Telemann’s burlesque Don Quichotte is a programmatic setting based on Cervantes’ famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605/2013). An initial French Ouverture is followed by a set of character pieces. Don Quixote is waking up in a gradual crescendo of an insistent drum-like rhythm. The vivid depictions of Don Quixote’s adventures include the famous attack on the windmills, the inn  scene where Sancho Panza is teased, and the amorous sighs for the Princess Dulcinea, literally translated (and suitably exaggerated) into music. Don Quixote sits proudly on his (in-his-eyes) “gorgeous” horse Rosinante, while Sancho lingers behind on his stubborn donkey.

The finale’s folksy tune puts Don Quixote back to sleep, as the music fades away [1].

The year of Telemann’s composition is unknown, and the suite survives in several manuscript copies. For my musical examples, I use the manuscript copy found at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

[1] For a further compositional and literary context, see Zohn, 2008, pp. 99-117

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Telemann's vivid musical version of Cervantes’ account of Sancho’s punishment brings us to the moment when the knight and his squire are about to leave the inn, which Don Quichotte believes to be a castle. Upon departure, the inn owner asks for payment, a demand which the knight immediately refuses, with reference to his legal rights as a knight-errant: ‘for any hospitality that might be offered them is their due by law and right in return for the insufferable toil they endure in seeking adventures by night and by day’ (Cervantes, 1605/2013, p. 187). With this claim, Don Quichotte sets off on his horse, leaving Sancho behind, who repeats his knight’s claims and also refuses to pay any bills. A group of merry guests in the inn find a blanket and bring Sancho into the yard for punishment, throwing him higher and higher in the morning skies…

The following video (V1a) explores an embodied reading of a central scale figure in Telemann’s score as a “throwing” gesture in various performance contexts.

LINK to the  video essay

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It all starts with a deep and heavy sigh. It is Don Quichotte who sighs for his beloved Dulcinea. His sighs, each prepared by a cascade of sobs, become more and more pathetic.

Being restricted by the regularity of the metrical structure, a musical challenge was to create an illusion of unpredictability in the representation of sighs and sobs. How do I achieve a sighing gesture that feels physically convincing, random, and spontaneous, and yet is well-coordinated in the ensemble? Will the representation of sighing in the bow action also influence (or be influenced by) the breathing of the players?

LINK to the video essay