Sometimes it seems, as it did when reading Berlioz, that the execution
must result in incoherence, and weaken the effect. But somehow the
result is very satisfying. "Now doesn't that sound well?" said Strauss
to me with a smile, just after he had finished conducting
_Heldenleben_.[180]
[Footnote 180: The composition of the orchestra in Strauss's later works
is as follows: In _Zarathustra_: one piccolo, three flutes, three oboes,
one English horn, one clarinet in E flat, two clarinets in B, one
bass-clarinet in B, three bassoons, one double-bassoon, six horns in F,
four trumpets in C, three trombones, three bass-tuba, kettledrums, big
drum, cymbals, triangle, chime of bells, bell in E, organ, two harps,
and strings. In _Heldenleben_: eight horns instead of six, five trumpets
instead of four (two in E flat, three in B); and, in addition, military
drums.]
But it is especially in Strauss's subjects that caprice and a disordered
imagination, the enemy of all reason, seem to reign. We have seen that
these poems try to express in turn, or even simultaneously, literary
texts, pictures, anecdotes, philosophical ideas, and the personal
sentiments of the composer.
Pages:
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224