Richard Strauss
From Philosopedia
Strauss, Richard (11 Jun 1864 - 8 Sep 1949)
Strauss, who was no relation to the Viennese composer of waltzes, was a German composer and conductor who began composing when he was six years old. His father was a musical conservative, but, influenced by Robert Schumann, young Richard was never at home with the sonata form. His Symphony in D Minor (1880) was performed when he was but a teenager. Death and Transfiguration (1889), Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (1895), and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1895) are evocative and richly orchestrated.
A student of philosophy, Strauss expressed his freethought convictions in the symphonic poem based upon Nietzsche’s work, Sprach Zarathustra, which members of the clergy angrily denounced.
Electra (1909, a work that led to his being called an “awful modernist”), Der Rosenkavalier (1911), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1912) were widely acclaimed. Music critics have stated that, almost single-handedly, he carried the Wagnerian opera tradition and the romantic Lisztian tone poem into the twentieth century. He is also one of the great composers of lieder. Salomé (1905), based on the play by Oscar Wilde, stretched tonality and used dissonance and chromaticism.
According to Steve Schwartz, in a Strauss homepage on the Web, the composer
- became an official of the Third Reich, although his job was largely ceremonial, and he considered most of the powerful Nazis Philistines and barbarians. The fact that his grandchildren were part Jewish made him keep his criticisms private. Even so, his private letters were read and he was warned. His silence and his continued residence in Germany caused him problems during the postwar de-nazification programs.”
Schwartz added that in the 1940s,
- Strauss’s Capriccio showed his interest in the chamber ensemble and counterpoint and this “produced such masterpieces as the Second Horn Concerto (1942); Metamorphosen (1945) for twenty-three strings; the Oboe Concerto (1945); and the Duett-Concertino (1947) for clarinet, bassoon, strings, and harp. For those used to Strauss's earlier "punch-and-flood" idiom, typified by Heldenleben and the Symphonia domestica (1904), the late works present a puzzle. Indeed, many conductors today have trouble with them—the pieces require a degree of give-and-take found in the greatest chamber music.” His final work was Four Last Songs (1948).
Alex Ross, calling Strauss “the composer of the century” in The New Yorker (20 December 1999), added,
- He did not believe in God, and he saw no spiritual dimension in his art.
