I am far from thinking that the symphony is without a fault. The themes
are of unequal value: some are quite commonplace; and, in a general way,
the working up of the composition is superior to its underlying
thought. I shall come back later on to certain faults in Strauss's
music; here I only want to consider the overflowing life and feverish
joy that set these worlds spinning.
_Zarathustra_ shows the progress of scornful individualism in
Strauss--"the spirit that hates the dogs of the populace and all that
abortive and gloomy breed; the spirit of wild laughter that dances like
a tempest as gaily on marshes and sadness as it does in fields."[176]
That spirit laughs at itself and at its idealism in the _Don Quixote_ of
1897, _fantastische Variationen uber ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters_
("Don Quixote, fantastic variations on a theme of knightly character"),
op. 35; and that symphony marks, I think, the extreme point to which
programme music may be carried. In no other work does Strauss give
better proof of his prodigious cleverness, intelligence, and wit; and I
say sincerely that there is not a work where so much force is expended
with so great a loss for the sake of a game and a musical joke which
lasts forty-five minutes, and has given the author, the executants, and
the public a good deal of tiring work.
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