Woman is Fickle: A Modern Comparison
By
Jonathon Davis

Dr. Michael J. Pendowski
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama
November 13th, 2010

Verdi’s “La donna è mobile,” translated into “Woman is fickle”, puts onto display many popular key musical elements of the 19th century that are still very much alive in today’s modern music. Giuseppe Verdi utilizes several trends in music of the day to create the masterpiece that we still recognize today, despite the immense time gap. The piece is written about a woman whose mind constantly changes direction and leaves her admirers constantly pursuing in vain.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was an Italian world class composer of operas during the height of the Romantic period. This piece is widely considered his most notable work, but considering all of his great operas still performed to this day, to place anything as his “most notable” would be an understatement. His career took off with Nabucco, which he wrote after the death of his children and wife, and was able to write masterpiece after masterpiece, even into his twilight years. Verdi died with twenty-eight operas on his resume, many of which are still performed today. Most of Verdi’s inspiration came from the works of Shakespeare, with the opera Macbeth as an example. Verdi also incorporated political messages into his operas, as Italy was leaving Austrian Hapsburg rule at the time. A chorus of Nabucco is still considered an Italian patriotic theme.
The opera that this piece is from, Rigoletto, premiered in Venice in 1951, and is easily one of his greatest masterpieces. The opera is about a jester who has a curse placed on him by a man whose daughter was seduced by the Duke of the court with the help of Rigoletto. Rigoletto’s daughter is then seduced by the Duke, and Rigoletto decides to hire assassins to kill the Duke. The curse comes full circle when the daughter sacrifices herself to save the Duke, who she decided she loved. Rigoletto was considered by Verdi himself to be “the best material [he] put into music.” Though he composed 28 operas, Rigoletto is easily the most widely known and celebrated, if only due to “La donna è mobile.”
The piece is presented in the context of a man upset and frustrated about a woman whose mind constantly changes. The basis of the song shows that similarly to today’s music, a common trend of musical purpose is in the pursuit of love and passion. A recurring pattern, it seems, is the use of art and music to express emotions regarding the opposite sex. Experiences with women, then and today, seem to motivate and fuel the creation of most art and music. The piece is very expressive with the character revealing his emotions in the piece. Regardless of the different language and opera-style singing, you can tell the singer’s emotions just through the tone of the song and voice patterns. The song’s melody is in a soaring tenor line with accented notes, and moves in a lilting triple-meter rhythm. The song is very dynamic with very contrasting ranges, and is in strophic form. When listening to the melody, it is very noticeable that the last bar is not included. The orchestra stops abruptly every time the music reaches the final bar, which leaves a sense of anticipation and incompletion. However, at the end of the song, the final bar is included, which gives a sense of finality to the song.
Death Cab for Cutie is an alternative rock band that formed in Washington State back in 1997. The band has recently become a household name for most youth due to their unique sound and lyrical style.
The song “Cath” by Death Cab for Cutie contains many of the same components that “La donna è mobile” also contains. In the song, Cath is a girl that the singer loved in the distant past. The song discusses Cath’s previous choices in men and her constant fear of commitment. Cath left every man that she was ever with, even the men that were incredibly good for her. Men were at her feet, but any commitment scared her to the point of leaving. Cath’s mind changed so many times that when the time came to settle down, she chose a man that simply wasn’t at the same caliber as the men she ran away from in the past.
Though the man is “well-intentioned,” the love spark just isn’t there like it had been with past relationships. The song quotes “You said your vows and you closed the door on so many men who would’ve loved you more.” This relates to the line from the opera piece: “He is always miserable who trusts in her.” Though “Cath” takes place later on in the relationship between a man and woman, the story is similar. “La donna è mobile” is about a woman who has recently left the man due to her indecisiveness and lack of commitment, while “Cath” is about the same situation but later in life when the woman never broke from her pattern and is forced to settle with a man that just isn’t what she was capable of.
Both songs use a refrain that is repeated several times throughout the song, and both highlight the underlying shared theme: Women whose minds constantly change bring woe for men who admire them and eventually themselves. The refrain from “La donna è mobile” says that “Woman is flighty like a feather in the wind.” This emphasizes in a poetic way that women with frequently changing minds prove difficult for men to catch. The refrain written by Death Cab for Cutie includes the line “Soon everybody will ask what became of you because your heart was dying fast.” A little later in a similar story, the singer is pointing out that after so much indecisiveness and fear of commitment, everyone just started to wonder when she would settle down, if ever.
Though the piece from the opera and the modern day song share similar lyrical stories, emotional expression and struggles with women, there are little to no comparisons that can be made about the musical styles of the two songs. “La donna è mobile,” written in 1850, is an opera and utilizes the key elements of music that were used at the time. The piece is sung as an opera would be, with a large emphasis on vocals and a soaring tenor line. The song is in triple-meter, has large dynamics and is in strophic form. The song is directly taken from an opera with further meaning behind the song that is applicable to its respective story. The song also makes use of an orchestra complete with woodwinds, brass, and strings. “Cath” is performed by four guys, utilizing guitars, bass, and drums, as well as some synthetic sound. Though the song uses some modern trends in music today, the song is in majority largely different from modern music. The song was not written for a play, opera, or any underlying larger story, but simply for listening pleasure. The song makes use of a refrain, however does not share any other musical similarities with “La donna è mobile.” The song does not use triple meter and is not in strophic form.
“La donna è mobile” was a masterpiece, a cornerstone of its generation in music and still reverberates in music halls everywhere to this day. It is based on the constant pursuit of man to woman, which is a theme that will exist as long as humanity. The evidence of the immortal theme is shown by “Cath,” which is based on the same platform. However, the themes of popular music have clearly progressed since 1851, as the two songs share little to no musical qualities. Though operas have declined in the music world, the woe of a man rejected will always be present in music.

References

McCants, Clyde. Verdi’s Aida: The Record of the Life of the Opera On and Off the Stage. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2006.
Werfel, Franz and Paul Stefan. Verdi: The Man in His Letters. New York: L.B. Fischer, 1942.
Forney, Kristine. “National Schools of Romantic Opera.” In The Enjoyment of Music, edited by Kristine Forney and Joseph Machlis, 254-256. New York: W. W. Norton
& Company, 2011.

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[ 1 ]. McCants, Verdi’s Aida, 89.
[ 2 ]. Werfel and Stefan, Verdi, 56-64.
[ 3 ]. Forney, National Schools of Romantic Opera, 254-256