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Richard Strauss: An Intimate Portrait, and so on,江文也

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MUZIK古典樂刊【 生日快樂! | 史特勞斯 & 江文也 】
把時光推回八十年前的德國,那時是1936年8月1日,希特勒為柏林奧運揭開序幕,而理查.史特勞斯也在典禮現場指揮他為大會特別創作的《奧林匹克之歌》 (Olympische Hymne)。當年奧運同步舉行藝術競賽,賽事項目包括建築、文學、繪畫、雕刻與音樂等;來自台灣的作曲家江文也,以帶有台灣風情與現代色彩的《台灣舞 曲》,在這場國際競賽當中獲得了作曲類特別獎。
當時的江文也與理查.史特勞斯,一位是出身台灣淡水的年輕新銳,一位是德奧後期浪漫派的作曲大師。兩人的音樂作品,就在這樣的歷史場景中,產生了巧妙的關連。
今天是6月11日,同時是兩位作曲家的生日。在這個特別的日子裡,讓我們一起欣賞這首具有特別意義的《台灣舞曲》,也祝他們兩位生日快樂!(更多關於《台灣舞曲》的故事請見:http://goo.gl/cjiC0s
江文也:台灣舞曲
YouTube


This coming week we'll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss' birth. Take a deep dive into Strauss with this hour-long special that explores his dedication to his art, as reflected in his grand orchestral works and his unforgettable operas.

Richard Strauss was a hard man to pin down. As an artist, he was never tied to a single style. He embraced many musical forms during his lifetime. There was only one guiding principle: his belief that music is a holy art.
WQXR.ORG





Behind Richard Strauss's Murky Relationship with the Nazis

Thursday, June 05, 2014


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June 11 is the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss's birth—an occasion to celebrate and also to raise questions about the composer and his actions during the Nazi era.
In 1933, Strauss accepted a high-profile job from the Nazis, when propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels named him president of the Reichsmusikkammer, the State Music Bureau. Strauss wrote pieces for the Nazis including "Das Bächlein," a song dedicated to Goebbels. And he even wrote at least one letter pledging his loyalty to Hitler.
But Strauss's defenders note that he eventually lost the Nazi post for insisting that Stefan Zweig – the Jewish librettist of his comic opera Die Schweigsame Frau– should appear in the program at the premiere in Dresden, in 1935. And Strauss may have helped save several Jewish lives later in the war. He emerged from his postwar de-Nazification hearing with no official taint.
So was Strauss a hero, a bad actor, or something else? In this week's episode, we’re joined by two Strauss experts to sort through these questions:
  • Erik Levi, author of Mozart and the Nazis and Music in the Third Reich, and a professor of music at Royal Holloway, University of London.
  • Bryan Gilliam, a professor of humanities at Duke University and author of several books on Strauss including Rounding Wagner's Mountain: Richard Strauss and Modern German Opera.

Segment Highlights

On Strauss's relationship to the Nazis
Levi: Initially he was an enthusiastic advocate [of the Nazis]. Remember that we were experiencing in the 1920s a period of tremendous economic fluctuation and a lot of composers on the bread line. What Strauss wanted to do was bring stability to the composing profession, and this was what was promised to him.
Gilliam: I wouldn't say he was pro-Nazi ideology; he was pro-Richard Strauss ideology. He was an opportunist. I don't think he was excited ever about any government. He'd be excited over a government that gave him opportunities for work and commissions and the like. His ideology was Richard Strauss. There's an exception here: his son, Franz, was enthusiastic...

The Music That Strauss Composed for the Nazis
Levi on the Olympic Hymn of 1936: He didn't share much enthusiasm for the idea of writing something for the sporting event. But he was keen to promote himself and a big event like the Berlin Olympic games was an event where he could occupy center stage. It's a piece of jobbery really.
Gilliam: The Olympic Hymn poem was by a half-Jewish poet. He sat next to Hitler at the ceremony.

On the Moral Implications of the Music Strauss wrote under the Nazi regime
Levi: We have to divorce the music from the man. Some past composers in history have been terribly unpleasant people with unpleasant views. It is a thicket. We need to mention a piece like Metamorphosen, written at the end of the war, where you really sense the agony and the grief for the destruction of Germany. The destruction of Germany was wrought by Hitler and his gang, and this music really speaks to the heart that few other works of the 20th century do.
Gilliam: I don't find anything heroic about Strauss, but as a musician, I am absolutely mesmerized by one of the most brilliant artistic individuals of the 20th century.
Listen to the segment above and leave a comment below: Should Strauss have spoken out more forcefully against the Nazis? Do you find his Nazi-era works problematic?

 . Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen
Composed in 1945, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, a work for 23 solo strings, contains Strauss's most sustained outpouring of tragic emotion. The work was written as a statement of mourning for Germany's destruction during the war, in particular the bombing of the Munich Opera House and the Goethehaus. According to Michael Kennedy's biography Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma (1999), one hostile early critic interpreted the composition as mourning Hitler and the Nazi regime. But Strauss had written the words "In Memoriam" over a quotation from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony as a way to symbolize the toll of war on the German culture and aesthetic in general. As he wrote in his diary:
    "The most terrible period of human history (is at) an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom."





2014;the 150th birthday of RichardStrauss.
Richard Strauss: Wilhelm, Kurt

Richard Strauss

Wilhelm, Kurt

Published by Thames & Hudson, 1989
 我記得近10年前,我讀過一夲北京人民音樂出版社翻譯自德文的
 Richard Strauss。這本書Richard Strauss: An Intimate Portrait,在圖片等方面更好。

 入門
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss

Richard Strauss: An Intimate Portrait

Front Cover
Thames and Hudson, 1989 - Biography & Autobiography - 312 pages
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) always claimed that his music was a self-portrait, that he depicted himself, his nature, and his world in musical notes. From the charming autobiographical opera Intermezzo, based on a domestic misunderstanding, to the self-confident tone poem Ein Heldenleben, the composer's works relate to his personal experience as closely as those of any


nineteenth-century Romantic. For the huge audience that enjoys the music of Strauss, Kurt Wilhelm's book has proved to be a cornucopia of information.
Many of the numerous illustration -- taken from the private archive of the Strauss family -- have never been published previously, and all are of immense historical interest. Skillfully woven around them is a detailed and revealing text, rich in anecdotes, quotations, and personal reminiscences by members of the Strauss family and contemporaries. The result is an intimate investigation of the private life, opinions, background, and works of Strauss that comes as close to the man as one is likely to get.

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