Posted on Jun 11, 2019
Richard Strauss Biography - Life of German Composer
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"On June 11, 1864, Richard Strauss, German composer (Don Quixote), was born in Munich, Germany (d. 1949). From the article:
"Richard Strauss was a famous German composer. He is known for his operas which include Salome, Der Rosenkavalier and Four Last Songs. He is also known for his orchestral works such as Metamorphosen. He was a very prominent conductor throughout Austria and Germany. Together with Gustav Mahler, they represent the late period German Romanticism after Richard Wagner when pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with advanced harmonic style.
Early Life
Richard was born on June 11, 1864, in Munich. He was the son of Franz Strauss, a principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. As a young man, he received thorough musical education from his dad. At the age of six, he wrote his very first composition and continued to write until he died.
Richard Strauss attended rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra and he also received private instruction in orchestration and music theory. In 1872, he started receiving violin instructions at the Royal School of Music. In 1874, Richard heard his very first Wagner operas, Tannhauser and Lohengrin. Wagner had a great influence on Richard’s music style. However, his musically conservative dad forbade him to study it.
Growing a Musical Career
In 1882, Richard gave his first performance in Vienna. The same year, he joined the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Here he studied Art History and Philosophy. He left the university after one year to go to Berlin where he studied for a while before getting a job as an assistant conductor of Hans Bulow.
He learned the art of conducting by keenly observing Bulow’s rehearsals. Bulow was very impressed by young Richard Strauss. He therefore chose Richard as his successor as the conductor of the Meiningen orchestra in 1885 after he resigned.
Musical Career Highlights
Some of Richard’s first compositions were solo and chamber works. The pieces include early compositions for piano solo in a very conservative harmonic style. Most of these are now lost. After 1890, Strauss composed for chamber groups. His energy was totally absorbed with operas and large scale orchestral works. Four of his chamber pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas. His final independent chamber works date back to 1940.
Tone Poems
95c30/huch/1273/0231
Strauss’s style started to seriously develop and experience changes in 1885. This was after meeting Alexander Ritter, a popular composer and violinist. Ritter Persuaded Richard Strauss to leave the conservative style of his youth and concentrate on writing tone poems. Ritter also introduced Strauss to Richard Wagner’s essays and Arthur Schopenhauer’s writings.
Richard went ahead to conduct one of Ritter’s operas. Ritter also wrote a poem describing the events in Strauss’s tone poem called Death and Transfiguration. Ritter’s influence on Strauss resulted in his very first piece that showed his mature personality, Don Juan in 1888. This poem displayed a brand new kind of virtuosity in its bravura orchestral manner. Other poems include Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote (1897), Symphonia Domestica in 1903 and Ein Heldenleben in 1898.
Strauss and the Opera
At the end of the 19th century, Richard Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two operas were Guntram in 1894 and Feuersnot in 1901. Later in 1905, he produced Salome, which was a dissonant modernist opera that was based on the play by Oscar Wilde and received a passionate reaction from the audience.
His next opera – Elektra – was completed in 1909 and it was the first opera on which he collaborated with a poet named Hugo Hofmannsthal. The two continued to work together on many other occasions. Other operas that he worked on include Arabella in 1932, Intermezzo in 1923, Friedenstag in 1935 and Daphne in 1937.
Other Works
During his lifetime, Richard Strauss produced Lieder. Four Last Songs are some of the best known together with Cacilie and others. In 1948, he wrote his last work, the aforementioned Four Last Songs for orchestra and soprano.
Strauss and the Nazis
In 1933, when Richard was 68 years, the Nazi Party rose to power. Richard never joined this party and even avoided Nazi forms of greetings. However, for safety reasons, he cooperated with the Nazi regime. In November of 1933, he was appointed to the post of president of Reichsmusikkammer, the state Music Bureau.
In 1938, while the entire nation was preparing for war, Richard created Friedenstag. This opera was set in a besieged fortress during the Thirty Year’s War. In 1942, Richard moved with his family to Vienna. In 1945, he completed Metamorphosen, whichs is a work for 23 solo strings.
Death and Legacy
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949. He was 85 years old. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest composers of the first half of 20th century."
"Richard Strauss was a famous German composer. He is known for his operas which include Salome, Der Rosenkavalier and Four Last Songs. He is also known for his orchestral works such as Metamorphosen. He was a very prominent conductor throughout Austria and Germany. Together with Gustav Mahler, they represent the late period German Romanticism after Richard Wagner when pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with advanced harmonic style.
Early Life
Richard was born on June 11, 1864, in Munich. He was the son of Franz Strauss, a principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. As a young man, he received thorough musical education from his dad. At the age of six, he wrote his very first composition and continued to write until he died.
Richard Strauss attended rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra and he also received private instruction in orchestration and music theory. In 1872, he started receiving violin instructions at the Royal School of Music. In 1874, Richard heard his very first Wagner operas, Tannhauser and Lohengrin. Wagner had a great influence on Richard’s music style. However, his musically conservative dad forbade him to study it.
Growing a Musical Career
In 1882, Richard gave his first performance in Vienna. The same year, he joined the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Here he studied Art History and Philosophy. He left the university after one year to go to Berlin where he studied for a while before getting a job as an assistant conductor of Hans Bulow.
He learned the art of conducting by keenly observing Bulow’s rehearsals. Bulow was very impressed by young Richard Strauss. He therefore chose Richard as his successor as the conductor of the Meiningen orchestra in 1885 after he resigned.
Musical Career Highlights
Some of Richard’s first compositions were solo and chamber works. The pieces include early compositions for piano solo in a very conservative harmonic style. Most of these are now lost. After 1890, Strauss composed for chamber groups. His energy was totally absorbed with operas and large scale orchestral works. Four of his chamber pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas. His final independent chamber works date back to 1940.
Tone Poems
95c30/huch/1273/0231
Strauss’s style started to seriously develop and experience changes in 1885. This was after meeting Alexander Ritter, a popular composer and violinist. Ritter Persuaded Richard Strauss to leave the conservative style of his youth and concentrate on writing tone poems. Ritter also introduced Strauss to Richard Wagner’s essays and Arthur Schopenhauer’s writings.
Richard went ahead to conduct one of Ritter’s operas. Ritter also wrote a poem describing the events in Strauss’s tone poem called Death and Transfiguration. Ritter’s influence on Strauss resulted in his very first piece that showed his mature personality, Don Juan in 1888. This poem displayed a brand new kind of virtuosity in its bravura orchestral manner. Other poems include Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote (1897), Symphonia Domestica in 1903 and Ein Heldenleben in 1898.
Strauss and the Opera
At the end of the 19th century, Richard Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two operas were Guntram in 1894 and Feuersnot in 1901. Later in 1905, he produced Salome, which was a dissonant modernist opera that was based on the play by Oscar Wilde and received a passionate reaction from the audience.
His next opera – Elektra – was completed in 1909 and it was the first opera on which he collaborated with a poet named Hugo Hofmannsthal. The two continued to work together on many other occasions. Other operas that he worked on include Arabella in 1932, Intermezzo in 1923, Friedenstag in 1935 and Daphne in 1937.
Other Works
During his lifetime, Richard Strauss produced Lieder. Four Last Songs are some of the best known together with Cacilie and others. In 1948, he wrote his last work, the aforementioned Four Last Songs for orchestra and soprano.
Strauss and the Nazis
In 1933, when Richard was 68 years, the Nazi Party rose to power. Richard never joined this party and even avoided Nazi forms of greetings. However, for safety reasons, he cooperated with the Nazi regime. In November of 1933, he was appointed to the post of president of Reichsmusikkammer, the state Music Bureau.
In 1938, while the entire nation was preparing for war, Richard created Friedenstag. This opera was set in a besieged fortress during the Thirty Year’s War. In 1942, Richard moved with his family to Vienna. In 1945, he completed Metamorphosen, whichs is a work for 23 solo strings.
Death and Legacy
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949. He was 85 years old. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest composers of the first half of 20th century."
Richard Strauss Biography - Life of German Composer
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Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that June 11 is the anniversary of the birth of German composer Richard Strauss.
Image: Richard Strauss.
RICHARD STRAUSS -REMEMBERED-
Music in this video
1. Song: Heimliche Aufforderung (Nr.27, 3)
Artist: Richard Strauss / Alfred Poell
Album: Richard Strauss begleitet (Vol. 1)
2. Song: Das Deutsche Lied: Morgen, op. 27 Nr. 4
Artist: Michael Raucheisen
Album: Michael Raucheisen Vol. 11
3. Song: Ariadne auf Naxos
Artist: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Rudolf Schock, Rita Streich, Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Album: Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ImK5CpSmo
Background from boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main?composerid=2705&ttype=BIOGRAPHY
Richard Strauss
b. 11 June 1864, Munich
d. 8 September 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
"Strauss was born in Munich in 11 June 1864, the son of Franz Strauss, first horn in the court orchestra there. He had his first piano lessoins at the age of four and began violin studies four years after that; another invaluable part of his apprenticeship was being able to sit in on the rehearsals of the orchestra in which his father played. Strauss’ first efforts in composition were made as early as 1870, so that by the time he entered the Royal Grammar School, the Ludwigs-Gymnasium, in 1874, he was already a practised composer. Strauss enjoyed many performances of his works in the seven years of his classical education there. His first orchestral work, completed in 1877, was a Serenade in G major, dedicated to his teacher, Frierich Wilhelm Mayer; his first symphony, in D minor, followed in 1881, contemporaneously with a string quartet in A major and a Festive March, his "official" Op. 1.
In 1874 Strauss had heard the music of Wagner for the first time; in 1883, in Berlin with his father, he now heard his first Brahms. Both encounters marked him deeply. In Berlin he also enjoyed performances of several of his works with the Meiningen Orchestra conducted by Hans von Bülow, and in 1884 he conducted the orchestra himself for the first time; within a year he was appointed assistant conductor to von Bülow, beating off competition from Mahler and Weingartner. He had already composed many of the works that are now permanent parts of the repertoire, including the First Horn Concerto and the song Zueignung.
In 1886 Strauss left the Meiningen Orchestra to take up the post of third conductor at the Munich Opera Orchestra. A visit to Italy that year provided him with the inspiration for his "symphonic fantasy" Aus Italien, premiered the following year; but it was Don Juan, written in 1888 and first performed in 1889, that provided him with his real breakthrough: he was instantly hailed as the most important and forward-looking German composer since Wagner.
Strauss’ daily bread was earned in the opera house, so it was not going to be long before he tried to compose a stage work himself. His first attempt, Guntram (1894), flopped, but the second, Feuersnot (1898), was received with enthusiasm on its first production, in Dresden in 1901. Strauss was now an internationally acclaimed figure, both as composer and conductor: he gave the first performance of the Sinfonia domestica, for example, in 1904, in New York on a visit to the USA. The vociferously applauded premiere of his third opera, Salome, in Dresden in 1905 set the seal on his standing as one of the most important living composers.
The most significant association of his operatic career came also in 1905, when he began to collaborate with Hugo von Hoffmansthal on a libretto for Elektra, first performed in Dresden four years later. Strauss meantime had used the royalties from Salome to build himself a villa at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria; it was to remain his home for the rest of his life. More Hoffmansthal operas now followed in quick succession: Der Rosenkavalier, his biggest operatic success, was completed in 1910; the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos came two years later; and Die Frau ohne Schatten was begun shortly afterwards, though it had to wait until 1919 for its first performance.
Strauss meantime was garnering honour as a conductor, leading to his appointment in 1919 as a joint director (with Franz Schalk) of the Vienna State Opera, although he was forced to resign the post in 1924 after differences with Schalk and the Austrian government. His next opera, Intermezzo (this time to his own libretto), was premiered in Dresden in the same year. The collaboration with Hoffsmansthal continued with Die ägyptische Helene (1927), but the poet’s untimely death in 1929 left the libretto of Arabella unfinished; in 1932 Strauss completed it in his memory.
With the Nazis’ seizure of power in 1933, the most troubled period of Strauss’s life began. Unwisely, perhaps, he conducted Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival after Toscanini withdrew in protest and accepted the position of president of the Reichsmusikkammer (though he was not consulted beforehand), but he stuck stubbornly to his collaboration with his new, Jewish, librettist, Stefan Zweig, a position that gradually cost him his position of favour with the new regime. Die schweigsame Frau, their first collaboration, was allowed its premiere in Dresden in 1935, but the rest of the run was cancelled – whereas Daphne and Friedenstag, both with librettos with Joseph Gregor, went ahead unhindered in 1938. Strauss was sure that his next opera, Die Liebe der Danae, would be his last and he lavished all his mastery on this radiant score, completed in 1940. But as work on Die Liebe der Danae came to a close, he now began work on a libretto by the conductor Clemens Krauss; this was to become Capriccio, the premiere of which Krauss conducted in 1942.
In 1943 Strauss composed his Second Horn Concerto, which ushered in a remarkable Indian summer of gentle autumnal masterpieces: Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings, written as an elegy for the destruction of the Germany Strauss loved; two Sonatinas for wind instruments; the Oboe Concerto and Duett-Concertino for clarinet, bassoon and orchestra; and the Four Last Songs, perhaps the best-loved orchestral songs by any composer. Strauss was still active as a conductor for his own 85th-birthday celebrations, but after a series of heart attacks he died peacefully at home on 8 September 1949.
Richard Strauss is published by Boosey & Hawkes"
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
Image: Richard Strauss.
RICHARD STRAUSS -REMEMBERED-
Music in this video
1. Song: Heimliche Aufforderung (Nr.27, 3)
Artist: Richard Strauss / Alfred Poell
Album: Richard Strauss begleitet (Vol. 1)
2. Song: Das Deutsche Lied: Morgen, op. 27 Nr. 4
Artist: Michael Raucheisen
Album: Michael Raucheisen Vol. 11
3. Song: Ariadne auf Naxos
Artist: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Rudolf Schock, Rita Streich, Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Album: Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ImK5CpSmo
Background from boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main?composerid=2705&ttype=BIOGRAPHY
Richard Strauss
b. 11 June 1864, Munich
d. 8 September 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
"Strauss was born in Munich in 11 June 1864, the son of Franz Strauss, first horn in the court orchestra there. He had his first piano lessoins at the age of four and began violin studies four years after that; another invaluable part of his apprenticeship was being able to sit in on the rehearsals of the orchestra in which his father played. Strauss’ first efforts in composition were made as early as 1870, so that by the time he entered the Royal Grammar School, the Ludwigs-Gymnasium, in 1874, he was already a practised composer. Strauss enjoyed many performances of his works in the seven years of his classical education there. His first orchestral work, completed in 1877, was a Serenade in G major, dedicated to his teacher, Frierich Wilhelm Mayer; his first symphony, in D minor, followed in 1881, contemporaneously with a string quartet in A major and a Festive March, his "official" Op. 1.
In 1874 Strauss had heard the music of Wagner for the first time; in 1883, in Berlin with his father, he now heard his first Brahms. Both encounters marked him deeply. In Berlin he also enjoyed performances of several of his works with the Meiningen Orchestra conducted by Hans von Bülow, and in 1884 he conducted the orchestra himself for the first time; within a year he was appointed assistant conductor to von Bülow, beating off competition from Mahler and Weingartner. He had already composed many of the works that are now permanent parts of the repertoire, including the First Horn Concerto and the song Zueignung.
In 1886 Strauss left the Meiningen Orchestra to take up the post of third conductor at the Munich Opera Orchestra. A visit to Italy that year provided him with the inspiration for his "symphonic fantasy" Aus Italien, premiered the following year; but it was Don Juan, written in 1888 and first performed in 1889, that provided him with his real breakthrough: he was instantly hailed as the most important and forward-looking German composer since Wagner.
Strauss’ daily bread was earned in the opera house, so it was not going to be long before he tried to compose a stage work himself. His first attempt, Guntram (1894), flopped, but the second, Feuersnot (1898), was received with enthusiasm on its first production, in Dresden in 1901. Strauss was now an internationally acclaimed figure, both as composer and conductor: he gave the first performance of the Sinfonia domestica, for example, in 1904, in New York on a visit to the USA. The vociferously applauded premiere of his third opera, Salome, in Dresden in 1905 set the seal on his standing as one of the most important living composers.
The most significant association of his operatic career came also in 1905, when he began to collaborate with Hugo von Hoffmansthal on a libretto for Elektra, first performed in Dresden four years later. Strauss meantime had used the royalties from Salome to build himself a villa at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria; it was to remain his home for the rest of his life. More Hoffmansthal operas now followed in quick succession: Der Rosenkavalier, his biggest operatic success, was completed in 1910; the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos came two years later; and Die Frau ohne Schatten was begun shortly afterwards, though it had to wait until 1919 for its first performance.
Strauss meantime was garnering honour as a conductor, leading to his appointment in 1919 as a joint director (with Franz Schalk) of the Vienna State Opera, although he was forced to resign the post in 1924 after differences with Schalk and the Austrian government. His next opera, Intermezzo (this time to his own libretto), was premiered in Dresden in the same year. The collaboration with Hoffsmansthal continued with Die ägyptische Helene (1927), but the poet’s untimely death in 1929 left the libretto of Arabella unfinished; in 1932 Strauss completed it in his memory.
With the Nazis’ seizure of power in 1933, the most troubled period of Strauss’s life began. Unwisely, perhaps, he conducted Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival after Toscanini withdrew in protest and accepted the position of president of the Reichsmusikkammer (though he was not consulted beforehand), but he stuck stubbornly to his collaboration with his new, Jewish, librettist, Stefan Zweig, a position that gradually cost him his position of favour with the new regime. Die schweigsame Frau, their first collaboration, was allowed its premiere in Dresden in 1935, but the rest of the run was cancelled – whereas Daphne and Friedenstag, both with librettos with Joseph Gregor, went ahead unhindered in 1938. Strauss was sure that his next opera, Die Liebe der Danae, would be his last and he lavished all his mastery on this radiant score, completed in 1940. But as work on Die Liebe der Danae came to a close, he now began work on a libretto by the conductor Clemens Krauss; this was to become Capriccio, the premiere of which Krauss conducted in 1942.
In 1943 Strauss composed his Second Horn Concerto, which ushered in a remarkable Indian summer of gentle autumnal masterpieces: Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings, written as an elegy for the destruction of the Germany Strauss loved; two Sonatinas for wind instruments; the Oboe Concerto and Duett-Concertino for clarinet, bassoon and orchestra; and the Four Last Songs, perhaps the best-loved orchestral songs by any composer. Strauss was still active as a conductor for his own 85th-birthday celebrations, but after a series of heart attacks he died peacefully at home on 8 September 1949.
Richard Strauss is published by Boosey & Hawkes"
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless SSG William Jones SSG Diane R.
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