Four major compositions, written by Richard Strauss between 1940-1948, are illustrative of the composer's conservative use of harmony and tonality. Each work exemplifies a different genre: an opera scene, a programmatic orchestral work, a concerto, and four lieder. The forms and tonal organization in each representative work are traditional. Those forms used are sonata, ternary, a seven-part rondo and, a loosely structured sectional form. They are presented in the final chapter from the most structured form, the concerto, down to the least structured, the opera scene. The harmonies incorporated within each work are conservative in character. The generic categories of sonority types are triads, seventh chords, ninths, elevenths and thirteenth chords. The three overwhelming common chords are major triads, minor triads and major-minor seventh chords. Almost 87% are these three types. There are many similarities In root movement to those used in musIc from the common practice period: up a fourth, up a second, down a third, and up a fifth. However, two non-traditional types are used to some extent. These are down a second and up a third. Modulation types vary and are dependent upon the nature of the work: the chromatic types are associated with chromatic music (Metamorphosen) just as nonchromatic types are common in more traditionally structured music (Oboe Concerto). It is the analysis of these specific elements that help shed light upon the later harmonic style of Richard Strauss.

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Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

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Richard Strauss was only nineteen when he wrote the Serenade and soon the Suite was among his list of compositions. Not until he was nearing the end of his life did he again turn his attention to wind music with the Sonatine and the Symphonie. This paper provides a comparison of sonorities, root movement and representative harmonic progressions, cadences, harmonic rhythm, treatment of dissonances, keys employed, and modulation types in the four works. Its purpose is to determine how works from the years between the Suite and Sonatine may have affected the above parameters in the Sonatine and Symphonie. Included in the intervening years are such works as Elektra, Salome, and others during which time Strauss was most innovative in his use of sonorities, dissonances, and harmonic progressions. This study proves that in later compositions for wind instruments, Strauss did not continue the advances he had made earlier; rather he looked back to the language of the Serenade and Suite. The importance of major and minor triads, and the major-minor seventh remained in the Sonatine and Symphonie; beat duration totals for these three sonorities for the Serenade and Symphonie shows a less than one percent difference between the two works. Although there is less emphasis placed on ascending perfect fourth root movement in the Symphonie than in the other works, it still retains nearly one-fourth the total number. Authentic cadences have a higher percentage in the later Sonatine and Symphonie than in either of the two earlier compositions. Dissonance treatment favors conservative means; passing tones, neighbor tones, leap up-step down and leap down-step up appoggiaturas, suspensions and retardations are most common regardless of time-frame. Regarding modulations: although the widest variety is found in the Symphonie, emphasis is on diatonic and chromatic pivot chords, third relation, and enharmonic diminished seventh chords. One must conclude from the study that conservatism is the hallmark in each of the four compositions.

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In Capriccio. Richard Strauss and Clemens Krauss examine the very nature of opera with the core of their thesis being the relationship of words and music. A work that is, in essence, an extended discussion poses two problems to the composer and librettist: how to sustain the argument of the thesis without losing the attention of the audience, and how to prevent a conversational opera from sounding like endless recitative. Strauss and Krauss manage to present their case without having to resort to an actual discussion for the duration of the opera. Their characters are engaging, identifiable human beings who are also allegorical figures. Their participation in the stage action sustains the argument of the thesis even when the dialogue itself addresses other subjects. The players symbolize various facets of opera, theatre, and the public with all of them, principal and secondary characters, being sharply etched. The little stage action that Capriccio does contain is carefully paced and closely coordinated with the presentation of the work's thesis. The octets, similar in dramatic function to the central finale of a Mozart opera buffa, provide the climax of the stage action and come soon after the Fugal Debate, the centerpiece of the collaborators' argument. The final section of the central scene, which also contains the aforementioned octets and Fugal Debate, serves as the denouement of both the plot and thesis. Such close attention to dramatic structure gives Capriccio and the argument it presents cohesion and dramatic shape. The text itself is written in clear, concise prose and is set in Strauss's patented "conversational style." This style, a rapid syllabic declamation, is delivered "mezza voce" in order to simulate natural speech and is sung over continuous melos in the orchestra. This accompaniment keeps it from sounding like dry recitative. This study explores the work's characters, dramatic structure, vocal style, and the issues raised by Strauss and Krauss. Other topics to be addressed include the genesis of Capriccio. how the careers of the composer and librettist led them to write an opera about opera, common criticisms of the work, and Capriccio's place in the operatic repertoire today.

This study begins with a discussion of step theory. Included in this discussion is the basis of chord succession, the idea of fundamental representation, and the uses of reinterpretation technique. These concepts are then used to demonstrate the continuity and logic of the harmonic language found in Strauss's Macbeth.

Zugl.: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2004

Zugl.: Strasbourg, Universit́e, Diss., 2003.