Four Pieces from Doktor Faustus for Viola d'amore and Piano

December 6, 2010

Karlīna Īvāne put a performance on YouTube. If you know the Thomas Mann novel, you should recognize the references. If you haven't read the novel, I recommend reading it!

The first movement is based (loosely) on the song "Oh How Lovely is the Evening," which is discussed at length as one of the pieces that Leverkuhn (the main character) and the narrator sang together. The second movement is based on the Hetaere esmeralda row and incorporates the Tristan chord. The third movement represents the encounter with whatever it is that the narrator (who is a viola d'amore player), says that Leverkuhn encounters, be it a daemon or a hallucination of one, and the last movement is a "portrait" the little boy called Echo.






Here's a PDF file of the score (in the IMSLP) 

2021 UPDATE: There is a discussion of this piece in Anna Maria Olivari's (open source) scholarly study Doktor Faustus (ver-)stimmen, which you can read about access through this link.