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Musical Interpretation, Phenomenology, Neo-Riemannian Transformations, and Their Psychological Implications: An Independent Analysis of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” from Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore

Zachary Thomas Newman

1 In 1902 tenor Enrico Caruso recorded “Una Furtiva Lagrima” for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company and turned the world of opera on its ear. A work that had previously fallen out of the canon, Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore, would suddenly burst back onto the scene and claim its role as one of the most performed operas in the world.1 Since then “Una Furtiva Lagrima” (Nemorino’s aria from act two) has grown to be one of the cornerstones of the tenor repertory. A furtive tear in her eyes appeared… Those happy girls to envy, she seemed What more can I look for! She loves me, I see it One sole moment the beating of her dear heart to feel! My sighs to blend for a little while with her sighs! Heaven! One could die; more I do not ask2 This aria is very interesting, the words are clearly very happy, especially when put in the context of the opera. Nemorino is the ‘every man’ who finds himself enamored with Adina – a wealthy and fickle-hearted woman who begins the opera by turning him down. With the assistance of some liquid courage in the form of a fake love potion (actually Bordeaux obtained from the quack-doctor Dulcamara,) Nemorino begins to ignore Adina and eventually loses hope, enlisting in the military. After he has enlists, Nemorino’s wealthy uncle passes away and bequeaths him a massive fortune. His newfound wealth becomes the talk of the town and suddenly women are falling at his feet; an example of this can be heard in the female chorus 1. Airlie Jane Kirkham, “An Aural Analysis of Bel Canto: Traditions and Interpretations as Preserved Through Selected Sound Recordings” (master’s thesis, University of Adelaide, 2010), 96-7. 2. Nico Castel, “L’Elisir d’Amore,” in Italian Bel Canto Opera Libretti in Three Volumes. Vol. 1, ed. Scott Jackson Wiley (Mt. Morris, NY: Leyerle Publications, 2000), 333.

2 “Saria Possibile?” where the women of the town are gossiping about Nemorino’s wealth and trying to win his love. Seeing this, Adina becomes wildly jealous and even begins to cry. Nemorino, having seen her tears, responds with his apostrophic romanza “Una Furtiva Lagrima.” Despite Nemorino’s joy, reflected by the libretto, when an individual listens to a performance of this aria they are usually stricken with feelings of sadness, longing, and sometimes even pain. This paper will dissect portions of the aria using, phenomenology, Neo-Riemannian transformational theory, and common emotional performance practices in order to deeper understand this common misconception. Human emotion can be broken down into five primary categories – joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. It is said that music is capable of evoking all of these emotions under different circumstances. Dating back to the Baroque period music began to develop deeper senses of emotion and the term “sublime” was often used to refer to any music that could evoke feeling or emotion in an individual. Bicknell says The word “sublime” has two related senses. First, it denotes a human emotion – a feeling of overwhelming awe aroused by the contemplation of a particularly magnificent, large or powerful object or event. Second, “sublime” describes those objects and events (or some set of their attributes) which are thought to arouse the feeling of the sublime.3 In layman’s terms, if music can be considered sublime, it is to say that listening to music can evoke emotion. It is an indisputable fact that “Una Furtiva” falls under the sublime heading, but this begs the question: what makes the music 3. Jeanette Bicknell, Why Music Moves Us (New York?: Pagrave Macmillan, 2009), 9.

3 sound sad? The following list is comprised of responses to this question in a general poll of musicians as well as non-musicians; generally people seem to think music is sad if it is slow, written in a minor key, relatively low in tessitura, and, of course, if the words are sad.4 This list is reinforced by figure 1, a recreation of a figure from Juslin and Sloboda5 where there is a chart of many musical characteristics on a spectrum divided by the emotional responses they typically evoke. According to this chart, nearly everything save the actual text of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” indicates that it should be a sad song. Positive valence

·

·

TENDERNESS

HAPPINESS

fast mean tempo small tempo variability staccato articulation large articulation variability high sound level little sound level variability bright timbre fast tone attacks small timing variations sharp duration contrasts rising microintonation

slow mean tempo slow tone attacks low sound level small sound level variability legato articulation soft timbre large timing variations accents on stable notes soft duration contrasts final ritardando Low activity

High activity

·

·

SADNESS

slow mean tempo legato articulation small articulation variability low sound level dull timbre large timing variations soft duration contrasts slow tone attacks flat microintonation slow vibrato final ritardando

ANGER

high sound level sharp timbre spectral noise staccato articulation fast mean tempo very low sound level small tempo variability large sound level variability staccato articulation fast mean tempo large abrupt tone attacks tempo variability sharp duration contrasts large timing variations accents on unstable notes soft spectrum large vibrato extent sharp microintonation no ritardando fast, shallow, irregular vibrato

·

FEAR

Negative valence

Figure 1 4. Ibid., 106-7. 5. Patrick N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda, Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 463.

4 The list under “sadness” in figure 1 states the following: slow mean tempo, legato articulation, small articulation variability, low sound level, dull timbre, large timing variations, soft duration contrast, slow tone attacks, flat microintonation, slow vibrato, and final ritardando. “Una Furtiva” contains nearly all of these characteristics, however despite the opening line, it is said about this aria “It is a song about tears, but it is not a sad song.”6 It is slow – common performance tempi vary from about 70-80 eighth-notes per minute; the song begins in B-flat minor and retains that modality for the majority of the piece; and although the tessitura for the tenor stays relatively high (between F4 and A4), the tessitura of the orchestra and the haunting bassoon obligato give the overall piece a feeling of being ‘low.’ As if all these things are not enough to make a song sound sad – Donizetti goes one step further writing the first two notes of the melody as a falling fifth from F to B-flat, effectively painting a falling teardrop directly into the voice with the assistance of the inevitable portamento that all tenors are wont to perform (some versions of the score even includes a slur between the first two notes – a common indicator in vocal music that a portamento should be interpreted).7 This sort of musical rhetoric is not necessarily popular in music that embodies the bel canto tradition, but nevertheless when an individual hears these

6. Burton D. Fisher, The Elixir of Love: ‘L’Elisir D’Amore’ (Coral Gables, Fl: Opera Journeys, 2000), 25. 7. Gaetano Donizetti, L’Elisir D’Amore, Melodramma in due atti, Libretto by Felice Romani (Stampato, Italy: G. Ricordi, 2005).

5 first two melodic notes, whether in the bassoon or the voice, it is understood subconsciously that the figure is one representative of weeping. This figure is not repeated in succession, but only occurs once in each iteration of the motive; this is interesting because the text does not denote a stream of tears or even two tears, but “One furtive tear” which is framed masterfully by Donizetti’s setting of the text. The issue with all of this is that the words are still happy! The whole song is an expression of triumph; a classic “victory song”8 from a fool who has fallen in love and whose love has finally been reciprocated. In all genres of musical theater, most pieces have archetypal songs like the “I want” song, which usually occurs early in the show and describes the deepest goals and desires of the main character. In this opera that would be “Quanto E Bella.” (Examples from modern musical theater would include “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz or “My Shot” from Hamilton: An American Musical). The “victory song” is another of these theatrical archetypes that occurs once the main character has achieved or is beginning to achieve whatever goals were set forth at the beginning of the show; the victory song often shows a turning point in the show or includes elements of hope. This could be something like “Once and for All” from Newsies or “Being Alive” from Company. So if “Una Furtiva” is truly a victory song why, then, do so many tenors perform it as a sad one? A first look, especially at less experienced singers, leads one to believe that it could simply be a lack of true understanding. Many younger singers

8. Fisher, 26.

6 take this aria to auditions (it has been among the most frequently listed audition arias for tenors in all of the past five years)9 without ever having once looked at a translation, but instead relying on a very limited understanding of the Italian language. Lagrima is a fairly common word in Italian opera and art song repertoire and most people know that it means tear; armed with this knowledge and hearing the plodding B-flat minor arpeggio that begins the song, it would be a logical choice to have a sad subtext in mind when performing this aria. It is the responsibility of the performer, however, to research and understand the translation and context of the aria so as to give an appropriate performance. Instead of standing on stage and just looking sad, a more appropriate option for the performer would be to act somber or serious for the first few lines but to allow himself to show joy by the time he gets to the line “che piu cercando io vo?” and maintain a happy appearance and subtext for the remainder of the aria. “Subtext” is a concept that many non-singers and non-actors may be unfamiliar with; on the subject, David Ostwald says: Whenever you sing or talk, you are always communicating simultaneously on both a literal and an emotional level. In the theater we call the literal words your “text” and the emotional level your “subtext”. Your character’s subtext is the main source of his internal dialogue, the chatter of his inner voice expressing how he feels about what is happening.10 So when a tenor portrays Nemorino, he must have an internal dialogue going on during this aria about his feelings for Adina. In order to effectively portray the

9. Wolf Trap Opera, “Audition Resources: Aria Frequency List,” Accessed October 22, 2016, http://opera.wolftrap.org/for-artists/audition-resources/. 10. David Ostwald, Acting for Singers: Creating Believable Singing Characters (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 128.

7 text to the audience, one has to understand that while he begins apprehensively because his love is crying, he is truly happy to understand that she loves him just as he loves her; and in order for an audience to understand that, it is imperative that the tenor understands it first. One other reason that listeners may interpret this song to be sad lies within the brain. The concept of Gestalt psychology posits (among other things) that we can recognize certain groupings of things due to learned experience – for instance we recognize scales and chords not because of the patterns they present on their own, but because of the patterns that we expect them to have due to their common uses throughout our culture.11 When a person listens to music, their amygdala and cerebellar vermis (primitive parts of the brain’s emotional processors) are both stimulated and produce responses according to our culture’s common practices.12 This explains why, when listening to music in the minor mode, an individual can feel a sad emotional response. Our brains literally remember that when notes appear in those intervallic patterns, they are usually representative of negative emotions. We do all of this on a subconscious level as we hear the music; it enters our brain and in an instant we begin to feel sad. What does this mean for the presentation of “Una Furtiva”? It means that from the onset of the piece, the performer is fighting an uphill battle. People hear this music and assume subconsciously that it is sad; so in

11. Leonard Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), 84-7. 12. Daniel J. Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 87.

8 order to convey the happy subtext, it would take a very creative and/or talented actor. Another interesting note about “Una Furtiva Lagrima” is the surprising lack of ornamentation in most interpretations. In music that represents the bel canto tradition of opera it is common practice to add ornaments to the music – this tradition stems from the increasing virtuosity among singers in the early nineteenth century. As voice teaching grew in popularity around this time so did vocal technique. Manuel Garcia, inventor of the laryngoscope, is often considered one of the first vocal pedagogues and is credited with many of the advancements in bel canto singing, so it is him we can thank for all of the vocal gymnastics so many are fond of in bel canto opera. Yet in most interpretations of this aria there are no ornaments outside of the cadenza and even in recordings that do include ornaments they are only very minimal. For instance in Lawrence Brownlee’s most recent recording of this aria when he begins the second stanza “Un solo istante i palpiti” he adds a sixteenth note melisma at the end of the word which means “moment” showing how fleeting a moment can be. “…del suo bel cor sentir” instead of singing those words on the written pitches (Gb-C-C-Eb-Db-C-Bb) he virtually inverts the melody (A-C-Eb-F-Gb-E-F-C-Db-Bb) and adds a few more extra sixteenth notes, which seems to represent the “beating” heart referenced in the previous line of text. He also uses a slight variation on the typical cadenza – soaring to a high C instead of the commonly performed A.13 Despite his unique ornamentation, Brownlee’s

13. Lawrence Brownlee, “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” by Gaetano Donizetti, recorded 2016. Spotify.

9 interpretation is a needle in a haystack of nearly identical performances. What does this lack of ornaments tell the listener? First of all, the lack of ornamentation exacerbates Nemorino’s joyful trepidation in this particular piece. The weaving together of the joyful lyrics with the typically lamenting aria is reflective of a man who is excited about the prospect of being loved, but hesitates to be overjoyed due to his inner fear at being hurt by her repeated denials. Of course it could also just be an attempt by all tenors to maintain the fundamental beauty of the aria. Most of the flashiest bel canto arias contain virtuosic melismatic passages carrying the singer into the stratosphere, but in this aria Donizetti omits that practice and replaces it with stunning legato lines. As the old adage goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. A more theoretical view of this aria could further assist in unpacking the inconsistencies between the libretto and common performance practices. In order to highlight this, I would like to focus on measures 17-25 and how the fluid movement between B-flat minor and D-flat major can bring out a positive psychological response in the listener. In the 1980s, David Lewin popularized a new subcategory of analysis, which grew to be known as Neo-Riemannian theory. This style of analysis focuses on the relationships between triads within a piece; rather than the function of each individual triad, Neo-Riemannian theorists focus on the actions that lead from one triad to the next.14

14. Richard Cohn, “Introduction to Neo-Riemannian Theory: A Survey and a Historical Perspective.” Journal of Music Theory Vol. 42, No. 2 (Autumn 1998): 170

10 These “transformations” are defined by the relationships between the triads. Figure 2 depicts a Tonnetz: this is a matrix of pitches arranged so that each triangle represents a consonant triad. The arrows on this Tonnetz represent the primary transformations. “P” is a parallel transformation; this is characterized by a transformation from a minor chord to its parallel major and vice-versa. Consequently “R” is a relative transformation; this shows a transformation from a minor chord to it’s relative major. “L” is a leading tone exchange, which keeps a minor third in common between the two chords while changing the fifth of the original chord by half step. Finally, “D” is for dominant and maps the transformation from V to I in a given key.15

Figure 2

15. Ibid., 172.

11

Figure 3

In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the happiness of this aria, I would like to start by zooming in on the first “key change.” Measure 22 of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” begins a three-measure stretch of music, which tonicizes D-flat major, the relative major of the original key. Figure 3 shows a map of the primary transformations of this aria; the black arrows represent specific chordal transformations while the red arrows show transformations between key areas. The transformation in measures 21 and 22 is prepared starting in measure 17. As the tenor cadences on F on the downbeat of 17, the orchestra begins a five-measure prolongation of the F harmony. The chords themselves alternate between F major and B-flat minor, but the B -lat chord appears in a 6-4 inversion with the F in the bass. During these five measures, the text, “What more can I look for?” is repeated twice over the F harmony. This stagnant harmony with repeated text highlights the words and helps to show the characters incredulity at the reciprocation of his love. This all serves to prepare the transformation to the D-flat major chord on the downbeat of measure 22. As is shown in figure 2 with the double-sided black arrow, the transformation in this measure is from an F major chord to a D-flat major chord. This can be defined as a simultaneous P and L transformation; this makes sense

12 since the A-flat of an F minor chord is present in the key signature despite its absence from the measure. The pitch F defines this transformation, as it is the only common tone between the two chords. Although this is not a total modulation to D-flat major, Donizetti does tonicize D-flat for three measures here, effectively transforming F from the fifth scale degree into the third. As we arrive at this transformation, the voice sings a climactic “She loves me” in the upper-middle register. These happy words along with the sudden major tonality create a new mood to the listener, which contradicts the furtive nature of the first page and a half. Although it is not necessarily always true, major keys are typically associated with happy thoughts. A look back at figure 1 from Juslin and Sloboda reminds us of musical traits that are associated with specific emotions. Aside from the major tonality, some of the traits listed under happiness in this chart make their first appearance in the piece at this point. High sound level and bright timbre are both accurate descriptions of this section; this contradiction from the beginning of the song helps the listener understand the joy of the text on a deeper psychological level.16 This further explains why, when in measure 22 Donizetti has the orchestra arrive on a triumphant D-flat major chord, it elicits a positive emotional response from the listener. If we were to look at this transformation on a larger scale, we would find the transformation of entire key areas rather than just triads. Since this is the case, we 16. Patrick N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda, Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 463.

13 see that in measure 22 the transformation is from B-flat minor to D-flat major, or R. If Donizetti’s purpose in this passage is to use the relative major in order to create a happier atmosphere, then why wouldn’t he just write the transformation directly from a B-flat minor chord to a D-flat major chord? Neo-Riemannian theory is, at its core, about parsimonious voice leading. That’s to say it’s about finding the “path of least resistance” from one chord to the next and using transformative titles to describe the path. Figure 4 shows four different transformations; the first two are transformations from F major to D-flat major and the third and fourth show a transformation from B-flat minor to D-flat major. I have assigned a number value to each transformation; the numbers represent the total number of half steps between each transformation.

Figure 4

Note the first transformation shows the fifth of F moving up by half step to Dflat, the third moving down by half step to A-flat, and the F remaining constant. This is the smoothest transition from one chord to the next rather than having each of the chords remain in root position. The smoothness of this transformation is shown by the total of the half steps moved through the process of this transformation. The

14 closer to “0,” the more parsimonious – or balanced – a transformation is and the more likely it is to be accepted subconsciously (Hence why the inverted transformation is more acceptable to the ear than the transformation between two root position chords). The same is true of the B-flat minor chord transformation where there are two common tones and the root resolves down by whole step to the fifth of the D-flat chord. Even though there are more common tones between the R transformation, it results in a less balanced shift and therefor the P and L transformation from F to D-flat is more subconsciously acceptable than moving directly from B-flat minor to D-flat major, despite the common tones. This idea of the path of least resistance between two chords can be used to describe many common practices in composition dating back to the birth of major-minor tonalities and the beginning of the common practice period. It is known to most if not all musicians that, when writing music in parts, one does not write two root position chords next to one another because that would result in parallel fifths and octaves – an absolute “no-no” in the mind of many people. The above graphic assigns mathematical validation for the mental aversion to these parallel intervals – as the transformation from one root position chord to another occurs, it seems disjunct and mathematically creates a big gap between the two chords. Conversely if one of the chords is inverted, a much smoother transformation occurs and the lower total of half-steps moved gives the brain some relief. In measure 25, the tonality shifts back to B-flat minor. These are the transformations in figure 4 that are represented by the other side of the doublesided arrows. Donizetti uses the exact reciprocal of the transformation in measure

15 22 to accomplish this. Again this is the “path of least resistance” between the two keys and allows for a smooth transition into the second verse. The fact that Donizetti mirrors the first transformation exactly as he moves into the second verse in conjunction with the fact that the D-flat portion only lasts for three measures leads me to believe that these three measures are merely a tonicization rather than a full-blown key change; however this tonicization of D-flat major could potentially be the key to portraying a happy performance. If the tenor is sure to emphasize these three measures and use the momentum created by the major tonality to energize the second half of the aria, he is likely to present a positive subtext while simultaneously warranting a positive emotional response from his audience. “Una Furtiva Lagrima” is a pillar in the operatic repertoire, but it is also among one of the most commonly misinterpreted arias of all time. Various analytical approaches give us an understanding of why people so often perceive this song to be a sad one, but ultimately it is a song of triumph in love and should be sung as such. When preparing to perform this piece, a tenor could do any number of things to portray a positive mood from changing his body language to emphasizing different parts of the aria or even giving a simple smile, but ultimately it really doesn’t matter how they do it – or if they even do it at all as long as they can convincingly portray their chosen mood to the audience. After all, whether an individual is singing in an opera or acting in a different style of stage production, the main objective of the performer is to make an artistic choice, and convince the audience that you have made the right one.

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