Falstaff: A Musical Portrait

So Debussy painted musical pictures with his piano music - but what about when you want to paint a portrait of a specific character using music? Is that even possible? Is that even a thing?

Well, the short answer is yes - as we can see in Elgar's 'Symphonic Study' on Shakespeare's character of Sir John Falstaff. The one movement work is split into various motifs describing aspects of that character's personality or appearance, as well as some motifs signifying characters with which he spends some time in the multiple plays in which he features. Arguably then, this type of portrait goes deeper than a painting, as it depicts the characters interactions and personality in a more detailed way (although, of course, this is definitely open for debate).

What I find so interesting about this piece is Elgar's instrumentation - it's a very cello and bassoon heavy piece, with these instruments mainly playing Falstaff's main themes (which is quite difficult, as I found out when I played it in my youth orchestra this summer!), but coupling Falstaff's lumbering melodies with these bassy instruments really does give a vivid image of the large, drunken character, I think.

Also, apparently Elgar had 'top bants' with orchestral players who were part of orchestras which played his work initially, and loved working with skilled amateur orchestras. He got to know the players quite well and as such would have 'sik lit jokes' with his 'baes' - in this case, writing ridiculously hard passagework for some of the instruments. I know right. Giggle, giggle.

If you listen closely to the piece, you can hear all the different aspects of Falstaff's life developing as his character does. That regal, very 'Elgar' theme you can hear near the beginning represents Prince Hal, and you can start to hear how different musical soundworlds come to interact (quite profoundly) on repeated listenings. See if you can isolate some other instruments too and see if you can work out if they're playing a character consistently. One of the most interesting things about this piece, for me, is the interaction between the instruments.

The action is also interspersed with some very interesting 'dream sequences' - see if you can spot them. I think Elgar has a great way of creating a time setting during these...




This is some what of a musical puzzle to start with, but I do think it's very intricate and clever. Almost a concerto for the composer...

(Side note - I'm doing away with 'if you liked this try listening to...' because it's just turning into scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit sometimes - but if you liked this come back next week for some more musical delights!)