Elgar is a real composer who is most famous for composing the
Pomp and Circumstance Marches (which readers may recognize as the music that accompanies graduation processions). The 19th-century philosopher Nietzsche’s concept of “eternal recurrence” (also sometimes translated as “eternal return”) is the idea that time repeats itself and that the same events will happen again and again. (Note that the concept originated in ancient Greek philosophy—Nietzsche revived and expanded on the idea.) Eternal recurrence ties directly to the themes and structure of
Cloud Atlas, where elements of some chapters come back again in other chapters.