Richard Strauss And His World

Edited by Gilliam Bryan
Short description/annotation
Influencing musical life from the 1880s through the First World War and remaining productive into the 1940s, Richard Strauss enjoyed a remarkable career in a constantly changing artistic and political climate. This volume presents essays on Strauss'' musical works and brings together letters and memoirs from various periods of the composer''s life.
Description
Strongly influencing European musical life from the 1880s through the First World War and remaining highly productive into the 1940s, Richard Strauss enjoyed a remarkable career in a constantly changing artistic and political climate. This volume presents six original essays on Strauss''s musical works--including tone poems, lieder, and operas--and brings together letters, memoirs, and criticism from various periods of the composer''s life. Many of these materials appear in English for the first time. In the essays Leon Botstein contradicts the notion of the composer''s stylistic "about face" after Elektra; Derrick Puffett reinforces the argument for Strauss''s artistic consistency by tracing in the tone poems and operas the phenomenon of pitch specificity; James Hepokoski establishes Strauss as an early modernist in an examination of Macbeth; Michael Steinberg probes the composer''s political sensibility as expressed in the 1930s through his music and use of such texts as Friedenstag and Daphne; Bryan Gilliam discusses the genesis of both the text and the music in the final scene of Daphne; Timothy Jackson in his thorough source study argues for a new addition to the so-called Four Last Songs. Among the correspondence are previously untranslated letters between Strauss and his post-Hofmannsthal librettist, Joseph Gregor. The memoirs range from early biographical sketches to Rudolf Hartmann''s moving account of his last visit with Strauss shortly before the composer''s death. Critical reviews include recently translated essays by Theodor Adorno, Guido Adler, Paul Bekker, and Julius Korngold.
Table of contents
Preface and AcknowledgmentsPt. IEssaysThe Enigmas of Richard Strauss: A Revisionist View3Daphne''s Transformation33Structure and Program in Macbeth: A Proposed Reading of Strauss''s First Symphonic Poem67Ruhe, meine Seele! and the Letzte Orchesterlieder90"Lass Er die Musi, wo sie ist": Pitch Specificity in Strauss138Richard Strauss and the Question164Pt. IILettersSelections from the Strauss-Thuille CorrespondenceA Glimpse of Strauss during His Formative Years193Selections from the Strauss-Gregor Correspondence: The Genesis of Daphne237Pt. IIIMemoirsRichard Strauss: The Man273Richard Strauss: Seer and Idealist280Richard Strauss at Eighty287The Last Visit with Richard Strauss295Pt. IVCriticism and ReceptionOn the Tone Poems of Richard Strauss305Strauss and the Viennese Critics (1896-1924): Reviews by Gustav Schoenaich, Robert Hirschfeld, Guido Adler, Max Kalbeck, Julius Korngold, and Karl Klaus311Elektra: A Study by Paul Bekker372Richard Strauss at Sixty406Index of Names and Compositions417List of Contributors425
Review quote
"This book of essays, letters, memoirs, and criticism is a most cordial study of Strauss and his music... This is a significant book that gives readers a very positive assessment of a very important 20th-century composer."--Choice