STRAUSS SONGS
Sung by LINDA SEYMOUR (Contralto) and JOHN ARMSTRONG (Tenor)
THOUGH Richard Strauss is best known to the general public by his Symphonic Poems and Operas, he has written also a very great number of songs, which some people count among his greatest achievements.
Many of them were introduced to the British public, as some whose memories go back far enough may recall, in the programmes of the Strauss Festival, given in London, at the old St. James' Hall in 1903. when they were sung with great charm by the composer's wife, at that time a well-known operatic singer, Pauline De Ahna.
In style and character, Strauss' songs cover a wide range. Some are deeply felt and expressive, such as Traum durch die Dammerung (the most famous of them all), Ruhe meine Seele, and many more of the highest beauty. Others are passionate and brilliant, electrifying in their ardour and glow, such as Heimliche Aufforderung and Caeilie. Yet others, of which the Steinklopfers Lied is a typical example, deal with the less pleasant aspect of life in a manner appropriately grim and harsh ; while others again, such as the lovely Morgen and the delicious Muttertäudeleiare idyllic in their simplicity and charm.
Strauss has himself explained, in a highly interesting letter, his methods of composition. ' For some time,' lie wrote, ' I will have no impulso to compose at all. Then oneovening I will be turning the leaves of a volume of poetry and a poem will strike my eye. I read it through ; it agrees with the mood I am in ; and at once the appropriate music is fitted to it. I am in a musical frame of mind, and all I want is the right poetic vessel into which to pour my ideas. If good luck throws this in my way, a satisfactory song results.' But if, he added, the poem was not the right one, or he was not in the mood, then things worked out very differently and, hard as he might try, the result was never satisfactory.
But this is, of course, the way with all composers. It is only a pity that a larger proportion of Strauss' finest songs are not more regularly sung in England, where the tendency is to ring the changes perpetually on only a few of the best known; listeners will be glad to make acquaintance with some of the less familiar songs which Linda, Seymour and John Armstrong are introducing as the Foundations of Music this week.