RICHARD STRAUSS. The greatest cosmopolitan master of orchestration after Wagner is Richard Strauss. He has progressed step by step through various stages of development. Conforming at first to the conservative romanticism of Mendelssohn and Schumann, he soon came to admire and emulate the doctrines of Brahms, but eventually leaned more and more upon Liszt and Wagner for the dominating thought of his conceptions. With "Till Eulenspiegel" and "Also sprach Zarathustra" Strauss inaugurated a permanent and ever advancing method of procedure distinctly individualistic and unprecedented that has so far culminated in the vast realistic conceptions of "Don Juan" and "Ein Heldenleben." His works embody flowing cantilena, intricate polyphony, freely used chromatic harmony, daring harmonic combinations, complex rhythm, startling contrasts, monumental climaxes, clever orchestral devices, and extreme realism. In order to grasp the true significance of the contrapuntally synthesized harmonic Melos it is of utmost importance to trace the complicated melodic delineations as independent factors flowing in a horizontal direction. His orchestral conceptions are vast color-pictures and display a wealth of melodic utterance in all the principal orchestral voices, a prolific number of themes and sub-themes, and the most intimate acquaintance with the specific characteristics of the various instruments as well as with orchestral combinations and the resultant mixture of tonal tints thereby to be obtained. Like Berlioz, Strauss secures dramatic effects by means of vivid orchestration, and displays an insatiable craving for the discovery of novel combinations. His themes are arrayed in a kaleidoscopic sequence of instrumental color rather than being subjected to elaborate thematic treatment, and climaxes are reached by means of dynamic effects instead of by melodic evolution. An elaborately conceived program justifies the requisition for vast orchestral resources. There is further evidence of genuine inspiration, of a true gift for thematic development forming a marvellous filigree of contrapuntally interwoven leading motives, of intellectual power, philosophical reflection, poetic revery, and naïve humor. Germany still leads the van in the art of orchestration, of which she possesses many eminent exponents such as Max Shillings and Cyrill Kistler,--slavish imitators of extreme Wagnerism, and Humperdinck, Thuille, Kienzl, Georg Schumann, Mahler,--less extreme in their views but more successful in their results. * * * * * During the nineteenth century a small group of men were especially instrumental in transplanting the daintiness and refinement of modern French light opera into indigenous German productions. Conspicuous among these is Lortzing, supported by Nicolai, Flotow, Suppé and Johann Strauss junior. CHAPTER XII.