Classical Music Composer Richard Strauss - Classical Music Also sprach Zarathustr

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Classical Music Composer: Richard Strauss

Also sprach Zarathustr

Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent conductor.

Life and classical music works 

Strauss was born on 11 June 1864, in Munich, the son of Franz Strauss, who was the principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. In his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first music at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death.

During his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, and he also received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it: it was not until the age of 16 that he was able to obtain a score of Tristan und Isolde. Indeed, in the Strauss household the music of Richard Wagner was considered inferior. Later in life, Richard Strauss said and wrote that he deeply regretted this.

In 1882 he entered Munich University, where he studied philosophy and art history, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow, taking over from him at Meiningen when von Bülow resigned in 1885. His compositions at this time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn, true to his father's teachings. His Horn Concerto No. 1 (1882–1883) is representative of this period and is still regularly played.

Richard Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being bossy, ill-tempered, eccentric and outspoken, but the marriage, to all appearances, was essentially happy and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others. Nearly every major operatic role that Strauss wrote is for a soprano.

Tone poems

Strauss's style began to change when he met Alexander Ritter, a noted composer and violinist, and the husband of one of Richard Wagner's nieces. It was Ritter who persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems; he also introduced Strauss to the essays of Richard Wagner and the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer. Strauss went on to conduct one of Ritter's operas, and later Ritter wrote a poem based on Strauss's own Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung).

This newly found interest resulted in what is widely regarded as Strauss's first piece to show his mature personality, the tone poem Don Juan. Strauss went on to write a series of other tone poems, including Death and Transfiguration, 1888–1889), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, 1894–95), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra, 1896), Don Quixote (1897), Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life, 1897–98), Sinfonia Domestica (Domestic Symphony, 1902–03) and An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie), (1911–1915).

Opera classical music

Around the end of the 19th century, Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, Guntram in 1894 and Feuersnot in 1901 were considered obscene and were critical failures. However, in 1905 he produced Salome (based on the play by Oscar Wilde), and the reaction was passionate and extreme. The première was a major success, with the artists taking more than thirty-eight curtain calls. When it opened at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, there was such a public outcry that it was closed after just one performance. Doubtless, much of this was due to the subject matter, and negative publicity about Wilde's "immoral" behavior. However, some of the negative reactions may have stemmed from Strauss's use of dissonance, rarely heard then at the opera house. Elsewhere the opera was highly successful and Strauss reputedly financed his house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen completely from the revenues generated by the opera.

Strauss's next opera was Elektra, which took his use of dissonance even further (see also: Elektra chord). It was also the first opera in which Strauss collaborated with the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The two would work together on numerous other occasions. For these later works, however, Strauss moderated his harmonic language somewhat, with the result that works such as Der Rosenkavalier (1910) were great public successes. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1940. These included Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten (1918), Die ägyptische Helena (1927), and Arabella (1932), all in collaboration with Hofmannsthal; and Intermezzo (1923), for which Strauss provided his own libretto, Die schweigsame Frau (1934), with Stefan Zweig as librettist; Friedenstag (1936) and Daphne (1937) (libretto by Joseph Gregor and Zweig); Die Liebe der Danae (1940) (with Gregor) and Capriccio (libretto by Clemens Krauss) (1941). Strauss also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Hupfeld system, all of which survive today.

Classical music solo and chamber works

Strauss's solo and chamber works include early compositions for piano solo in a conservative harmonic style, many of which are lost; a rarely heard string quartet (opus 2); the famous violin sonata in E flat which he wrote in 1887; as well as a handful of late pieces. There are only six works in his entire output dating from after 1900 which are for chamber ensembles, and four are arrangements of portions of his operas. His last chamber work, an Allegretto in E for violin and piano, dates from 1940.

Classical music works

Operas

Ballet music

• Josephslegende (The Legend of Joseph), Op. 63 (1914)
• Schlagobers (Whipped Cream), Op. 70 (1921/2)

Tone poems

• Aus Italien, Op. 16 (1886)
• Don Juan, Op. 20 (1889)
• Macbeth, Op. 23 (1888/90)
• Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24 (1888–89)
• Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), Op. 28 (1895)
• Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (1896)
• Don Quixote, Op. 35 (1898)
• Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (1899)
• Symphonia Domestica (Domestic Symphony), Op. 53 (1904)
• Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), Op. 64 (1915)

Other orchestral works

• Symphony in D minor (1880)
• Symphony in F minor, Op. 12 (1883)
• Festive Prelude for orchestra with organ (1913)
• Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, suite for orchestra Op. 60 (1917)
• Film music for Der Rosenkavalier (1925)
• Japanese Festival Music (1940)
• Metamorphosen, for 23 solo strings (1945)

Concertante

• Romance for Clarinet and Orchestra (1879)
• Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 8 (1882)
• Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 11 (1882/83)
• Romance for Cello and Orchestra (1883)
• Burleske for piano and orchestra (1886–1890)
• Parergon zur Symphonia Domestica, for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 73 (1925; ded. Paul Wittgenstein)
• Panathenäenzug, for piano (left hand) and orchestra, Op. 74 (1926–1927; ded. Wittgenstein)
• Horn Concerto No. 2 in E flat major (1942)
• Oboe Concerto in D major (1945)
• Duett-Concertino, for clarinet and bassoon with string orchestra (1947)

Vocal/Choral

• Acht Lieder aus Letzte Blätter, Op. 10 (1885)
• Cäcilie, Op. 27 No. 2
• Heimliche Aufforderung ("Secret Invitation"), Op. 27 No. 3
• Morgen! ("Tomorrow!"), Op. 27 No. 4
• Zwei Gesänge, Op. 34 (1896/97) — 1. Der Abend 2. Hymne
• Wiegenlied ("Lullaby"), Op. 41 No. 1
• Deutsche Motette, Op. 62 (1913)
• Olympische Hymne, for chorus and orchestra (1934)
• Die Göttin im Putzzimmer (1935)
• Männerchöre (1935)
• An den Baum Daphne (1943)
• Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) (1948)

Recordings

Richard Strauss made a number of recordings of his music, as well as music by German and Austrian composers. Harold C. Schonberg in The Great Conductors (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967) says that, while Strauss was a very fine conductor, he often put scant effort into his recordings.

The 1929 performances of Till Eulenspiegel and Don Juan with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra have long been considered the best of his early electrical recordings; even the original 78 rpm discs had superior sound for their time and the performances were top-notch and quite exciting at times, despite a noticeable mistake by the French horn soloist in the famous opening passage of Till Eulenspiegel. The breaks for side changes, necessitated by the 78 rpm process, are rather curious because Strauss actually repeated a few notes each time the music resumed; careful editing for LP and CD reissues resolved the repetitions as well as the obvious interruptions in the music.

Schonberg focused primarily on Strauss's recordings of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A, as well as noting that Strauss played a breakneck version of Beethoven's ninth symphony in about 45 minutes. Concerning the Beethoven seventh symphony, Schonberg wrote, "There is almost never a ritard or a change in expression or nuance. The slow movement is almost as fast as the following vivace; and the last movement, with a big cut in it, is finished in four minutes, twenty-five seconds. (It should run between seven and eight minutes.)" Schonberg also complained that the Mozart symphony had "no force, no charm, no inflection, with a metronomic rigidity."

Peter Gutmann's 1994 review for classicalnotes.com says the performances of the Beethoven fifth and seventh symphonies, as well as Mozart's last three symphonies, are actually quite good, even if they are sometimes unconventional. "The Koch CDs", Gutman wrote, "represent all of Strauss's recordings of works by other composers. (The best of his readings of his own famous tone poems and other music are collected on DGG 429 925-2, 3 CDs.) It is true, as the critics suggest, that the readings forego overt emotion, but what emerges instead is a solid sense of structure, letting the music speak convincingly for itself. It is also true that Strauss's tempos are generally swift, but this, too, contributes to the structural cohesion and in any event is fully in keeping with our modern outlook in which speed is a virtue and attention spans are defined more by MTV clips and news sound bites than by evenings at the opera and thousand page novels."

Koch Legacy has also released recordings of overtures by Gluck, Carl Maria von Weber, Peter Cornelius and Wagner. The preference for German and Austrian composers in Germany in the 1920s through the 1940s was typical of the German nationalism that existed after World War I. Strauss clearly capitalized on national pride for the great German-speaking composers.

One of the more interesting of Strauss's recordings was perhaps the first complete performance of his An Alpine Symphony, made in 1941 and later released by EMI, because Strauss used the full complement of percussion instruments required in this spectacular symphony. The intensity of the performance rivaled that of the digital recording Herbert von Karajan made many years later with the Berlin Philharmonic.

There were many other recordings, including some taken from radio broadcasts and concerts, during the 1930s and early 1940s. Undoubtedly, the sheer volume of recorded performances would yield some definitive performances from a very capable and rather forward-looking conductor.

In 1944, Strauss celebrated his 80th birthday and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in recordings of his major orchestral works, as well as the seldom-heard Schlagobers (Whipped Cream) ballet music. Some find more feeling in these performances than in Strauss's earlier recordings, which were recorded on the Magnetophon tape recording equipment. Vanguard Records later issued the recordings on LPs. Some of these recordings have been reissued on CD by Preiser and are of remarkable fidelity.

Richard Strauss was the composer of the music on the first compact disc to be commercially released: Deutsche Grammophon's 1983 release of their 1980 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony.

Classical Music Composer: Richard Strauss

Also sprach Zarathustr

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (Eng. Thus Spoke Zarathustra)  is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. The composer conducted its first performance in Frankfurt. A typical performance lasts half an hour.

The work has been part of the classical repertoire since its introduction in 1896. The introduction fanfare "Sunrise" has become known to the general public due to its use as a musical motif in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Eumir Deodato's jazz-pop version of the song won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and went to No. 2 in the pop charts in the US, No. 3 in Canada, and No. 7 in the UK. It was subsequently used to great effect in the 1979 film Being There, starring Peter Sellers and Shirley Maclaine. A "fusion" version under the title "2002 Zarathustrevisted", arranged by Dale DeVoe, was recorded by the Stan Kenton Orchestra on their 1974 LP 7.5 on the Richter Scale. It has also been covered extensively by the rock band Phish in their live performances and included in several of their live releases. A rock version by Spacehog was included as the title track of their 2001 album The Hogyssey.

Instrumentation to the classical music

The orchestra consists of the following:

• woodwinds: piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets in E-flat and B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon
• brass: 6 horns in F, 4 trumpets in C, 3 trombones, 2 tubas
• percussion: timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, bell on low E
• keyboard: organ
• strings: 2 harps, violins i, ii (16 each), violas (12), cellos (12), double basses (8) (several with low C string).

Structure

The piece is divided into nine sections played with only three clear breaks. Strauss named the sections after selected chapters in the book:

1. Einleitung (Introduction), or sunrise (this is the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme)
2. Von den Hinterweltlern (Of the Backworldsmen)
3. Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing)
4. Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of the Joys and Passions)
5. Das Grablied (The Grave-Song)
6. Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science)
7. Der Genesende (The Convalescent)
8. Das Tanzlied (The Dance Song)
9. Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer)

The piece starts with a sustained double low C , 32' pitch, on the double basses, contrabassoon and organ. This leads into the brass fanfare of the Introduction and introduces the "dawn" motif (from "Zarathustra's Prologue", the text of which is included in the printed score) that permeates the structure of the entire work: the motif includes three notes, in intervals of a fifth and octave, as C-G-C (also called the Nature-motif). On its first appearance, the motif is a part of the first five notes of the natural overtone series: octave, octave and fifth, two octaves, two octaves and major third (played as part of a C major chord with the third doubled). The major third is immediately changed to a minor third, which is the first note played in the work (E flat) that is not part of the overtone series.

"Of the Backworldsmen" begins with cellos, double-basses and organ pedal before opening up into a lyrical passage for the entire section. The following two sections, "Of the Great Yearning" and "Of Joys and Passions", both introduce motifs that are more chromatic in nature.

"Of Science" features an unusual fugue beginning in the double-basses and cellos, which consists of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. It is one of the very few sections in the orchestral literature where the basses must play a contra-b (lowest b on a piano).

"The Convalescent" acts as a reprise of the original motif, and climaxes with a massive chord in the entire orchestra.

"The Dance Song" features a very prominent violin solo throughout the section. The end of the "Song of the Night Wanderer" leaves the piece half resolved, with high flutes, piccolos and violins playing a B major chord, while the lower strings pluck a C.

One of the major compositional themes of the piece is the contrast between the keys of B major, representing humanity, and C major, representing the universe. Although B and C are adjacent notes, these keys are tonally dissimilar: B major uses five sharps, while C major has none.

World riddle theme

There are two viewpoints about the World riddle theme (a particular sequence of notes in the melody). Some sources denote the fifth/octave intervals (C-G-C (8va)) as the World riddle motif. However, other sources refer to the 2 conflicting keys in the final section as representing the World riddle (C-G-C B-F♯-B (8va)), with the unresolved harmonic progression being an unfinished or unsolved riddle: the melody does not conclude with a clearly defined tonic note as being either C or B, hence it is unfinished. The ending of the composition has been described:

“

But the riddle is not solved. The tone-poem ends enigmatically in two keys, the Nature-motif plucked softly, by the basses in its original key of C—and above the woodwinds, in the key of B major. The unsolvable end of the universe: for Strauss was not pacified by Nietzsche's solution.

”

Neither C major nor B major is established as the tonic at the end of the composition.