Although _Don Quixote_ is a marvel of
skill and a very wonderful work, in which Strauss has developed a
suppler and richer style, it marks, to my mind, a progress in his
technique and a backward step in his mind, for he seems to have adopted
the decadent conceptions of an art suited to playthings and trinkets to
please a frivolous and affected society.
[Footnote 177: Arthur Hahn, _Der Musikfuehrer: Don Quixote_, Frankfort.]
[Footnote 178: At the head of each variation Strauss has marked on the
score the chapter of "Don Quixote" that he is interpreting.]
In _Heldenleben_ ("The Life of a Hero"), op. 40,[179] he recovers
himself, and with a stroke of his wings reaches the summits. Here there
is no foreign text for the music to study or illustrate or transcribe.
Instead, there is lofty passion and an heroic will gradually developing
itself and breaking down all obstacles. Without doubt Strauss had a
programme in his mind, but he said to me himself: "You have no need to
read it. It is enough to know that the hero is there fighting against
his enemies." I do not know how far that is true, or if parts of the
symphony would not be rather obscure to anyone who followed it without
the text; but this speech seems to prove that he has understood the
dangers of the literary symphony, and that he is striving for pure
music.
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