STRAUSS 



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STRAUSS 



at the lectures of the latter for a short period 

 of time, then returned to lecture at Tubingen, 

 where his attacks on Christianity aroused wide 

 comment. In 1835 appeared his most famous 

 work, Das Leben Jesu (Life of Christ), in 

 which he presented his theories of the origins 

 of Christianity and explained the Gospel his- 

 tory on mythical grounds. Later publications 

 provoked such a storm of protest that his 

 appointment to a position in the University of 

 Zurich was recalled. 



He married Agnes Schebest, an opera singer, 

 in 1841, but the two separated after five years. 

 In 1848 Strauss was made a member of the 

 Wiirttemberg Chamber, and being a conserva- 

 tive in politics soon resigned. From that time 

 he lived a wandering life, writing critical biog- 

 raphies and theological treatises in which he 

 revealed his complete abandonment of the 

 principles of Christianity for those of modern 

 science. His biographical writings include 

 , Schubart, Mdrklin, Ulrich von Hutten and Vol- 

 taire. 



STRAUSS, JOHANN (1825-1899), an Austrian 

 composer, was born at Vienna. His father, Jo- 

 hann Strauss, was a well-known composer, the 

 first to elevate dance music, especially the 

 waltz, to an artistic plane, but he was bitterly 

 opposed to his son becoming a musician. The 

 boy's mother, however, paid for his instruction 

 on the violin; when he was nineteen years 

 of age he left home to conduct a restaurant 

 orchestra at Hietzing, Austria. There he began 

 to present his own compositions, mainly 

 waltzes, and the restaurant soon became 

 crowded with admiring listeners. In 1849, after 

 his father's death, he united his own orchestra 

 with that of his father and began a series of 

 tours of Europe. Everywhere he appeared he 

 received great praise for the grace and beauty 

 of his original dance music. 



In 1855 he became conductor of summer con- 

 certs in Saint Petersburg (now Petrograd) and 

 from 1863 to 1870 was conductor of the Russian 

 Court balls. His last days were spent at 

 Vienna, where he died on June 3, 1899. His 

 five hundred dance compositions have won him 

 the title of the Waltz King. Among the most 

 noted are Beautiful Blue Danube, Artist's Life, 

 One Thousand and One Nights and Wine, 

 Women and Song. He composed also several 

 successful operettas, among them Indigo, A 

 Night in Venice and Prince Methusalem. 



STRAUSS, RICHARD (1864- ), a German 

 composer, was born at Munich. His father, 

 Franz Strauss, was one of the greatest horn 



players of Germany, and Richard Strauss as a 

 small boy showed marvelous musical talent. 

 He was a good pianist at the age of four, a 

 composer of music worthy of publication at six 

 and an advanced student of musical theory and 

 composition at ten. Before he was sixteen 

 years old his songs were becoming well known 

 and his Symphony in D Minor was being 

 played by several eminent pianists. Even Bil- 

 low, who was a merciless critic, praised his work 

 and had his Serenade performed at Meiningen, 

 Germany. In his early manhood Strauss gained 

 further notice by his numerous compositions 

 for voice and piano, but he had not yet found 

 his true sphere and showed too greatly the in- 

 fluence of other composers. 



Billow awakened his genius by pointing out 

 the tendency of modern music away from mere 

 beauty of melody and harmony to realism and 

 absolute truthfulness. About 1885 Strauss be- 

 gan to profit by this suggestion and commenced 

 to produce the unique and often highly realistic 

 compositions for which he is now noted. In 

 that year he became a conductor in the Munich 

 opera and in 1889 received the position of 

 chief conductor at Weimar, Germany. He re- 

 turned to Munich in 1894 as chief conductor, 

 and in 1899 accepted a similar position in Ber- 

 lin. Storm after storm of criticism, ridicule and 

 abuse followed the appearance of new works 

 by Strauss, for apparently he broke with the 

 traditions of music. In such a work as Till 

 Eulenspiegel he introduced the spirit of humor 

 to such an extent as to make some portions a 

 source of hearty laughter, and this naturally 

 has shocked the musical sentimentalist. In 

 Don Quixote he became so realistic in his de- 

 scriptions that some romantic lovers of music 

 could discover very little harmony in it. His 

 Domestic Symphony, describing the ordinary 

 sounds and scenes in the kitchen and dooryard 

 of a home, aroused international discussions. 



Strauss has not hesitated to use music for 

 satirical purposes, and his opera Feuersnot, an 

 amusing yet biting satire on musical and social 

 conditions in Munich, is a conspicuous example 

 of his success in such efforts. His greatest 

 operas, however, are Elektra and Salome, works 

 of exceptional beauty and brilliance, but so 

 realistic as to repel many of the more old- 

 fashioned lovers of music. His songs, however, 

 are often full of delicate sentiment and ex- 

 quisite charm. No man in musical history has 

 been more discussed, for he undoubtedly has 

 greatly broadened the scope and subjects of 

 composition and has shown originality. R.D.M. 



