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Welcome to the artissimo.gr
pages of Classical Music Composers ! |
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English Language : Classical Music : Composers : Postromantic Era (1880 - 1915) Richard Strauss (1864-1949) |
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NATIONALITY Richard Strauss (1864-1949) : Richard Strauss was German. IN GENERAL Richard Strauss (1864-1949) : Strauss is one of the most important representatives of the tonal music of the twentieth century. Strauss is also well-known as an orchestra conductor. Strauss's most important creations were his symphonic poems (large-scale autonomous compositions for orchestra with various themes and symbolisms) and his operas, which they even survive today. Even if Strauss did not create anything really new in comparison with the older composers (he was basically the successor of Richard Wagner's tradition), he was the one that boosted the force of the symphonic poem so that it was made able to express an entire world by itself. In later years, Strauss's orchestral writing became more frugal and approached the "classic" models (the same phenomenon also applies to a lot of other composers of that era), without, however, to lose anything of its beauty. During the period of nazism in Germany, Strauss kept an ambiguous attitude that cost him when the war was finished. Strauss's works have big power and even influence composers nowadays. STYLE Richard Strauss (1864-1949) : Even if in the beginning of his career Strauss experimented with big orchestral volumes and extraordinary use of instruments (Strauss was the first to try to write for an instrument without being totally compliant with the character of that instrument - he also used all instruments in an equivalent way, that is, he used for orchestral solo parts instruments that had not been used up to then for that purpose), in the later years, Strauss's music became more "classic" both in the sound and in its operation. Generally, his melodies are intense and rhythmical, with nervous articulation. The harmony that Strauss used was an evolution over Wagner's harmonic technique. His symphonic poems have great expressiveness and ability in the musical speech. Strauss's overall method and his technique in composition are both good laboratories to be studied by any ambitious composer. WORKS Richard Strauss (1864-1949) : Large enough and important is Strauss's output : 15 operas, 3 ballets, 8 symphonic poems ("Thus Spake Zarathustra", "Don Juan", "Don Quixote" etc.), Domestic Symphony, An Alpine Symphony, Burlesque for piano and orchestra, 4 concerts, Metamorphoses for 23 strings, 15 songs with orchestra, 140 songs with piano.
click here to find images of Richard Strauss in "Google Images" (new window) Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
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