Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Tanzsuite
During a long and productive life the view commonly held by the musical establishment concerning Richard Strauss changed drastically. He started out his compositional career as a musical radical, often being mentioned in the same breath as Richard Wagner, and ended in the mid-20th Century as an arch-conservative and the last living exponent of 19th Century German romanticism. Richard Strauss’ musical language did not evolve greatly over time, but the world far from stood still during the tumultuous years of his lifetime. Two world wars and revolutions political and musical left Strauss considered a musical anachronism by many of his contemporaries at the time of his death.
It is a fact that the orchestral works upon which Strauss’ fame largely rests are works from the 19th Century. The majority of his famous tone poems, staples of the orchestral repertoire, date from the last quarter of the 19th Century. Late, valedictory works from the 1940’s, such as the Four Last Songs, Oboe Concerto and Metamorphosen for string orchestra, are frankly based on a 19th Century musical language and are backwards looking in every way. Strauss turned to opera from the 1890’s on and the bulk of his major works during the 20th Century are operas. Salome (1905) was, and is, a major work in the operatic repertoire, as is Elektra (1909), the follow-up to Salome. Der Rosenkavalier (1911), loosely based on a play by the French playwright Molière, brings us into the atmosphere of the work we are hearing on today’s performance, Tanzsuite.
Strauss had a real affinity for 17th Century French art and artists, which may surprise some who view Richard Strauss as the stereotypical German artist who looks down upon any art and artist that is not Teutonic in origin. Yes, Strauss revered the German masters above all other- asked for references by a 1930’s bureaucrat, Strauss simply replied “Mozart and Beethoven-“ but his tastes were much more catholic than generally acknowledged. As was stated above, Der Rosenkavalier was partially based on a play by the great French playwright Molière. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1912), now heard as a suite, was originally composed as incidental music for a German adaptation of Molière’s play of the same name. The music is written in the style of Lully with a distinct Baroque flavor, with three movements actually based on airs by the French composer.
Composed during Strauss’ tenure as Director of the Vienna State Opera, Tanzsuite (1923) is a suite of pieces originally written by the French Baroque keyboard master François Couperin and arranged by Strauss for chamber orchestra. The Opera had acquired the Redoutensal as a second performance space for smaller opera performances and ballet, and it was for the ballet company of the Vienna State Opera that Tanzsuite was composed. In eight movements, Strauss in the Tanzsuite is much more conservative than in his earlier foray into Lully’s music, often serving as only an orchestrator, limiting his original compositional ideas and often not straying from a literal arrangement of Couperin’s original music for keyboard. The premiere of the Tanzsuite was February 17th, 1923, under the direction of the great German conductor Clemens Krauss.
Juan Francisco Sans, De La Liberacion de las Formas (1990)
Juan Francisco Sans is a multi-talented Venezuelan musician, active as composer, performer, music historian and educator. Since 1987 a faculty member at the School of Arts at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Sans briefly also was Director of the National Center of Music in Costa Rica. Program notes by the composer follow below:
“Our times are signaled by postmodernism: the death of ideologies, the end of history, the dissolution of vanguardism, the general disbelief and the outrageous consumerism, all of which are typical of our cultural and spiritual reality. The ‘overcoming’ of creative styles through the elaboration of new languages and techniques based on the premises or originality and individuality, all of which are essential to the modern spirit, have given birth to an increasingly eclectic creative attitude. Here, the most evident device is the use of aesthetic ideas from previous eras.”
“De La Liberacion de las Formas shows the paradox of today's musical creation. This work is written in one movement and is a kind of musical essay with a medieval treaty title. The work is about a structure which was considered perfect during several centuries: the Sonata form. The composer follows strictly the classical diagram of exposition, development and recapitulation with two contrasting themes which maintain a melodic dialectic confrontation solved only at the end of the piece. The form is classical in design driven to a sui generis aesthetic outcome due to the way in which the internal musical motifs are presented and manipulated throughout the work.”
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Symphony #6 “Pastoral”
The famous, or perhaps more aptly described as infamous if you were present, concert on December 22, 1808, during which Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony debuted was truly a marathon event even by nineteenth-century standards. Also on the bill were the premiere of the Fifth Symphony; the Fourth Piano Concerto with Beethoven as soloist; several movements from the Mass in C; the concert aria Ah! Pefido; improvisations by the master at the piano; and the Choral Fantasy, written in great haste as the grand finale.
Those lucky (or unlucky) concertgoers who were present that evening received a printed program that included a few words by Beethoven himself in regard to the Sixth Symphony. They were, in total: “Pastoral Symphony, more an expression of feeling than painting. 1st piece: pleasant feelings which awaken in men on arriving in the countryside. 2nd piece: scene by the brook. 3rd piece: merry gathering of country people, interrupted by 4th piece: thunder and storm, into which breaks 5th piece: salutary feelings combined with thanks to God.” Beethoven, who by nature was a man of few words, must have felt that some explanatory notes were in order about a composition that was in many ways a departure from the norm of the symphonic form.
That Beethoven was a lover of nature was and is widely known. Beethoven spent, whenever possible, his summers far from his urban Viennese lodgings. Solitary walks in nature were in many ways absolutely essential to his existence. Although we will never know what ran through Beethoven’s mind as he wandered through the forest alone, it is not too much to infer a religious or spiritual basis to his communion with nature on these walks. This has less to do with the nascent German romanticism of his contemporaries and more in common with the American transcendentalists who several decades later saw the activities of God in the workings of nature. The ideas expressed in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Nature have much in common with this feeling or spirit in Beethoven. Beethoven was a profoundly religious person and read widely and deeply on religion in its many forms, a fact confirmed by numerous entries into his Tagebuch or diary. Religious or “spiritual” understanding was perhaps next to music the most important part of his existence, a fact that is today widely overlooked or ignored. Beethoven wrote in a letter to Archduke Rudolph: “God…sees into my innermost heart and knows that as a man I perform most conscientiously the duties which Humanity, God and Nature enjoin upon me...” Beethoven saw his life as one of service to the trinity of humanity, God and nature. The Sixth Symphony, then, can be seen as ultimately a religious work, an expression of Beethoven’s religious feelings inspired by nature.
Written almost wholly in 1808, the Sixth Symphony shares a gestational period with the Fifth Symphony, its antipode in almost every way. The Sixth is a peaceful, gentle work, whereas the Fifth is full of ferocious energy and struggle. Bearing the title “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life” in the autograph score, the Sixth has the following headings to each movement in the autograph, recalling the short “program notes” of the premiere: 1st Movement, “Pleasant, cheerful feelings aroused on approaching the countryside;” 2nd Movement, “Scene by the brook;” 3rd Movement, “Jolly gathering of villagers;” 4th Movement, Thunderstorm;” 5th Movement, “Shepherd’s song. Grateful thanks to the Almighty after the storm.” Historians have noted that Beethoven “adapted” the movement titles from a work by an obscure Swabian composer, Justin Heinrich Knecht, whose piece Le Portrait musical de la nature was advertised in about 1784 on the same page in Bossler’s music journal that advertised Beethoven’s three Electoral Sonatas. That being said, the “extra” movement, the descriptive titles and pictorial and programmatic details such as the bird calls were novelties enough to warrant Beethoven including notes on the composition for the first performance, an unheard of procedure. The work does recall Baroque pictorial and pastoral subject matter, but whereas in baroque writing the intent was a precise musical representation of nature, in Beethoven it is the feelings engendered by the various scenes that are represented, which is an enormous difference of profound import to an accurate understanding of the composition.
Beethoven’s quest for religious meaning and understanding was a constant throughout his life. At the core of his being he viewed communion with nature as an important aspect of that quest. The Pastoral Symphony can be viewed as an important autobiographical document that describes Beethoven’s inner life and important musically as a work of genius. The profound peace and contentment in the Sixth Symphony mirrors the experiences of spiritual seekers of all ages and places, confirming not only its authenticity but its universal appeal for all mankind.
