{"id":661,"date":"2023-01-23T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/?p=661"},"modified":"2023-01-23T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T12:01:08","slug":"the-music-for-an-old-and-lasting-german-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/opera-2\/the-music-for-an-old-and-lasting-german-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"The Music For An Old And Lasting German Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Music For An Old And Lasting German Legend<\/p><\/div>\n

According to a very old German legend, one which has come to be expressed in every theatrical form from grand opera to puppet plays to Broadway musicals, a medieval scholar named Faust or Faustus made a deal with Satan, offering the Evil One his soul for unending post-mortem punishment, in return for elusive knowledge and worldly pleasure. The specific lure or combination of lures that led to the bargain differs with each telling.<\/p>\n

As does the ending! Some versions of the tale lead to the sinner\u2019s death and damnation \u2026 others to the sinner\u2019s repentance and the defeat of the devil.<\/p>\n

This story entered the canonical realm of Great Literature in 1594, with the first productions of the play, \u201cDoctor Faustus,\u201d by Christopher Marlowe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Half a century later, Rembrandt did an etching of Faust in his study summoning the evil spirit. I\u2019ve used that etching above. I love the way the etching both merges and doesn\u2019t quite merge the two light sources \u2013 natural light comes into the room quietly from a highly-placed window, while supernatural (or infra-natural) light spreads from a oblong source just below that window, and closer to Faust\u2019s face. I also love the ambiguous shadow (or smudge?) in the lower right hand corner of the window.<\/p>\n

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe<\/p><\/div>\n

A later version of the tale, Goethe\u2019s play Faust<\/em> (1808), may represent the single greatest accomplishment in the literature of the German language. Goethe is often thought to have modeled his protagonist after two infamous alchemists of the late medieval period, Paracelsus and Agrippa.<\/p>\n

Fascinating as all that is, at justsheetmusic<\/em> we are naturally interested in the way in which the story entered musical immortality. There are at least three grand operas involved. Working in reverse chronological order (and increasing degree of prominence) these are: Doktor Faust<\/em>, by Ferruccio Busoni, (1925); Mefistofele,<\/em> (1868) by Arrigo Boito; and Faust<\/em> (1859), by Charles Gounod. Each of these was deeply indebted to the epic poem on this theme by Goethe.<\/p>\n

You can listen to each of these through the miracle of YouTube. Just go:<\/p>\n