Falstaff (Elgar) - Structure

Structure

Elgar set out the divisions of the score in an "analytical essay" in The Musical Times in 1913:

• I. Falstaff and Prince Henry

• II. Eastcheap – Gadshill – The Boar's Head. Revelry and sleep – Dream Interlude: 'Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk' (Poco allegretto)

• III. Falstaff's march – The return through Gloucestershire – Interlude: Gloucestershire. Shallow's orchard (Allegretto) – The new king – The hurried ride to London

• IV. King Henry V's progress – The repudiation of Falstaff, and his death

In the first section, Elgar establishes the two main themes of the piece, that for Prince Hal (marked grandioso) being courtly and grand, and that for Falstaff himself showing "a goodly, portly man, of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage."' Boito adapted these words of Falstaff for his libretto for the Verdi opera of the same name, but the Falstaff of the opera is essentially the buffo character from The Merry Wives of Windsor, whereas Elgar's is the Falstaff of Henry IV.

The subsequent development of the score follows closely the key events of the two parts of Henry IV in which Falstaff features. The Gadshill section shows him attempting a gold bullion robbery but being himself attacked and robbed by the disguised Hal and his companions. Falstaff returns to his base at the inn and drowns his sorrows in drink. In his drunken sleep, he dreams of his youth, when he was a slim page to the Duke of Norfolk. Here too Boito/Verdi and Elgar treat the same material quite differently: in the opera, Falstaff's nostalgic reminiscence is a lively aria ("Quand' ero paggio"), but Elgar's treatment is slow and wistful.

Part III of the score moves to Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2. After Falstaff's summons to court and commission to raise soldiers for the King's army, there is a battle scene and then a second interlude, an English idyll in a Gloucestershire orchard. This is dispelled by the news of the King's death and Prince Hal's accession. As in the play, Falstaff hurries to London, confident of favours from the new monarch, but is instead dismissed and banished. Finally the broken Falstaff, having crept away, lies dying – "the king hath killed his heart" – and after a return of the theme of the second interlude, a piano C major chord in the brass and a hushed roll on the side-drum portray Falstaff's death. The work ends with a very brief version of Prince Hal's theme showing, in the composer's words, that "the man of stern reality has triumphed."