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Richard Strauss ( June 11 , 1864 – September 8 , 1949 ) was a German Composer of the late Romantic era, particularly noted for his Tone Poem s and Opera s. He was also a noted Conductor . His 1896 composition ''''. HISTORY Early life He was born on June 11 , 1864 in Munich (then in the Kingdom Of Bavaria , now in Germany), the son of Franz Strauss , who was the principal Horn player at the Court Opera in Munich. He received a thorough, but conservative, musical education from his father in his youth, writing his first music at the age of six; he was to write music almost continuously between then and his death almost eighty years later. During his boyhood he had the good fortune to be able to attend orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, and he also received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor there. In 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, ''''. Indeed, in the Strauss household the music of Richard Wagner was considered inferior. Later in life, Richard Strauss said and wrote that he deeply regretted this. In 1882 he entered Munich University , where he studied philosophy and art history—not music—however he left a year later to go to Berlin . There he studied briefly before securing a post as assistant Conductor to Hans Von Bülow taking over from him at Munich when he resigned in 1885 . His compositions around this time were quite conservative, in the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn , true to his father's teachings. His Horn Concerto No. 1 ( 1882 – 1883 ) is representative of this period and is still regularly played. Strauss's style began to change when he met Alexander Ritter , a noted composer and Violin ist, and the husband of one of Richard Wagner's nieces. It was Ritter who persuaded Strauss to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems; he also introduced Strauss to the essays of Richard Wagner and the writings of Schopenhauer . Strauss went on to conduct one of Ritter's operas, and later Ritter wrote a poem based on Strauss's own '' Tod Und Verklärung ''. Richard Strauss married soprano singer Pauline Maria De Ahna on September 10 , 1894 . She was famous for being bossy, ill-tempered, eccentric, and outspoken, but the marriage was happy, and she was a great source of inspiration to him. Throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he always preferred the soprano voice above all others. Tone poems This newly found interest resulted in what is widely regarded as Strauss' first piece to show his mature personality, the ''), '' Don Quixote '' ( 1897 ), '' Ein Heldenleben '' (''A Hero's Life'', 1897 – 98 ), '' Symphonia Domestica '' (''Domestic Symphony'' 1902 – 03 ) and '' Eine Alpensinfonie '' (''An Alpine Symphony'' 1911 – 15 ). Opera Around the end of the 19th Century , Strauss turned his attention to opera. His first two attempts in the genre, '' Guntram '' in 1894 and '' Feuersnot '' in 1901 were critical failures. However, in 1905 he produced '' Salome '' (based on the play by Oscar Wilde ), and the reaction was as passionate and extreme as it had been with ''Don Juan''. When it opened at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City , there was such a public outcry that it was closed after just one performance. Doubtless, much of this was due to the subject matter, however some of the negative reactions may have stemmed from Strauss's use of dissonance, rarely heard then at the opera house. Elsewhere the opera was highly successful and Richard Strauss financed his house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen completely from the revenues generated by the opera. Strauss' next opera was '' Elektra '', which took his use of dissonance even further. It was also the first opera in which Strauss collaborated with the poet Hugo Von Hofmannsthal . The two would work together on numerous other occasions. For these later works, however, Strauss moderated his harmonic language somewhat, with the result that works such as '' Der Rosenkavalier '' (''The Knight of the Rose'', 1910 ) were great public successes. Strauss continued to produce operas at regular intervals until 1940 . These included '' Ariadne Auf Naxos '' ( 1912 ), '' Die Frau Ohne Schatten '' ( 1918 ), '' Intermezzo '' ( 1923 ), '' Die ägyptische Helena '' ( 1927 ), and '' Arabella '' ( 1932 ), all in collaboration with Hofmannsthal; and '' Die Schweigsame Frau '' ( 1934 ), with Stefan Zweig as librettist; '' Friedenstag '' ( 1936 ) and Daphne ( 1937 ) (libretto by Joseph Gregor and Zweig); '' Die Liebe Der Danae '' ( 1940 ) (with Gregor) and '' Capriccio '' (libretto by Clemens Krauss ) ( 1941 ). Solo and chamber works Strauss's solo and chamber works include early compositions for piano solo in a conservative harmonic style, many of which are lost; a rarely-heard string quartet (opus 2); the famous violin sonata in Eb which he wrote in 1887; as well as a handful of late pieces. There are only six works in his entire output dating from after 1900 which are for chamber ensembles, and four are arrangments of portions of his operas. His last chamber work, an Allegretto in E for violin and piano, dates from 1940. Solo instrument with orchestra Much more extensive was his output of works for solo instrument or instruments with orchestra. The most famous include two Horn concerti which are still part of the standard repertoire of most performing solo hornists, a concerto for Violin , the '' Don Quixote '', for cello, viola and orchestra, a late Concerto For Oboe (inspired by a request from an American soldier he met after the war), and the duet concertino for Bassoon and Clarinet , which was one of his last works (1947). Strauss admitted that the duet concertino had an extra-musical "plot", in which the clarinet represented a princess and the bassoon a bear; when the two dance together, the bear transforms into a prince. Strauss and the Nazis There is much controversy surrounding Strauss' role in Germany after the Nazi Party came to power. Some say that he was constantly apolitical, and never cooperated with the Nazis completely. Others point out that he was an official of the Third Reich . In November 1933 , without any consultation with Strauss, Goebbels appointed him to the post of president of the ''Reichsmusikkammer'', the State Music Bureau. Strauss decided to keep his post but to remain apolitical, a decision which has been criticized as naïve, but perhaps the most sensible one considering the circumstances. While in this position he wrote and conducted the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics , and also befriended some highly-ranked Nazis. Evidently his intent was to protect his daughter-in-law Alice, who was Jewish, from persecution. In 1935 , Strauss was forced to resign his position as ''Reichsmusikkammer'' president, after refusing to remove from the playbill for ''Die schweigsame Frau'' the name of the Jewish librettist, his friend Stefan Zweig . He had written Zweig a supportive letter, insulting to the Nazis, which was intercepted by the Gestapo . His decision to produce '' Friedenstag '' in 1938 , a one-act opera set in a besieged fortress during the Thirty Years' War – essentially a hymn to peace and a thinly veiled criticism of the Third Reich--during a time when an entire nation was preparing for war, has been seen as extraordinarily brave. With its contrasts between freedom and enslavement, war and peace, light and dark, this work has been considered more related to Fidelio than to any of Strauss's other recent operas. Production ceased on the outbreak of war in 1939. When his daughter-in-law Alice was placed under house arrest in Garmisch in 1938, Strauss used his connections in Berlin, for example the Berlin Intendant Heinz Tietjen , to secure her safety; in addition, there are also suggestions that he attempted to use his official position to protect other Jewish friends and colleagues. Unfortunately Strauss left no specific records or commentary regarding his feeling about Nazi Anti-Semitism , so most of the reconstruction of his motivations during the period are conjectural. While most of his actions during the 1930s were midway between outright collaboration and dissidence, it was only in his music that the dissident streak was, in retrospect, more obvious, such as in the pacifist drama ''Friedenstag.'' In 1942 Strauss moved with his family back to Vienna, where Alice and her children could be protected by Baldur Von Schirach , the Gauleiter of Vienna. Unfortunately even he was unable to protect Strauss's Jewish relatives completely; in early 1944, while Strauss was away, Alice and the composer's son were abducted by the Gestapo and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss's personal intervention at this point was able to save them, and he was able to take the two of them back to Garmisch, where they remained, under house arrest, until the end of the war. He was later tried and absolved of any Nazi ties or affiliations. The final years In 1948 , Strauss wrote his last work, '' Vier Letzte Lieder '' ("Four last songs") for soprano and orchestra. All his life he had produced Lied er, but these are probably the best known. When compared to the work of younger composers, Strauss' harmonic and melodic language was looking somewhat old-fashioned by this time. Nevertheless, the songs have always been popular with audiences and performers. Strauss himself declared in 1947 , "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer!" Richard Strauss died on September 8 , 1949 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Germany at the age of 85. SOURCES
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