As Debussy in France, so Richard Strauss in Germany might be said to be the best-known of all creative musicians who are identified with the development of choral composition along its present individualistic lines. And like Debussy, Strauss has done his most important work in the dramatic and symphonic forms, rather than in the choral. Yet he made frequent invasions into the choral field, and always with notable success. His _Wanderers Sturmlied_, opus 14 (composed 1883-84 after a text by Goethe), a product of his first period of creative activity in Munich, is still a repertory number of the larger German choral associations. It is written for six-part mixed chorus and full orchestra, and though a work of the master’s youth, fascinates by reason of the strongly individual flavor of its inspiration and its power of emotional delineation. Strauss’ treatment of the poem, which was the outcome of Goethe’s sorrow at parting with Friederike Brion in the fall of 1771, is strongly subjective and akin to that of Brahms in the latter’s _Nänie_ and ‘Song of Fate.’ It is a moot question whether what Romain Rolland[84] calls its ‘affected thought and style’ is not rather an intimate musical sympathy with the Wertherian ideals of its eighteenth century poem. Technically far more difficult and making demands with which only a few of the greater German choral bodies are able to comply, are two _a cappella_ choruses, opus 34, for sixteen-part mixed chorus, composed in 1897. Not without a suggestion of Brahmsian influence is _Der Abend_ (Schiller), rich in serious beauty, harmonious in formal and poetic working out. Rückert’s _Hymne_, its companion-piece, is conceived antiphonally, its counterpoint effortless and flowing and suggestive of Lassus at his best. During the first years of Strauss’ activity in Berlin (1898-1905) he also wrote some shorter numbers, lyric and spontaneous, for male chorus: opus 42, _Liebe_ and _Altdeutscher Schlachtgesang_ (Old German Battlesong) and opus 49, _Schlachtgesang_ (Battle Hymn), _Lied der Freundschaft_ (Song of Friendship), and _Der Brauttanz_ (The Bridal Dance). In 1903, however, came his splendid choral ballad _Taillefer_, a setting of Uhland’s poem for mixed chorus, solos and full orchestra, dedicated to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, the dedication representing the composer’s acknowledgment of the doctorate which the University had bestowed upon him _honoris causa_. The solo parts are small--one, tenor, for Taillefer; another, bass, for William of Normandy.