Richard Strauss (20th Century Composers) [Paperback]

Tim Ashley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1999 | Series: 20th Century Composers

Richard Strauss remains one of the most controversial figures in the history of music. Though he is now accepted as one of the finest of all orchestral composers, his reputation remains dogged by charges of career opportunism, sensationalism, and Nazi collaboration. This book places Strauss's life in the context of German history, revealing the paradoxes that lay beneath his public persona, and discussing his work in the light of personal, artistic and literary influences. This text is part of the 20th-century composers series, examining composers in a biographical context, and offering a comprehensive study of key figures in the creation of 20th-century music. None of the books in the series presume a knowledge of specialized terms or musical notation. Each book in the series features a list of works, a bibliography, and a discography.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Recent scholarly writing on Richard StraussAwho remains among the most popular of 20th-century composers, if not necessarily the most critically respectedAhas debated two issues: his dubious relation with the Nazi party and the break in his style, around 1910, from modernist experimentation to a conservative, nostalgic mode. Among the strengths of Ashley's biography is that he absorbs the latest scholarship into his concise, linear narrative and incorporates abundant anecdotes and revealing quotations. Ashley is evenhanded on the political question, wisely rejecting Strauss's declaration, "I am an apolitical composer." Strauss's anti-Semitic outbursts are revisited and, ultimately, a Strauss emerges who, while not an enthusiastic collaborator, passively acquiesced to the Nazis. Ashley thoroughly covers Strauss's compositions, as well, devoting thoughtful comments to forgotten as well as familiar works (though the composer's songs deserve more attention than they receive). Particularly interesting are Ashley's comparison of the two versions of the opera Ariadne auf Naxos (he makes the unfamiliar first version seem far more intriguing) and his argument that Friedenstag, usually seen as a pacifist opera, is in fact complicit with fascist ideology. Ashley risks glibness, however, in his judgmentsAoften merely stated instead of arguedAof the success or failure of various works. As an introduction for readers interested in Strauss the man, his works and his times, Ashley's book will serve admirably. Illus.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book, written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Strauss's death, is a remarkably clear-eyed and intelligent assessment of one of this century's most important and problematic composers. British music critic Boyden is no sycophantic apologist: all of Strauss's flaws and excesses, both personal and musical, are soberly laid bare. According to Boyden, Strauss was guided not by any particular aesthetic position but solely by egotism, pragmatic and moneymaking considerations, bourgeois nationalistic values, and an unrepentant Nietzschian worldview that ultimately led to his uncritical acceptance of Nazism. Boyden proceeds chronologically through Strauss's output, with fascinating digressions into the social and intellectual milieu that underlie each work. One of his intriguing theses is that Strauss did not beat a retreat from the precipice of modernism (as is usually presumed) because he never embraced modernism in the first place. This book contains no musical examples and skirts detailed analyses of individual pieces, yet it is so rich in background information and perceptive observations that one doesn't mind. Highly recommended.ALarry A. Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (November 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714837946
• ISBN-13: 978-0714837949
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,304,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Strauss, Richard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Balanced & well worth reading, May 30, 2002

By 

Brian Kelly "mbriankell" (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Richard Strauss (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating, impressively researched, balanced biography of Richard Strauss. The author clearly appreciates Strauss's music, but refuses to either gloss over or demonize Strauss's personal flaws, anti-Semitism, or involvement with the Nazis. (Strauss was not a party member; his involvement with the Nazis was in part because of career pragmatism, in part because of his interest in composers' rights, and, well, in part because he agreed with their cultural agenda.) He was a great composer and an outstanding conductor, but hardly a hero.

Until reading this, my knowledge of Strauss was limited mostly to various album notes and a few encyclopedia articles. I'd heard that some biographies trash him, and some are basically a whitewash. I'm glad I chose this one. It gives a comprehensive view of his influences and his life. Other composers had spectacular flaws; Strauss's reputation has probably suffered disproportionately.

Be warned: this is a thesis. You will experience the horror of endnotes. I don't know why Northeastern University Press didn't turn these into footnotes; perhaps some editor there has a fetish for turning back and forth between pages. Given that some chapters have over 50 endnotes, you're forced to either ignore them, read them all at once out of context, or place a post-it on the appropriate endnotes page and flip back and forth. Pointlessly annoying.

Although this is not always a fast read, especially because of the endnotes, toward the end it does become a page-turner. The epilogue, with the author's conclusions, is impressive.

If you love Strauss's music and want to know more, this is worth buying.

M. Brian Kelly

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A balanced biography of Strauss, August 18, 1999

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Richard Strauss (20th Century Composers) (Paperback)

In a fairly straightforward biography emphasizing the composition and production of Strauss's music, this book also looks unblinkingly at his anti-Semitism (which diminished after the birth of his two adored half-Jewish grandsons) and at his confused and confusing involvement with Hitler's Third Reich. The music is lovingly and skilfully described. This is the portrait of a man who is utterly devoted to his art and his family, and who is all too human when confronted with the political pressures bearing on them.

2 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars snore and a half, December 6, 2001

By 

disappointed (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Richard Strauss (20th Century Composers) (Paperback)

This book is a snore and a half because it does not depict the composers life in a realistic view. The auther must have read an encyclopedia exert and then thought he knew enough about him to write a book, because the book can be summerized into 1 scentance and that scentance would be Richard Struass was a great composer. All in all I am very disappointed in this book.