31

The Last Scene is comprised of five large sections. They are an orchestral

Introduction of substantial length, the initial Recitative, the Sonnet 11, the final

Recitative and a short Coda. The dramatic action brought about by the text is

responsible for the scene's less structured form than the othet· thrce works in

this study. Each subsection in the 69 bar Introduction closes with a PAC.

Smaller sections in the Recitativcs result from either a change in mood (text), a

change in tonality (either at a double-bar 01' not) 01' is completely different in

all musical elements. The appearance of the Sonnet is purely drumatical. While

the Countess deliberates in order to find an answer to her dilemma, she picks up

Flamand's manuscript from the spin net and sings it with her own accompaniment

on the harp. The Sonnet is the only portion in the scene that is in 3/4 meter.

It is a poem that is usually fourteen lines in length that is typically in rhymed

iambic pentameter. The rhythm of an iambic pentameter is shown below in

Example 5. 12

lIThe Sonnet is by Pierre Ronsard [Oeuvres completes de Ronsard (Texte de

1578 publie avec complements, tablt:s et glossaire pal' Hugues Vaganay). Tome
deuxieme: Les Amours. Paris, 1923, p. 402].

12 For a detailed analysis of the Sonnet's rhythmic qualities in relation to

musical phrasing, see "The Sonnet in Richard Strauss's Opera 'Capriccio': A Study
in the Relation Between the Metre and the Musical Phrase" by Roland Tenschert,
Tempo, 47, (Spring, 1958), pp. 7-11.