Richard Strauss's "Don Juan"
The literary hero Don Juan has been portrayed by several playwrights and composers over the last few centuries. Among the works created on this subject is Richard Strauss's symphonic tone poem Don Juan. This work is one among several of Strauss's programmatic pieces. Although the work did not have a specific program written out for it, Strauss employed programmatic techniques to create the personalities of the characters in the legend. The means Strauss used to create these personalities was developing the individual characters' melodic themes. The most obvious example of these melodies is found in the development of the secondary themes, or the "loves" themes. The secondary themes in Don Juan are lyrical contrasts to the general, majestic theme of the overall piece. This is because the themes are developed by a continually, unbroken melodious line. Strauss develops the first lyrical love theme through creative compositional strategies. One way that he accomplishes this is by extensively preparing the introduction to the theme. The first preparation starts in measure forty-three with a change of style. Strauss used tempo and dynamics to create the style change. The heroic theme of Don Juan is still heard for a few m
The second love theme continues throughout the entirety of the third love theme, but it appears less often the further into the third theme we get. This theme starts in g minor, which first signifies Don Juan trying to seduce the woman and later portrays Don Juan's sadness of her refusal. Strauss tells this part of the story in the theme as a separate, counter-point melody. This is the same idea that Wagner encompassed in Tristan and Isolde. This same idiom is used in creating Strauss's first love theme. The selection of the flute to play the solo is clever because of the flutes high and delicate sounding tone. The women that Don Juan had ever loved had been in and out of his life continually and this is how Strauss depicts that facet of the legend, through the wavering chromatic lines. This portrays Don Juan's tender love for this woman. The theme starts off with the oboe playing a pretty, yet shy and timid melody. These two measures state the melody of the theme once in the woodwind voices. In measures two hundred-one and two hundred-two, the cellos play the same rhythm with a slight rest in between. The first preparation starts in measure forty-three with a change of style. This is because the themes are developed by a continually, unbroken melodious line. Strauss composed several programmatic pieces with no formal program ever written for them. Strauss specifically passed around the melody between the oboe, clarinet, and horn to give Don Juan's third love a more diverse personality.
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