Richard Strauss in Context

Description

Richard Strauss in Context offers a distinctive approach to the study of a composer in that it places the emphasis on contextualizing topics rather than on biography and artistic output. One might say that it inverts the relationship between composer and context. Rather than studies of Strauss's librettists that discuss the texts themselves and his musical settings, for instance, this book offers essays on the writers themselves: their biographical circumstances, styles, landmark works, and broader positions in literary history. Likewise, Strauss's contributions to the concert hall are positioned within the broader development of the orchestra and trends in programmatic music. In short, readers will benefit from an elaboration of material that is either absent from or treated only briefly in existing publications. Through this supplemental and broader contextual approach, this book serves as a valuable and unique resource for students, scholars, and a general readership.

Morten Kristiansen is Associate Professor of Musicology and director of the music program at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to conference papers and journal articles on Richard Strauss and fin-de-siecle German opera, he has authored program notes for the Salzburg Festival. Joseph E. Jones is Associate Professor of Music at Texas A&M University-Kingsville where he also serves as director of an annual study abroad program in Vienna. His research areas include German opera and the fin de siecle, and he is a co-editor of Genetic Criticism and the Creative Process (2009).

'The essays are excellent and sure to be of interest to readers at all levels ... Highly recommended.' S. Edwards, Choice