fish in the Enigma Theme, one suggested by pairing the number Pi encoded in measure one with the symbol for common time, C.

The starry imagery suggested by the three asterisks at the beginning of Variation XIII augments the numerous allusions within the Enigma Variations to the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, a renowned Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. Just as there are three little stars in the subtitle of Variation XIII, the three books of the Divine Comedy conclude with the word stars. Recognizing this subtle Dantean reference, the three asterisks highlight the importance of the ending over the beginning. Elgar implied as much by citing the following quotation from Longfellow’s Elegiac Verse at the end of the Finale, “Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.” This crucial insight proved pivotal for successfully mapping the covert principal Theme over the Enigma Theme because contrary to conventional wisdom, Elgar cunningly began his counterpoint with the ending phrase of Ein feste Burg. This is the same concluding phrase encoded in part by the Keynotes Cipher, and in its entirety by the Music Anagram Cipher. Speaking of endings, the Enigma Date Cipher encodes the date of Martin Luther’s death – his earthly end. The deathly stillness of Variation XIII also hints at the heartrending death of Elgar’s secret friend.

Armed with this insight the odd description Elgar gave regarding the inner voice of Variation X takes on renewed significance. Concerning that movement, he wrote the “. . . inner sustained phrases at first on the viola and later on the flute should be noted.”[1] Indeed, the notes of that inner voice are the combination to unlock Elgar’s seemingly impenetrable melodic safe. The explanation for his peculiar description is that the inner voice virtually quotes the entire ending phrase of Ein feste Burg not once, but twice. No wonder Elgar teased Dora Penny, the dedicatee of this movement, by telling her, “I thought that you of all people would guess it.” If only she had searched for the ending rather than the beginning of the covert theme, her efforts would have been richly rewarded.

The appearance of six-pointed asterisks in the subtitle of Variation XIII is remarkable because Elgar draws special attention to the number six throughout the Enigma Variations. The opus number (36) is the product of six times six. There are six titles given to different movements that are each six letters long. The first is Enigma, while two others appear in succession for Variations VI (Ysobel) and VII (Troyte). There is an oddly placed double bar at the end of measure 6 of the Enigma Theme. Less obvious but equally relevant is the presence of a six-by-six music box cipher embedded within the first six measures of the Enigma Theme. When decoded, it reveals Elgar’s “dark saying” first mentioned in the 1899 program note. The complete title of the unstated Principal Theme is six words in length: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. There are 24 letters in that title, the sum of four sixes. The lyrics of Luther's most famous hymn originate from Psalm 46, a chapter number ending in six. The names Martin and Luther are each six letters in length. Elgar's use of the German sixth chord in the Enigma Theme alludes to the missing melody's six-word title in German. Even Elgar's dedication hints at this number because it is comprised of six words: “Dedicated to My Friends Pictured Within.” Further evidence of the importance of the number six may be found at Rehearsal 66 in the score where the ending phrase of Ein feste Burg is presented virtually verbatim.

The Star Cipher is multifaceted as it ties into a number of other ciphers concerning the Covert Principal Theme, the Secret Friend, and Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is remarkable the “Messiah” Stradivari has three small stars carved on it with one star on the bass-side eye of the scroll, and two more on the peg box mortice.

Star on the bass-side scroll eye of the “Messiah” Stradivari

 

Two star imprints and the letter “G” in the
pegbox mortice of the “Messiah” Stradivari 

Joseph Joachim played that legendary instrument in 1891 and was deeply moved by its “combined sweetness and grandeur.” Recognizing the connection between Variation XIII and Joachim, the three small stars forming the subtitle of that movement are more than likely a coded reference to the “Messiah” Stradivari, thereby encoding one of the many titles for Elgar's secret friend. The two star imprints in the pegbox subtly hint at the Music Box Cipher found in the opening Enigma Theme set in G minor. To learn more about the secrets behind one of Elgar’s most celebrated symphonic achievements, 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

FOOTNOTE

[1] Elgar, Edward. My Friends Pictured Within. The Subjects of the Enigma Variations as Portrayed in Contemporary Photographs and Elgar’s Manuscript (Sevenoaks: Novello, n.d. [1946], republication of notes for Aeolian Company’s piano rolls, 1929)

Patrick Turner’s Enigma "Solution" Refuted

“. .. . how very hard it is to find anything that will go with Elgar’s theme even badly . . .” 

Roger Fiske in The Musical Times (1970)

In his highly readable and informative book Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations, Patrick Turner proposes the unstated principal Theme to the Enigma Variations is the popular tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Is it possible that children's tune could be the hidden melody to the Enigma Variations? A credible case is contingent on whether it effectively satisfies six conditions Elgar provided that define the relationship between the Enigma Variations and the covert principal Theme. Obtained directly from Elgar’s recorded words by multiple, independent, unimpeachable sources, those six conditions are:

1. The Enigma Theme is a counterpoint to the principal Theme. 
2. The principal Theme is not heard. 
3. The principal Theme is famous. 
4. Fragments of the principal Theme are present in the Variations. 
5. The principal Theme is a melody that can be played through and over the whole set of Variations including the entire Enigma Theme. 
6. The Enigma Theme comprises measures 1 through 19.

Any theme that violates just one of those six conditions must be ruled out as invalid. The first and foremost test is to play a candidate melody “through and over” the Enigma Theme to assess whether there is credible evidence for both a contrapuntal and horizontal fit. Before attempting this, it is first necessary to adapt a prospective melody to mirror the Enigma Theme’s shifts between the major and minor modes of G. These modulations are required by the structure of the Enigma Theme which opens in G minor (measures 1-6), continues in G major (measures 7-10), returns to G minor (measure 11-16), cadences in G major (measure 17), then modulates back to G minor in the bridge leading to Variation I measures 18-19). Even when granting these generous accommodations to facilitate a contrapuntal mapping, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star flunks the test.

The only theme that successfully satisfies all of Elgar’s conditions is Ein feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) by the German Reformer Martin Luther. That well-known hymn successfully plays one complete cycle “through and over” the Enigma Theme, establishing an uncanny horizontal fit. A precise vertical alignment between the two melodies illustrates Elgar's unique treatment of Ein feste Burg in an augmented form as a retrograde counterpoint. This unconventional method accounts for the profound difficulty in detecting a contrapuntal fit because one typically plays the beginning of a prospective melody over the beginning of the Enigma Theme. Such a predictable approach produces a mismatch, throwing off researchers even when the right melody is assessed. 

The case for Ein feste Burg as the covert principal Theme to the Enigma Variations is extensive and persuasive. Confirmation that Ein feste Burg is the hidden theme is given by a diverse range of music ciphers in the Enigma Theme and Variation XIII. Within the Enigma Theme is concealed a Music Box Cipher, Elgar’s “dark saying” linked to the Enigma mentioned in the original 1899 program note. Incredibly, Elgar did not take his secret to the grave, but rather enciphered the answer in the orchestral score. When discovered, the decrypted answer would remain unguessed just as Elgar prescribed. He even went so far as to encode the initials for the hidden melody in the Enigma Theme which modulates between the minor and major modes of G. The accidentals for those two keys are E-flat, F-sharp, and B-flat. Remarkably, the letters of those accidentals furnish the initials for Ein feste Burg.

The odd nickname for August Jaeger’s movement (Nimrod) is linked to the title A Mighty Fortress by one of Elgar’s favorite pastimes, wordplay. When he gave a copy of Longfellow’s novel Hyperion to the conductor Hans Richter following the premiere, Elgar literally gave away the answer. No wonder he suspected the solution would soon be found. Even the wrong date on the original score is a revealing clue since it falls on the anniversary of Luther’s death. According to a scale degrees cipher within the Mendelssohn fragments, the missing initials for Variation XIII (✡ ✡ ✡) are “EFB”, the initials for Ein feste Burg. The mapping of Ein feste Burg over Nimrod is so self-evident that the melodic solution to Elgar's Enigma Variations is as plain a pikestaff.

If he were alive today, Elgar's response to Turner’s solution would undoubtedly be, “No, nothing like it. I do not see how the tune you suggest fits in the least.” To learn more about the secrets behind one of Elgar’s most celebrated symphonic achievements, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed.  Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

(✡ ✡ ✡) and F. A. E.

Point Pinos Lighthouse photographed by Mark Bruno 

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

C. S. Lewis

In Variation XIII of the Enigma Variations, Edward Elgar quotes Felix Mendelssohn’s overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage in the keys of A flat major, F minor, and E flat major.

These three note letters also appear on the third beat of the first measure of this enigmatic movement, one with three asterisks representing the initials for one of Elgar’s friends.

Three asterisks, three keys for the Mendelssohn fragments, and three notes on the third beat matching those key letters. What are the odds of such a symmetry? Clearly, Elgar was trying to tell us something, but what precisely?

The key letters F, A, and E are a key to the missing initials suggested by three asterisks in the subtitle, for they are more than just a commingling of random letters. They are the initials for “FAE”, a well-known acronym representing Joseph Joachim’s romantic motto “Frei aber einsam”(Free but lonely). Elgar wrote the Enigma Theme expressed his “sense of the loneliness of the artist,” a description that dovetails with Joachim’s personal motto. Even the correct ordering of those key letters is implied by the subtitle of the next and last movement, the Finale. The combination “F-A-E” occurs with the first and last letters of the six-letter titles for the first and last movements: Enigma and Finale.

As one of the most celebrated violinists of the nineteenth century, Joachim was a perennial favorite of Queen Victoria and founding president of the Oxford & Cambridge Musical Club in 1899. The Enigma Variations were performed in 1899 under the direction of another member of that same club, Hans Richter, a disciple of Wagner. In his youth Elgar dreamed of becoming a great violinist, studying briefly with Adolph Pollitzer, a student of Jean-Delphin Alard who once owned the famous 1716 Messiah Stradivarius. In 1891 Joachim played the Messiah Strad, and remarked on “its combined sweetness and grandeur.” Elgar’s cryptographic allusion to Joachim is bolstered by the fact he was a close personal friend of Elgar’s “ideal” composer, Robert Schumann. One of Elgar’s other favorite composers was Wagner. In imitation of Joachim, Pollitzer, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, and Richter, Elgar studied and learned to speak German.

The FAE Sonata was composed collaboratively by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Schumann’s pupil, Albert Dietrich, in honor of their mutual friend Joseph Joachim. It is based on a musical cryptogram using the notes F, A, and E to represent the initials for Joachim’s highly romanticized motto. Dietrich composed the first movement in Sonata form, Schumann an Intermezzo for the second, Brahms a Scherzo for the third, and Schumann a Finale for the fourth. When Joachim first performed the work, he was playfully challenged to guess the identity of the friend who composed each movement. Could this be the kernel of inspiration for Elgar’s symphonic treatment of his own friends, imagining them as composers and how they would interpret a musical cryptogram or enigma? The connection with Joachim’s motto embedded in Variation XIII more than suggests that is indeed the case. But there is more to this puzzle, a mathematical parallel.

The titles for Schumann’s contributions to the FAE Sonata match those for two sections of the Enigma Variations: Variations X (Intermezzo) and XIV (Finale). This is hardly a coincidence, for the sum of these Roman numerals is 24, the precise number of notes in the first six measures of the Enigma Theme’s melody that serves as the basis for a musical Polybius cipher. It is also the same number of letters in Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, the six-word title for the missing principal Theme. Schumann’s contributions to the FAE Sonata are the second and fourth movements, another spelling of the number 24. Schumann planned to compose a massive oratorio about the life of Martin Luther that would climax with Ein feste Burg, but he passed away before this grand project could be realized.

Elgar, Joachim, Schumann, Wagner, Brahms, Dietrich, Richter, and Mendelssohn were accomplished musicians who were fluent in German. Not coincidentally, the original language for the covert Principal Theme’s title is also in German, just as is the case with Joachim’s motto and the title of Mendelssohn concert overture quoted in Variation XIII – Meeresstille und gückliche Fahrt. Elgar’s use of the German spelling of his name for the initials in Variation XIV (E. D. U. is derived from Eduard) deliberately hints at the importance of the German language to resolving his enigmas. Elgar’s prominent use of the German sixth in the Enigma Theme further suggests the answer consists of six words in German: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott by Martin Luther. This famous theme is quoted in the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Wagner, Raff, and Liszt. 

Some of the greatest composers of the German school quote that mighty theme, and Elgar was a devoted disciple of that proud Germanic tradition. As a practicing Roman Catholic, however, Elgar could not openly quote a song composed by a heretic excommunicated by the Pope. And so the Enigma Variations were born as a stealth imitation of the great German masters whom Elgar admired and idealized, but could not openly emulate. To learn more about the secrets behind one of Elgar’s most celebrated symphonic achievements, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

Variation XIII, Mendelssohn and Luther

Felix Mendelssohn’s Lutheranism is not in dispute.

Michael P. Steinberg in The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn

Variation XIII from Elgar’s Enigma Variations was identified in its earliest sketch by a solitary capital “L”. Subsequent sketches include the extra letters “ML” to form the initials “LML”. Elgar scholars such as Byron Adams and Julian Rushton misinterpret these letters as a reference to Lady Mary Lygon, a noblewoman who graciously supported Elgar’s early musical career. At the same time, the Enigma Variations were completed, Elgar dedicated his Three Characteristic Pieces to her, effectively ruling out Lady Lygon as the secret dedicatee. There is no reasonable explanation for Elgar to openly dedicate one work to Lady Lygon on the one hand, yet on the other, conceal a second dedication unless it was for someone else. Patrick Turner sums up this dichotomy by observing the initials “LML” “. . . constitutes further evidence in favor of Lady Mary Lygon as the subject of this variation, but at the same time prompts curiosity as to why, if he used her initials at some point to identify the variation, did he decide to abandon them in favour of asterisks.” [1] Why indeed. Those close to Elgar knew Lady Lygon could not possibly be the hidden friend, for her friendship was no secret at all. These informed individuals included Ernest Newman and Wulstan Atkins, among others. They personally knew Elgar and knew better than to fall for an obvious ruse . . . unlike Adams and Rushton.

Since Lady Mary Lygon could not possibly be the secret dedicatee, what other conceivable explanation is there for Elgar to assign the initials LML to Variation XIII?

The answer is surprisingly simple yet elegant. In Variation XIII Elgar inserts four quotations from Felix Mendelssohn’s concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Like Bach, Felix Mendelssohn was a devout Lutheran whose faith was expressed in numerous sacred orchestral and choral works. Consequently, the capital “L” may be viewed as the first letter in a name, one that identifies both the founder of Mendelssohn’s faith and the composer of the unstated principal Theme to the Enigma Variations: Luther. Converging lines of evidence verify that the unstated Principal Theme is Ein feste Burg, a famous hymn composed by Martin Luther, the father of Lutheranism. The addition of the letters “ML” to the original “L” may be reasonably interpreted as the initials for the composer of the covert theme. When Elgar assigned the initials “LML” to his later sketches of Variation XIII, he gave critical clues about the identity of the hidden theme and its composer. That he did so in stages, first with the capital “L” and later appending the initials “ML”, setting apart the initials for the composer of the covert theme from the faith he founded and Mendelssohn followed.

Why did Elgar quote the music of a devout Lutheran four times in Variation XIII? First, the unstated principal Theme was composed by the founder of Lutheranism, and Mendelssohn was a convert to that faith. Second, the number four pinpoints the movement in which Mendelssohn quotes Ein feste Burg in his first extended symphonic work, the Reformation Symphony. In the fourth and final movement, Mendelssohn uses Luther’s Ein feste Burg as the basis for a series of symphonic variations. By quoting Mendelssohn’s music, Elgar cryptically implies by imitation that Mendelssohn quotes the unstated Principal Theme in a set of symphonic variations. Mendelssohn was Jewish by birth, a trait also shared by the secret dedicatee of Variation XIII. The Roman numerals overtly identify the initials for Elgar’s hidden friend using a simple number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.). The Roman numeral “X” represents ten, and the tenth letter of the alphabet is “J”.  “III” stands for the number three, and the third letter is “C”.

Some may object to this line of reasoning on the grounds Elgar said Variation XIII “. . . refers to a friend who was crossing the ocean when the Variation was written.” [2] In a letter to August Jaeger dated May 2, 1899, Elgar wrote of Variation XIII, “The pretty Lady is on the sea & far away . . .” [3] In notes written in 1927 for a set of pianola rolls of the Variations, Elgar’s original manuscript states, “The asterisks take the place of the name of Lady Mary Lygon.” [4] For the published notes it reads more generally, “The asterisks take the place of the name of a lady who was, at the time of the composition, on a sea voyage.” Despite these claims, it is well known that Lady Mary Lygon was not on a sea voyage when Elgar composed Variation XIII. [5] Is there some way to reconcile these seemingly incongruous comments from no less a source than the composer with the actual identity of the hidden friend?

There is a way, one that rather gracefully melds Elgar’s Roman Catholicism with the Lutheranism forming the melodic core of the Variations.

One of the many titles for Mary, the Virgin Mother of Jesus, is “Our Lady, Star of the Sea.” When Elgar belatedly acknowledged “Lady Mary Lygon” in 1927 as the secret dedicatee of Variation XIII, he all but named the mother of his secretive friend. As the special protector of those who travel the seas, Elgar’s “Lady Mary” was most certainly far away and “crossing” the sea when he composed that special movement.

In Variation XIII, Elgar’s choice of keys for the Mendelssohn fragments (F minor, A-flat major and E-flat major) cryptically allude to a famous work for violin and piano, the F-A-E Sonata. This four-movement piece is dedicated to Joseph Joachim, a renowned violinist who supported the music of Liszt and Wagner, and later championed Schumann and Brahms. The letters F.A.E. are an acronym for Joachim’s personal motto, “Frei aber einsam” (Free but lonely). During his youth, Elgar desperately wanted to become a famous violin soloist, something beyond his reach because he did not begin his formal instruction with Adolph Politzer until it was too late. Joachim was one of the most celebrated violin soloists of his generation, so Elgar's admiration for him is understandable.

Joachim's association with composers whom Elgar deeply admired, particularly Wagner and Schumann, surely intensified that fascination, especially since Joachim was a favorite of Queen Victoria and the British aristocracy. Elgar's deliberate pairing of Joachim's personal motto with Mendelssohn's music is deliberate as Joachim was a protégé of Mendelssohn. At the age of twelve, Joachim performed Beethoven's violin concerto in London under the direction of Mendelssohn, and he remained a perennial favorite with the British nation for the duration of his career. It is remarkable that Joseph is the first name of the earthly father of Jesus, the husband of Mary. Elgar's overt references to Lady Mary Lygon and covert allusion to Joseph Joachim solidify the identification of the hidden friend because the earthly parents of Jesus were named Mary and Joseph. To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my free eBook Elgar's Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

---

Footnotes

[1] Turner, Patrick. Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration. London: Thames Publishing, 1999, p. 74

[2] Ibid, p. 71

[3] Ibid, p. 69

[4] Ibid, p. 68.

[5] Ibid, p. 70

A Planned Enigma

 

Awake, my St.John! leave all meaner things

To low ambition, and the pride of kings.

Let us (since Life can little more supply

Than just to look about us and to die)

Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;

A mighty maze! but not without a plan.

Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

There are some who maintain Edward Elgar did not deliberately plan his Enigma Variations based on an unstated Principal Theme, and that the idea only occurred to him as an afterthought or publicity stunt. What did Elgar have to say on this important subject? A great deal, and all of it points to premeditation and planning. In private and public venues, Elgar consistently explained the Enigma Variations are based on a clandestine famous melody. The dedicatee of Variation X, Dora Powell (née Penny), categorically stated, “Elgar told me personally more than once that the enigma concerned another tune.”[1] His first public remarks in the 1899 program note for the premiere makes this fact unequivocal:

It is true that I have sketched for their amusement and mine, the idiosyncrasies of fourteen of my friends, not necessarily musicians; but this is a personal matter, and need not have been mentioned publicly. The Variations should stand simply as a ‘piece’ of music. 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.[2]

Elgar plainly states the Theme may be played through and over the entire set of Variations, yet remains silent with often the slightest connection between them. Only a musical theme may be played, unlike those of a literary, symbolic, or mathematical nature. In 1923 Troyte Griffith, the friend portrayed in Variation VII, asked if the missing melody was God save the King. Elgar replied, “No, of course not; but it is so well-known that it is extraordinary no one has spotted it.”[3] Besides establishing its fame, such a reply suggests that fragments of the absent Theme are present in the Variations, for otherwise, there would be nothing to spot. This hunch is bolstered by the original program note that describes the link between the absent Theme and the Variations as being “. . . often of the slightest texture . . .”  Merriam-Webster defines slight as “very small in degree or amount”, and one definition for texture is “the various parts of a song . . . and the way they fit together.” Elgar’s judiciously parsed words specify the discernable bond between the Variations and the absent Theme is comprised of short sequences of shared notes or fragments. This condition is further alluded to by the brief four-note Mendelssohn fragments quoted in Variation XIII.

In an interview published in the October 1900 issue of The Musical Times, Elgar clarified how the absent Theme fits into the overall design:

In connection with these much discussed Variations, Mr. Elgar tells us that the heading ‘Enigma’ is justified by the fact that it is possible to add another phrase, which is quite familiar, above the original theme that he has written. What that theme is no one knows except the composer. Thereby hangs the ‘Enigma.’[4]

Notice the terms phrase and theme are used interchangeably in the context of a melody that may be added above the original Enigma Theme. This narrative dovetails precisely with the original program note stating “. . . through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played . . .” Only a musical theme can be played, a quality irreconcilable with something symbolic, figurative, mathematical, or literary. The insistence by some that the solution could be something other than a famous melody is utterly incompatible with this stipulation.

More evidence confirming the enigma must be a melody is found in Elgar’s 1905 biography compiled by Robert J. Buckley. As the music critic for The Birmingham News, he first met Elgar in 1896 and knew him for almost a decade prior to publication.[5] In the introduction, Buckley confidently declares:

Whatever this book states as fact may be accepted as such. The sayings of Elgar are recorded in the actual words addressed directly to the writer, and upon these I rely to give to the book an interest it would not otherwise possess.[6]

This biography was available during Elgar’s lifetime, and it is important to recognize he never disputed or disavowed any part of Buckley’s reportage. Dora Powell confirmed the biography was sanctioned by the composer.[7] Buckley could not have offered such intimate details such as quotations, anecdotes, personal photographs, and copies of unpublished scores without Elgar’s personal assistance. Following Buckley’s introduction, Elgar’s cooperation is established by a facsimile of a handwritten autographed note in German and English.[8] On the subject of the Enigma Variations, Buckley records Elgar’s description as follows:

The ‘Enigma’ orchestral-piece is Op. 36. What the solution of the ‘Enigma’ may be, nobody but the composer knows. The theme is a counterpoint on some well-known melody which is never heard, the variations are the theme seen through the personalities of friends, with an intermezzo and a coda, the last added at the request of friends aided and abetted by Dr. Richter, who accepted the work on its merits, having received the score in Vienna from his agent in London, and who at the time had not met with the composer.[9]

A counterpoint is by definition a counter-melody, so logic requires the unstated principal Theme must also be a melody.  This is consistent with Elgar’s character as a composer for he composed counterpoints to famous themes like Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. A counterpoint requires both a vertical and horizontal fit between the two themes. Like a home resting on its foundation, the Enigma Theme rests on its foundational principal Theme. This demands that each share the same length to ensure a precise horizontal fit. The long and short of it is that one tune cannot be longer or shorter than the other. Elgar’s standard reply to enigma solutions invokes this fundamental idea of a fit between the two melodies:

No: nothing like it.

I do not see the tune you suggest fits in the least.

E.E. [10]

Merriam-Webster defines the verb fit as “to be suitable for or to harmonize with”, and “to conform correctly to the shape or size of.” Elgar’s language leaves no room for doubt. Both themes must be the same length with a suitable counterpoint.

The final condition comes from descriptive notes Elgar supplied for a set of pianola rolls published in 1929. Concerning the first Variation he states, “There is no break between the theme and this movement.”[11] That disclosure is crucial because it confirms the Enigma Theme does not end until Variation I begins. As the first variant of the Enigma Theme is not introduced until measure 20, this would mean he defined the length of the Enigma Theme as the opening nineteen measures. The two-bar bridge in measures 18 and 19 does not belong to Variation I (something deceptively implied by the layout of the score), but rather represents an elaboration of the Enigma Theme’s closing cadence. A conspicuous tie between the notes of measures 17 and 18 supports this observation, linking the Enigma Theme and the bridge in a way not found with Variation I. The bridge serves to unwind the Picardy cadence, returning it back to the minor mode in preparation for the first variation from which it is separated by a conspicuous double bar. At first glance measure 17 only appears to mark the end of the Enigma Theme, but in light of Elgar’s published statement, it is actually a faux ending. The correct melodic mapping of the covert principal Theme must account not only for the Enigma Theme’s Ternary ABA structure in measures 1 through 17, but also the two bar bridge (Section C) in measures 18 and 19 that precede the launch of Variation I.

A meticulous analysis of four primary sources – the original 1899 program note, the October 1900 interview in The Musical Times, the 1905 biography, and descriptive notes for the 1929 pianola notes – clarifies six conditions regarding the relationship between the Enigma Variations and the covert principal Theme. These conditions are:

1. The Enigma Theme is a counterpoint to the principal Theme. 
2. The principal Theme is not heard. 
3. The principal Theme is famous. 
4. Fragments of the principal Theme are present in the Variations. 
5. The principal Theme is a melody that can be played through and over the whole set of Variations, including the entire Enigma Theme. 
6. The Enigma Theme comprises measures 1 through 19.

Any alleged solution that violates any of these six conditions may only be proffered in direct conflict with the recorded words of the composer by multiple, independent, unimpeachable sources. In light of these conditions, all prior melodic solutions may be safely ruled out as unsound because they invariably overlook the bridge in measures 18 and 19. This clears the decks for a new solution, but which tune out of a vast sea of possibilities could conceivably satisfy all of these exacting stipulations? A fresh reassessment of the anomalous Mendelssohn fragments in Variation XIII yields a surprising answer. To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Please support my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria

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Footnotes

[1] The Musical Times 80 (1939), 60.

[2] Original 1899 program note by C. A. Barry citing an unsourced letter by Elgar.

[3] Kennedy, Portrait of Elgar, 66.

[4] The Musical Times (October 1, 1900), 647.

[5] Turner, Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration, 51.

[6] Buckley, Sir Edward Elgar, xi.

[7] Rushton, Elgar: Enigma Variations,105.

[8] Buckley, Sir Edward Elgar, ix.

[9] Ibid, ix.

[10] Turner, Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations - a Centenary Celebration, 146.

[11] Elgar, My Friends Pictured Within, 6.

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