# Richard Strauss's mysterious foray into the baroque



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I first became away of this strange aspect of Richard Strauss's work at a local symphony concert, where I heard the third piece listed below, being almost shocked that harpsichord and Richard Strauss could go together. He wrote three pieces that I know of that, that seem to be highly baroque influenced, and in some cases, unadulterated baroque music with more involved orchestration and the occasional twist.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is very much neo baroque with a Straussian voice behind it. You can hear some Richard Strauss motifs(that are found in his earlier tone poems) and lots of more advanced harmony and chromaticism is used, despite a gentle sound with a sort of regimented baroque quality to it.

Then there is the Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin, which to me sounds very attractively baroque, with a few very surprising passages.

And the Divertimento, which actually has a harpsichord in it, and seems like a sort of fuzzy deviation from the style of the dance suite, something dense and kind of vague about it. There is one movement that actually used Le Tic Toc, a harpsichord piece by Francois Couperin.

Now that introductions are over, I have a few questions. *First*, are there any more pieces of Richard Strauss that you would categorize as neoclassical? *Second*, why are these pieces so obscure? They are nice and interesting. *Third*, what was his interest in the baroque that made him want to do what is practically an interesting and fattened up pastiche of that style in two of these pieces?

It seems that the Dance Suite and Divertimento are actually re workings of Couperin keyboard pieces. Sometimes multiple pieces are worked into a single movement.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

clavichorder said:


> Now that introductions are over, I have a few questions. *First*, are there any more pieces of Richard Strauss that you would categorize as neoclassical?


His 2nd Horn Concerto, his Oboe Concerto.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Well, there's a difference between neo-Classical and Baroque. Second, the music from Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme, being Moliere, required an antique feel, even if not quite Baroque. (Remembering also that it was composed for the original version of "Ariadne auf Naxos.") And although it's not Til Eulenspiegel it's not exactly unknown music. Strauss was an extremely versatile composer, and basically borrowed from whatever idiom he required to achieve the desired effect -- nevertheless, it all still sounded like Strauss.


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