Clothbound Orchestra
(Score)
SKU:
HL.49047172
(Death
& Transfiguration)
Clothbound Score,
Complete Edition in
G. Edition Schott.
Classical. Hardcover.
Duration 1440 seconds.
Schott Music #RSW306.
Published by Schott Music
(HL.49047172).
UPC:
196288143406.
When
the 24-year-old Richard
Strauss, assistant
conductor in Munich,
began the composition of
his third tone poem in
the summer of 1888, he
saw himself close to the
aspiration prescribed by
his mentor Alexander
Ritter: to become the
successor of Richard
Wagner as a musical
dramatist. Strauss had
already been working on
the text of his first
opera Guntram for a year
and additionally devoted
himself to programmatic
orchestral works oriented
to the musical language
of Liszt and Wagner in
order to prepare himself
compositionally for his
new task. With the aid of
Strauss and other
musicians including
Ludwig Thuille and
Friedrich Rösch who
had been gathering for
“Ritter's round
table†in Munich
between 1886 and 1889,
RitterÂ’s intention
was to achieve success on
a broad front with the
New German School
following the death of
its two protagonists
Wagner and Liszt. We do
not know whether Ritter
and his supporters
jointly planned Strauss's
compositional path
towards opera, determined
the subjectsof his
prospective tone poems
and considered various
strategies of their
musical realization, but
the influence of this
group shouldnot be
underestimated. It cannot
be ruled out that the
number of three tone
poems was fixed, as was
their sequence of
composition, which would
progressively achieve its
zenith in an increasing
orientation to Liszt and
Wagner. The circle could
possibly have also
discussed initial links
to literary subjects
(Macbeth and Don Juan)
and ultimately the
abstention from this
practice in the third and
final tone poem. The
subject of the work, or
rather in StraussÂ’s
formulation its
“poetic
modelâ€, has
occasionally been
interpreted from an
autobiographical aspect.
Strauss however did not
experience serious
illness until May 1891
and once more in June
1892, long after Tod und
Verklärung had been
composed. Even without an
external reason, the
material would have been
only too attractive for
an admirer of Wagner and
Liszt like Strauss, not
to mention for his mentor
Alexander Ritter. The
concept of 'death and
transfiguration' had
already played a central
role in LisztÂ’s
symphonic poems Tasso and
Prometheus.