Metamorphosen
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''Metamorphosen'', study for 23 solo strings (TrV 290, AV 142) is a composition by
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...
for ten
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
s, five
viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...
s, five
cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
s, and three
double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
es, typically lasting 25 to 30 minutes. It was composed during the closing months of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, from August 1944 to March 1945. The piece was commissioned by Paul Sacher, the founder and director of the Basler Kammerorchester and Collegium Musicum Zürich, to whom Strauss dedicated it. It was first performed on 25 January 1946 by Sacher and the Collegium Musicum Zürich, with Strauss conducting the final rehearsal.


Composition history

By 1944, Strauss was in poor health and needed to visit the Swiss spa at Baden near
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
. But he was unable to get the Nazi government's permission to travel abroad.
Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz, St ...
, Paul Sacher and Willi Schuh came up with a plan to get the travel permit: a commission from Sacher and invitation to the premiere in Zurich. The commission was made in a letter by Böhm on August 28, 1944, for a "suite for strings". Strauss replied that he had been working for some time on an adagio for 11 strings. In fact, his early work on ''Metamorphosen'' was for a septet (2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and a bass). The starting date for the score is given as 13 March 1945, which suggests that the destruction of the Vienna opera house the previous day gave Strauss the impetus to finish the work and draw together his previous sketches in just one month (finished on 12 April 1945). As with his other late works, Strauss builds the music from a series of small melodic ideas "which are the point of departure for the development of the entire composition." In this unfolding of ideas "Strauss applies here all of the rhetorical means developed over the centuries to express pain." But he also alternates passages in a major key expressing hope and optimism with passages of sadness, as in the finales of both
Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...
's 6th Symphony and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
's 6th Symphony. The overall structure of the piece is "a slow introduction, a quick central section, and a return to the initial slower tempo", which echoes the structure of '' Death and Transfiguration''. There are five basic thematic elements in ''Metamorphosen''. First, there are the opening chords. Second, there is the repetition of three short notes followed by a fourth long note. Third, there is the direct quote from bar 3 of the "Marcia funebre" from Beethoven's ''Eroica'' Symphony. Fourth, there is a minor theme with triplets. Fifth, there is the lyrical theme "that becomes the source of much of the contrasting music in major, sunnier keys." The second theme does not stand on its own, but precedes the third and fourth themes. Its most obvious source is Beethoven's 5th Symphony, for example the short-short-short-long repetition of G played by the horns in the third movement. But it has other progenitors: the Finale of
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
's
Jupiter Symphony Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, on 10 August 1788. The longest and last symphony that he composed, it is regarded by many critics as among the greatest symphonies in classical music. The work is nicknamed ...
(a personal favorite of Strauss as a conductor) and the Fugue from Bach's Solo Violin Sonata in G minor BWV 1001. Strauss also used it in the Oboe Concerto, written only a few months after ''Metamorphosen'', displaying "a remarkable example of the thematic links between the last instrumental works". He had also used this motif over 60 years before in his 1881
Piano Sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement (Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with two movemen ...
. At the end of ''Metamorphosen'', Strauss quotes the first four bars of the ''Eroica''s "Marcia funebre" with the annotation "IN MEMORIAM!" at the bottom. ''Metamorphosen'' exhibits the complex
counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
for which Strauss showed a predilection throughout his life.


Meaning

The title and inspiration for ''Metamorphosen'' comes from two profoundly self-examining poems of the same title by
Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
, which Strauss had considered setting as a choral work. Strauss's chronological rereading of Goethe during 1944 was a crucial influence; he told a visitor: "I am reading him as he developed and as he finally became.... Now that I am old myself I will be young again with Goethe and then again old with him—with his eyes. For he was a man of eyes—he saw what I heard." According to
Norman Del Mar Norman René Del Mar Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was an English Conductor (music), conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; ...
, Strauss wrote out additional lines "of searching introspection" from Goethe's poem ''Widmung'' ("''Dedication''") "in full amongst the pages of sketches for ''Metamorphosen'', the word ''Metamorphosen'' being itself a term Goethe used in old age to apply to his own mental development over a great period of time in pursuit of ever more exalted thinking." Goethe's ideas of metamorphosis also contained the concept of the inherent
archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
of each being, and that no matter how much change occurred, its essential core still remained. Generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the string repertoire, ''Metamorphosen'' contains Strauss's most sustained outpouring of tragic emotion. Conceived and written during the blackest days of World War II, the piece expresses Strauss's mourning of, among other things, the destruction of German culture—including the bombing of every great opera house in the nation. McGlaughlin, Bill. '' Exploring Music''
Episode 5 of 5 of "Richard Strauss"
first aired 9 January 2004.
In Strauss's sketchbook for ''Metamorphosen'' is an entry that simply says, "Mourning Munich", referring to the destruction of its great opera house the National Theatre, where he had worked for so many years. At the very end of the work, "Im Memoriam!" is written in the score and the lower voices quote the theme from the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony to underscore the solemnity of the ideas. A few days after finishing ''Metamorphosen'', Strauss wrote in his diary:
The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2,000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.


Main themes

The main themes of ''Metamorphosen'' are given here at the pitch they first occur. The first four themes occur in the first 20 bars. The fifth theme occurs at bar 82, with the tempo marking "etwas fließender" (slightly flowing). \relative c' \relative c' \relative c' \relative c' \relative c'


Arrangements

An
arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...
for string septet (two violins, two violas, two cellos, one bass) by Rudolf Leopold was published in 1996.


References


Sources

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External links

* * * , Norwegian Chamber Orchestra with Terje Tønnesen, artistic leader {{Authority control 1945 compositions Compositions by Richard Strauss Compositions for string orchestra Funerary and memorial compositions Music commissioned by Paul Sacher Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)