Variations on AMERICA PROGRAM NOTES

The most renowned German composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Richard Strauss was a musical prodigy who grew up in a large musical family and began composing at the age of six.  His father, Franz Strauss, a leading horn player in Germany at the time, played a crucial role in shaping Richard’s early musical career. In addition to choosing his teachers in piano, violin, and composition, Franz made instrumental music-making central to the Strauss home, and taught his son the music of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert.  

Franz Strauss also showcased his son's compositions in performances with an amateur orchestra he conducted from 1875 to 1896 and many of Strauss’ early symphonic compositions were written for this ensemble. His father undoubtedly influenced his son's developing musical taste as well, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn. His Horn Concerto No. 1 is representative of this period and is a staple of the modern horn repertoire. 

Strauss lived through a remarkable period in German history, one that encompassed the rise and fall of the German empire, two world wars, Hitler and the challenges of national socialism in Germany. The year of his death was the same year that Germany was split into East and West, and the fighting war gave way to the Cold War and the scourge of communism. Born at a time when homes were illuminated by oil lamps, his death coincided with a world defined by nuclear power. Throughout this tumultuous period, however, Strauss maintained a distinguished career as composer and conductor that spanned almost eight decades, during which he explored nearly every musical genre, ultimately gaining international recognition for his tone poems from the late 19th century and his operas from the early 20th century. 

Strauss wrote his Horn Concerto in E flat at age 18 while studying philosophy at the University of Munich.  Considered one of his first important compositions, the title “Waldhornkonzert” indicates that the solo horn part was to be played on the natural valveless horn. While it is possible to play the concerto on the natural horn (Waldhorn), in practice, it’s nearly impossible to give a convincing performance. Even Franz the father found it tiring, and never performed the work in public. All modern performances and recordings are played on the valved F double horn, which was developed at the end of the 19th century. 

The work is in three movements and is a brilliant showcase of the horn as a solo instrument. Typical of Strauss’s music – Romantic in style, with themes that are catchy, memorable and distinctive - the concerto offers us hints of what is to come, foreshadowing the great “Horn moments” in Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben, and Don Quixote.

Strauss’ Legacy

With his characteristic self-deprecation, Strauss himself declared in 1947: "I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer." The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, however, described Strauss in 1962 as "the greatest musical figure who has lived in this century.” Strauss has always been popular with audiences in the concert hall and continues to be so. He has consistently been in the top 10 composers most performed by symphony orchestras in the US and Canada over the period 2002–2010. He is also in the top 5 of 20th-century composers in terms of the number of currently available recordings of his works. 

Aaron Copland is generally considered one of America’s greatest composers, credited with what has come to be known as an “American Sound.” The son of Jewish immigrants, he lived most of his life in New York City, but in his music, one can hear elements of jazz, ethnic, western, folk, and European continental. His wide-ranging intellect, however, synthesized all of these disparate musical styles into a style all his own that speaks with a clear and unified expression.

One of Copland’s most popular pieces, Lincoln Portrait, was commissioned during the early years of World War II by conductor Andre Kostelanetz for a program of new works by American composers. Scored for orchestra and narration, Copland chose excerpts from Lincoln’s own words for the narration. 

Lincoln Portrait is divided roughly into three sections: The opening section suggests a sense of melancholy and gentleness and simplicity of spirit that characterized Lincoln’s personality; the livelier middle section relates to the time in which Lincoln lived, and like much of Copland’s populist and patriotic music, there are quotes from traditional popular tunes - Springfield Mountain and Camptown Races; the final section serves to frame the words of Lincoln himself, and includes excerpts from the Gettysburg Address, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and one of the State of the Union speeches.

The work was an inspiration for the difficult times of the war, but about 1950 both Copland’s music and his popular place in society took a downward turn. His earlier association with socialist causes, such as his support of the American Communist Party in the election of 1936, made him a target of the “red scare” and Senator Joseph McCarthy. Consequently, the Republican Party cancelled a performance of Lincoln Portrait that was planned for Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration.

The McCarthy probes did not seriously affect Copland’s career and international artistic reputation, but shortly after his encounter with the United States Congress, he began resigning from participation in leftist groups.  

The following is the text Copland wrote for the Narrator in Lincoln Portrait.

“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history”

That is what he said,

That is what Abraham Lincoln said:

“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We—even we here—hold the power and bear the responsibility”

He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in ­Illinois.

And this is what he said:

This is what Abe Lincoln said:

He said:

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall.

And this is what he said:

He said:

“It is the eternal struggle between two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. . .. It is the same spirit that says, ‘You toil and work and earn bread—and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle!”

Lincoln was a quiet man.

Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a melancholy man.

But when he spoke of democracy,

This is what he said:

He said:

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy.”

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen.

For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he said:

He said:

“. . . that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”