The Devils’ Dance: Doctor Faustus, Scene V (Lucy Moore) – Early Drama at the University of Kent

In this project I planned to look at a particular moment within Doctor Faustus from a musical perspective. I selected scene V, the scene in which Faustus signs over his soul to the devil, an in particular the moment when Mephastophilis abruptly takes action after witnessing Faustus’ second thoughts surrounding signing. The resulting dance of the devils appears to be a distraction and an act of persuasion for Faustus to prevent him from having dangerous thoughts which would prevent the signing of the deed. In response to reading this scene I decided to concentrate on the dance and compose music which would accompany the devils on stage.

After some research, ‘La Volta’ seemed to be the most appropriate dance. The dance was made famous by Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester; although this made the dance respectable, there were still elements of scandal that continued to surround the dance making it potentially suitable for the devils to perform. The instruments I decided to use were a lute, a bass and treble viol, recorder, flute, drum and tambourine. To create a representation of the dance, I found a YouTube video featuring La Volta. I decided to use the video and replace it with my own music. The main features of my composition include: an emphasised beat to dance to with ease; a devil’s chord, which was musically banned; dissonance to create a growing sense of tension; and the use of a major key to represent Faustus’ oblivious and happy outlook of the spectacle.