How the Music in the Opera "Elektra" Supports the Drama

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Final Paper
Introduction
Elektra is a 1909 one-act opera produced by Richard Strauss in collaboration with Hugo von Hofmannsthal: the former wrote the music while the former produced the libretti. The opera’s content closely aligns with Sophocles’ literary model and is founded on Breuer and Sigmund Freud’s work “Studies on Hysteria”. As a result, the work adopted a gloomy ambience, especially in relation to Elektra and Clytemnestra: Elektra is motivated and preoccupied with her father’s revenge while Clytemnestra is tortured by fears of impending retaliation for the murder of Agamemnon. Strauss applied these two states of mind in his musical composition and the opera’s huge orchestra ably captures the despair and anguish in the two characters. To this end, Strauss employed a sort of leitmotiv system with an intricate structure that spreads throughout the whole score. The opera’s motifs are regularly segmented, layered, and differentiated, recurrently resulting in a form of polyatonality characterized by clashing major and minor chords. This paper will discuss how the music in the opera supports the drama, whether the opera employs a traditional narrative or a non-linear one, over and above, the opera’s impact and reception.
How the Music in the Opera Supports the Drama
Elektra has no prelude and it immediately starts with a brief, dark, and scary flourish. This flourish encompasses the Agamemnon motif together with the Elektra Chord: these two set the stage for Elektra’s entrance. Strauss incorporated 63 leitmotifs across the entire score, each founded on the figure D-A-F-D. For instance, the opening bars of the orchestra start with the four notes as Elektra makes her entrance to the stage: the four notes coincide with Elektra pronouncing the four syllables of her murdered father’s name (Ewans). When she sings “Vater” the strings along with the English horn produce a gentle dotted melody that demonstrates the love she had for her father. This four notes recur throughout the opera resulting in signatures that introduce the actions of various figures while at the same time producing a compact web of musical symbols. The Agamemnon theme repeats itself at various important junctures such as at the closing of the opera. Certain variants of the theme serve to heighten the despondency of Elektra upon been falsely informed of Orestes’s death, the tormented state of Clytemnestra as she repeats her husband’s name and complains of her troubling dreams.
It also features at the highpoint of the opera when Chrysothemis announces to her brother of Elektra’s triumph and death. A good example of how Strauss’s music adds depth to the drama is after Orestes is discovered to be alive and among the messengers proclaiming his death. As Elektra recognizes that one of the two messengers is actually Orestes, there is a few moments of silence before transparent music breaks through the air to signify how upon recognizing Orestes, her anguish turns to a flood of joyous emotions. The pianissimo tune, a variant of the Agamemnon motif, surges and falls and speaks to Elektra’s ecstasy as she is reunited with her brother. In this recognition scene, Elektra sings Orestes’s name, which is accompanied by the orchestra playing “Elektra Chord” using a different key from the one applied during her entrance (Kristiansen and Jones). Strauss used a different chord to illustrate how Elektra is for the first time overjoyed that her plan to enact revenge on Clytemnestra is finally coming together. Each time Orestes accedes to carry out the murders on behalf of their father and sings “I will do it”, the notes of the orchestra rise higher and higher.
As Orestes agrees to be part of the conspiracy against Clytemnestra and Aegisth, Elektra starts singing a tune about healing and rest that is musically discordant: although her musical line is somehow tonal, it fails to align with the accompaniment. Strauss chose to have Elektra sing a slightly incompatible melody to illustrate how her unquenchable thirst for vengeance torments her greatly so much that she believes that the deaths of Clytemnestra and Aegisth are the only thing that can bring her relief and closure (Mennenoh). As Elektra lights the way for his step-father into the house, she is filled with intense anxiety and as the doors shut, the audience hears of Aegisth’s murder (Kristiansen and Jones). This scene opens with a low and quiet melody that builds dynamically as the events unfold to high and loud: Strauss underlines this moment (the impending murder of Aegisth) using four accentuated quarter notes in the trombone and trumpet. As the opera comes to a close and Elektra finally gets her revenge, the Agamemnon motif emerges again. Elektra is so overjoyed by her triumph that she collapses from her celebration dance.
As Elektra lies dead on the ground, Strauss uses the Agamemnon motif to illustrate the end of the character and Elektra, the opera. It is typical that when a piece of music comprises of discordant melodies, the composer releases the tension by working them out into a pleasant harmony. The final continuous Elektra chord is a ser...