Serenade (Strauss)
The Serenade in E flat major op. 7, composed in 1881, is a composition for 13 wind instruments by Richard Strauss (1864–1949), who was 17 at the time .
Origin and premiere
Richard Strauss completed his serenade as a pupil at the age of 17 on November 11, 1881. This was preceded by a number of song compositions, the string quartet op. 2, the piano sonata op. 5 and a symphony in D minor.
The work is dedicated to Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer , who had taught composing by Strauss since 1875 . The first performance - Strauss had meanwhile started his university studies - took place on November 27, 1882 in the Dresden Tonkünstlerverein by wind instruments from the court orchestra under the direction of Franz Wüllner . Hans von Bülow , who was made aware of the serenade, took over the work, which was printed by Musikverlag Josef Aibl at the end of 1882 under the opus number 7, in the program of a concert with the Meiningen court orchestra in December 1883 and left it in other cities as part of a concert tour, such as Berlin in 1884 , play.
The serenade marked a turning point in Richard Strauss' career: it was the first time one of his works was performed outside of his native Munich, the collaboration with Wüllner was to continue in later world premieres ( Till Eulenspiegel , Don Quixote ), and von Bülow's recognition was also expressed in the Invitation to Strauss to compose a multi-movement suite for the same instrumentation (which then received the opus number 4). In 1885 von Bülow finally hired him as Kapellmeister to Meiningen.
The autograph of the serenade is in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York .
Cast and playing time
The score provides for an ensemble of 13 wind instruments : 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , contrabassoon or bass tuba and 4 horns (a curiosity is that the final chord should be reinforced by a double bass ).
The performance lasts about 10 minutes.
characterization
Musically, the serenade processes influences from Mozart and Mendelssohn to Brahms . The line-up is possibly inspired by Mozart's Gran Partita (which, however, does not use flutes or contrabassoon), perhaps also Brahms' instrumentation of the theme in his Haydn Variations . Even in this early work Strauss showed skill in the use of the tonal and technical possibilities of the wind instruments used. When shaping the melodic material, the focus is on sound beauty and good transparency.
The movement work has the basic tempo regulation Andante and follows the Sonata form with exposure (clock 1 to 80), execution (cycle 81-121), recapitulation (clock 122-157) and Coda (clock 158-176).
literature
- Walter Werbeck (Ed.): Richard Strauss Handbook . Metzler / Bärenreiter, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02344-5 , pp. 508–509.