Overtones, a book of temperaments : $b Richard Strauss, Parsifal, Verdi, Balzac, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Turgénieff — Nietzsche — John Shaqi
Overtones, a book of temperaments : $b Richard Strauss, Parsifal, Verdi, Balzac, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Turgénieff
Nietzsche · en
Richard Strauss was born at Munich, June 11, 1864. He is the son
of Franz S. Strauss, formerly first horn player in the Bavarian
Court Band. His father has written studies and other compositions
for his instrument; and, as his son said, “he could play most of
the instruments in the orchestra.” He sat under Wagner’s stick, but
was not a Wagnerian. Once he played so well that Wagner exclaimed,
“I fancy after all, Strauss, you cannot be such an anti-Wagnerian
as they make out, for you play my music so beautifully.” “What has
that got to do with it?” answered the stubborn artist. The mother of
Richard was born Pschorr, and is a daughter of the wealthy Munich
brewer. The boy received his first piano lessons at the age of four
and a half from his mother. Later he studied with August Tombo, a
harp player, and took up the violin under Benno Walter. At the age
of six he composed a three-part song, a valse, and a polka—Schneider
Polka, he called the dance. Before he went to school he had tried
his hand at songs, piano pieces, and an orchestral overture. Sent
to the elementary schools from 1870 to 1874, the gymnasium from
1874 to 1882, and the university from 1882 to 1884, Strauss laid
the foundation of a comprehensive culture, a catholicity in taste,
a love of _belles lettres_, and a general knowledge of the world’s
literature. He early mastered the technics of the piano and violin,
and in 1875, with Kapellmeister Fr. W. Meyer, theory and composition.
This course lasted five years. The composing went on apace. A chorus
for the Electra of Sophocles and a festival chorus were given a
hearing at a gymnasium concert. Three of his songs were sung in 1880;
and in March, 1881, his string quartet in A, opus 2, the scherzo of
which he wrote in his fifteenth year, was played by Benno Walter’s
quartet, to whom it was dedicated. Four days later his first symphony
was accorded a hearing under Hermann Levi, and the extreme youth of
the composer called forth remonstrances. In 1883 Berlin heard his C
minor overture under Radecke. Both are still in manuscript.