Make money doing the work you believe in
For these times: here is a piece written by Richard Strauss (he wrote “Thus spoke Zarathustra” of Space Odyssey fame), finished shortly before his death after the end of WWII. He endured the 1930s as Hitler’s favorite composer, who Hitler wished to make his own trophy, and ended up loathing Hitler while trying to protect his Jewish daughter in law and grandsons (while her family was sent to die in the camps).
Because of who he was and his history in a musical family, it also hit him terribly hard that German culture came to this, this is what Beethoven’s heirs inherited. He quotes snippets of Beethoven throughout the piece. The summons of fate knocking on the door (the four notes of the 5th) becomes ominous rather than beckoning. It’s repeated and varied throughout the whole piece.
At the very end, the theme of the funeral march from Eroica plays briefly, in the low basses. He wrote “In Memorium” on the paper score there. You’ll recall that Beethoven wrote Eroica to celebrate the rise of Napoleon against the French monarchy, then slashed across his name off the musical score after Napoleon declared himself an emperor. Thus “Eroica” became a paeon to democracy and a denouncement of dictators.
The Eroica quote in “Metamorphosen” is multi-layered in meaning. Hitler is denounced, but in the meantime he and his actions have ruined Germany, culturally, historically, spiritually and physically.
I struggle to absorb the intermixture of terribly grief-stricken themes and harmonies with happy and sentimental parts of this piece. My own interpretation is that this is people trying to just live their lives in spite of all that is looming around and finally surrounding them.
By the end, Germany is literally in ruins, with destruction of cultural landmarks like orchestra and opera houses along with everybody’s homes. The Allies were completely indiscriminate in what and how they bombed. Dreadful.
And then at the end of the war the full truth came out about the camps, so that anyone who didn’t fully see it before had it all right in their faces.
The piece also reflects this shame and horror, but the title, “Metamorphosen”, shows his hopes / faith? in what will rise from the literal ashes. And of course Germany has striven to become a beacon to progress and democracy (and largely succeeded), so it’s a message of hope too, for us in these times.
Sending a couple of links, to make sure you get one that works. Be sure to read the comments too; adds a lot. One of them on Reddit classical music chat group (a great group by the way), included this quote: “
@grig035
Richard Strauss wrote these words in his diary at the end of the war, only a day or so after finishing this piece --- "The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom."
This one is recorded live 1946. Not perfect (some hiss and background noise from the audience), but the realization that the audience and musicians had all recently experienced it makes this recording a marvel to hear.
This is good also.