Richard Strauss Quotes

German composer and orchestra director (1864–1949)

Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949) was a German (Bavarian) composer of classical music and conductor. His music has always been popular: both in the concert hall and on recordings. He is perhaps best known nowadays for his Operas, of which Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos are the most frequently performed. He was also a composer of symphonic works such as Thus Spake Zarathustra and A Hero's Life. He wrote many songs for solo voice with piano or orchestra, including Four Last Songs, Tomorrow! and Rest, my soul!. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates at the Universities of Heidelberg (1903) and Oxford (1913) and awarded the French Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur Croix de Chevalier (1907) and Officier (1913). He conducted throughout his adult life, and made many recordings of his own compositions from 1918 to 1947. His last public concert was on 19 October 1947 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he conducted the Philharmonia orchestra in a program of his works. His music has inspired many composers, including Béla Bartók, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten and also Hollywood composers such as Max Steiner and John Williams. His best known music is the opening to Thus Spake Zarathustra, which became one of best known pieces of film music when Stanley Kubrick used it in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: Richard Georg Strauss

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:4. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a short glance to give an important cue.

:3. Conduct 'Salome' and 'Elektra' as if they were by Mendelssohn: fairy music.

:2. You should not perspire when conducting: only the audience should get warm.

:1. Remember you are making music not to amuse yourself but to delight the audience.

Ten Golden Rules (for the album of a young conductor)

It is better to conduct with the ear instead of with the arm: the rest follows automatically.

The left hand has nothing to do with conducting. Its proper place is the waistcoat pocket from which it should only emerge to restrain or make some minor gesture for which in any case a scarcely perceptible glance should suffice.

Conducting is, after all, a difficult business – one has to be seventy years of age to realise this fully!

Producers of opera nowadays usually make the mistake of translating each particular orchestral phrase into terms of a movement on the stage. In this matter one should proceed with a maximum of caution and good taste. There is no objection to bringing life to into the production by changes of position and new nuances of acting during repetitive passages of music, especially in arias. Preludes of one or two bars frequently, and especially in Mozart, clearly express some gesture on stage. But each trill on the flute does not represent a wink on the prima donna, nor every delayed chord on the strings a step or gesture. Whole passages, especially in the finales, are pure concert music and are best left undisturbed by “play acting”.

I am convinced that the decisive factor in dramatic effect will be a smaller orchestra, which does not drown out the human voice as does a large orchestra…The orchestra of the opera of the future is the chamber orchestra which, by painting in the background of the action on the stage with crystalline clearness, can alone realise precisely the intention of the composer with regard to the vocal parts. It is after all an important desideratum that the audience should not only hear the sounds but should also be able to follow the words closely.

If my works are good and of any importance for the further development of our art, they will maintain their position in spite of all opposition on the part of critics, and in spite of all denigration of my artistic intentions. If they are worthtless, not even the most gratifying box office success or the most enthusiastic acclamation of augurs will keep them alive. Let the pulping press devour them...I shall not shed a tear over their grave.