Don Quixote (Strauss)


Don Quixote, Op. 35 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss for cello, viola, and orchestra. Subtitled Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters, the work is based on the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. Strauss composed this work in Munich in 1897. The premiere took place in Cologne on 8 March 1898, with Friedrich Grützmacher as the cello soloist and Franz Wüllner as the conductor.
The score is 45 minutes long and is written in theme and variations form, with the solo cello representing Don Quixote, and the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depicting his squire Sancho Panza. The second variation depicts an episode where Don Quixote encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them as an approaching army. Strauss uses dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass to emulate the bleating of the sheep, an early instance of this extended technique. Strauss later quoted this passage in his music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme, at the moment a servant announces the dish of "leg of mutton in the Italian style". Graham Phipps has examined the structure of the work in terms of Arnold Schoenberg's ideas of 'surface harmonic logic' and 'developing variation'.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra consisting of the following forces: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets in B, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns in F, 3 trumpets in D and F, 3 trombones, tenor tuba in B, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, wind machine, and strings: harp, violins i, ii, violas, violoncellos, double basses.

Structure

  1. Introduction: Mäßiges Zeitmaß. Thema mäßig. "Don Quichotte verliert über der Lektüre der Ritterromane seinen Verstand und beschließt, selbst fahrender Ritter zu werden"
  2. Theme: Mäßig. "Don Quichotte, der Ritter von der traurigen Gestalt"
  3. Maggiore: "Sancho Panza"
  4. Variation I: Gemächlich. "Abenteuer an den Windmühlen"
  5. Variation II: Kriegerisch. "Der siegreiche Kampf gegen das Heer des großen Kaisers Alifanfaron"
  6. Variation III: Mäßiges Zeitmaß. "Gespräch zwischen Ritter und Knappen"
  7. Variation IV: Etwas breiter. "Unglückliches Abenteuer mit einer Prozession von Büßern"
  8. Variation V: Sehr langsam. "Die Waffenwache"
  9. Variation VI: Schnell. "Begegnung mit Dulzinea"
  10. Variation VII: Ein wenig ruhiger als vorher. "Der Ritt durch die Luft"
  11. Variation VIII: Gemächlich. "Die unglückliche Fahrt auf dem venezianischen Nachen"
  12. Variation IX: Schnell und stürmisch. "Kampf gegen vermeintliche Zauberer"
  13. Variation X: Viel breiter. "Zweikampf mit dem Ritter vom blanken Mond"
  14. Finale: Sehr ruhig. "Wieder zur Besinnung gekommen"
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In film

The first and second variations are featured in the soundtrack of The Lobster, a 2015 film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Selected recordings