Editing Dorabella Cipher (section)

== Proposed solutions ==

[[Eric Sams]], the musicologist, produced an interpretation in 1970.<ref>{{CiteQ|Q115626069}}</ref> His interpretation of the message is:

{{blockquote|
STARTS: LARKS! IT'S CHAOTIC, BUT A CLOAK OBSCURES MY NEW LETTERS, A, B
[alpha, beta, ie Greek letters or alphabet] BELOW: I OWN THE DARK MAKES
E. E. SIGH WHEN YOU ARE TOO LONG GONE.
}}

The length of this text is 109 letters (ignoring the parenthetic note on Greek), whereas the original text contains only 87 or 88 characters: Sams claimed the surplus letters are implied by phonetic shorthand.

Javier Atance has suggested that the solution is not a text but a melody, the 8 different positions of the semicircles, turning clockwise, corresponding to the [[Scale (music)|notes of the scale]], and that each semicircle has 3 different levels corresponding to natural, flat or sharp notes.

Tim S. Roberts claims a solution via a simple substitution cipher and offers a statistical justification:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cryptologicfoundation.org/content/Educational-Programs/documents/Solving_the_Dorabella_Cipher_v2a.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2012-06-19 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509204122/http://www.cryptologicfoundation.org/content/Educational-Programs/documents/Solving_the_Dorabella_Cipher_v2a.pdf |archivedate=2013-05-09 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://unsolvedproblems.org/S12frev.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2011-12-29 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313000812/http://unsolvedproblems.org/S12frev.pdf |archivedate=2012-03-13 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|
P.S. Now droop beige weeds set in it – pure idiocy – one entire bed! Luigi Ccibunud luv’ngly tuned liuto studo two.
}}

In December 2011, Canadian cryptographer enthusiast Richard Henderson claimed<ref>{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Richard|title=Dorabella Solved|url=http://www.aerobushentertainment.com/crypto/index.php?topic=174.0|work=Ancient Cryptography|accessdate=19 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317054900/http://www.aerobushentertainment.com/crypto/index.php?PHPSESSID=1a5ace6c33ee2f2b62ec10871938d7e4&topic=174.0|archive-date=17 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> to have found the correct [[plaintext|clear text]], encoded once again as a simple substitution cipher (with two letters as nulls), although some details remain to be worked out. His solution would read:

{{blockquote|
whY AM I VERY SAD, BELLE.
I SAG AS WE SEE ROSES DO.
E.E. IS EVER FOND OF U, DORA.
I kNOw I PeN ONE I LOVe.
All Of My Affection.
}}

In July 2020, Wayne Packwood claimed in the journal ''[[Musical Opinion]]'' to have produced a complete decryption:<ref name="packwood">{{cite periodical|last=Packwood|first=Wayne|title=Elgar as cryptographer – Tuning and Turing|journal=Musical Opinion|volume=143|pages=34–37|year=2020|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2423815327|id={{ProQuest|2423815327}} }}</ref>

{{blockquote|A WOMAN IS LIKE CHESS ONE HAS TO MAKE MANY SACRIFICES FOR ITS QUEEN IT IS VICTORY SHE COMMANDS NOT DO BETTER}}

The secondary message below was identified as the word RATS, which Packwood believed was a playful acknowledgement from Sir Edward to the individual that broke his cipher. Packwood's method involved rearranging the cipher based on the position of several dots, which Packwood identified as representing a [[conductor's baton]], and then arbitrarily shifting the presumed values of each glyph independently until a message emerged. The logic behind the pattern of shifts is not explained.<ref name="packwood" />

In a 2023 study, Viktor Wase applied cipher-solving computer algorithms to the Dorabella cipher and discovered that it is unlikely to be a [[monoalphabetic substitution cipher]] in English or Latin. This was done by showing that these algorithms can solve ciphers that are as short as Dorabella, yet they fail to solve the Dorabella cipher. <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wase |first=Viktor |date=2023-11-20 |title=Dorabella unMASCed – the Dorabella Cipher is not an English or Latin Mono-Alphabetical Substitution Cipher |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2023.2271466 |journal=Cryptologia |language=en |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1080/01611194.2023.2271466 |issn=0161-1194}}</ref>