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Politics, Creativity, and the Aging Artist: Narrativising Richard Strauss's Last Years

2009; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14484520902931008

1751-2964

Kimberly Fairbrother Canton, Amelia DeFalco, Katherine R. Larson, Helmut Reichenbächer,

Diverse Music Education Insights

Abstract The numerous and often contradictory accounts of Richard Strauss's final years and final works speak to the difficulty biographers have had producing a convincing narrative of the German composer's life. By examining how a sampling of German and English-language biographies tackle the controversies, political and musical, that colored Strauss's last years, we investigate here the interaction of models of aging into old age with the biographical project of narrativising a particular, and particularly impenetrable, life. We focus on Strauss's ambiguous relationship to Nazism, before moving to the conflicting biographical readings of the composition and performance of Metamorphosen, a work of quasi-program music commissioned during the war years and completed when Strauss was in his eighties, and which bears the enigmatic inscription, 'In Memoriam.' Preconceived notions of aging and old age often influence and even determine the meaning of a particular life narrative. The competing claims of Strauss's biographers attest to the arbitrariness of life course models, which belie the complexity, contradiction, and multiplicity of human lives. Our comparative study of the biographical treatments of Strauss's last years demonstrates that narrativization of the life course risks overdetermining interpretations of aging persons and of aging more generally. Keywords: Straussbiographyold agelife narrativeNazismmusic Metamorphosen Acknowledgements Early versions of this paper were presented at the 2006 meeting of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association. We are grateful for the feedback we received from our audience there. We would also like to thank Dr. Linda Hutcheon and Dr. Michael Hutcheon for bringing us together to work with them on aspects of aging and late-life creativity. Their insights, suggestions, and support have been invaluable. Notes 1. Edward Said Said, Edward. 2006. On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain, New York: Pantheon. [Google Scholar], in his own late work on late style, notes that Strauss's late period has 'an unsettling effect,' and calls the composer 'a figure of superannuation, a late-nineteenth-century essentially romantic composer living and writing well past his real period' (45). 2. However, performances of Strauss's works continued unabated throughout the Nazi period. While the figures fluctuate, the total number of performances of Strauss operas on German-language stages in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia (excluding summer festivals, such as Bayreuth) exceeded three hundred a season until 1941/42, the last season for which performance statistics were collected (see Altmann Altmann , Wilhelm . 'Opernstatistik.' Musikblätter des Anbruchs 9 Jan-Dec 1927 : 106 110 . [Google Scholar]). With the exception of the 1935/36 season, Strauss never fell below sixth place amongst the most frequently performed opera composers during the Nazi period (Verdi, Wagner, Lortzing, Puccini, and Mozart). Strauss's falling out of favor during the Nazi period is a matter of official Nazi policy and not popular opinion. 3. All translations from the German original are by the authors. Here: Ehrfurchtsvolle Scheu verbietet Eingehen auf Persönlichstes. Zudem fehlt manches authentische biographische Material, das Dunkelheiten erhellen und Zusammenhänge aufklären könnte. So schildert das vorliegende Büchlein nur in großen Zügen Werk und Leben des Meisters … 4. Richard Strauss selbst war dermaßen unpolitisch daß sich der Gedanke, Stellung zu nehmen zu einer Regierung, die sich nun einmal in seinem Land etabliert hatte, gänzlich außerhalb seiner Mentalität lag. Er war weder dafür noch dagegen. 5. Es tut mir leid, dass ich Sie wegen Ihrer Bitte um Einsicht in die Dokumente meines Schwiegervater[s] aus den Jahren 1933–1945 enttäuschen muß. Die Zeit vom 3. Reich war ein einziges Lavieren und keineswegs für das Schaffen wichtig. Ich verstehe nicht ganz, warum sich nun ausgerechnet das Interesse der Musikwissenschaftler auf diese Epoche richtet. Meine Söhne und ich bitten Sie herzlich, sich ein anderes Dissertationsthema auszuwählen [sic!]./Mit vielen freundlichen Grüssen bin ich Ihre / Alice Strauss. 6. Here is Splitt's conclusion about Strauss's behavior in the Bruno Walter case: From the ministry of propaganda's point of view, Strauss demonstrated exactly what qualified him to become president of the RMK: he may have had scruples, but he didn't refuse to serve as the figurehead of the regime … Taking over the concert for [conductor Bruno] Walter, Strauss committed a significant step toward rapprochement with the regime. (362) 7. Martina Steiger's Steiger , Martina Richard Strauss – Karl Böhm: Briefwechsel 1921–1949 . New York : Schott , 1999 . [Google Scholar] edition of the letters between Strauss and Karl Böhm even allows a reading of the origins of Metamorphosen as a primarily materialistic endeavor. See Böhm's letter to Strauss, Vienna, 28 August 1944, only weeks after the closure of the theatres: Confidential! / Please return […] In addition, I am repeating my verbally conveyed message, the Collegium musicum Zürich (led by P. Sacher) asks you for a suite for strings (small ensemble 6/6/4/4/2 players) lasting about 16–20 minutes. Assigning the Collegium musicum the world premiere would yield you an honorarium of 5000 frcs, with all rights remaining in your hands. Vertraulich! / Erbitte zurück! […] Überdies wiederhole ich meine mündliche Durchsage, nach der das Collegium musicum Zürich (Leiter P. Sacher) Sie bittet eine Suite für Streicher (Kl. Besetzung 6/6/4/4/2 Spieler) in der Dauer von ca. 16-20 Minuten zu schreiben. Dafür, dass Sie dem Collegium musicum die Uraufführung übertragen erhalten Sie ein Honorar von 5000 frcs, wobei alle weiteren Rechte Ihnen vorbehalten bleiben. (170) 8. In its entirety, the passage reads: Das bedeutungsvollste Alterswerk, das Richard Strauss mit 81 Jahren vollendete, sind die ,,Metamorphosen, eine Studie für 23 Solostreicher". Es ist ein ergreifender Epilog, voll bezaubernden Klanges und voll meisterhafter Polyphonie. Aber im Ausdruck unterscheidet es sich von allen früheren Werken; ernst und düster geht es zu Ende und klingt aus in das c-moll-Thema des Trauermarsch aus der ,,Eroica". So umwittert die Tragik des Weltgeschehens den Abschluß dieses unvorstellbar reichen Lebens. (71) Even a standard work, Ernst Krause's 1953 biography, remained silent on the context of the Third Reich in its first edition. However, in Krause's case, this initial silence became modified through the numerous revisions that the book underwent as it went from edition to edition.