Dorabella Cipher update…

You may not have known that 2024 saw a flurry of Dorabella-related activity. For example, here’s a picture of the blue plaque that was unveiled in Dora Penny’s honour in June 2024:

Dan Bartlett (more about him below) also went to Mount Noddy Cemetery in East Grinstead to have a look at Dora Mary Powell (nee Penny)’s grave, which is Grave Section 5C No. 301.

And so we move briskly forward to 2024’s decryption attempts. Firstly, there’s Dan Bartlett’s claimed decryption, which you can see on YouTube or via his book on Amazon (£8.99, or £3.49 for the Kindle version). In my opinion, any Dorabella decryption that includes the word ‘DORABELLA’ in the plaintext is just plain wrong: in p.11 of Dora Penny’s book, she describes how Edward Elgar only started using the word ‘DORABELLA’ to refer to her in September 1898, yet the ciphertext is dated 1897. Perhaps others will find interest in Bartlett’s decryption methods or approach, but it’s not for me.

Another active decryption effort has come from Ian Menkins, who has been kind enough to include me in his email chains discussing it since April 2024. Ian believes that the Dorabella Cipher is simply enciphered music, and has gone to great lengths to try to demonstrate how he thinks this works. From my perspective, there is a strong case to be made that Elgar’s 1886 ‘Liszt Fragment‘ ciphertext (which was written apparently as a commentary to a discussion of Liszt in a programme) appears to be directly music-related, though whether these are enciphered musical notes or enciphered text (or indeed a combination of both) remains far from clear. The Dorabella Cipher remains yet further away from clarity (in my opinion), despite Ian’s efforts, but here’s an MP3 of how he thinks it should sound:

More generally, one thing I’ve been meaning to do is to go to the Royal College of Music and read Dora Penny’s diaries for 1897 (it’s part of the Dora M. Powell bequest). There are also papers there relating to Claud Powell (her son) which might be interesting.

• 5571/1 Dora M Powell: Miscellaneous papers, etc relating to the theme of Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
• 5571/2 Dora M Powell: Letters & correspondence
• 5571/4 Dora M Powell: Draft articles, talks and notes
• 5571/5 Dora M Powell: Papers and correspondence relating to “Edward Elgar: Memories of a Variation”
• 5571/6 Dora M Powell: Programmes and advertisements
• 5571/7 Dora M Powell: notes, printed and draft articles (not by Dora M Powell)
• 5571/8 Dora M Powell: Photographs & watercolours relating to Elgar. Held by RCM Museum
• 5571/10 Dora M Powell: Elgar reference book
• 5571/11 Dora M Powell: Address book (with reviews pasted in)
• 5571/12 Dora M Powell: Elgar memorial concert (3/6/34) material
• 8753 Dora Powell (‘Dorabella’): Pocket diaries, 1896-1913. From the estate of her son Claud Powell, October 2005.
• 8754 Claud Powell: Correspondence, lectures, papers, etc, relating to his mother Dora Powell (‘Dorabella’) and Elgar. From the estate of Claud Powell, October 2005.
• 14088 Dora M. Powell: Letter to George Dyson. 30.1.1950. Enclosed in Dyson’s own copy the vocal score of ‘Quo Vadis” (see C190 on library catalogue)