Strauss

Strauss, born in Germany on June 11, 1864, died on September 8, 1949, musician. His major works include "Don Juan", "Death and Purification", etc.

Richard Strauss’s music appeared at the turn of the two centuries. It not only writes about the pain and struggle of people in the previous century, but also writes about the joy and confusion of people in the next century. The romanticism of the 19th century and the popularism of the 20th century gave fruit in the music of Richard Strauss - a fragile and thin artistic flower with sweetness and bitterness.

Chinese name: Richard Strauss

Nationality: Germany

Date of birth: June 11, 1864

Date of death: September 8, 1949

Occupation: Musician

Representative works: "Don Juan" and "Death and Purification"

Life Experience< /p>

Early Experience

On June 11, 1864, a baby was born in the home of Franz Joseph Strauss, the chief horn player of the Munich Court Orchestra in Germany. Richard Strauss later became famous in Germany, Austria and even the world music scene. Richard Strauss showed musical talent from an early age. He learned piano from a friend of his father at the age of four, and violin from his cousin at the age of eight. From the age of eleven, he studied with F.W. May, the assistant conductor of the court orchestra. Yael studied composition theory. Richard Strauss's father had very conservative musical tastes. The music gods he believed in were Mozart, Beethoven and other classical masters. He hated Wagner and his theories and did not allow his children to listen to music works from the second half of the nineteenth century. Therefore, little Richard received very limited musical education at home.

In 1874

Richard Strauss finished primary school and studied at Ludwig Middle School in the city. He listened to Wagner's works in school and watched the performances of "Tannhauser", "Siegfried" and "Lohengrin". His heart was shocked by this great art. He once wrote: "Despite my father's objections, I stepped into this magical world of art - "The Ring of the Nibelungs", "Tristan and Isolde" and so on. I still remember the first time I was seventeen years old. The first time I read the score of "Tristan and Isolde" I was fascinated and impatient." (Quoted from Richard Strauss: "Memoirs" (1949)) Richard Straw. It was at that time that Sri Lanka's music style gradually took shape. His boyhood works include String Quartet in A major, Sunrise March in E flat major, Piano Sonata in B minor and several piano pieces.

In the winter of 1882

Richard Strauss studied philosophy, aesthetics and art history at the University of Munich. He never had the opportunity to enter the conservatory to study music systematically. In 1883, he left university and concentrated on music creation. While in college, he composed the Symphony in D minor, Violin Concerto in D minor, Cello Sonata in F major, and Serenade in E flat major, which were performed in Vienna and Dresden respectively and were well received by the public.

In 1884

He visited Berlin for the first time and met the famous conductor Hans von Bülow. Bülow was highly respected at the time and took a fancy to the young man, calling him "by far the most unique composer after Brahms". He asked him to write a suite in B flat major for the Mainen court orchestra, and Conducted the premiere in person.

His works during this period include the Horn Concerto in F major, the Symphony in F minor, the piano music and painting, the piano string quartet in C minor, nine art songs written for Green's poems, and a poem based on Goethe's " Vocal chorus suite written by "The Wanderer's Charge Song" and so on. These works have been performed in Germany. Bülow affectionately called him "Richard III", and Richard Strauss quickly became famous.

In 1885

Richard Strauss was appointed deputy conductor of the Mainen Palace Orchestra and learned conducting under Bülow. Soon he went on stage to perform, conducting and performing his own Symphony in F minor and Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor (K.491), and taking on the solo part himself. Brahms, the leader of the Leipzig School, commented after listening to the works of Richard Strauss in Maingen: "The music is very charming, but in many places the theme is off topic." Soon, Bülow resigned. Saxony──The Duke of Mainingen wants to appoint Richard Strauss as the successor band leader and also reduce the number of band members. Richard Strauss was deeply dissatisfied, did not accept the position, and left Maingen.

Later he signed a three-year contract with the Munich Opera House as third conductor.

While working in the Mainen Court Orchestra, Richard Strauss formed a deep friendship with Alex Ritter, the first violinist of the orchestra. Ritter's wife was a niece of Wagner. At the same time, Ritter was also a sincere follower of Wagner and Liszt's art. His artistic tendency influenced Richard Strauss. Ritter advised Richard Strauss to give up his classicist tendencies, read Wagner's literary theory, read Schopenhauer's books, and follow the romantic lines of Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner. In Mainen, Richard Strauss completed the transformation of his artistic thoughts. He wrote: "New (artistic) concepts must have new (artistic) forms - this is the principle of Liszt's symphonic poetry. The real factor that determines creation is the idea of ??poetry - this became my guide for later writing symphonic poetry. Principle." (Quoted from Richard Strauss: (Memoirs).) What really marks the transformation of Richard Strauss's artistic thinking is the symphonic fantasy "Italy" he created during this period, which shows that He switched from composing untitled instrumental music to writing titled music, and his musical style changed from following Mendelssohn to following Liszt. Reviews of this turning point have been mixed. Perhaps it will take some time for the public to become familiar with and adapt to this "new" Richard Strauss style.

During his three years at the Munich Opera House, Richard Strauss rarely had the opportunity to participate in the performance of important works except for conducting a few operas by Mozart and Verdi. In 1887, when he was a guest conductor in Leipzig, he met the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler and soon became a person who was passionate about Mahler's art. In the summer of this year, he began to compose the tone poems "Macbeth", "Don Juan" and "Death and Purification". He fell in love with the soprano Paulina de Anna. In the following years, he collaborated with Anna to perform several famous operas (including Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and Mozart's "Cosù" - this is Richard Strauss's most famous opera. Two of my favorite dramas). In 1894, they finally got married. His wedding gift to her was four art songs (Op.27), titled "Morning", "Caesili", "Quiet, My Soul" and "Secret Request".

After 1889

After 1889, his tone poems "Tang·Sulfur" and "Death and Purification" were performed one after another and achieved great success. Richard Strauss is also recognized by critics as the most important German composer after Wagner's death. That same year, he ended his tenure at the Munich Opera. In 1891, Richard Strauss went to the Bayrot Theater (the Bayrot Theater was a venue for the performance of Wagner's works. It was a sensation for a while and was known as the "Holy Place of Bayrot") as a chorus conductor. He was deeply impressed by Wagner. The appreciation of the widow Cosima. In August 1893, he directed the performance of "Tannh?user" at the Bayrot Theater with unprecedented success; in Munich, he conducted the performances of "Escape from the Harem", "Women's Heart", "Don Sulfur" and "Tristan and Iseult". "Germany" and other famous dramas, it was also very popular. However, he ran into trouble while rehearsing his own opera, Gunteran. The singers refused to sing, much to Strauss's distress. In the next few years, he had to give up opera creation and specialize in tone poetry. "The Mischief of Tier Euronspiegel" (1895), "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (1896), "Don Quixote" (1897) and "The Hero's Life" (1898) and other works stood out one after another, and they were all welcomed and praised.

1896-1898

Richard Strauss’s conducting career reached its peak. He served as chief conductor of the Royal Opera House in Berlin. During the eight-month season, he conducted 71 concerts and 25 operas (including two complete performances of the four plays of "The Ring of the Nibelung"). In Weimar he discovered and performed Liszt's "Fatus" and other works, and in Berlin he performed works by Grieg, Mahler, Sibelius and Elgar. Richard Strauss's talent and reputation as a conductor cannot be ignored. Together with Mahler and Weingartner, he influenced German and Austrian music performances from 1890 to 1910, and traveled and performed throughout Europe from time to time.

Richard Strauss was not discouraged by the failure of his first opera "Gunteran" and continued to explore writing new operas. In 1901, he completed the music composition of the opera "Fire".

This comedy based on a medieval Flemish legend premiered in Dresden and was a huge success and remained a hit for a long time. This gave Richard Strauss great encouragement.

In 1903

Richard Strauss completed the opera "Salome" and premiered it in Dresden at the end of 1905. This work's aesthetic tendencies and descriptions of perverted eroticism have caused trouble for censorship agencies in various countries, but musically it is the pinnacle of Richard Strauss's operatic works. The exaggeration of the music is similar to the explicit description in the script.

In 1904

Richard Strauss completed the symphony "Domestic Symphony" and performed it in New York, with the author personally conducting it.

In 1908

Richard Strauss met the Austrian poet and dramatist Hugo von Hoffmann Starr and began to cooperate with him. The first work they collaborated on was Elektra - an opera that was more external than Salome but musically inferior. In 1910, they collaborated to complete the three-act comic opera "Dennis Rider". In 1911, it was performed in Dresden and was widely praised by the opera community, becoming a repertoire of Richard Strauss's operas.

In 1913

Richard Strauss completed the choral song "Deutsche Motet", the orchestral "Festival Prelude" and other works.

1914

In May, Oxford University awarded Richard Strauss a doctorate in music to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. In the same year, he began to compose the opera "Lady without a Shadow". After the outbreak of World War I, he wrote "Alpine Symphony", which premiered in Berlin in October 1915. In 1916, Hofmann Starr recommended Hermann Barr as the author of Richard Strauss' libretto. Richard Strauss used an episode from his marriage to his wife Paulina to conceive the opera "Intermezzo", which was not completed until 1924.

1910-1918

Richard Strauss has been the permanent conductor of the Royal Opera House in Berlin. From 1919, he moved to Vienna and served as conductor of the local State Opera. During this period, he created few works. In addition to the opera "Intermezzo", he also had the ballet "Cream".

In 1923

He collaborated with Hofmann Starr again to create the opera "Helena of Egypt", which failed to premiere five years later. Critics unanimously believe that it is a representative work that shows that Richard Strauss's creative power has declined. The opera "Arabella" written between 1928 and 1932 also lacked new ideas and was similar in style to his earlier works.

In 1933

When Richard Strauss started writing a new opera work "Silent Woman", the National Socialist Party headed by Hitler came to power. As a musician, Richard Strauss had not been interested in politics for decades. He looked down on many politicians and only concentrated on art. But at this year's Bayrot Music Festival, the famous conductor Toscanini refused to participate in the performance because he protested the Nazis' persecution of the Jews. In order to save the festival and out of respect for Wagner's art, Richard Strauss replaced Toscanini and conducted this grand performance with the participation of Nazi party dignitaries. In view of Richard Strauss's reputation at the time, the Nazi Party was in great need of such a cultural figure to play a propaganda role. Therefore, they exaggerated Richard Strauss's move and regarded his command of the performance as evidence of supporting the Nazi party. In November of this year, when Propaganda Minister Goebbels established the Nazi "State Music Bureau", he appointed Richard Strauss as the director without his consent. In this way, Richard Strauss began his own disgraceful history. of one page.

Richard Strauss lacked political consciousness, or in other words, he had the bad nature of a German mediocre. When he was the director of the National Music Bureau, he did not even discover that the librettist with whom he was collaborating on the opera was the Jewish Stephen Zweig, whom he had met a few years earlier. For this, the Nazis accused Richard Strauss in radio broadcasts. Zweig took refuge in Zurich and recommended others to write plays for Richard Strauss. Richard Strauss was unwilling to face reality and insisted on writing Zweig's name, which had been removed, on posters and program notes. His request was fulfilled, but Hitler, Goebbels and others who had promised to attend the premiere of the opera "Silent Women" did not come. Four days later, the Nazis banned the opera and ordered Richard Strauss to resign as director of the National Music Bureau for health reasons.

So, Richard Strauss compromised and wrote a humble letter to Hitler. Although he retained his position by doing this, the fascist leaders never gave him or his family any special favor.

1938

The opera "Freedom", composed by Richard Strauss and lyrics by J. Grieg, premiered. This is a play that celebrates peace. However, for ulterior political and military purposes, the Nazi authorities showed unusual enthusiasm for it and performed it for a hundred consecutive performances, giving people the illusion of singing and dancing. Naturally, Richard Strauss's creation became a propaganda material for this unjust cause, which cannot but be said to be a great irony to him. Then, the two of them collaborated on another opera, Diana's Love, which was Richard Strauss's last operatic work.

In 1939

The war broke out. For the Nazis, Richard Strauss had no meaning at this time. In Garmisch, he refused to allow German stragglers to live in his home. As a result, his Jewish daughter-in-law Alice and their children were expelled from Germany. In 1941, Richard Strauss and his family were allowed to settle in Vienna. There he wrote the Second Horn Concerto, in a style that seemed to return to the pattern of similar works from his youth. In Vienna, he had frequent contacts with the Nazi leader B. von Schirach to protect himself. In June 1944, despite official disapproval of celebrations for Richard Strauss's 80th birthday, Sirach and others still held events in a private capacity. Richard Strauss had said that he would not premiere Diana's Love before the end of the war, but after the persuasion of his friend Klaus, he performed it at the Salzburg Music Festival in August.

In the spring of 1945,

Richard Strauss wrote "Transfiguration" for 23 string instruments, which seemed to be a review of his half-century music career. After the war ended in 1945, Richard Strauss and his wife self-exiled to Switzerland. Because of his ignominious past, his name was included on the list of the Inquisition for the Elimination of Nazis. During this period, he wrote an oboe concerto and other woodwind pieces. In 1947, the United Kingdom held a Richard Strauss Music Festival, inviting him to live in London for a month and conducting and performing his own works, which unofficially partially restored his reputation. In 1948, the Tribunal for the Elimination of Nazis officially announced that he would be allowed to return to Germany. In May 1949, Richard Strauss dragged his illness back to China and underwent major surgery, taking with him the "Four Last Lieders" he had just completed. He caught up with the celebrations for his eighty-fifth birthday in June; in August, he suffered a heart attack. On September 8, 1949, he passed away without pain. Before he died, he murmured to his daughter-in-law: "This is what death is like, exactly like the "Death and Purification" I wrote."

Style of work

Richard S. Most of Trauss's works are operas or tone poems. His opera music is not as attractive as the lyrics and plot of the opera, and seems a bit pale and hoarse. Romanticism and popular artistic views did not seem to find an ideal juncture in his opera form. However, in terms of artistic effect and artistic quality, his tone poetry works are no less than other similar pieces of music after Liszt's symphonic poems. He developed his own title of "poetry in music, performance in music" and formed his own true style.

Character Evaluation

Richard Strauss's tone poems are poems, legends and even poems that inspired the author's creation with the rich timbre and sound of the big orchestra at the end of the 19th century. The appropriate combination of philosophy and words creates a new artistic wonderland. In his works, we seem to hear the voice of a genius who uses living musical language to speak, write poetry and paint.

Richard Strauss’s life was full of drama, but his art was like the warm sunshine in Southern Europe, full of purity and joy like mist and mist. Just like the musicians whom Nietzsche admired, he seemed to "hear a deeper and more intense prelude ringing in his ears, a more uninhibited and more mysterious music, a kind of ultra-German music. It is in This blue and surging seaside will never fade away, nor become pale, nor hazy under the clear sea sky."