Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-06-10

1t would be interesting to know
something of Strauss thoughts today
after q long lifetime in which criti-
cism and praise were alternately
melted out to him in equally large
dosage. For many years he has been
accused of deliberately trying to shock
the public not only with the themes
he has chosen to write about but by
his manner Of writing. Others have
said he purposely amused himself
with the reactions Of musicians and
the musical public to his bizarre at
tempts. laughing to himself at their
serious worry as to what music was
coming to if such type Of composition
were to become the habit of COM
posers. These furies against him were
born at the time when Brahms and
Wagner were still considered ultra
modern and before the musical ear
had found music in the dissonances
such as he offered it.
The coterie of admirers who stood
by him from the very first were re-
garded askance by the musical con-
servatives but today their judgment
has been proven correct and with the
passing years their number has been
legitimately and intellectually in
creased. Yet what Strauss himself
thinks of his works and how he feels
about the adulation and the censor he
has been showered with, no one knows
He remains an enigma which only
the future generations. from their
long distance view, can correctly esti-
tho hic Of a y
is ascending and he bears the Label
of the greatest recorder of intense
emotionalism and of unmusical sub
jects the world has ever known.
Richard Strauss began as an ex-
ponent of absolute music and strict
follower of the classical idiom. From
his sixth year he essayed composition
and in his adolescent years, heard
some choral works, a string quartet
and a symphony of his performed
at the school concerts. A visit tc
Meinengen for the purpose of profit
ing from the criticism of Buelow, who
was orchestra conductor in that city
at that time, resulted, much to his
esonishment, in his being chosen to
succeed Buelow as conductor. Holding
this position for only a short time, he
voluntarily resigned it and embarked
on a trip to Italy. This short vaca-
ton in the land of more expansive
musical expression definitely wrought
a change in his musical outlook, and
on his return he wrote his first de-
scriptive work, a symphonic fantasia
with the title, Aus Italien."
Coming later in contact with thai
genius Of the theater, Max Reinhardt
he followed with interest his original
manner of thinking that eventually
revolutionized the theater. The first
result Of this friendship, which con-
tinues to this day, was the setting Of
Oscar Wilde's "Salome" to an operate
form. Even before this, he had tried hi.
hand at program music, stirring the
very depths of the musical world with
his Elm Heldenleben" and his "Sin.
fonia Domestica," which was given it!
first hearing in America. For these
as well as some preceding compost
tons, such as the variations of dor
Quixote," he provided program ex.
plantations as to what the music wa.
all about. For his detractors, this wa.
sufficient proof that his music held nc
sense as far as the general audienc,
was concerned, and could only be ap.
preciated when told infinitely whaj
each theme or measure represented
Considering the great advancement II