Then the music unfolds itself serenely, and rises
with calm strength to the closing chord of triumph, which is placed like
a crown of glory on the hero's head.
There is no doubt that Beethoven's ideas have often inspired,
stimulated, and guided Strauss's own ideas. One feels an indescribable
reflection of the first _Heroic_ and of the _Ode to Joy_ in the key of
the first part (E flat); and the last part recalls, even more forcibly,
certain of Beethoven's _Lieder_. But the heroes of the two composers are
very different: Beethoven's hero is more classical and more rebellious;
and Strauss's hero is more concerned with the exterior world and his
enemies, his conquests are achieved with greater difficulty, and his
triumph is wilder in consequence. If that good Oulibicheff pretends to
see the burning of Moscow in a discord in the first _Heroic_, what would
he find here? What scenes of burning towns, what battlefields! Besides
that there is cutting scorn and a mischievous laughter in _Heldenleben_
that is never heard in Beethoven. There is, in fact, little kindness in
Strauss's work; it is the work of a disdainful hero.
* * * * *
In considering Strauss's music as a whole, one is at first struck by the
diversity of his style.
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