How Liszt's
Don Juan Relates to the Original Score
Generally, an operatic transcription would
summarize
an opera from its beginning to
end. But such operatic
reformulations like Liszt's Don Juan changed all of that:
Reminiscences
of Don Juan, a formidable
example of the cloven-hoved aspect of
Liszt, is
built on three episodes from Mozart's
opera
presented (according to proper satanic
protocol) out of order. Witnessing a
performance
of this Manichaian work with its
diamond-hard
luster and drill-like intensity is [no
less
than spectacular] (Penrose, The Piano
Transcriptions 276).
Liszt avoids the beginning of the passage
of Don
Ponte's words, "Don Giovanni,
in cenar teco, m'invitasti, e
son venuto" in this Reminiscences of Don Juan. I could only
speculate that Liszt does this on
purpose because this part
could have been written by Liszt
as a second Reminiscences to
Don Juan. Or, Liszt
believe that the "in cenar teco" is too
familiar to audiences because this
part also marked the
beginning bars of Mozart's Don Giovanni overture.
On the other hand, Liszt does use the
portion of the "In cenar teco", where the rhythms:
...are done almost exactly as in
the score. The stone guest's
"Non si pasce di cibo
mortale" and "Chi si pasce
di cibo
celeste", and its continuation at "Alta brama" are done almost
exactly as in the Mozart score
(except Liszt uses the tremolos
in addition to the roaring
chromatic scales in his
Reminiscences).
When the Commandant's words end with
"Quaggiù mi guidò",
Liszt ends the passage, skipping
Mozart's passage music for the
dialogue in which Don Giovanni
goes and asks
the Commandant to say what he
desires and the shaken
servant, Leporello, patters about
the fears about the statue.
Instead, Liszt goes on to the
Commandant's "Parla,
ascolta; più tempo non ho."
But this time, unlike Mozart's
score, Liszt Reminiscences calms this part down for the
transition to the "Là ci
darem la mano," starting off with the
duet's introduction on Don
Giovanni's "Vieni, vieni". (mm. 59-
68).
Why does Liszt do it?
The "ho" falls on in E major,
which happens to be
the same result in the Mozart's duettino in mm. 28-29, which
also falls on the E major chord.
Hence, Liszt uses the E major
key to use the "Vieni,
vieni" in an significant introduction,
where a snipet of the thematic
material appears and then is
shrouded away as the music gets
more original. In this way,
Liszt is making a flashback from Act II, where the
"Di rider
finirai" takes place, to Act
I, where the "Là ci darem la mano"
takes place. He makes the audience
think of an different
attitude coming from Don
Giovanni--from that of narcissist to
that of a legerdemain womanizer
who often wins ladies' hearts.
Another reason why Liszt changes from one tableau to
another tableau (that is, from one
aspect of the story to
another aspect) is that he is
attempting to make a summary of an
opera. He reminiscences several of
Don's attitudes in the opera:
Don's defiance at the stone guest,
Don's amorous encounter with
Zerlina, and Don's boisterous
feelings in being a party host.
Liszt puts the structure of this
opera fantasy out of order so
that the statue is the character
of highest priority; that is, the
part at the beginning of his Reminiscences. Why? It is the
statue who brings Don Giovanni to
his doom at the end of the
opera.
At the end of Variation 2, (m. 295ff.),
Liszt leaves the
"Là ci darem la mano" in
limbo and goes on back to the
confrontational scene between the
Commandant and the Don (which
turns out to be the later part of
"Don Giovanni, in cenar
teco"), on the stone guest's
confident, yet serious
words: "Tu m'invitasti a
cena; il tuo dover or sai; rispondimi,
rispoindimi", as in the Mozart
score with original
harmonies. This is obviously
Liszt's flashback to the Don
Giovanni-Commandant confrontation
at the beginning of the
fantasy, But unlike Mozart, Liszt
changes the rhythm to 6/8
and makes it like a pastorale
dance of infernal proportions,
and he uses constant leaps of
octaves as well as the devilish
scales in the bottom,
One of the transitions of the champagne
aria in the Liszt's
Don Juan is a close
quotation to the Commandant's words,
"Ah,
tempo piu non v'è," in full
unison octaves, in the indication,
Grave, (on the whole
notes Gb, A, Db, E), but unlike the
original score, Liszt omits the
music of the "non v'è" and
immediately goes into the middle
part (mm. 348-17 ff.)
of the Champagne aria. Surely,
Liszt could have used that to
go into the "Dal qual tremore
insolito"--the first words out
of Don Giovanni as he is starting
to suffer the grasps of being
dragged to damnation. Obviously
Liszt skipped that passage
because it would be a little too
predictable for the audience.
In the champagne aria itself, Liszt
retains Mozart's tempo,
the main harmonies, and melody as
in the Mozart score, but Liszt
repeats the main eight-measure
melody as much as two times more.
In the passage that flirts with
the key B-flat minor, Liszt
keeps the tempo but alters the
harmony with rising
sequences, usually by the mediant.
At the end of the aria, Liszt
follows Mozart's score (mm.
553-567), ending it in B-flat
major. But Liszt continues with
his own coda, starting with the
middle section of the aria
modified harmonically by fifth to B-
flat major; then he goes on to the
overture's running scales,
the fragmented reprise of the main
aria's theme, first using
the left hand, and then in full
octaves at the Prestissimo indi-
cation. Finally, by thematic
transformation, Liszt concludes
the Reminiscences with the "Di rider finirai" statement, but
now, Liszt uses the mediant
relationship by placing the theme
in B-flat major, a major third
away from the opera's original D
minor beginning (mm. 567-642).
Liszt does make the texture sound rich and
loud in order to
imitate the extra trombones and
brass that were used in the
statue's declaration at the start
of his fantasy.
Imitating such similar effects in Chopin's
Scherzo
in B-flat Minor and
the second movement of his Sonata in
B-flat
Minor, Liszt ends the
fantasy, as mentioned before, in B-flat
minor, after he begins this
operatic arrangement in D minor.
Liszt chose the "Di rider
finirai" and the "Finch'han
dal vino". because their relationship
(in the Mozart score) is
a minor mediant. Hence, the Don Juan can be summarized thus:
Don Juan is probably the most highly
knit of
the fantasies with clear-cut variations,
forming
the major section[s] of the piece and
unifying
melodic and idiomatic [...] elements of
the
beginning, the end and between sections
[Crockett, Barbara Allen. Liszt
Opera Transcriptions For
Piano. PhD diss, U. of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign),
1968; 111.]
Summary of Liszt's Don
Juan
Franz Liszt’s Reminiscences of Don Juan was a great model
for the technique of not starting
a operatic paraphrase from the
opera’s beginning of the story,
but rather, in the denouement
and final resolution of it. Ian
Hobson, a pianist from the
University of Illinois
(Urbana-Champaign) already had made a
recording of the Reminiscences, and says:
Liszt’s Reminiscences of Don Juan is, in
my opinion, his greatest operatic
paraphrase. It
does not just string together some famous
tunes
from Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ but attempts,
with
some success, to give the story and flavor
of
the entire opera. Liszt’s main ingredients
are
the Commendatore’s music, variations on the
duet ‘La ci darem la mano’, and an
extended
version of the Champagne Aria, ‘Finch’han
dal
vino’. He develops and combines these
elements,
along with the famous scales from the
overture,
to conjure up all the intrigue and drama of
the
opera. Liszt undoubtedly saw himself as
Don Juan,
and perhaps that explains the remarkably
tri-
umphant conclusion to his version, in
marked
contrast to Mozart’s original
("Reminiscences
of Don Juan": Hobson’s Choice 3)
My opinions of the Liszt’s Reminiscences of Don Juan
are as follows: Besides liking the
relatively straight-forward
treatment of the theme from
"Là ci darem," I also see the
Reminiscences of Don Juan as a postscript to the use of thematic
transformation (mentioned earlier
in the study) found in
Schubert’s Wanderer-Fantasie. For instance, the running-scales
theme that was done more slowly at
the start of the "Di rider
finirai" section at the beginning of the Reminiscences appears
in a much faster version in the
variant ending of the champagne
aria. The shorter version of the
transition to the champagne
aria is equally effective as the
longer version of the
transition because it gives a much
more
straightforward announcement of
the famous baccanale ditty of
Act I in only 34 measures. The
longer version of the transition
tends to lose excitement in its
forward musical motion by
interspersing two reprises of the
"Di rider finirai" occurring
two times as the first part of the
"Finch’han dal vino" is
announced.
The ‘storm sequence’ effect after
Variation 2 of the duet
is also exciting. Only for a
while, Liszt changes to the
relative minor of A major--F sharp
minor to create the
tempestuous confrontation of the
"Andiam, la mio bene" melody
and the running scales in the
opera’s overture. Finally, the
ending of the Reminiscences on a mediant (Bb major, from the earlier D minor) is
a typical Romantic
third relation.
Sachaverell best summarizes the Don Juan this way:
[...] He took the entire duet of
"Là ci
darem la mano" for the subject of his
vari-
ations, framed them, as it were, by means
of
an entrada derived out of the overture and
concluded with a final presto based on the
brindisi
from the first act (Liszt 81).
The “Theme and Variations” in Reminiscences
of Don Juan(Liszt)
(From The Duet “La ci darem la mano”)
1. Theme(mm. 69-149)
--This is almost a word-by-word
arrangement of this duet.
The
call-and-response that portrays Zerlina and Don
Giovanni in the second statement of the theme (upon its
return)is done through Liszt by using different octaves.
On the “non son piu forte”, the ‘call-and-response’
conversation also appears in the dominant of the duet.
(E major), starting with Don Giovanni first, then
Zerlina.
--before the 6/8 section, there is
a long cadenza on the
V6 chord.
3
--The coda of the 6/8 section is
sicilliana-like and is
flourished by downward tirades and scalar runs.
--Liszt decides to end the
variation in fortissimo, unlike
Mozart’s conclusion to the La ci in a docile matter.(mm. 148-150)
2. First Variation (mm.
150-259)
--This might be described as an
etude in sixteenth-note triplets
and sixteenth-note sextuplets.
--There are much more flourishes
here and almost like a jazz-style
improvisation of the original theme.
--On Zerlina’s “non son piu
forte”(Dover 29), Liszt gives the
pianist an exercises of playing 16th sextuplets over 4 regular
sixteenths.(mm. 198-203)
--On the IV-ii-V-iii-vi-IV
progression, there is an etude-like
passage. It might be subtitled “Accuracy of Double Notes From
One End of the Keyboard To Another.”(mm. 204-206)
--On the V6 of A(mm. 207-209),
definitely a mini-cadenza, with
both hands imitating something by Paganini.
--The cadenza itself(starting at
m. 210)has an unusual harmonic
progression:
A: V6 - i
- viio7 - V4 -
I6 - viio7 - bii6
- viio7
ii 2
IV #iv
- #iv - #ivo7
- iio7 - V7
4
3
--Big chromatic-scale cadenza on
the V7(m. 215). This ends with a
trill on the r.h. on F-E and F#-E, alternating, and finally
calming down, hovering on F#-E.
--On the “Andiam, andiam, mio
bene”(Dover 33), the 6/8 rhythm is
like the theme, but in continous sixteenth notes in babbling-
brook style. Also, it has an inside-texture trill and an upper-
texture E pedal point.
--The coda of the 6/8 is like a
roadblock for the pianist. It
asks the question, “Should I play that coda as it is in the
theme (the ossia section), or should the more difficult, quasi-
Paganini version. But the last 5 measures of the variation are
similar to the theme’s ending.
Variation 2(mm. 260-353, Dover
35-41)
--In tempo giusto, it
starts of as if it is a siciliana or a
waltz. Or it might be somewhat of a 6/8 march in 2, focusing
mainly on the 1st and 4th beats.
--The second part of the variation
makes this variation a form
of a impromptu, for it introduces the theme of the Commendatore
--not the reprise in the beginning of the Reminiscenes, but
instead portraying the Don’s confrontation of the Commendatore
as the Commendatore beckons Don Giovanni to let him join in
Don’s supper.
This happens through this harmonic progression (mm. 319-327):
A: 1o7 - bv6 - biio7 - bii
- bii6 - bii07
- iio7
4 4
bv6 - biiio7 - bIII - bv6 - biii07 - IIIo7 - bvii6 - bV7
4 4 4
vo7 - i6
- V - i6 -
V - i6 - V -
i6 -
V
4 4 4 4
--------- --------
------ --------
bii iv vi vi
--The scalar runs in different
directions in mm. 317-324, as well
as a more furious passage on mm. 325-332, depicts Don’s
decension to hell by the Commendatore’s dammnation of the Don.
--This is immediately followed by
a false-octave passage, pro-
bably the greatest in the Liszt piano repertory, in mm. 333-338,
in the harmonic progression: f#:
i6, #I6, N6, #IV6, iv6, viio7.
6
5
--mm.339-348--marks the end of the
variation by even more scalar
runs and downward, rapid double minor-third scales. The subse-
quent measures mark the transition to the Champagne aria,
“Finc’han dal vino”, sung by the Don in the middle of the opera.
(The alternate version of the transition to the Champagne
aria is preceded by even more scalar runs depicting Don’s
hellish fate, followed by four notes, in the indication
Grave, which might be a
serious version of the
Commendatore’s words that condemns Don to the wraths of Satan:
“Ah, tempo piu non v’e”(Da Ponte). But the “non v’e” is taken
out and instead becomes the start of the Champagne aria..)
