Program Music: Richard Strausss Don Quixote Essay -- essays research

Before the Ro worldly concerntic medicinal drugal age, composers wrote medical specialty for the purpose of musical arrangement sounds into the most resplendent way possible. Because of these goals, they followed some very specific ideas and wouldnt stray from them. Once the Romantic era hit, composers wanted to express a variety of things in their music. This is when the idea of program music appeared. Program music is usually instrumental music without spoken or sung speech communication to explain the story or event that the composer has chosen to describe with his or her music. However, program music relies on a few non-musical things to make for certain that the listener is interpreting the correct story. These things are often the title of the piece, a written forward and many times notes written to the performer/ theatre director directly in the score. After all, it is easy for a composer to say I am sad in his or her music by bonny exploitation minor sonorities and d issonances, further it isnt possible for the composer to say I am sad because my mother is about to die of prostate malignant neoplastic disease without the aid of explanatory notes. Program music has become a fix of our modern musical listening diet in almost either genre from full orchestra to wind band to small jazz combo. ace of the most prominent examples of program music is Richard Strausss tone poetry fag out Quixote. This tone poem tells the story of Miguel de Cevantes Saavedras novel The Adventures of apply Quixote. The story of the hero apply Quixote is one of insanity and delusion that Strauss was suitable to depict very well. befool Quixote was a middle aged man that read too many books about knights and their heroic deeds. This is shown by third different themes given to show fags dreams of being a knight. Over time, he read so many books and dreamt of rescuing his ideal char named Dulcinea from a dragon so many times that his mind was uneffective to separa te his real life from his fantasy world. Strauss chose to depict Dulcinea with a beautiful lyrical melody while the dragon is represented by a loud, low, sustained melody in the tenor and bass tubas. Dons victory over the dragon is shown by a victory smash in the flute and oboe. After this melding of his mind occurs, he believes that he is truly the knight Don Quixote de la Mancea. From here, he and his side kick Sancho Panza engraft out into the world to do chivalrous deeds. From here on out, Don is represented by a solo cello voice. When ... ...with the gentle of the cash Moon. The knight is really one of Don Quixotes townspeople that is touch on for Dons well fare. To save Don, this man plays along with Don and defeats him in a joust. This battle is shown by the solo cello play Dons themes playing against all the wind instruments playing the Knights themes. This is followed by a dirge-like section which includes the shepherds them. This shows that Don is forced to establ ish home and he thinks about being a shepherd. With all of Dons dreams of being a knight shattered, he returns home and lives the remainder of his life. The final scene is of Don lying in his bed dying. Strauss shows Don Quixotes final peace in death by using the same two chords that showed his initial desire to be a knight, but this time they are sustained at a pianissimo level.Richard Strauss was cognize for being able to portray incredible stories with his music incredibly well. either part of his writing is so descriptive that even Strauss said that he could describe a soup spoon in his music. Program music became so popular and still is for just that reason a schoolmaster composer like Strauss can tell any story in a musical format that people enjoy.