Metamorphoses (Richard Strauss)

Metamorphoses (in German: Metamorphosen ) is a work written for 23 string instruments by Richard Strauss in 1944 - 1945 (completed on April 12th).

It is about an order of Paul Sacher but the essence of Métamorphoses was already written front. They were made up under the blow of the emotion caused by the devastation of part of Germany at the time of the second world war. An about contemporary draft carried besides subtitles " of it; Lament on Munich" in reference to the destruction of the national theater of this city in 1943. It is about the one of the last partitions of the musician, then octogenarian. It lies within the scope of a return to the pure instrumental music establishing a bond between the end of the lifetime of Strauss and its years of youth.

The 23 instruments are 10 Violon S, 5 viola S, 5 Violoncelle S and three Contrebasse S, is 5 string quartets and three double basses.

First takes place on January 25th 1946 under the direction of Paul Sacher with the head of Collegium Musicum of Zurich.

It is not certain that the title refers to the structure of work. The operated metamorphoses are rather those of the tonalities and harmony that topics, in the final analysis always recognizable (thus little metamorphosed with the clean direction of the term). One of the six main themes is an obvious allusion to the topic of the funeral march of the Symphonie n° 3 of Beethoven quoted explicitly in homage at the end of the partition under the mention " In Memoriam! ".

The idea of metamorphosis is undoubtedly to attach here to the readings goethéennes of Strauss at the evening of its life. If one can imagine a wink with the Métamorphose of the plants or the Métamorphose of the animals of the German Poète , it is also necessary to take account of a draft for mixed chorus with four parts contemporary of Métamorphoses , which is a setting in music of the following worms of Goethe (extracted the Zahme Xenien (VII), 1827):

Niemand wird sich selber kennen,
Sich von seinem Selbst-Ich trennen;
Doch probier' er jeden Tag,
Was nach außen endlich, klar,
Was er STI und was er war,
Was er kann und was er mag.

Nobody will know oneself,
from clean sound I will not separate;
That it tests each day,
Of knowknowing finally clearly,
What it is and what it was,
What it can and what it wishes.

Strauss retains the last Goethe the idea of reflection on oneself, of evolution towards wisdom by the self-awareness, which seems to correspond - when one puts it in relation to the historical context - to the spirit of resignation of Métamorphoses .

Work is made of only one holding and its execution takes a little less than one half an hour. It is made up in fact of vast a adagio with more tormented central part.

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