Metamorphosen is a composition for 23 solo strings (ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses) by
Richard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems...
. Written during the closing months of the
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and first performed in January 1946 (by
Paul SacherPaul Sacher was a Swiss conductor, patron and impresario.He studied under Felix Weingartner among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra to play works written before the classical period and modern works...
and the
ZürichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
Collegium Musicum), it was written as a statement of mourning for Germany's destruction during the war, in particular the bombing of the Munich Opera House, the
Goethehaus, which Strauss called in a letter to opera librettist Joseph Gregor, "the world's most holy shrine — destroyed!"
The piece uses as its primary motivic element a passage from the funeral march in
Beethoven'sLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
Eroica SymphonyThe Symphony No. 3 in E flat major by Ludwig van Beethoven is a musical work sometimes cited as marking the end of the Classical Era and the beginning of musical Romanticism....
.
Metamorphosen is a composition for 23 solo strings (ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses) by
Richard StraussRichard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems...
. Written during the closing months of the
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and first performed in January 1946 (by
Paul SacherPaul Sacher was a Swiss conductor, patron and impresario.He studied under Felix Weingartner among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra to play works written before the classical period and modern works...
and the
ZürichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
Collegium Musicum), it was written as a statement of mourning for Germany's destruction during the war, in particular the bombing of the Munich Opera House, the
Goethehaus, which Strauss called in a letter to opera librettist Joseph Gregor, "the world's most holy shrine — destroyed!"
The piece uses as its primary motivic element a passage from the funeral march in
Beethoven'sLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
Eroica SymphonyThe Symphony No. 3 in E flat major by Ludwig van Beethoven is a musical work sometimes cited as marking the end of the Classical Era and the beginning of musical Romanticism....
. During the final bars of the piece, the funeral march is
quotedMusical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work...
in full in the bass part (rather than just being briefly and repeatedly alluded to, as earlier), accompanied by the words "In Memoriam" in the score. According to Michael Kennedy's biography
Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma (1999), one hostile early critic, the Dutchman
Matthijs VermeulenMatthijs Vermeulen , was a Dutch composer and music journalist.- Early life :...
, interpreted the composition as mourning
HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
and the dismantlement of the Nazi regime. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted now that Strauss's melancholy in the piece stems from the toll of war on the German culture and aesthetic in general. Also, Strauss, though not openly anti-Nazi during the Third Reich (in order to be able to protect his beloved Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren from extermination) privately despised Hitler;
Bruno WalterBruno Walter was a German-born conductor and composer. One of the most famous conductors of the 20th century, he was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939...
, himself Jewish, was among the early admirers of the piece).
As one of Strauss's last works,
Metamorphosen masterfully exhibits the type of complex
contrapuntalIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
harmonies for which the composer showed a predilection throughout his creative life.