Richard Strauss

R. Strauss (1864-1949)

   Richard Strauss was a German composer and conductor, born in Munich, Bavaria, and trained privately and at the University of Munich. In 1885 he became as­sistant conductor at Meiningen, in Thuringia, under the German conductor and composer Hans von Bülow (1830-94); he became chief conductor upon von Bülow's retirement in November of the same year. From 1886 to 1889 Strauss was assistant conductor at the Court Opera in Munich. Dissatisfaction with his prospects for advancement, however, impelled him to accept the position of court conductor at Weimar, where he remained until 1894. The reputation which he earned there, both as conductor and com­poser, resulted in his being reengaged in 1894 as chief conductor of the Munich Court Opera. In 1898 he signed a contract as con­ductor with the Royal Opera of Berlin. Lib­eral leaves of absence enabled him to make extensive and highly successful concert tours of Europe and also the United States. In 1919, Strauss and the German conductor Franz Schalk (1863-1931) assumed the joint directorship of the Vienna State Opera, retaining the post until 1924. Thereafter he de­voted himself entirely to composition. He served as honorary head of the music department of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1935, and remained in Germany throughout World War II.

   The works of Strauss fall into three distinct periods. The compositions of the first period (1880-87) exhibit strongly the influence of the classic and romantic masters. Among the notable productions of this pe­riod are a string quartet (1881); a sonata for cello and piano (1883) ; a serenade for wind instruments (1876); a symphony in F minor (1884); and a symphonic fantasy, Aus Italien ("From Italy", 1887). In his second period (1887-1904) Strauss made his most notable contribution to the genre known as program music. He developed to a high degree the symphonic poem as originated by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (q.v.). In the symphonic poems Don Juan (1888), Macbeth (1887), Tod und Verklarung ("Death and Transfiguration", 1889), Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche ("Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks", 189S), Also Sprach Zarathustra ("Thus Spake Zarathustra", 1896), Don Quichote (1897), and Ein Heldenleben ("A Hero's Life", 1898), Strauss made substantial innovations in harmony and instrumentation, greatly expanding the expressive possibilities of the modern symphony orchestra. To the third period (1904-49) belong the operas Salome (1905), Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier (1911), Ariadne auf Naxos ("Ariadne of Naxos", 1912), Die Frau ohne Schatten ("The Woman without a Shadow", 1919), Die Mgyptiche Helena ("Helen of Egypt", 1928), Arabeüa (1933), Die Schweigsame Frau ("The Silent Woman", 1935), Friedenstag ("Day of Peace", 1938), and Daphne (1938) ; the bal­lets Josephs Legende ("Legend of Joseph", 1914) and Schlagobers ("Cream Puff", 1924) ; and the orchestral works Festliches Praeludium ("Festival Prelude", 1913), Eine Alpensinjonie ("An Alpine Symphony", 1915), and Metamorphoses (1948). Strauss also wrote over a hundred songs.