Elgar’s Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers

On being asked for some elucidation of the composer’s intentions, Mr. Elgar replied: “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.”

1899 program note prepared by Charles Ainslie Barry

The English composer Edward Elgar reveled in phonetic spellings, wordplays, and anagrams. One notable example is the appellation “Craeg Lea” that he bestowed on his Malvern residence where his family resided between 1899 and 1904. That strange moniker is an anagram sourced from a reverse spelling of “Elgar” (Craeg Lea) mingled with the initials for his daughter (Carice), wife (Alice), and himself (Edward). Elgar challenged Rosa Burley to decipher the meaning of his home’s odd name. Rosa caught on quickly as recounted in her memoir Edward Elgar: The Record of a Friendship:

Edward called the place Craeg Lea and challenged me to guess how he had found the name. By some stroke of luck, I realized that the key lay in the unusual spelling of “Craeg” and immediately saw that the thing had been built up anagrammatically from (A)lice, (C)arice, (E)dward ELGAR. I think he was a little annoyed that this mystification had fallen flat.

Elgar’s enthusiasm for word games spilled over into the field of cryptography, the discipline of coding and decoding secret messages. Ciphers elevate wordplay to a higher plane of complexity that conceals words behind a smokescreen of seemingly disorganized letters or symbols. His obsession with that esoteric discipline merits an entire chapter in Craig P. Bauer’s treatise Unsolved! The bulk of its third chapter is devoted to Elgar’s skillful decryption of an allegedly insoluble Nihilist cipher unfurled by John Holt Schooling in an April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. Elgar was so pleased with his solution that he mentions it in his first biography published in 1904 by the music critic Robert J. Buckley. Elgar painted the solution in black paint on a wooden box, an appropriate medium as another name for the Polybius checkerboard is a box cipher.

Elgar’s methodical decryption of Schooling’s cipher is summarized on a set of nine index cards. On the sixth card, Elgar relates the task of cracking the cipher to “. . . working (in the dark).”

His use of the word dark as a synonym for a cipher is revealing as this same adjective turns up later in Elgar’s 1899 program note for the premiere of the Enigma Variations. It is an oft-cited passage that deserves revisiting as he lays the groundwork for his threefold riddle:

The Enigma I will not explain — it’s ‘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 composed the Enigma Variations in 1898-99. That extraordinary work elevated him from provincial obscurity to international acclaim, transforming his career from an itinerant music teacher to a respected composer. The original title appears on the autograph score as “Variations for orchestra composed by Edward Elgar Op. 36”. With the opening theme dubbed “Enigma,” it is popularly referred to as the Enigma Variations. In the 1899 program note and other primary sources, Elgar explained the Theme is called “Enigma” because it is a counterpoint to a famous melody that is not heard but can play “through and over” the Variations. This absent tune is the cornerstone underlying the whole work, a subject that has provoked considerable debate about what could possibly be the correct melodic solution.

Some contend there is no solution by insinuating that Elgar concocted the notion of an absent principal Theme as an afterthought, practical joke, or marketing ploy. These myths obdurately reverberate in the echo chamber of academia where they are repeated ad nauseum. Others take Elgar at his published word and accept the challenge that there is a famous melody lurking behind the Variations’ contrapuntal and modal facade. Regardless of what side is taken in this debate, conventional scholarship stalwartly maintains the solution is unfathomable because Elgar allegedly took his secret to the grave in February 1934. They insist Elgar never wrote down the answer for posterity to discover. However, that opinion overlooks his documented obsession with cryptography, an incontestable fact that raises the probability that the solutions are encoded within the orchestral score of the Enigma Variations.

A decade of trawling the Enigma Variations has netted over one hundred cryptograms in diverse formats that encode a set of mutually consistent and complementary solutions. While that figure may seem extraordinary, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s lifelong passion for ciphers. More significantly, their solutions provide definitive answers to the central 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” ensconced within the Enigma Theme? Answer: A musical Polybius box cipher embedded in its inaugural bars cordoned off by an oddly placed double barline at the end of measure 6. 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, prodigious, and decisive. The Enigma Variations is Elgar’s symphonic homage to cryptography.

The Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers

In celebration of the 168th anniversary of Elgar’s birth, it is a privilege to announce the discovery of more cryptograms in the opening six measures (Section A) of the Enigma Theme. These ciphers are constructed from twelve main chord progressions positioned on the strong beats (1 and 3) of each bar. The Enigma Theme is framed in common time with four quarter beats per measure. In that meter, the strong beats are one and three. The first strong beat is called the downbeat, and the second is labelled the backbeat. Elgar structured the chief chord progressions in the accompaniment of bars 1-6 to unfold on the first and third strong beats. An emphasis on beats 1 and 3 hints at the number thirteen (13), the only variation dedicated to an anonymous friend. Displayed below is a harmonic analysis of these twelve chord progressions on strong beats in Section A of the Enigma Theme.

The Enigma Theme’s accompaniment begins in the first bar with a tonic G minor chord in root position on beat 1 followed on beat 3 by a dominant D dominant seventh chord in second inversion. The downbeat of bar two is a G minor chord in first inversion followed by a C minor chord on the upbeat. Measure three opens on beat 1 with a G minor triad in second inversion followed on beat 3 by the first inversion of a C minor chord with an added sixth. The downbeat of bar four is a G dominant seventh in first inversion followed on the upbeat by a C minor triad in root position. Beat 1 of bar five is a German sixth chord (the third inversion of an E-flat major triad with an augmented sixth on C-sharp) that resolves on beat 3 to a G minor chord in second inversion.

The accompaniment in bar six continues on the downbeat with a C minor triad in first inversion followed on the upbeat by a C minor chord in root position that sets up a Plagal cadence leading to Section B (bars 7-10). The Plagal cadence is known as the Amen cadence due to its formulaic usage to the text “Amen” at the end of Christian hymns. In his early career between 1872 and 1889, Elgar served as a church organist at St. George’s Catholic Church in Worcester where he undoubtedly performed the Amen cadence. Elgar’s extensive use of the Plagal cadence throughout the Enigma Variations discretely hints at the hymnodic origins of the absent principal Theme. These twelve chord progressions on strong beats in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme are summarized in the following table.

Twelve chord progressions in Section A highlights the number twelve. The placement of these chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 deftly alludes to the number thirteen (13). The application of a basic number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.) to the sums twelve and thirteen yield the plaintext letters L and M. Those two letters furnish the initials of Martin Luther, the composer of the covert principal Theme. On the earliest short score sketch of Variation XIII, Elgar gave it the title “L” and later appended “ML”—the initials of Martin Luther.

An analysis of opening twelve principal chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme determined that they encode words and initials associated with the absent principal Theme, its “dark saying” and the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII. The first decryption in bar 1 combines the chord letters G and D to produce a phonetic spelling of God. Jewish tradition uses an incomplete spelling of God as “G-d” to show reverence for the divine name, the Tetragrammaton. In the Hebrew Bible, God’s name in the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה‎ which is transliterated as “YHWH” or “YHVH.” Scholars debate the precise pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as the vowels are omitted from most manuscripts. The leading translations are “Yahweh” and “Jehovah.” Many editions of the Bible avoid this dilemma by substituting “LORD” in place of the divine name. The location of the opening “G-D” chord sequence cipher in bar 1 emphasizes God’s preeminence, unity and oneness. This solution is linked to the covert principal Theme as God is the sixth word in the title Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God). In Ein feste Burg, Luther depicts God as a towering refuge against spiritual and worldly adversaries.

I was first apprised of the existence of Enigma Theme ciphers in 2009 by Richard Santa, a retired engineer and Elgar enthusiast. He discovered that the scale degrees of the melody (3-1-2-4) in bars 1 and 11 encode a rounded version of Pi (π) as 3.142. Santa presents his remarkable discovery in the 2010 paper Solving Elgar’s Enigma published by Columbia University in the journal Current Musicology. Pi is the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Circles are associated with chords because a line connecting two endpoints on a circle is called a chord. According to that definition, a diameter is a type of geometric chord. A circle has 360 degrees, a figure that mirrors the Enigma Variations’ opus number (36) with the circular zero omitted. Santa’s discovery of Pi in bars 1 and 11 hints at the letter O as it is the alphabet’s only circular letter. When an O is added to the chord letters in bar 1 (G and D), it neatly rounds out the spelling of GOD.

Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith provides a rationale for encoding Pi in the opening bar of the Enigma Theme. In Christian symbolism, a circle represents eternity, unity, and divine perfection. Lacking a beginning or ending, a circle elegantly aligns with God’s infinite and eternal nature. In Christian iconography, the halo (or nimbus) is a radiant disk or circle around the head of a holy personage such as Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, angels, or saints. The discovery of a rounded form of Pi in combination with a phonetic spelling of God by primary chord letters in the Enigma Theme’s first bar present mutually supportive and overlapping decryptions.

Prior research uncovered a musical Polybius cipher in Section A (bars 1-6) of the Enigma Theme that encodes a series of four-letter anagrams obtained from the covert Theme’s complete German title: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Bar 1 encodes the four-letter solution “GSUS”, a phonetic realization of Jesus. The encoding of God and Jesus in the same measure reflects their co-equal and co-eternal nature within the Trinity. In John 10:30, Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one.” A hidden reference to Jesus in the first measure is redolent of the episode when he hid himself from an angry mob who threatened to stone him to death. John 8:59 reads, “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

There is an old saying, “Jesus always gives enough of himself to make faith possible, and yet he always hides enough of himself to make faith necessary.” Concealed references to God and Jesus in the first bar of the Enigma Theme resonate with the Christian concept of the hidden God. The 16th century German theologian Martin Luther introduced and developed this idea under the Latin rubric “Deus Absconditus” (The Hidden God), drawing on Isaiah 45:15, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” Hidden references to God and Jesus in the first bar of the Enigma Theme nimbly allude to Luther, the composer of Ein feste Burg.

A coded reference to Jesus in the Enigma Theme’s first bar is not an isolated instance. Primary chord letters (G and C) in bars 2, 3, and 4 furnish the Italian initials of Gesù Cristo (Jesus Christ). An Italian set of initials for Elgar’s secret friend is consistent with his extensive use of Italian nomenclature for the instrumentation and performance directions throughout the published score. The discovery of Ein feste Burg as the covert Theme decisively answers Elgar’s ancillary riddle regarding the secret friend of Variation XIII. In its second stanza, Luther extols Jesus Christ as God’s triumphant champion and savior.

Three consecutive repetitions of the Italian initials for Jesus Christ in bars 2-4 emphasizes the number three, a symbolically important sum in Christian theology and tradition. A central Christian doctrine is the Trinity that defines the Godhead as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was tempted three times by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). On the eve of his arrest, Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-44). The Apostle Peter denied Jesus three times after his arrest (John 18:15-27), and the Lord restored Peter after asking him three times, “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). There were three crosses at Golgotha where Jesus was crucified between two criminals (Luke 23:32-43). There were three hours of darkness during the crucifixion (Matthew 27:45). Jesus was entombed for three days, a duration foreshadowed by the prophet Jonah who spent three days and nights in the belly of a large fish (Jonah 1-2). Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. The threefold office of Christ encompasses Priest, Prophet, and King.

The Enigma Theme’s accompaniment in Section A (bars 1-6) consists of a series of nine quarter note chords in bars 1 through 5, and three half note chords in bars 4 and 6. The distribution of these nine quarter and three half note chords over bars 1-5 and 4-6 respectively hints at 1546, the year of Martin Luther’s death. Such an observation is consistent with the anomalous completion date of “FEb 18 1898” on the last page of the original Finale because “FEb 18” marks the anniversary of Luther’s death. Elgar first performed the Enigma Theme for his wife on 21 October 1898, 245 days after the erroneous completion date. Remarkably, the abbreviation “FEb” is an anagram of the initials for Ein feste Burg.

The rhythmic distribution of chord progressions in Section A consists of three half notes and nine quarter notes. When the sums of three and nine are converted into their corresponding letters of the alphabet, they produce C (3) and I (9). The letters “IC” are the initials of Jesus Christ in Latin (Iesus Christus) and Greek (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός). In a twenty-four character cipher alphabet that conflates similar letters (I/J and U/V), nine converts to I/J. The combination of C and J permits the “JC”, the English initials of Jesus Christ. It is significant that the twin decryptions “IC” and “JC” are reciprocally corresponding. The initials “IC” are a homonym of the phrase “I see.” When the two possible solutions “IC” and “IJ” are merged together as “ICJC”, they generate the phrase “I see J[esus] C[hrist].” The solutions “IC”, “IJ”, and “IC JC” are initials and phoneticisms in English, Latin, and Greek. It is noteworthy that those three languages furnish an acrostic anagram of the first three letters from Elgar.

The first chord in bar 5 is a German augmented sixth. The significance of this particular augmented sixth chord is that it subtly hints at the title of the covert Theme which consists of six German words. The German sixth is formed by an E-flat major triad with an added C-sharp a sixth above E-flat. The second chord on beat three in bar 5 is a G minor triad in second inversion. The letters of the two chords on beats 1 and 3 are E and G, a truncated spelling of egg. Adding the initial G from the German sixth label to the chord letters E and G permits a complete spelling of EGG. The signficiane of this decryption is that the Easter egg is a traditional symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ. As noted earlier, Jesus is the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII (✡✡✡).

The chord letters in bar 6 on beats 1 and 3 are C and C. The acronym “CC” is associated with various Latin references to the cross and Jesus and the cross. “CC” furnishes the initials for the Latin phrases crux commissa. The crux commissa is the T-shaped cross known as St. Anthony’s cross, one of the four iconographic representations of the cross. Roman Catholic tradition holds that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, the sixth day of the week. Therefore, it is contextually appropriate that the “Crux Commissa” chords cipher appears in bar 6.

The initials “CC” are also the Latin acronym for Corpus Christi (Body of Christ). The Latin phrase “Corpus Christi” refers to the Eucharistic presence of Christ. As the Lamb of God, the body of Christ hung on the cross as the ultimate Paschal sacrifice. The phrase “Corpus Christi” appears in the Roman Catholic Mass during the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, a section referred to as “Corpus Christi.” Liturgical texts also feature “Corpus Christi” such as the sequence Lauda Sion by St. Thomas Aquinas, sung or recited during the Mass. Eucharistic prayers and hymns also feature the phrase. Premiered in September 1896, Lux Christi is Elgar’s first sacred oratorio which was marketed under the Anglicanized title The Light of Life.

The acronym “CC” may also represent the Latin expression Crux Christi (Cross of Christ). “Crux Christi” appears in some Roman Catholic liturgical celebrations, antiphons, hymns, and devotional practices, particularly those connected to the Holy Cross. During a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Saint Helena is credited with discovering the true cross on which Jesus was crucified. This event is celebrated on the Christian liturgical calendar as the “Office for the Finding of the Holy Cross.” The discovery of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, is celebrated on the Christian liturgical calendar as the “Office for the Finding of the Holy Cross.” The liturgy for this celebration includes antiphons such as “Crux Christi, qua ex profundo interius extracti sumus” which highlight the Cross as God’s salvation.

A musical Polybius cipher encodes the four-letter decryption “GRTS” in bar 2, a phonetic approximation of gratius (thanks) with the vowels omitted. Combining the decryptions from bars 1 and 2 yields “GSUS GRTS”, a phonetic version of the phrase “Jesus gratius” (Thanks be to Jesus). The encoding of the Italian initials for Jesus Christ in bar 2 complements and expands the bilingual decryption to “Gratius Gesù Cristo” (Thanks to Jesus Christ). In bars 3-4, the Polybius cipher encodes “INOU BETR”, a phonetic rendering of the English phrase, “I know you better.” The identity of “you” is affirmed by the Italian initials for Jesus Christ encoded by the chord progressions in those same two measures.

Why would Elgar encode the declaration “Thanks be to Jesus, I know you better” in the opening four measures of the Enigma Theme? The answer is supplied by the first official photographs of the Shroud of Turin by Secondo Pia taken in May 1898, five months before Elgar began seriously working on the Enigma Variations. The Turin Shroud bears faint ventral and dorsal images of a crucified man with wounds consistent with the Gospel account. 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. Such an inversion is only possible if the anterior and dorsal images on the Turin Shroud are photographic negatives. Pia’s remarkable discovery became an international sensation in the secular and Catholic press. In July 1898, the Catholic Champion reported on Pia’s 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 also reported on Pia’s lifelike photographic negatives of the Holy 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.”

Secondo Pia’s Turin Shroud Ventral Negative (The Photogram)

By Christmas of 1898, many Roman Catholic households proudly displayed reprints of Pia’s photographic negative of the Turin Shroud to venerate the Holy Face of Jesus. Pia’s iconic negatives of the Turin Shroud made it possible for Christians like Elgar to look back through the eons and view the lifelike face of Jesus for the first time.

Coded references to the Turin Shroud in the orchestral score bolster the hypothesis that Pia’s remarkable photographic negatives triggered the genesis of the Enigma Variations. The timing is credible as Pia took his riveting photographs five months before Elgar began openly composing the Enigma Variations. Ample coverage in the Catholic and secular press assured that Elgar was made aware of Pia’s discovery. Indeed, the Turin Shroud is a type of cipher as it conceals a lifelike image of a crucified man only revealed through advances in photography. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of Elgar, Pia’s picture of the Turin Shroud inspired thousands of notes.

Encrypted mentions of Christ’s name and initials in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme are augmented by other coded references to Jesus via the opening titles of the Enigma Variations. The titles of Variation I and II encode the Christograms “IHC” and “IHS” via proximate title letters. “IHC” and “IHS” are widely used trigrams of the Greek spelling of Jesus (ἸΗΣΟΥΣ).

Consistent with the formation of “IHC” and “IHS” Christograms in the opening titles of the Enigma Variations, its first four titles produce the more expansive anagram “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE”. This is a hybrid phrase in Latin and English that means, “Pious Christ Abide.” The virtually identical decryptions Pie and Pi cannot be casually chalked up to coincidence.

Discrete chord letters from the strong beats in bars 1-6 are C, D, E, and G. These four letters encode anagrams of Elgar’s forename (ED) and the Italian initials of Jesus Christ (GC). These anagrams indicate a close friendship between Elgar and Jesus, one corroborated by the placement of their respective movements. Dedicated in secret to Christ, Variation XIII is followed by Variation XIV which is Elgar’s musical self-portrait. Another anagram obtained from these four chord letters is “E C GD.” The letter “E” is Elgar’s initial. “C” is a homonym of see. “GD” is a phonetic rendering of God. The anagram “E C GD” generates the phonetic decryption “E[lgar] see God.” This solution resonates with the discovery of coded references in the Enigma Variations to the Turin Shroud, a sacred burial cloth that bears pale images of a crucified man that many believe depicts the body of Christ. A central tenet of the Christian canon is the belief that Jesus is the Incarnation of God. Elgar was an observant Roman Catholic when he composed the Enigma Variations in 1898-99. For a Roman Catholic, to see Christ is akin to seeing God.

Elgar employs three languages in his Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers: English, Italian, and Latin: The use of multiple languages is an effective stratagem for foiling decryption. These three languages yield the acrostic anagram “ELI”, an Aramaic word that Jesus uttered twice in his fourth saying from the cross when he asked, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” The English translation reads, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The quotation originates from the opening sentence of Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm that presents a prophetic portrayal of the crucifixion. The encoding of Eli is a theological clue that hints at the identity of Elgar’s secret friend and the lyrics of the covert principal Theme. The biblical source of “Eli” from Psalm 22 further hints at another Psalm that inspired Ein feste Burg. This solution is not a solitary instance as Eli is also encoded as an acrostic anagram by other ciphers in the Enigma Variations that rely on English, Italian, and Latin terms. One example is the Organo Label Cipher, and another specimen is the performance directions for the solo cello at Rehearsal 52 in Variation XII.

The agonizing question “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” is famously set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach in his St. Matthew’s Passion. Elgar revered Bach’s music and his setting of that psalm. Above the orchestral introduction to Part V. “Golgotha” of his oratorio The Apostles, Elgar wrote “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” The appeal of that Aramaic question to Elgar is perfectly understandable as the opening two words, “Eli, Eli,” produce an acrostic of his initials (EE). The Apostles premiered in October 1903.

A musical Polybius box cipher at the outset of the Enigma Theme encodes “TENI” in bar 5, the first word spoken by Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-25). Popular biblical commentaries in the 1890s assert that when Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, he began his request with that exact word by saying, “Teni li listosh.” Teni is indelibly linked to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman when he plainly revealed his identity to her as the Messiah (John 4:25-26). Elgar’s personal library housed as many as 100 religious texts including Bibles, theological works and biblical commentaries, so he was well versed in theology.

In what language is the word teni? Multiple commentaries available during the closing decade of the 19th century asserted that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. The Pulpit Commentaries dating from 1897 furnishes the following analysis of John 4:

The Samaritan woman therefore saith to him, How is it (compare this “how” with that of Nicodemus. Jesus had at once provoked inquiry, which he was not unwilling to gratify)—How is it that thou, being a Jew? She would have known that he was a Jew by his speech, for the Samaritans were accustomed to turn the sound of sh into that of s; and so, when Jesus said in Jewish Aramaic, Teni lishekoth, “Give me to drink,” while she would herself have said, Teni lisekoth, his speech would betray him.

Another instance is found in The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary on St. John dating from 1892 which also advises that the word teni is Aramaic:

The woman knew He was a Jew probably by His dress, but it may be also by His accent. It has been pointed out that the words of the question asked by Jesus in Aramaic would be תני לי לשׁחת (Teni li lish'ḥoth), whereas the woman would have said לשׂחת (lis'ḥoth) (vide Jud 12:5-6).

While these and other commentaries would have reasonably compelled Elgar to conclude that the term teni is Aramaic, the international correspondent Daniel Estrin verified it is in fact Hebrew. Charles C. Torrey of Yale University lays out a compelling case that the Gospel of John was originally written in Aramaic, the vernacular of Judea in the first century. It is universally acknowledged that Jesus and his disciples conversed in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Holy Land during the first century. For this reason, the biblical commentaries correctly report that Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in Aramaic. However, the translation given is mistakenly in Hebrew, a language very similar to Aramaic. The correct version of this passage from the Aramaic Peshitta is, “Hav li maya, eshteh,” which means, “Give me water, I will drink.”

It was shown how two different ciphers in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme encode words spoken by Jesus at the beginning and end of his ministry. A musical Polybius box cipher encodes teni in bar 5, the first word said by Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well. Three languages used by the Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers generate the acrostic anagram Eli, a word Jesus spoke twice from the cross at the culmination of his ministry at the cross. The musical Polybius Cipher in bars 1-6 employs four languages: Aramaic, English, German, and Latin. Those four languages are an acrostic anagram of ELGAr: English, Latin, German, and Aramaic. The solution to Elgar’s musical Polybius cipher is autographed by the composer using a second tier of encryption.

The Common Time Movements Enigma Cipher

It was previously observed that the Enigma Theme is in common time (4/4) with four quarter beats per bar. An alternative symbol for that time signature is a capital C. That letter serves as the initial for Christ, crux, cross, and is also a homonym of sea. It is significant that the pattern for conducting common time replicates the sign of the cross. This prayer and ritual blessing is practiced by major Christian denominations such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglican and Episcopal traditions. Elgar’s choice of time signatures for the Enigma Theme supplies the letter C which is the initial of Christ, alludes to the marine atmosphere of Variation XIII (✡✡✡) as that same letter is a homonym of sea, and hints at the symbol of the cross because conducting common time employs a cross pattern.

Pattern for conducting common time

The Enigma Variations has five movements performed in common time:

1. Enigma
2. I. (C. A.E.)
3. V. (R.P.A.)
4. XII. (B.G.N.)
5. XIV. (E.D.U.) Finale

Although Variation V. (R.P.A.) is in 12/8, it is conducted in four as compound quadruple time. Eight staves in that movement are actually set in 4/4 time: Bassoons I and II, Contrabassoon, Trombones I and II, Tuba, Viola, Cello, and Bass. Popular renderings of Ein feste Burg by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn are set in common time. Consequently, Elgar’s use of common time for the opening and closing movements of the Enigma Variations ingeniouelsy hints at the time signature of the covert Theme.

There are five movements in the Enigma Variations set in common that time supply the following fourteen initials in alphabetical order: A, A, B, C, D, E, E, E, F, G, N, P, R, and U. When treated as an anagram, those fourteen initials generate “C PAEAN EFBURG ED.” As noted earlier, “C” is the symbol for common time, the meter of Luther’s most famous hymn. Merriam-Webster defines paean as “a joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph.” “EFBURG” is an abbreviated version of the hymn title Ein feste Burg as “E[in] F[este] BURG”. “ED” is a short form of Edward. Elgar signed some of his letters as “Ed. Elgar.” Initials from five movements in common time generate an anagram that identifies the meter, character, and truncated title of the covert Theme and ends with a short form of Elgar’s forename. This cryptogram is labeled the Common Time Movements Enigma Cipher.

The Enigma Pisces Cipher

When coded references to Pi in bars 1 and 11 of the Enigma Theme are paired with the symbol for common time, the result is “Pi-C” which spells pic. The term pic is a common abbreviation of picture, the fifth word in the dedication to the Enigma Variations: “DEDICATED TO MY FRIENDS PICTURED WITHIN.” Elgar’s most famous friend and dedicatee of Variation XIII is mysteriously pictured on the Turin Shroud. Pia’s pictures of that sacred burial cloth taken in May 1898 received extensive coverage in the Christian and secular press. Pia’s photographs likely inspired Elgar’s word choice regarding the dedication.

Pisces is the twelfth and final sign in the Zodiac represented by two fish with their tails joined by a cord. It derives its name from the Latin plural form of fish. Pisces is pronounced “Pie-seez” in English. Its astronomical symbol (♓︎) resembles two back-to-back curved capital Es connected by their center line, suggesting a coded form of Elgar’s initials (EE). Someone born between February 19 and March 20 is a Pisces. Remarkably, Elgar finished orchestrating the Enigma Variations on February 19, 1899. When Pi is paired with C, it generates a nearly complete phonetic rendering of Pisces (Pi-C) with the final s absent. The equivalent of “Pi-C” is pisce, the ablative singular of piscis, the singular case of fish in Latin. A coded reference to fish in the Enigma Theme alludes to the identity of the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII because the fish is an early Christogram known by its Greek name Ichthys.

The Ichthys Christogram

The letters of Ichthys (ἸΧΘΥΣ) are an acronym or acrostic of the Greek words for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” (Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ). These five Greek letters may be stacked atop each other to generate an Ichthys wheel. The encoding of Pi in the Enigma Theme subtly hints at this circular Christogram. Like the Zodiac, the Ichthys wheel is circular.

The Zodiac Wheel

Pi is encoded twice by the Enigma Theme in bars 1 and 11. The sum of these two bar numbers (1+11) is twelve, a figure that corresponds to the position of Pisces in the Zodiac. The bass line in bars 1 and 11 consists of the first (G) and second (A) scale degrees of G minor. These two scale degrees (1 and 2) also spell twelve (12). As previously observed, the Enigma Theme is framed in common time which may be denoted by the letter C. The encoding of two sets of “Pi-C” in bars 1 and 11 presents its plural form as “Pi-Cs”, a phonetic realization of Pisces. The encoding of “Pi-C” in bars 1 and 11 are symbolically tied together by the same numeral in their bar numbers, melodic motif and chord sequences. This particular cryptogram is called the Enigma Theme Pisces Cipher.

Pisces is the last constellation on the Zodiac represented by two fish with their tails tied together. Elgar’s coded reference to Pisces in the Enigma Theme subtly emphasizes the preeminence of the ending over the beginning. This message is delivered overtly by a quotation from stanza XIV from Elegiac Verse by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned by Elgar on the last page of the extended Finale: “Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.” This clue hints at how Elgar mapped Ein feste Burg above the Enigma Theme as a retrograde counterpoint. Instead of starting Luther’s hymn from the beginning as everyone would reasonably expect, Elgar began with its ending phrase and worked his way backward towards its beginning. The symbolism of the constellation Pisces is exquisitely appropriate, for like the two fish tied together by a cord, the Enigma Theme and Ein feste Burg are connected by an ingenious counterpoint and shared chord progressions.

Pisces from a set of constellation cards published in London (c. 1825)

Summation

Elgar’s zeal for cryptography and composition elegantly coalesced in his Enigma Variations, a symphonic masterpiece permeated with ciphers that answer riddles about its absent principal Theme, “dark saying” and secret friend depicted in Variation XIII. A survey of the Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers revealed how Elgar uses twelve chord progressions on strong beats in Section A (bars 1-6) to encode God in bar 1, three sets of Italian initials (GC) for Jesus Christ in bars 2-4, the Christogram Egg in bar 5, and the initials (CC) for Corpus Christi, Crux Commissa, and Crux Christi in bar 6. It was also shown how the rhythmic distribution of these twelve chord progressions as nine quarter notes and three half notes supply the initials of Jesus Christ in Latin (IC) and English (JC) using 26 and 24 character number-to-letter keys. When combined, “IC JC” generates the phrase “I see Jesus Christ.” Twelve principal chord progressions on beats 1 and 3 implicate the numbers twelve and thirteen, sums that convert into the initials of Martin Luther (ML) using a basic number-to-letter key. The Chord Progressions Enigma Ciphers employs three languages (English, Italian and Latin) which generate an acrostic anagram of Eli, an Aramaic word Jesus spoke twice in his fourth saying from the cross.

An introduction to the Common Time Enigma Cipher identified five of the fifteen movements from the Enigma Variations which are set in common time: The Enigma Theme, Variations I, V, XII, and XIV. Elgar’s fivefold use of common time, particularly for the beginning and ending movements, hints at the metric provenance of the covert principal Theme because popular versions of Ein feste Burg by J. S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn are written in that meter. Fourteen initials sourced from the titles of those five movements in common time generate the anagram “C PAEAN EFBURG ED.” This anagram specifies the pulse (common time), disposition (paean), and abbreviated title (E F Burg) of the covert Theme. The solution is autographed by Elgar using a short form of his forename (Ed). This follows a pattern found with 0ther cryptograms from the Enigma Variations that are stamped by some form of his name or initials.

An overview of the Enigma Theme Pisces Cipher began with Richard Santa’s discovery that Elgar encodes a rounded form of Pi (3.142) using the scale degrees of the melody in bars 1 and 11. The Enigma Theme is in common time, a meter represented by a capital C. That initial can represent Christ, Christogram, cross, crux, and the homonym sea. Pairing C with Pi yields “Pi-C”, a phonetic equivalent of pisce, the singular ablative case of fish in Latin. The fish is a historic Christogram called Ichthys in Greek. Two sets of “Pi-C” netted in bars 1 and 11 intimate the plural form “Pi-Cs”, a phonetic version of Pisces. The twelfth sign in the Zodiac is Pisces represented by two fish with their tails tied together by a cord. Similarly, the encoding of “Pi-C” in measures 1 and 11 of the Enigma Theme are tied together by shared chord progressions, the same melodic motif, and a common numeral in their bar numbers. The sum of bars 1 and 11 is twelve, a figure that matches the position of Pisces in the Zodiac. The scale degrees of the bass line in bars 1 and 11 are one and two, numerals that may be paired together to encode twelve. Elgar completed orchestrating the Enigma Variations on February 19, the first day of Pisces on the zodiac calendar. Similar to the Zodiac wheel, the Greek letters from Ichthys may be stacked to reproduce a wheel. The encoding of Pi in the Enigma Theme cleverly hints at both the Zodiac and Ichthys wheels.

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 Enigma Theme Vertical Note Sums Ciphers

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth.

Max Planck (1858–1947)

The celebrated English composer Edward Elgar excelled in cryptography, the science of coding and decoding secret messages. His obsession with that esoteric art 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 unleashed by John Holt Schooling in the April 1896 issue of The Pall Mall Magazine. The construction of a Nihilist cipher relies on a Polybius square key as its foundation. Elgar was so gratified by his decryption of Schooling’s purportedly 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 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 decryption process to “. . . working (in the dark).” He uses 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 merits 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 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 an oblique way, Elgar hints that the Enigma Theme conceals a secret message. 

Mainstream scholars speculate 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 gimmick. The editors of the Elgar Complete Edition preemptively deny the likelihood of any covert 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, mirabile 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 scholars of the duty to probe for counterpoints and ciphers. Prominent offenders include such luminaries as the late Robert Anderson, Jerrold Northrop Moore, and Julian Rushton. The gargantuan irony is that proponents of this 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.” Max Planck observed that the older generation rarely comprehends or embraces new concepts and that it is up to the next generation to recognize and adopt new ways of thinking. Planck’s outlook is distilled from the idiom, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” After legacy scholars fade into history, a new cohort will be far more receptive to innovative lines of inquiry and analysis. Sifting the Enigma Variations for ciphers will eventually be deemed a scholarly objective rather than a speculative fringe activity.

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 serious 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 documented obsession with cryptography. That incontestable facet of his psychological profile accentuates 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 astronomical, it is entirely consistent with Elgar’s fascination for ciphers. More significantly, their solutions provide definitive answers to key 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 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 Lord and Savior of Elgar’s Roman Catholic faith.

Some Enigma Theme Ciphers

There are some fascinating ciphers nestled within the Enigma Theme’s inaugural measures. The first was discovered by Richard Santa and presented in his paper “Solving Elgar’s Enigma” published by Columbia University’s journal Current Musicology. A retired engineer, Santa astutely recognized that the scale degrees of the Enigma Theme’s opening four melody notes encode “3-1-4-2”. This sequence of scale degrees in G minor is a rounded form of Pi (3.142), the mathematical constant representing the ratio of the circle’s circumference to its diameter. Santa’s groundbreaking discovery established that Elgar encodes information within the Enigma Theme. That breakthrough demands ongoing efforts to detect and decrypt other cryptograms ensconced within the Enigma Variations with a special focus on the Enigma Theme.

Elgar encodes Pi in multiple ways in the Enigma Theme’s opening measure. Pi is enciphered by the first violin part with its opening melodic phrase played in third position on the D string using the fingerings 3, 1, 4, and 2. The dynamic piano at the beginning of the Enigma Theme is assigned to the staves of the string quartet: Violin I, Violin II, Viola, and Cello. Remarkably, piano begins with “Pi”. The Enigma Theme’s repeating palindromic rhythm in bars 1-6 repeated in bars 11-16 is discernibly circular with alternating pairs of eighth notes and quarter notes. Based on this assessment, Elgar encodes Pi in at least six ways in the Enigma Theme’s opening bar. The first uses its melodic scale degrees (3-1-4-2). The second employs the fingerings of the first violin part (3-1-42). The remaining four rely on the first two letters of the dynamic piano assigned to the staves of the string quartet. A rounded form of Pi captures Elgar’s penetrating sense of wordplay as that mathematical constant pertains to a circle, a round geometric figure.

The Enigma Theme is introduced by the first violins on the D string in the third position. D is the third string of the violin with E as the first, A as the second, and G as the fourth and lowest. Combining third position with the third finger on the third string furnishes three threes. These two threes are suggestive of the three days and three nights that Jesus spent in the tomb as prophesied in Matthew 12:40. Two threes are also a coded form of Elgar’s initials as “33” is the mirror image of two capital cursive Es. Other cryptograms in the Enigma Variations are also stamped with Elgar’s initials.

The number “33” is connected to Elgar’s secret friend depicted in Variation XIII. The early church historian Eusebius promulgated the belief that Jesus was crucified at age 33 following a three-and-a-half-year ministry. The number 33 is suggested by two descending melodic minor thirds in bar 1 with B-flat descending to G, and C falling to A. The term third begins with t, a letter that resembles the Latin cross. The letters C and A also happen to be the initials of Annas and Caiaphas, two leading religious figures in Jerusalem who conspired to hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate to be crucified. The dynamic piano marked “p” gives the initial for Pilate. The first notes of each melodic third are B-flat and C, the first and third notes of the Enigma Theme in bar 1. The letters of those first and third upper melody notes generate “BC”, the acronym for “Before Christ.” “BC” is a label for the Julian and Gregorian Calendars that indicates years before Christ’s birth.

The second and fourth note letters in bar 1 are “AG”, the symbol for the chemical element silver. Elgar was obsessed with chemistry, eventually setting up a laboratory in a shed dubbed “The Ark” at his home Plas Gwyn in Hereford. He was undoubtedly familiar with the periodic table of elements. According to Matthew 26:14-15, Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas Iscariot in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. The word in this passage refers to silver coins, most likely the Tryian shekel required to pay the temple tax in Jerusalem. Remarkably, the second and third melodic notes in bar 1 (G-C) encode the initials of “Gesù Cristo” which is the Italian translation of “Jesus Christ.” This determination is consistent with the Italian nomenclature used throughout the score for the instrumentation and performance directions.

Decoding the first notes of each melodic third in bar 1 as the acronym “BC” is bolstered by two more melodic thirds in bar 2 of the Enigma Theme. This second pair of thirds reiterates a coded form of Elgar’s initials and the age of Jesus at the crucifixion. The first melodic third is a D descending a major third to B-flat. The second is an A rising a minor third to C. The first notes from each melodic third in bar 2 are D and A, a reverse spelling of “AD” meaning “Anno Domini” (Year of our Lord). The latter notes of each melodic third in the second bar are B-flat and C, another coded rendition of “BC.” Years are counted backward in BC from highest to lowest, and forward in AD from lowest to highest. This divergence mirrors Elgar’s contrapuntal pairing of the covert Theme with the Enigma Theme as Ein feste Burg plays backward in retrograde as the audible Theme proceeds forward. Elgar embedded the acronyms BC and AD in the opening two bars of the Enigma Theme to hint at the identity of his secret friend and the unusual contrapuntal treatment of the covert Theme.

In Elgar’s unexpected mapping, Ein feste Burg plays backward through and over the Enigma Theme that proceeds forward. The audible theme plays in the ordinary manner as the unheard principal Theme runs in reverse. According to Kent Kennan, the author of the textbook Counterpoint, the rarest type is retrograde motion when a melody is played in reverse from back to front. As he explains:

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

Contrapuntal motion is exceedingly difficult to detect, especially when it is camouflaged by modifications to note values known as free rhythm. There are 31 melodic note conjunctions between the Ein feste Burg and the Enigma Theme. There are an additional 46 harmonic note conjunctions with notes shared between the covert Theme’s melody line and the harmonic structure of the Enigma Theme’s accompaniment. In all, there are 77 sequentially shared notes between Ein feste Burg and the Enigma Theme. These note convergences occur in an orderly sequence in every single bar of the Enigma Theme.

According to the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke, the number 77 is associated with Jesus who is the 77th generation after the creation of Adam — the first man — by God. The same number is suggested by two descending sevenths in bars 3 and 4 of the Enigma Theme as Jesus “descended” from God through Adam. The first descending seventh is formed by the notes G and A, the initials for God and Adam. Interpolating the note G as the initial for God is supported by the D that precedes it, yielding a reverse phonetic spelling of God as “G-D.”

A second descending seventh in bar 4 is formed by the notes F and G. G is the initial for Gesù, the Italian spelling of Jesus. F is the initial of Friend. Elgar’s dedication of the Enigma Variations reads, “Dedicated to my Friends pictured within.” In John 15:13-15, Jesus refers to his followers as friends. F is also the initial for various titles ascribed to Jesus such as Faithful (Revelation 19:11), Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), Firstborn (Colossians 1:15 and Colossians 1:18), Firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:23), and Forsaken (Matthew 27:46). In this context, the most relevant and operative of these titles is Firstborn. This conclusion is bolstered by three letters unveiled by the second melodic seventh (m7: F-G) in bar 4 which provide the initials for gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These costly treasures were given by the Magi to Jesus in Bethlehem to commemorate his royal birth as documented in Matthew 2:11. This event is celebrated on the feast day of Epiphany.

“The Adoration of the Magi” by Edward Burne-Jones

The sequential melodic notes G, A, and B-flat in bar 4 are a phonetic spelling of Gabe, a shortened version of Gabriel. At the Annunciation recorded in Luke 1:26-38, the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce that she, a virgin, would miraculously give birth to a son and call him Jesus. The melodic notes A and B-flat furnish the glyphs needed to construct the anagram “BAb”, a phonetic realization of Babe. Merriam-Webster defines babe as a baby or infant. The note letters and descending sevenths in bars 3 and 4 present numerous coded references to the birth of Elgar’s secret friend.

Elgar prepared brief explanatory notes in 1927 for a set of pianola rolls of the Enigma Variations produced by the Aeolian Company. These were eventually published in 1946 by Novello under the title My Friends Pictured Within. In his remarks concerning the Enigma Theme, Elgar draws particular attention to its descending melodic sevenths. He states, “The drop of a seventh in the Theme (bars 3 and 4) should be observed.” This cryptic proviso compelled Rushton to deduce that the correct solution to the Enigma Variations “. . . should take into account the characteristic falling sevenths in bars 3-4.” However, Elgar offers no explanation for why the descending sevenths should be scrutinized.

Elgar’s characterization of these melodic sevenths with the term “drop” is revealing as one definition of that word is “a place or central depository to which something (such as mail, money, or stolen property) is brought for distribution or transmission.” Elgar’s carefully parsed language intimates that the descending sevenths are an information drop in the guise of a cipher. A meticulous analysis uncovered a trove of encoded information in and around these descending sevenths including the initials for God, Adam, Firstborn, and Gesù; the initials of gold, frankincense, and myrr; a phonetic short form spelling of Gabriel; and a phonetic spelling of Babe. Two descending sevenths further hint at the number 77, the span of generations between Adam and Jesus. 77 is also the number of note conjunctions between Elgar’s unusual contrapuntal mapping of Ein feste Burg in retrograde with the Enigma Theme.

The number 77 suggested by the two descending sevenths in bars 3 and 4 is conspicuous because it is linked to by scriptural passages about the secret friend depicted in Variation XIII. In that poignant Romanza, Elgar cites a melodic incipit for Felix Mendelssohn’s concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt) to sonically portray a calm sea. Psalm 77:19 declares of God, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” In Mark 6:45-51. Jesus walked on the sea during a powerful storm and restored calm when he stepped into a boat holding his bewildered disciples:

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

Elgar’s depiction of a calm sea in Variation XIII — a movement secretly dedicated to Christ — reflects an intimate knowledge of the Old and New Testament scriptures.

The melodic intervals immediately preceding the two descending sevenths in bars 3 and 4 are a perfect fourth (D-G) and a minor sixth (A-F). When paired together, these intervals implicate the number 46, the chapter of the Psalms that inspired Luther to write Ein feste Burg. The notes of the perfect fourth are a reverse phonetic spelling of God, the sixth word in the covert Theme’s title. The notes of the minor sixth provide the first and third initials of Frederic H. Hedge’s popular translation of Ein feste Burg as A Mighty Fortress.

The string accompaniment for the descending seventh in bar 4 efficiently conveys the initials of the covert Theme and secret friend. On the downbeat of measure 4, the second violins play F descending to E-flat over a sustained open G string as the violas sustain a harmonic G and the cellos play a B rising to C. The single notes F, B, and E in the second violin and cello staves are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. The remaining two notes — G and C — are the initials of Jesus Christ in Italian as Gesù Cristo. The pairing of G with C is reinforced by the chord progression of a G dominant seventh resolving to C minor. These encoded initials for the covert Theme and secret friend are consistent with the majority of the titles from the Enigma Variations which are likewise initials.

It was shown earlier how the melodic descending seventh (m7: F-G) provides the initials of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was also observed that the melodic note sequence G, A, and B-flat is a phonetic rendering of Gabe, a short form of Gabriel. That is the name of the angel who appeared to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of the Messiah. The melodic notes A and B-flat provide the letters required to form the anagram “BAb”, a phonetic realization of Babe. These precise decryptions are too interrelated and specific to be the outcome of a fortuitous formation.

The second descending seventh in bar 4 and its accompaniment are marked pianissimo (pp). That dynamic replicates the initials of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death. Pilate begins with “Pi”, the constant encoded in the Enigma Theme’s first bar. Six coded versions of Pi in bar 1 and four in bar 4 highlight the numbers six and four. These numerals may be combined to form “46”, the chapter from the Psalms that inspired Ein feste Burg. The Enigma Theme’s ABA’C structure has six bars in Section A and four bars in Section B. These bar lengths provide a reverse encoding of the number 46. There are four melodic notes in each measure of Section A which consists of six bars. There are six melodic notes in each measure of Section B which has four bars. These note sums and bar lengths in Sections A and B reinforce the association between the numbers four and six.

The downbeat of bar 5 is an augmented sixth chord classified as a German sixth. This chord furnishes two critical clues about the hidden melody’s title which is six German words. Other research determined that seven discrete performance directions in bar 1 encode the acrostic anagram “EE’s Psalm”. The first two letters are Edward Elgar’s initials “EE” followed by an “s” to indicate the possessive form. The word “Psalm” denotes a chapter from a book of sacred hymns from the Old Testament Bible called the Psalms. Significantly, the title of Ein feste Burg comes from the first line of Psalm 46. The discrete performance directions used to construct the acrostic anagram “EE’s Psalm” consist of precisely 46 characters, a sum that pinpoints Psalm 46. That chapter is popularly known as “Luther’s Psalm” because it inspired his renowned hymn Ein feste Burg. Indeed, Martin Luther referred to his most famous hymn as the “46th Psalm.”

Elgar’s most sophisticated cryptogram is a musical Polybius box cipher in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme that encodes the entire 24-letter German title of the covert Theme. The solution is disguised as a grand anagram with words and phrases in English, Latin, and what Elgar would have reasonably believed to be Aramaic based on contemporary biblical commentaries. The decryption of the first bar is “GSUS”, a phonetic rendering of Jesus, the secret dedicatee of Variation XIII. Three letters from “GSUS” appear in the Italian translation Gesù. Four languages employed in this complex cryptogram generate the acrostic anagram “ELGAr”: English, Latin, German, and Aramaic. Realizing that the solution would be deemed controversial, Elgar autographed it through a second tier of encipherment only accessible after cracking the first layer.

The decryptions “Pi” and “GSUS” obtained from ciphers in the Enigma Theme’s first measure may be merged as “Pi GSUS”. The fusion of these solutions is a phonetic approximation of “Pie Jesu”, a text from the final couplet of the Latin hymn Dies Irae that is featured as a motet in numerous musical settings of the Requiem Mass. The Latin phrase “Pie Jesu” means “Pious Jesus.” Encoding Pi with the name Jesus subtly alludes to the host, a circular communion wafer used during Mass to celebrate the Eucharist. This impression is consistent with Elgar’s birth, education, marriage, and burial as a Roman Catholic. According to that faith tradition, the host is deemed the physical embodiment of Jesus. Elgar composed four settings of “O Salutaris Hostia” (O Saving Host) between 1880 (No. 1 in E-flat major, and No. 3 in F major), 1882 (unnumbered in G major) and 1898 (No. 2 in E-flat major). These settings predate the Enigma Variations which were composed between October 1898 and February 1899 with 96 bars added to the Finale during late June and July 1899.

A circular communion wafer

This integrated decryption “Pi GSUS” parallels a proximate title letters cipher in the opening four movements of the Enigma Variations that encodes “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” (Pious Christ Abide). Elgar uses the word Christi in the original title of his first sacred oratorio, The Light of Life Op.29. Composed in 1896, it was originally entitled Lux Christi (Light of Christ). Elgar’s initials are spliced into the anagram “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” as the last letters of the first and third words.

Another way that Elgar encodes information in the Enigma Theme is by filtering its palindromic rhythmic pattern through Morse code. Elgar studied Morse code, eventually coining the palindrome Siromoris as his telegraphic address. Dora Penny was a frequent guest at the Elgar household in 1898 and 99 when he birthed the Enigma Variations. She decorated the flyleaf of her 1899 diary with the Morse alphabet, a subject that was likely raised by Elgar. Relying on the key for International Morse code, it is easy to translate the Enigma Theme’s circular rhythmic pattern of alternating pairs of two eighth notes and two quarter notes into plaintext letters. Two eighth notes are the equivalent of two dots that represent the leter I. Two quarter notes are akin to two dashes that denote the letter M. Based on these Morse code translations, the Enigma Theme’s rhythm in bar 1 encodes “IM” followed by its reverse in bar 2 as “MI”. This two-bar rhythmic pattern cycles through bar 6 and again in bars 11 through 16 for a total of six statements of the four letters “IMMI”. The combination of the numbers four and six subtly hints at the number 46 which is encoded in multiple ways throughout the Enigma Theme.

Elgar was a connoisseur of codes and anagrams. As the composer of such sacred oratorios The Apostles and The Kingdom, he was well-versed in theology. The violinist William H. Reed remarked that Elgar’s “ . . . knowledge of the Bible and the Apocrypha was profound.” What message could Elgar conceivably send with the plaintext “IMMI”? “IM” is the phonetic equivalent of the statement “I AM.” Considering Elgar’s penchant for anagrams, “MI” may be reasonably construed as the mirror image of “IM” as a second “I AM.” The meaning of “IMMI” relates to Elgar’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible garnered through many years of study in preparation for composing his sacred oratorios. “IMMI” is an anagram of “IM IM”, a phonetic approximation of the title “I AM that I AM” given by God to Moses at the burning bush as recorded in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus. This mysterious name for God is called the Great I AM and appears in scripture in its short form as “I AM.” When the Pharisees questioned his identity, Jesus replied by invoking that sacred name. The encoding of “GSUS” and “IM” by different ciphers in the first bar of the Enigma Theme generates two phonetically rendered names related to Elgar’s secret friend: Jesus and “I AM.” The hidden melody’s title A Mighty Fortress is also a title for God given throughout the Psalms.

There is yet another theological basis for featuring so many “IM” references in the Enigma Theme. As recorded in the Gospel of John, Jesus issued seven enigmatic “I am” statements:

1. I am the bread of life.
2. I am the light of the world.
3. I am the gate.
4. I am the good shepherd.
5. I am the resurrection and the life.
6. I am the way and the truth and the life.
7. I am the vine.

It is noteworthy that each statement begins with “I am . . . ” With so many repetitions of “IM” via Morse code in the Enigma Theme, Elgar draws attention to this theological shibboleth associated with his secret friend. In the context of his Roman Catholic education and faith, the elusive explanation for the repeated “IM” statements is brought into crystal clear focus. The phrase is intimately connected to Jesus of Nazareth, the friend covertly portrayed in Variation XIII with marine references easily related to the Sign of Jonah. When the scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign from Jesus, he replied that the only sign that they would be given is the Sign of Jonah. Matthew 12:40 records his explanation, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

“MI” is a phonetic version of “Am I”, a phrase used by Jesus in some memorable discourses. In Matthew 17:17, he asks, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?” He famously said in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” In Matthew 20:15, Jesus asks, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” He concludes his parable about the laborers in the vineyard with the declaration in Matthew 20:16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” That statement aptly describes Elgar’s retrograde treatment of Ein feste Burg by starting with its ending phrase and concluding with its beginning phrase.

“MI” is also a phonetic rendering of me. That pronoun features prominently at the Last Supper when Jesus celebrated his final repast with his disciples in an upper room. On the eve of his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus took the bread and gave thanks, then gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19-20). In like manner, he then took a cup of wine, gave thanks, offered it to his disciples, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). Both sets of instructions to his disciples conclude with the word me. The Last Supper is the template for the Eucharist.

The Enigma Theme (Autograph Score)

Following the June 1899 premiere of the Enigma Variations, Elgar was persuaded to expand his musical self-portrait, the Finale. He appended 96 bars to Variation XIV and added an organ part. Below is a facsimile of the autograph score showing the opening three measures of the Enigma Theme with the organ insertion.

A close-up of Elgar’s label for the organ part shows that he penned, “Organo ad lib (tacet till Finale)”. Like the absent principal Theme, the staves for the organ are missing from the score on this page. Two es in his six-word label suggest a coded form of Elgar’s initials.

“Organo ad lib (tacet till Finale)” insertion

The Enigma Variations (Autograph Score)

At a meeting with Sir Mark Elder in October 2021, the maestro voiced his suspicion that Elgar’s unusual organ label could be a cipher. Referring to the autograph score, that label consists of six words in three different languages. The first word “Organo” is in Italian. The second (ad), third (lib.), and fourth (tacet) are in Latin. The remaining two words (till Finale) are in English. These three languages in order of appearance are listed below:

1. Italian
2. Latin
3. English

The initials of these three languages are a reverse acrostic of “ELI”: Italian, Latin, and English. Why would Elgar encode “ELI” as an acrostic from the three languages of his organ label? The secret friend memorialized by Variation XIII spoke that word twice at his public execution. 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 from the cross. In making this statement, Jesus recited the first verse of Psalm 22. That chapter is called a Messianic Psalm because it prophesied numerous events about Christ’s crucifixion. Based on this citation, Matthew 27:46 is inextricably linked to the Book of Psalms. Remarkably, the verse number (46) from Matthew 27 combined with “Psalm” is a coded form of Psalm 46, the chapter that inspired the hymn 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.” William H. Reed, an accomplished violinist and confidant, recalls how Elgar consulted both Roman Catholic and Anglican experts when compiling his 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.

Above five bars in the vocal score of The Apostles, Elgar wrote “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.”

The English music critic and musicologist Ernest Newman devotes attention to this passage in his 1906 book The Master of the Masters: Elgar:

The drama now moves to Golgotha, where we see only the last episode of all, the death of Jesus. Believing that the cry of “Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani?” could not be fittingly given to any human voice, Elgar has entrusted it to the muted strings alone.

Elgar's trilingual label for the organ generates the acrostic anagram “ELI,” a theologically infused term that affirms that Jesus is the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII. This particular method of encipherment is exquisitely appropriate as the word “acrostic” has within it a nearly complete spelling of cross (acrostic). The same acrostic encipherment technique is also observed in a musical Polybius cipher nestled in bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme where Elgar encodes his last name via four different languages: English. Latin, German, and Aramaic.

Prior research uncovered a number-to-letter cipher in the opening six bars of the Enigma Theme constructed from the horizontal sums of notes from each active part. This opening section of the Enigma Theme is sequestered by an oddly placed double bar at the end of measure 6. In bars 1-6 there are 24 melody notes in the first violin staff, 17 notes in the second violin staff, 15 notes in the viola staff, and 12 notes in the cello staff. It was observed that none of these totals exceeds the number of letters in the English alphabet. This realization suggested the use of a number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.) to translate these notes into their corresponding letters of the alphabet.

Converting the sums 12, 15, 17, and 24 into their corresponding letters of the alphabet generates the plaintext “LOQX”. This decryption is realized in an upward trajectory starting from the cello staff and concluding with the first violin staff. “LOQX” is the phonetic equivalent of locks, a mechanism opened by keys. The discovery of the Locks cipher triggered a reassessment of the musical keys of the Enigma Theme, a movement framed in the parallel modes of G minor and G major. The accidentals for those parallel minor and major keys are B-flat, E-flat, and F-sharp. The letters of those accidentals are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg.

The flipside of the standard number-to-letter key is to count backward starting with the last letter of the alphabet. This parallels the convention of countering forward with years labeled AD, and backward with years labeled BC. Using this reverse approach, one translates to Z, two to Y, three to X, and so forth. When this retrograde key is applied to the same note totals extracted from bars 1-6 of the Enigma Theme’s active staves, it produces “OLJC”. The first two letters are a reverse spelling of “LO”, a term that Merriam-Webster defines as “to call attention or to express wonder or surprise.” Jesus employed that particular word moments before his ascent to heaven when he issued the Great Commission, assuring his disciples in Matthew 28:20, “. . . and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” The letters “JC” are the initials of Jesus Christ, the secret friend portrayed in Variation XIII. The full decryption “OLJC” is the anagram “LOJC” which may be read as “Behold Jesus Christ.” This ancillary decryption reveals the initials of Elgar’s secret friend, a solution consistent with the majority of the titles from the Variations which are also initials. Remarkably, the application of a number-to-letter key to the Roman numerals “XIII” also produces the initials “JC”.

Counting forward and backward in the alphabet to decrypt the Enigma Theme’s “Locks” and “Lo Jesus Christ” ciphers is a bilateral technique that mirrors Elgar’s baffling contrapuntal treatment of the covert Theme with the Enigma Theme.

Scanning bars 1-6 horizontally unveils coded versions of Elgar’s initials in the form of two E-flats. The second violin staff has two E-flats with the first on beat three of bar 2, and the second on beat three of bar 4. The viola staff also has two E-flats with the first on the downbeat of bar 5, and the second in bar 6 on beats three and four. The cello staff has precisely two E-flats with the first on beat three of bar 3, and the second in bar 6 on beats one and two. Although there are no E-flats in bars 1-6 of the first violin part, its performance directions in bar 1 encode the acrostic anagram “EE’s Psalm” that unveils those same initials. Consequently, all four active staves harbor some coded version of Elgar’s initials. These coded forms of Elgar’s initials parallel those observed in the “EE’s Psalm” cipher, “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” cipher, and “Organo ad lib (tacet till Finale)” cipher.

Scanning vertically through the opening six bars permits the formation of three more pairs of E-flats. The first pair is formed in bars 2 and 3 by E-flats in the second violin and cello staves. The second pair is obtained in bars 4 and 5 by E-flats in the second violin and viola staves. The third pair is generated in bar 6 by E-flats in the viola and cello staves. This vertical analysis implied adding up note totals in each bar. That insight led to the unmasking of another cryptogram that is now the focus of this essay.

The Enigma Theme Vertical Note Sums Cipher

In this Christmas season that celebrates the birth of Jesus, it is a privilege to announce the discovery of another cryptogram situated in the opening six bars of the Enigma Variations. Although similar to the “LOQX” cipher, its structure depends on adding up all notes vertically in each bar and converting those sums into their corresponding letters of a 24-character cipher alphabet. Elgar used just such an alphabet when assigning letters to curlicue characters devised for his famous Dorabella cipher dating from July 1897. The key for this ciphertext is preserved in one of his surviving notebooks.

Elgar's Notebook 24-Character Cipher Alphabet 

Elgar reduces the number of characters from 26 to 24 by conflating the similar letters i with j, and u with v. Combining nearly identical letters is a routine convention in cryptography. Below is a summary of Elgar’s 24-character cipher alphabet with numbers assigned to each letter.

Written notes in each of the opening six bars were tabulated vertically and yielded the sums 14, 10, 12, 11, 12, and 9. Using Elgar’s 24-character cipher alphabet as a number-to-letter key, these figures were translated into the plaintext letters O, K. M, L, M, and I/J.

A cursory assessment of “OKMLMIJ” would be to surmise that these as merely random letters. A more rigorous analysis shows that they are far from random. What follows is a breakdown of this seemingly nonsensical text string starting with “O” in bar 1.

Bar 1: “O”

The plaintext letter O is a common denominator in the “LOQX” (Locks) and “LOJC” (Behold Jesus Christ) ciphers stationed in the Enigma Theme’s opening six measures. Its round shape conforms with Elgar’s encoding in bar 1 of the mathematical constant Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. “O” is also shaped like the Eucharistic host that Roman Catholics recognize as the physical body of Christ. Interpolating the plaintext “O” as a coded allusion to the host is supported by other ciphers in bar 1 mentioned earlier that encode the Italian initials for Jesus Christ (GC), a phonetic equivalent of Jesus (GSUS), and age at his crucifixion (33). The anagram “PIE CHRISTI ABIDE” (Pious Christ Abide) derived from proximate letters in the opening four titles of the Enigma Variations alludes to the host as the physical and spiritual embodiment of Christ.

Compelling evidence that Elgar associated the letter O with the sacred host is his four musical settings of “O Salutaris Hostia” (O Saving Host) with “O” as the first letter and word of that Latin title.

1. O Salutaris Hostia No. 1 in E-flat (1880)
2. O Salutaris Hostia in G (1882) 
3. O Salutaris Hostia No. 2 in E-flat (1898) 
4. O Salutaris Hostia No. 3 in F major (1880)

“O Salutaris Hostia” is the penultimate stanza from the hymn “Verbum supernum prodiens” by St. Thomas Aquinas. There is a host of musical settings of “O Salutaris Hostia” by many composers including Beethoven, Charpentier, Cherubini, Liszt, Martini, Palestrini, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Schumann, and Tallis. Elgar set it twice in E-flat (1880 and 1898), once in F major (1880), and once in G major (1882). YouTube offers some excellent recordings of Elgar’s published settings by the Worcester Cathedral Choir under the direction of Christopher Robinson.

1. O Salutaris Hostia No. 1
2. O Salutaris Hostia No. 2
3. O Salutaris Hostia No. 3

Two settings are published under the heading “O Salutaris.” The initials of this shortened title (OS) are provided by the first and last letters of three performance directions in bar 1 of the Enigma Theme. The first is formed by the last letter of legato and the first letter of sostenuto. A second is given by the first and last letters of sostenuto. The third is furnished by the last letters of molto express. Honing in on the first and last letters of these Italian terms is implied by one of the many titles of Christ as “the First and the Last” (Revelation 1:17).

Bars 2, 3, and 4: “K” & “ML”

The plaintext “K” encoded in bar 2 is a letter Elgar wrote on manuscripts to show that he made a copy. K is the initial of the German verb “Kopiert” meaning “Copied.” As Anthony Payne explains about Elgar’s manuscript sketches for the Third Symphony, “They are cancelled, as was Elgar’s habit, with a large red-crayon K for ‘kopiert’, or, knowing the great man’s love of word-play, even perhaps ‘Koppied’. The German origin of “K” is a glaring clue regarding the next two plaintext letters encoded in bars 3 and 4. “ML” is the initials of Martin Luther, the composer of Ein feste Burg. Consequently, the plaintext “KML” is the abbreviation of the German phrase “Kopiert Martin Luther” (Copied Martin Luther). Such a decryption captures the essence of the Enigma Theme as a counterpoint to Ein feste Burg.

Bars 5 and 6: “M” & “I”

The plaintext letters “MI” obtained from note sums in bars 5 (M) and 6 (I/J) match those encoded in by the Enigma Theme’s circular rhythm via Morse code. Two eighth notes followed by two and quarter notes encode “IM” in the odd bars 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, and 15. Two quarter notes followed by two eighth notes encode “MI” in the even bars 2, 4, 6, 12, 14, and 16. It was previously observed that “IM” is the phonetic equivalent of “I AM”, a special name for God recorded in the Book of Exodus. The parallels between the Enigma Theme’s Morse code decryption and the plaintext “MI” support a reading of “MI” as the reverse phonetic spelling of “I AM.” The final plaintext letter encoded by note sums in bar 6 is “J”, the initial for Jesus. The plaintext “MIJ” from bars 5 and 6 is an anagram of “IMJ” that may be decoded as the statement “I AM Jesus.” The plaintext “IMJ” (I AM Jesus) precisely mirrors the decryptions “IM” (I AM) and “GSUS” (Jesus) in bar 1 of the Enigma Theme. “Be still and know that I am God” is a frequently cited passage from Psalm 46:10. That verse features the phrase “I am.”

Bars 1- 6: “MOM LIK J”

When treated as an anagram, the plaintext letter string “OKMLMIJ” may be reshuffled to produce “MOM LIK J”. “MOM” is the informal of mother. Saint Mary is the Virgin Mother of Jesus and is called “Lady Mary” by Roman Catholics. The initials of that reverential title emerge in bars 5 (L) and 6 (M) of the plaintext. “LIK” is the phonetic equivalent of like, an adjective Merriam-Webster defines as “the same or nearly the same (as in appearance, character, or quantity).” “J” is the initial for Mary’s son Jesus. The Roman Catholic doctrines about Mary’s Immaculate Conception, Perpetual Virginity, and bodily Assumption into heaven are traits shared by Jesus. Consequently, the phonetic anagram “Mom like Jesus” accurately reflects these core tenets of Mariology.

Some Fragmentary Anagrams

Evaluating the plaintext series “OKMLMIJ” for partial anagrams produces some interesting results. Letters from bars 1 (O), 2 (K), and 3 (M) may be rearranged as “MOK”, a phonetic version of mock. Jesus was mocked in three phases following his arrest, trial, and gruesome crucifixion. In phase one, he was taunted after his trial before the Sanhedrin as described in Luke 22:63. In phase two, he was derided by his Roman captors after his condemnation before Pilate as documented in Matthew 27:27-31. In phase three, he was ridiculed while hanging on the cross as recorded in Mark 15:29-32. Plaintext letters from measures 1 (O), 2 (K), and 6 (J) are an anagram of “JOK”, a phonetic version of joke. Mock and joke are similar terms. Letters from bars 2 (K), 4 (L), and 6 (I) produce the anagram “KIL”, a phonetic rendering of kill. It was previously observed that the final letter J is the initial of Jesus. Phonetic anagrams of mock, joke, and kill are relatable to Jesus’ grim fate at Golgotha.

Another interesting anagram produced by letters from bars 2 (K), 3 or 5 (M), 4 (L) and 6 (I) bars is “MILK”. In 1 Peter 2:1-3, the Apostle Peter figuratively likens the Lord to spiritual milk. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, the Apostle Paul likens teaching “infants in Christ” to feeding them the milk of sound doctrine. This same analogy recurs in Hebrews 5:12 which admonishes, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.” The recurrence of this analogy in the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the Epistle of Hebrews is likely because they were written by the same author.

The “milk” of basic doctrine is shared by Jesus in the four canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Remarkably, four of the plaintext letters (M, L, M, and J) furnish the initials of those four New Testament books. The remaining three plaintext letters (O, K, and I) are an anagram of the Greek word kio (κίω). Strong’s Concordance traces the origins of the verb kineo (κινέω) to kio, a poetic form of eimi (εἰμί). Most of the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. Kio is the first-singular present indicative of the verb “to go.” There is a conspicuous use of that verb in quotations by Elgar in his 1899 program note for the first performance of the Enigma Variations:

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.

Elgar accumulated an extensive collection of Bibles and theological books. 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 documents an immense assortment of religious texts that populated Elgar’s home 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 his sacred choral works and oratorios. Many of these resources were written or edited by Protestant scholars. More than one of these resources undoubtedly furnished the definition of the Greek verb kio.

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.

As the record shows, Elgar was decidedly ecumenical in his taste for Christian music and literature.

A Pattern of Crosses

Scanning staves horizontally and bars vertically to tabulate note totals from the first six measures of the Enigma Theme in full score generates a grid pattern of crosses. Below is the first page from the orchestral score with four horizontal arrows pointing to the plaintext solutions “LOQX” and “OLJC”, and six vertical arrows pointing to the plaintext “OKMLMIJ/K”.

In the lower lefthand corner of the cross grid, the plaintext spells “LOOK” using the lower two horizontal letters (LO) and first two vertical letters (OK). “LO” is Old English for look and emerges in the decryption of the decryption “LOJC” (Behold Jesus Christ). “LOOK” is flanked by the initials of Jesus Christ (JC) and Martin Luther (ML). Four horizontal lines and six vertical lines hint at the chapter from the Psalm (46) that inspired Ein feste Burg. The horizontal and vertical lines generate 24 crosses pointing to 15 plaintext letters. These sums correspond to the 24 letters from the title of its covert Theme (Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) and fifteen movements of the Enigma Variations. This pattern of crosses is consistent with other decryptions in these measures that unveil the initials of Jesus, Pilate, Annas, and Caiaphas.

Summation

No rational observer would dispute Elgar’s expertise in cryptography. Bauer makes a compelling case for Elgar’s mastery of secret codes in chapter three of his book Unsolved! Despite that undeniable facet of Elgar’s psychological profile, legacy scholars stubbornly insist that the Enigma Variations are bereft of ciphers. On the contrary, a systematic study of the opening measures from the Enigma Theme uncovered scores of cryptograms within the orchestral score. This essay has shown that those ciphers encode a set of mutually consistent solutions to the core puzzles of the Enigma Variations.

A survey of cryptograms concealed in the opening bars of the Enigma Theme found that they encode a trove of interrelated solutions. Santa made the groundbreaking discovery that the melodic scale degrees in the first bar encode a rounded form of Pi (3.142). Elgar encodes that mathematical constant in several ways in bar 1. Pi is encoded by the first two letters of the dynamic piano that appears four times in that bar. He also encodes in bar 1 the numeric sequence “3-1-4-2” using the fingerings for the first violin part in third position on the D string.

Playing on the third string in third position furnishes two threes, two numerals that mirror Elgar’s initials of two capital cursive Es. Two descending melodic thirds in bar 1 also present two threes, alluding to the number 33 which matches the presumed age of Jesus at his crucifixion. The word third begins with t, a glyph that resembles the cross. Note letters in bar 1 furnish the Italian initials for Jesus Christ (Gesù Cristo), the calendar label BC (Before Christ), the symbol for silver (AG), and the initials for Annas and Caiaphas. Three languages used to label the organ part produce the acrostic anagram “ELI”, the first word of Psalm 22 recited by Jesus on the cross. The dynamic piano in bar 1 provides the initial for Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus to a gruesome death.

Two melodic thirds in bar 2 of the Enigma Theme are a coded form of 33, the mirror image of Elgar’s initials and the purported age of Jesus at death. Note letters in measure 2 give the initials for the calendar labels BC and AD (Anno Domini). Years labeled BC progress backward in descending order from highest to lowest. Years labeled AD proceed forward in ascending order from lowest to highest. This divergence is suggestive of Elgar’s unusual contrapuntal mapping of the covert Theme in retrograde over the Enigma Theme. Ein feste Burg plays backward as the Enigma Theme plays forward.

Elgar’s explanatory notes for the Aeolian piano rolls draw special attention to the descending sevenths in the Enigma Theme. The two descending sevenths in bars 3 and 4 encode the number 77. That number is connected to Jesus, the 77th generation from God’s creation of Adam according to Luke’s genealogy. The note letters of the first descending seventh in bar 3 provide the initials for God and Adam. Decrypting the note G as the initial for God is bolstered by the note D that precedes it, for the note sequence “D-G” a reverse phonetic spelling of God (G-d).

The notes of the second descending seventh in bar 4 provide the initials of Firstborn and Gesù, the Italian rendering of Jesus. Letters associated with the second melodic seventh (m7: F-G) furnish the initials of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Magi gave Jesus these lavish gifts to celebrate his birth. The melodic notes after the second falling seventh are A and B-flat. The letters A and B with a flat symbol (a lowercase b) are an anagram of “BAb”, a phonetic spelling is Babe. The melodic intervals immediately before each descending seventh are a perfect fourth and a minor sixth. These intervals encode 46, the chapter from the Psalms that inspired Ein feste Burg. The number of bars and notes in the Enigma Theme’s opening two sections (A and B) pinpoint the numbers four and six. Section A has six bars with four melody notes per measure. Section B has four bars with six melody notes per measure. The dynamic in bar 4 is pianissimo (pp), the initials of Pontius Pilate.

A German augmented sixth chord on the downbeat of bar 5 unmasks two critical clues about the covert Theme’s German title with six words. Seven discrete performance directions in the first measure of the Enigma Theme encode the acrostic anagram “EE’s Psalm.” This decryption may be read more fully as “Edward Elgar’s Psalm.” These seven performance directions have precisely 46 characters, a sum that points to Psalm 46. Remarkably, Martin Luther referred to his famous hymn Ein feste Burg as “the 46th Psalm.”

A musical Polybius cipher in bars 1-6 encodes the covert Theme’s 24-letter title (Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) as a grand anagram with words and phrases spelled in English, Latin, and what Elgar would have reasonably believed is Aramaic. These four languages generate the acrostic anagram “ELGAr” (English, Latin, German, and Aramaic). The solution in bar 1 is “GSUS”, a phonetic spelling of Jesus. Elgar encodes Pi in that same measure. Merging these two decryptions yields “Pi GSUS”, a coded wordplay on “Pie Jesu” which is Latin for “Pious Jesus.” Elgar’s decision to encode “Pi” in the first bar in combination with Jesus alludes to this phrase from the Latin hymn Dies Irae. The encoding of a famous mathematical ratio about circles also deftly hints at the circular communion wafer used in the Eucharist. Elgar wrote four settings of “O Salutaris Hostia” (O Saving Host) before composing the Enigma Variations.

When translated by Morse code, the Enigma Theme’s palindromic rhythm in bars 1-6 generates three statements of “IMMI”. Another set of three statements of “IMMI” is realized in bars 11-16. “IMMI” is a coded form of the enigmatic name “I AM that I AM” (“IM IM”) that God gave for Himself when encountering Moses at the burning bush. Theologians refer to that perplexing title as the Great I AM. God also refers to Himself in the short form as “I AM.” Consequently, six sets of “IMMI” may be decrypted as six statements of “I AM that I AM”, and alternatively, as twelve iterations of “I AM.” Jesus invoked the divine name “I AM” in a confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus also prefaced seven enigmatic claims about himself beginning with the phrase “I am”. “MI” is the phonetic equivalent of “Am I”, a phrase Jesus used in some of his public discourses and parables. “MI” is also a phonetic version of me, a pronoun Jesus used when he taught his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion to perform the Eucharist “. . . in remembrance of me.”

A conspicuous double bar at the end of bar 6 intimates the presence of a cryptogram. An analysis determined that none of the note totals in any of the four active parts of the string quartet exceeds the number of letters in the standard English alphabet. The application of a basic number-to-letter key (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, etc.) translates these horizontal note totals into the plaintext “LOQX”, a phonetic version of locks. A lock is opened by a key. In its plural form, locks intimates that multiple keys are required to unlock Elgar’s contrapuntal riddle. The discovery of the Locks cipher triggered a reevaluation of the keys used for the Enigma Theme, G minor and G major. The accidentals for those parallel key signatures are B-flat, E-flat, and F-sharp. The letters of those three accidentals are an anagram of “EFB”, the initials of Ein feste Burg. This rather basic cryptogram is called the Enigma Theme Keys cipher. Converting the horizontal note sums from bars 1-6 into their corresponding letters of a backward alphabet (1 = Z, 2 = Y, 3 = X, etc.) generates the plaintext “OLJC”. The letters “OL” are the reverse of “LO”, a biblical word that means to look or behold. The letters “JC” are the initials of Jesus Christ.

This overview concluded with a systematic decryption of the Vertical Note Sums Cipher in the opening six bars of the Enigma Theme. Note sums in bar 1 encode the first word of “O Salutaris Hostia” (O Saving Host). The letter “O” is circular, a trait associated with the mathematical constant Pi also enciphered in bar 1. The glyph “O” is shaped like the communion wafer used to celebrate the Eucharist. Note sums in bars 2 through 4 encode the plaintext “KML”, the abbreviation of the German phrase “Kopiert Martin Luther” (Copied Martin Luther). That statement is a fitting characterization of Elgar’s stealth adoption of Luther’s hymn Ein feste Burg as the principal Theme of the Enigma Variations. Note sums in bars 5 and 6 encode the plaintext “MIJ”. The first two letters are a phonetic realization of “Am I” and may be reversed as “I am.” “J” is the initial for Jesus, the secret friend memorialized in Variation XIII. The plaintext “MI” corresponds to the Morse code transcription of the Enigma Theme’s palindromic rhythm as “IMMI”. The anagram “IMJ” may be decrypted as “I AM Jesus.”

The plaintext “OKMLMIJ” may be reshuffled as “MOMLIKJ”, an anagram that may be decoded as the English phrase “Mom like Jesus.” This coded statement resonates with Elgar’s Roman Catholic worldview. According to church doctrine, Mary and Jesus were the product of Immaculate Conception, maintained Perpetual Virginity, and ascended bodily into heaven. These same letters may be reorganized as the words “MILK” and the Greek word “KIO”. New Testament scriptures refer to basic doctrine as milk. The decryption kio is significant as most of the New Testament was written in Greek. Kio is the first-singular present indicative of the verb “to go”. In his 1899 program note, Elgar employs the verb “goes” to describe how the covert Theme fits with the Enigma Theme and ensuing Variations. Some fragmentary anagrams obtained from the plaintext “OKMLMIJ” are “MOK” (mock), “JOK” (joke), and “KIL” (kill). These terms are connected with the narrative surrounding the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus.

This overview illustrated how Elgar wove an elaborate tapestry of interlocking cryptograms within the Enigma Variations. These ciphers encode a coherent set of mutually consistent decryptions regarding the covert Theme and secret friend. Some solutions are imprinted with Elgar’s initials or surname. Elements common to many of these cryptograms are his use of acrostics, abbreviations, anagrams, initials, multiple languages, and phonetic spellings. To learn more about the secrets of the Enigma Variations, read my free eBook Elgar’s Enigmas Exposed. Help support and broaden my original research by becoming a sponsor on Patreon.

Soli Yah Gloria