Chapter XII: Part III: Reuniting in Death (2)

"Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valor of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal."

German analysts have been, as in the case of all of Strauss's needlessly and perversely recondite programme-music, at pains to explore the music of "Macbeth," and have written with lavish detail in exposition of its significance. The end of it all appears to be that in this tone-poem Strauss has not attempted to illustrate the external events of Shakespeare's tragedy, but has endeavored to portray the character of its protagonist, Macbeth himself, and the struggle which goes on within his soul.

"DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION," TONE-POEM: Op. 24

Prefaced to the published score of _Tod und Verklärung_ (composed in 1889) is a poem by the German musician Alexander Ritter,[145] which was written after the author had become acquainted with Strauss's music, and under its inspiration. That the verses were included by Strauss in the printed score is sufficient evidence that he regards them as an adequate interpretation of the emotional plan underlying his music.

The subject of this tone-poem is the human soul at grip with death, fronting imminent dissolution, and reviewing feverishly the memorable phases of its past--childhood, youth, love, conflict, strife, aspiration, despair--interrupted by desperate struggles with the Destroyer. At the moment of death there is the beginning of triumph--"deliverance from the world, transfiguration...."

Ritter's poem, translated into English prose by Mr. W. F. Apthorp, is as follows:

"In the necessitous little room, dimly lighted by only a candle-end,
lies the sick man on his bed. But just now he has wrestled
despairingly with Death. Now he has sunk exhausted into sleep, and
thou hearest only the soft ticking of the clock on the wall in the
room, whose awful silence gives a foreboding of the nearness of
death. Over the sick man's pale features plays a sad smile. Dreams
he, on the boundary of life, of the golden time of childhood?

"But Death does not long grant sleep and dreams to his victim.
Cruelly he shakes him awake, and the fight begins afresh. Will to
live and power of Death! What frightful wrestling! Neither bears off
the victory, and all is silent once more!

"Sunk back tired of battle, sleepless, as in fever-frenzy the sick
man now sees his life pass before his inner eye, trait by trait and
scene by scene. First the morning red of childhood, shining bright
in pure innocence! Then the youth's saucier play-exerting and trying
his strength--till he ripens to the man's fight, and now burns with
hot lust after the higher prizes of life. The one high purpose that
has led him through life was to shape all he saw transfigured into
a still more transfigured form. Cold and sneering, the world sets
barrier upon barrier in the way of his achievement. If he thinks
himself near his goal, a 'Halt!' thunders in his ear. 'Make the
barrier thy stirrup! Ever higher and onward go!' And so he pushes
forward, so he climbs, desists not from his sacred purpose. What he
has ever sought with his heart's deepest yearning, he still seeks
in his death-sweat. Seeks--alas! and finds it never. Whether he
comprehends it more clearly or that it grows upon him gradually, he
can yet never exhaust it, cannot complete it in his spirit. Then
clangs the last stroke of Death's iron hammer, breaks the earthly
body in twain, covers the eye with the night of death.

"But from the heavenly spaces sounds mightily to greet him what
he yearningly sought for here: deliverance from the world,
transfiguration of the world."

The music, for purposes of elucidation, may be divided into five (connected) sections:

We see the sick man lying exhausted upon his bed in the little candle-lit room; he has just wrestled wildly with Death. He smiles faintly, dreaming of his youth.

Abruptly, Death renews the attack, and the dreadful struggle is resumed. There is gradual exhaustion, and once more a respite comes to the sufferer.

Now he is visited by dreams and hallucinations--memories of youth, of young manhood and its vicissitudes, of lusty conflict and passionate endeavor, with illusory glimpses of future triumph.

But again Death attacks his victim. There is a short and furious struggle, a sudden subsidence, a mysterious and sinister gong-stroke; a portentous silence signifies the final stilling of the heart.

Then begins, gradually and gravely, the Transfiguration; and through shimmering harps and sonorous chantings of the brass is suggested the final triumphant attainment of the soul released.

"TILL EULENSPIEGEL'S MERRY PRANKS": Op. 28

The full title of this work is: _Till Eulenspiegel's lustige Streiche, nach alter Schelmenweise--in Rondoform--für grosses Orchester gesetzt von Richard Strauss_. Translated according to the most reasonable authority, this means: "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Set in the Old-Fashioned, Roughish Manner--in the Form of a Rondo[146]--for Grand Orchestra, by Richard Strauss." This sufficiently formidable announcement introduced to the world in 1895 (the year of its completion and publication) a work which its author sought, after his usual habit, to imbue with a kind of mystification the point and savor of which it is a little difficult to appreciate. When the "rondo" was produced at Cologne, November 15, 1895, Dr. Franz Wüllner, who conducted the performance, requested Strauss to furnish an explanatory programme of the piece. The composer declined. "It is impossible," he said, "for me to furnish a programme to _Eulenspiegel_; were I to put into words the thoughts which its several incidents suggested to me, they would seldom suffice, and might even give rise to offence.

Let me leave it, therefore, to my hearers to crack the hard nut which the Rogue has prepared for them. By way of helping them to a better understanding, it seems sufficient to point out the two 'Eulenspiegel' motives, which, in the most manifold disguises, moods, and situations, pervade the whole up to the catastrophe, when, after he has been condemned to death, Till is strung up to the gibbet. For the rest, let them guess at the musical joke which a Rogue has offered them." The three motives indicated by Strauss were the opening theme of the introduction, the horn theme that follows almost immediately, and the descending interval that is said to be expressive of condemnation and the scaffold.

Till Eulenspiegel, better known to English readers as Tyll Owlglass, is the prank-playing vagabond hero of a fifteenth-century German _Volksbuch_ whose authorship is attributed to Dr. Thomas Murner (1475-1530). Till, according to Dr. Murner, was born at Kneithlinger, Brunswick, in 1283, and died of the plague at Mölln, near Lubeck, in 1350 or 1353, after wanderings through Germany, Italy, and Poland. Till's exploits, the stories of which are household words in Germany, consisted of mischievous pranks and jests that he practised without discrimination and, in some instances, with a frank and joyous absence of delicate sentiment which can best be described as Rabelaisean. In Murner's tale, Till is sentenced to the gallows, but escapes death at the last moment. Strauss, however, does not let his hero off, and permits him to die on the scaffold.

Despite his disinclination to furnish an elucidation of his music, Strauss has apparently given his sanction to an analysis of the score prepared by Mr. Wilhelm Klatte. As this is full, explicit, and seemingly authoritative, it is quoted here, in part, as follows, in an English translation attributed to Mr. C. A. Barry:

"A strong sense of German folk-feeling pervades the whole work. The
source from which the tone-poet drew his inspiration is clearly
indicated in the introductory bars: _Gemächlich_ [_Andante commodo_].
To some extent this stands for the 'once upon a time' of the
story-books. That what follows is not to be treated in the pleasant
and agreeable manner of narrative poetry, but in a more sturdy
fashion, is at once made apparent by a characteristic bassoon figure
which breaks in upon the _piano_ of the strings. Of equal importance
for the development of the piece is the immediately following
humorous horn theme. Beginning quietly and gradually becoming more
lively, it is at first heard against a tremolo of the divided violins
and then again in the first tempo, _Sehr lebhaft_ [_Vivace_]. This
theme, or at least the kernel of it, is taken up in turn by oboes,
clarinets, violas, 'cellos, and bassoons, and is finally brought by
the full orchestra, except trumpets and trombones, after a few bars
_crescendo_, to a ... _fortissimo_. The thematic material, according
to the main point, has now been fixed upon; the _milieu_ is given by
which we are enabled to recognize the pranks and droll tricks which
the crafty schemer is about to bring before our eyes, or, far rather,
before our ears.

"Here he is (clarinet phrase followed by chord for wind instruments).
He wanders through the land as a thorough-going adventurer. His
clothes are tattered and torn: a queer, fragmentary version of the
'Eulenspiegel' motive resounds from the horns.... The rogue, putting
on his best manners, slyly passes through the gate, and enters a
certain city. It is market-day; the women sit at their stalls and
prattle (flutes, oboes, and clarinets). Hop! Eulenspiegel springs
on his horse (indicated by rapid triplets extending through three
measures), gives a smack of his whip, and rides into the midst of the
crowd. Clink, clash, clatter! A confused sound of broken pots and
pans, and the market-women are put to flight. In haste the rascal
rides away (as is admirably illustrated by a _fortissimo_ passage for
the trombones) and secures a safe retreat.

"This was his first merry prank; a second follows immediately;
_Gemächlich_ [_Andante commodo_]. Eulenspiegel has put on the
vestments of a priest, and assumes a very unctuous mien. Though
posing as a preacher of morals, the rogue peeps out from the folds of
his mantle (the 'Eulenspiegel' motive on the clarinet points to the
imposture). He fears for the success of his scheme. A figure played by
muted[147] violins, horns, and trumpets makes it plain that he does
not feel comfortable in his borrowed plumes. But soon he makes up his
mind. Away with all scruples! He tears them off.

"Again the 'Eulenspiegel' theme is brought forward in the previous
lively tempo, but is now subtly metamorphosed and chivalrously
colored. Eulenspiegel has become a Don Juan, and he waylays pretty
women. And one has bewitched him: Eulenspiegel is in love! Hear how
now, glowing with love, the violins, clarinets, and flutes sing! But
in vain. His advances are received with derision, and he goes away in
a rage. How can one treat him so slightingly? Is he not a splendid
fellow? Vengeance on the whole human race! He gives vent to his rage
(in a _fortissimo_ of horns in unison followed by a pause), and
strange personages suddenly draw near ('cellos). A troop of honest,
worthy Philistines! In an instant all his anger is forgotten. But it
is still his chief joy to make fun of these lords and protectors of
blameless decorum, to mock them, as is apparent from the lively and
accentuated fragments of the theme, sounded at the beginning by the
horn, which are now heard first from horns, violins, 'cellos, and
then from trumpets, oboes, and flutes. Now that Eulenspiegel has had
his joke, he goes away and leaves the professors and doctors behind
in thoughtful meditation. Fragments of the typical theme of the
Philistines are here treated canonically.[148] The wood-wind,
violins, and trumpets suddenly project the 'Eulenspiegel' theme
into their profound philosophy. It is as though the transcendent
rogue were making faces at the bigwigs from a distance--again and
again--and then waggishly running away. This is aptly characterized
by a short episode in a hopping 2-4 rhythm, which, similarly with the
first entrance of the Hypocrisy theme previously used, is followed
by phantom-like tones from the wood-wind and strings and then from
trombones and horns. Has our rogue still no foreboding?

"Interwoven with the very first theme, indicated lightly by trumpets
and English horn, a figure is developed from the second introductory
and fundamental theme. It is first taken up by the clarinets; it
seems to express the fact that the arch-villain has again got the
upper-hand of Eulenspiegel, who has fallen into his old manner of
life.... A merry jester, a born liar, Eulenspiegel goes wherever he
can succeed with a hoax. His insolence knows no bounds. Alas! there
is a sudden jolt to his wanton humor. The drum rolls a hollow roll;
the jailer drags the rascally prisoner into the criminal court. The
verdict 'guilty' is thundered against the brazen-faced knave. The
'Eulenspiegel' theme replies calmly to the threatening chords of
wind and lower strings. Eulenspiegel lies. Again the threatening
tones resound; but Eulenspiegel does not confess his guilt. On the
contrary, he lies for the third time. His jig is up. Fear seizes him.
The Hypocrisy motive is sounded piteously; the fatal moment draws
near; his hour has struck!... He has danced in air. A last struggle
(flutes), and his soul takes flight.

"After sad, tremulous _pizzicati_ of the strings, the epilogue
begins. At first it is almost identical with the introductory
measures, which are repeated in full; then the most essential parts
of the second and third chief-theme passages appear, and finally
merge into [a] soft chord.... Eulenspiegel has become a legendary
character. The people tell their tales about him: 'Once upon a
time....' But that he was a merry rogue and a real devil of a fellow
seems to be expressed by the final eight measures, full orchestra,
_fortissimo_."

"THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA," TONE-POEM: Op. 30

_Also sprach Zarathustra, Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche) für grosses Orchester_, was begun in February, finished in August, 1896. It is, as the title implies, a tonal rendering of impressions derived from _Also sprach Zarathustra_ ("Thus Spake Zarathustra"), the remarkable philosophico-romantic fantasy of Friedrich Nietzsche.[149] Strauss's music is, he says, _frei nach Nietzsche_; that is to say, treated "freely" after Nietzsche. "I did not," he has declared, "intend to write philosophical music or portray Nietzsche's great work musically. I meant to convey musically an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific, up to Nietzsche's idea of the Over-man (_Übermensch_)." A large order, one would say. Whatever Strauss may have meant by "philosophical music," he has certainly, whether he intended to or not, composed a score which is utterly and hopelessly incomprehensible unless one knows what its relationship is, at every point, with Nietzsche's book--a knowledge which Strauss has considerately assisted by prefixing to each section of the score an indication of the particular part of the book to which the music refers. If this is not translating philosophy into tones (or seeking to do so), if it is not an endeavor to find musical equivalents for various phases of a particular philosophy, a particular chain of ideas, then we shall have, as it seems, to discover a new significance in very ordinary words. This is not the place to discuss the _pros_ and _cons_ of the matter, or its aspect from the stand-point of musical æsthetics; the foregoing observations have been offered only for the purpose of clearing the ground, and to prepare the way for the statement which has now to be made: that a comprehension of this particular tone-poem, even with a knowledge of the score and its annotations, is impossible without a pretty complete understanding of Nietzsche's book and of his outlook upon life and ideas--an understanding which it is hardly feasible to attempt to communicate here. It is at least possible, though, to set forth certain of the essentials of his philosophical stand-point and of the characteristics of his _Zarathustra_, as a preparation for an acquaintance with the tone-poem of Strauss; and this cannot be better accomplished than by quoting from Mr. James Huneker's vivid and sympathetic study of the man and his views:

"What does Nietzsche teach? What is his central doctrine, divested of
its increments of anti-Semitism, anti-Wagnerism, anti-Christianity,
and anti-everything-else? Simply a doctrine as old as the first
invertebrate organism which floated in torrid seas beneath a blazing
moon: Egoism, individualism, personal freedom, self-hood. He is the
apostle of the _ego_.... He is a proclaimer of the rank animalism of
man. He believes in the body and not in the soul of theology....

"It is in _Also sprach Zarathustra_ that the genius of Nietzsche
is best studied. Like the Buddhistic _Tripitaka_, it is a book
of highly colored Oriental aphorisms, interrupted by lofty lyric
outbursts. It is an ironic, enigmatic, rhetorical rhapsody, the
Third Part of a half-mad 'Faust.' In it may be seen flowing all the
currents of modern cultures and philosophies, and, if it teaches
anything at all, it teaches the wisdom and beauty of air, sky,
waters, and earth, and of laughter, not Pantagruelian, but 'holy
laughter.' The love of earth is preached in rapturous accents. A
Dionysian ecstasy anoints the lips of this latter-day Sibyl on his
tripod when he speaks of earth. He is intoxicated with the fulness of
its joys. No gloomy monasticism, no denial of the will to live, no
futile thinking about thinking--so despised by Goethe--no denial of
grand realities, may be found in the curriculum of this Bacchantic
philosopher. A pantheist, he is also a poet and seer like William
Blake, and marvels at the symbol of nature, 'the living garment of
the Deity'--Nietzsche's deity, of course.... It is the history of
his soul, as 'Leaves of Grass' is Whitman's--there are some curious
parallelisms between these two subjective epics. It is intimate, yet
hints at universality; it contains some of Amiel's introspection and
some of Baudelaire's morbidity--half-mad, yet exhorting, comforting;
Hamlet and John Bunyan."

When Strauss's _Also sprach Zarathustra_ was performed in Boston in the year following its completion (October 30, 1897), Mr. W. F. Apthorp wrote for the programme notes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra an analysis and exposition of the work which for completeness and precision could not well be surpassed. I reproduce it, in part, herewith:

"On a fly-leaf of the score is printed the following excerpt from
Nietzsche's book:

"'ZARATHUSTRA'S PREFACE' (Friedrich Nietzsche).

"When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the sea
of his home and went to the mountains. Here he enjoyed his mind and
his solitude, and did not tire thereof for ten years. But at last
his heart was changed, and one morning he rose with the dawn, stood
before the sun, and spake thus to him:

"'Thou great star! What were thy happiness, if thou hadst not him
whom thou dost illumine! For ten years hast thou come here up to my
cave: thou wouldst have had enough of thy light and of this road,
without me, my eagle, and my serpent.

"'But we awaited thee every morning, relieved thee of thy superfluity,
and blessed thee therefor.

"'See! I am tired of my wisdom, like the bee which has gathered too
much honey; I need hands that stretch out.

"'I would make gifts and divide, till the wise among men have once
more grown glad of their folly, and the poor, once more, of their
riches. For this I must go down to the depths: as thou dost of
evenings, when thou goest behind the sea and bringest light even to
the lower world, thou over-rich star!

"'Like thee, I must _go down_,[150] as men call it, to them to whom I
would descend. So bless me, then, thou placid eye, that canst see an
over-great happiness without envy.

"'Bless thy beaker, which would fain overflow, that the water may
flow out golden therefrom and carry the reflection of thy ecstasy
everywhere!

"'See! This beaker would fain become empty again, and Zarathustra
would fain become a man again.

"'--Thus began Zarathustra's downfall.'

"In Nietzsche's book, Zarathustra goes from the mountains down to men
and preaches: 'I teach you the Over-man. Man is something that must be
overcome. What have ye done to overcome him?... The Over-man is the
meaning of the Earth.... Man is a rope, made fast between the Beast
and the Over-man--a rope over an abyss. A dangerous passing-over,
a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous staying-behind, a dangerous
shuddering and standing-still. What is great in Man is that he is a
bridge and not a purpose: what can be loved in Man is that he is a
transition and a downfall.[151]... What good and evil is, that no one
yet knows: unless it be he who creates! But this one is he who creates
Man's goal, and gives the Earth its meaning: he alone creates it that
something shall be good and evil.'

"The great problem Zarathustra tries to solve in his speech is:
to teach men the deification of Life; all human values must be
'transvalued,' and therewith a new order of the universe created,
'beyond good and evil.' Zarathustra himself is this 'world beyond,'
he is the freest of the free, who descries in all Becoming only
a yearning after his own self and teaching, which yearning alone
can overcome the 'simian' world and 'simian' Mankind, slaves of
traditional convention, and offer to Man--not the Joy of Life, for
there is no such thing, but--the 'Fulness of Life,' in the joy of the
senses, in the triumphant exuberance of vitality, in the pure, lofty
naturalness of the Antique--in short, in the fusion of God, World, and
Ego. This art of life of Zarathustra's shall be shared by Mankind;
herein shall Zarathustra be dissolved in Mankind and 'go down!' Thus
are also to be explained the significant closing words of the fourth
chapter of 'Twilight of the Idols'[152]: 'Mid-day: the moment of the
shortest shadow; the end of the longest error. The culminating-point
of Humanity: _Incipit Zarathustra_.'

"Taking the excerpt from 'Zarathustra's Preface,' reprinted on the
fly-leaf of his score, as his poetic text, Strauss has illustrated
it in his own way.... Perhaps it were best ... not to attempt a
metaphysico-romantic analysis of the work, but to leave this to the
listener's imagination, after putting before him the composer's
preface. It will be well, however, to give some sub-captions which
Strauss has put at various points of the score.

"Just after the first great _fortissimo_ outburst of the full
orchestra and organ on the chord of C major,[153] stands, 'OF THE
DWELLERS IN THE REAR-WORLD.' These were fools and pietarians, who
sought the solution in _Religion_. Once Zarathustra, too, cast his
delusion beyond Humankind, like all dwellers in the Rear-World. 'The
World then seemed to be the work of a suffering and tormented God. The
World then seemed to me a dream, a God's poem.... I, too, once cast
my delusion beyond Humankind.... Ah, ye brothers, this God, whom I
created, was the work of a man, and--an insanity, like all Gods.'

"Further on we find the sub-caption, 'OF THE GREAT YEARNING,' over
a strenuous ascending passage in the 'cellos and bassoons, answered
by the wood-wind. This refers to the following passage in Nietzsche's
book: 'Wouldst thou not weep, not weep out thy purple despondency,
then must thou _sing_, O my soul!... _Sing with boisterous song_, till
all seas grow still, that they may listen to thy yearning.... Already
glowest thou and dreamest, already drinkest thou thirstily at all
deep-sounding _Springs of Comfort_, already does thy despondency find
its rest in the beatitude of songs to come!'

"Over the expressive, pathetic _cantilena_ in C minor of the second
violins, oboes, and horn, stands, 'OF JOYS AND PASSIONS'.

"Further on we come to the 'GRAVE-SONG,' a tenderly expressive
_cantilena_ in the oboe, over the 'Yearning-motive' in the 'cellos and
bassoons: 'Yonder is the island of graves, the silent one; yonder,
too, are the graves of my youth. Thither will I carry an evergreen
wreath of Life. Resolving this in my heart, I journeyed across the
sea. O ye sights and apparitions of my youth! O all ye love-glances,
ye divine moments! How soon are ye dead to me! I think of you to-day
as of my dead ones.... To kill me did they wring your necks, ye
song-birds of my hopes! Yea, at you, ye dearest ones, did malice ever
aim its shafts--to hit my heart....'

"Over the fugued passage, beginning in the 'cellos and double-basses,
stands, 'OF SCIENCE.' It is to be noted, as a musical curiosity, that
the subject of this fugue contains all the diatonic and chromatic
degrees of the scale....

"Considerably further on, where a violent passage in the strings
(beginning in the 'cellos and violas) soars up, ... stands, 'THE
CONVALESCENT.'... 'Let us kill the Spirit of Weight!...'

"So learn to laugh your way out of yourselves! Uplift your hearts, ye
good dancers, high! higher! And forget not the good laughter! This
crown to the laughers, this rose-wreath crown: to you, my brothers, do
I dedicate this crown! _I have pronounced_ _Laughter holy_; ye Higher
Men, learn--to laugh!... One must have Chaos in himself, to give birth
to a dancing star....' Then the 'DANCE-SONG' begins, ushered in by
trills in the flutes and clarinets.

"Much further on, after a _fortissimo_ stroke of the bell, comes
'THE SONG OF THE NIGHT-WANDERER.' In the later editions of his book
Nietzsche gave the corresponding chapter the title, 'Drunken Song.' On
the twelve strokes of the 'heavy, heavy humming-bell (_Brummglocke_),'
he wrote the following lines:

"'ONE!
"'O Man, take heed!'

"'TWO!
"'What speaks the deep midnight?'

"'THREE!
"'I have slept, I have slept--'

"'FOUR!
"'I have awaked out of a deep dream:--'

"'FIVE!
"'The world is deep,'

"'SIX!
"'And deeper than the day thought for.'

"'SEVEN!
"'Deep is its woe,--'

"'EIGHT!
"'Joy, deeper still than heart-sorrow.'

"'NINE!
"'Woe speaks: Vanish!'

"'TEN!
"'Yet all joy wants eternity, ...'

"'ELEVEN!
"'Wants deep, deep eternity!'

"'TWELVE!'

"The composition ends mystically in two keys--in B major in the
high wood-wind and violins, in C major in the basses _pizzicati_.
Zarathustra's downfall!"

"DON QUIXOTE," FANTASTIC VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF KNIGHTLY CHARACTER:
Op. 35

The full title of this work (composed in 1897) is: _Don Quixote (Introduzione, Tema con Variazioni, e Finale): Fantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Characters_. That is to say, it is in the form of a theme with variations, the theme is of "knightly character," and the variations are "fantastic." From the programmatic point of view, it is a series of tone-pictures in which are set forth, upon a musical canvas of singular vividness, the figures of Cervantes' Knight of the Rueful Countenance and his squire Sancho Panza, and their memorable adventures in quest of knightly glory. The orchestral score contains no programme or explanatory notes, save two superscriptions printed above the dual portions of the theme, identifying the first part with Don Quixote, the second part with Sancho Panza; yet Strauss, with his inveterate lack of consistency in such matters, has annotated the pianoforte arrangement of his music with a completeness which he has capriciously denied to the orchestral score, placing at the head of each variation a verbal clew to the particular adventure which the music aims to describe. From these it is possible to follow its meaning in fairly ample detail.

The music consists of an Introduction, a Theme, ten variations, and a Finale, continuous throughout. Each variation is concerned with some incident in Cervantes' novel. A solo 'cello represents, or "enacts," Don Quixote; a solo viola, Sancho Panza.