UC Riverside

The central character of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha is a literary metaphor: he is not only a character but also an author, a reader, and a theorist. Through these various facets Don Quixote illustrates the mentalité of Cervantes's time period; he offers a lesson in history, morality, religion, classical culture, and literary criticism. He provides readers with an extensive overview of human society and its qualities, such as the coexistence of wise actions with imprudence, sanity with madness, and reality with fantasy, as well as alternation of hope and disillusionment. At the same time, he masterfully combines knowledge with comedy pretending to be a strong knight-errant when in fact he is weak; moreover, he does not belong to the proper social class nor does he live in the era of romance. His anachronism engenders irony resulting in humorous entertainment. Through dissection of the character, this study will demonstrate how Don Quixote represents Horace's didactic principle which is to teach through enjoyment. In addition, Cervantes's genius will be exposed by reflecting on his work, which includes narrative, poetry, drama, and literary criticism, aside from being rich in rhythm, sounds, and silences, providing the work with ideal elements for musical creation. Moreover, the unusually rich imagery in this work has inspired a number of great musical talents to create a vast array of significant compositions; representative works from that vast list will be analyzed. The foundation of this analysis comprises diverse literary theories and principles of semiology which establish the relationship between music and literature. The musical pieces studied illustrate how Don Quixote and Cervantes have transcended music along time and space through music.