Musical Interpretations of Faust

Anastasia Golden
The Faust Legend in Music

● Louis Spohr’s (1784-1859) opera Faust, Op. 60 (1813)

● Hector Berlioz’s (1803-1869) La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24
(1845)
● What these show
○ Similarities in musical storytelling
○ Stylistic elements of the composers
Goethe’s Faust

● God and demon Mephistopheles make a

bet
○ Demon can lure Faust away from righteous
pursuits
● Faust disgusted with life, meets
Mephistopheles
● Demon makes deal, will serve Faust on
Earth and claim his soul afterwards
Spohr’s Interpretation

● Northern German composer, well recognized

during his time
○ Known for chromaticism, bold harmonies,
proportioned classical form
● Faust disgusted with pleasure filled life, wants
to reform himself with powers from the deal for
good
● Drama relies on inability to transcend
weakness and corruption
Faust (In Sinnenlust so sinnlos leben)

● Motivic style
○ Hell motif, descending triad, notes preceded by rising semitone appoggiatura
○ Faust’s inner turmoil motif, angry 16th note figure
● Music shows opposing characteristics of Faust and
Mephistopheles
○ Repeated notes and dotted figures
○ Imbalance and uneasy feeling
○ Features of his part hinted at in Faust’s showing connection
Berlioz’s Interpretation

● French composer, inspired by Faust

● Faust is yearning and sensitive, damned by inner weakness
● His weakness represented and exploited by Mephistopheles
● Faust far weaker than original story
La Damnation de Faust (O Pure Emotion)

● Mephistopheles is intense and dramatic

○ Starts slowly, unease
○ Leaping and fragmented melody (contrasts with Faust)
○ Dotted rhythms
○ Strings surround lines to emphasize plot
● Faust is significantly more flat
○ Strings usually shorter and softer
● Emotions transferred to devil
● Drama relies on Mephistopheles’s part
Comparing and Contrasting

● Similarities
○ Dotted rhythms, fragmented leaping melody
○ Faust is a flatter character
○ Contrast between character’s parts
○ Similar storytelling/text interpretation
● Differences
○ Spohr is more motivic
○ Berlioz’s Faust is significantly weaker
○ Berlioz tells the story clearly through the music
○ Spohr more classical, Berlioz more romantic