The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

latter is tldHiEa L ali
Strauss. He was born in 1871 at MI
Mich. Franz Strauss was the first nor
player for the court orchestra; he wrot
| studies for the horn.
He did his work excellently: was note
for the beauty Of his phrasing. for hi
devotion to the old school In music an
for his antipathy for the instrumental
ton and counterpoint.
He says lie was brought up on Haydn
| Mozart and Beethoven, and that onl
after 1876 did he attain via Mendelssohi
to Chopin. Schumann and to Brahms.
The evidence of this is writ large il
all his earlier works.
When Richard Strauss was IS he form
ed a friendship with Alexander Ritter
which radically changed the course O
| his life.
He became a philosopher and sine
then has tried TO write music that is
philosophy. of life.
Wagner once said to Franz Strauss
You could not interpret my work 81
eNquisitely If you We're really agains
me-" But Franz Strauss doggedly shool
his head.
Franz Strauss married Josephin,
Pschorr, the daughter of a rich Muniel
brewer.
Richard Strauss was born in 1854.
He did the things precocious children
accommodating key of major. wher
he was four years old. wrote some
Christmas music when he was six.
While one of his symphonies was
brought out in Berlin when he was It,
He received fine university educa-
ton. His musical education was Sc
verely classical, and he thoroughly learn
ed harmony.
Z His enemies say. first. that Richard
a,,1x hat a
meaning. Second. that he chooses mate
rial unsuited to music. Third, that he
writes ugly music.
Strauss SAYS there is no such thing
as absolute music. There is good music
and bad music If 1t is good music it
means something, and then it is pro-
gramme music.
Usually when musical composers have
ventured out OF the beaten path found
by the critics after much thorny wander
ing in the jungle of error. the cry has
been, you were going astray
No poor critic has ever been able to
understand how any genius could depart
from the beaten path without being lost
in the woods. AS in nine cases out of
ten they are lost But sometimes there
is the man who is always an explorer and
who always sets to work cutting new
paths~ through the forest.
The critic says You're going to
set lost"'
He replies: Il may lose you but not
myself"
After time he comes out OF the
forest into a new and beautiful lana.
and the critic. limping slowly. pain
fully after him, murmurs GU are
right: it Is good to be here.
The critics who long ago reduced
their comments on Beethoven, Weber
Schumann, Schubert to an exact science
have fallen over the Music OF Strauss
into a confusion like unto those oil
Fharoah's army. suddenly overtaker
by the waters of the Red sea.
Like all commanding personalities
Strauss possesses in marked degree
the gift of inspiring admiration and
creating for himself enthusiastic apos-
ties.
One very insstent adnirer said:
Ma ster. you are the Buddha of music >
He answered: Il do not know about
that but / know who is the pest"
Sometimes when young men come 20
him with elaborate limitations of his
Elm Heldmleben.' or his Domestic
symphony he says: GO back; go home.
study the symphonies of Haydn and
Mozart, then come to me,in two years.
One of the cardinal dogmas Of
Mozart, whom he claims as modern.
Like all great innovatoEs. Strauss has
thoroughly mastered the work of his
predecessors and there is no doubt he
could write as correct and learned a
fusue as any professor if ever a
fugue were needed to express his
meaning.
Once, discussing form. Strauss said
that. til. the time of Liszt and Wag-
hn. . IA
a composer was to ask himself, how
much expression can I put inao this o'
that forms? whereas, now the composer
says to himself, how can | modify
this form so as to make it the best
possible way of expressing what l want
to say?
1t was long ago conceded that music
could depict the broader emotions.
1t has generally been denied that
music could go into detail or explain
to the hearers the causes of the feel
ings it inspires.
Strauss goes into elaborate detail.
He uses numerous themes ana motives
end asks US to follow.
His stories are not without unplea s.
ant incidents and the music at times
is rasping in its ugliness.
Possibly the time will come when
music will be a universal language
certain cadences will be accepted IL
China, Sussex or in New Jersey as
signifying such and such emotions and
ideals and certain revolutions and sus-
pensions Will have meaning current
in ct. Petersburg, Vienna and Cinein-
natl.
But that time has not vet come an |
the programme is still an essential ac-
cessory, either before or after the Of
tense of an intimate symphonic poem.
Most people would agree that Streus )
representation OF the dying shudder of
Don Juan and the dying sigh OF Don
Quixote are not mere intellectual &C.
centricitles. but really poignant emo
tjonal effects. But when Strauss writes
sequence Of notes and tells us that
it is meant to signify feeling of Don
Juan's heart we are bound to tel him
that it does nothing of the kind.
And when later on by combinin 9,
this safety motive with that of An
ma he tries to tell us that while the
lady loves Don Juan. vet the hero rs
o little tired OF the lady, we feel that
Strauss is trying to make music ex-
press a purely intellectual feat for
which he is quite unified
All of his latest productions show a
tendency to over-burden music with ex-
traneous ideas and literary concepts.
Speaking of~fhe Yarathustra symphony,
Strauss himself says:
Il intended to write phiosophic music,
not to portray Nezsche's great worl,
musicaly. | meant to convey musical
ly an idea of the development of the
human race from its origin through the
various phases of its development. re-
ligicus as we'll as scientific. straight on
up to Niezsche's idea of the super-manL
or Goethe's Beyond Man"
+ As London critic remarked at the
time: Even this is music of a tall
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