Richard Strauss, Theodor Adorno

Richard Strauss.
Part II
Author(s): Theodor W. Adorno, Samuel Weber and Shierry Weber
Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1966), pp. 113-129
Published by: Perspectives of New Music
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RICHARD STRAUSS
Part II
THEODOR W. ADORNO
THAT STRAUSS'S neverslips fromthe forminghand is

flexibility
his tourde force,trulya piece of magicbecomeaesthetic.Without
grantingthe ear an instantto contemplate the totalcoherence,he
tirelesslyconnects the unconnected. One is temptedto interpret the
Straussianconcernwithfluxas compensation forthe factthatafter
theformative poweroftonality had disappeared,all thatwas leftwas
the fragmentary. If twelve-tone music severedthe threadbetween
sounds and toneswhichthereafter could be pressedback together
onlythroughconstruction, thena centrifugal forceis alreadysecretly
presentin the detailsof Strauss'smusic,despitethe latter'stonal
origins-as thoughto demonstrate thatthe languageof musicwas
no longerable to sustaincoherent meaning.The extremeexamplein
musicof a centrifugal phenomenon-that dissociationintoindividual
soundswhich symbolizesthe contingency, the idolic aspect of an
empiricallifeno longerheldtogetherby its animatingconception-
is theseccorecitative.By fusingitschordalprocedure withtheaccom-
pagnato technique, Strauss introduced the musicallyexterritorial
recitativefardeeperintoorganizedcomposition thaneven Wagner
had done.Music whichseeksto mirroreveryramification of its sub-
ject matterbecomes,in veryanticlassical fashion,themediumofthat
contingency whichdominatedthe idea of Life so dear to Strauss's
generation.He operateswith the contingency principleinside the
limitsof tonality.In so doing,he impressively consummates a de-
structiveprocesswhich began with Berlioz and which, prior to
Strauss,had made emphaticclaimsonlyoutsideof music;Puccini's
Boh-megropedtowardssimilareffectsthroughtonallycontingent
chordalcombinations. Time andtimeagain,Straussstruggled against
thatdelightin disintegration whichis so evidentin his use of con-
tingency, althoughit was identicalwithhis productive power.Thus,
afterthe beginningof Salome, the absolutesurprise,Straussties
togetherharmonieswhichat the timewere feltto be disparateby
* 113 *

PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC
meansofthediscretebackground providedbya chromatically ascend-
ing violin line,which illustratesthe course of the moon. He gathers
up thatwhichstrivesto separate.Insteadof thetraditional motivic-
thematic development, Strausstakeshis motifsby thehand.This he
can do all the moreconvincingly, the morecompletely he abandons
himselfto centrifugal principle and does not permit himself to be led
astrayby the command of systematic composition; his idea of unity
realizesitselfin disintegration. In thisrespect,thesceneofthemaid-
servantsinElektraprobablymarksa highpointwhichhe neveragain
equaled. It is themodelforthelooselycomposedopeningscenesof
Berg's two operas,whichare strungtogetheras thoughout of par-
ticles.Berg'ssurenessofforminthesescenesapproaches thehumanity
withwhichStraussin a postscript of a fewmeasures,mournsforthe
mistreated maidsandwiththebriefepilogueroundsofftheseemingly
wildlypieced-together scenebeforethebass progression reachesthe
"Elektrachord."By comparisonwiththis,as withmuchelse from
Elektra,Salomewas stillcompact,eventhesurfaceofsound.Strauss's
Mozart-cult was notbased merelyon an obligatory respectforlucid
classicality.Even Mozart, who worked in a form which was anchored
in the unquestioned tonalcoordinatesystem,lost himselfin widely
separatedmusicalcomponent figures. His fearlessartcontinually cast
unity aside without in
scruple orderto attainit onlyafterhaving
playfully pursuedmultiplicity to theborderof disintegration. It is a
relatedcompositional "civilcourage"thatgives Strauss'smusicthat
slender,fine-limbed qualitypraisedby Nietzschein his aesthetics.
Disjunctionputsair betweentheevents,trulymakinga virtueoutof
necessity; themusicbecomesgracefulthroughits wealthof contrast-
ingfigures, opposedto everything gross.Nietzschecriticized Wagner
forallowinghis musicto perspire;Strausswas proudthat,as con-
ductor,he neverdid. And evenless as composer.His technological
principleof economycalls fora maximumofmotion-Schuhrightly
called himthe "allegrocomposer";his musicdeservesthe now for-
gottenattribute "dashing"-witha minimumof effort; anyonewho
experienced him on a gooddayconducting oneofhisownpieces,such
as his favorite,Die Frau ohne Schatten,was made aware of the
criteriawhichhis musicitselfhonoredas soonand as longas he was
masterofhispowers.Its versionoftechnique was tokeepitselfalways
disposable.It acquireda facultyneverbeforeimagined:alertness.
Presenceat everymomentbecomesthe dutyof compositions which
scornto place theirtrustnotonlyin therecollection and anticipation
ofgreatform,butalso,at theirbest,in a fortunate duration.Strauss's
desire,and thatof the new musicafterhim,was foreverything to
* 114 *

RICHARD STRAUSS-PART II
be equally near the center. That for which his contemporaries,
Hofmannsthalabove all, admiredhim,his "nervousness,"has no other
aim than this. "Nervous" was a catchword of the modern style. It
covers what since Freud has been called "neurotic,"pathogenic dis-
turbancesresultingfromrepression,as well as Ibsen's doomed utopia
of hystericalwomen who, foreignto the realityprincipleand power-
less, protestagainstthecontraintesociale. Nervousnessbecomes a sign
of prestige,denotingthe greatlyintensifiedand differentiated reactive
capacity of the person who becomes his own precision instrument,
who is defenselesslyabandoned to the world of sensation and who,
throughthis defenselessness,accuses the gross way of the world. At
the time,this type must have been a polemical ego-ideal opposed to
the injurioushealthof fatherfigures,like the similarlyambivalentno-
tionof "decadence,"which Strauss and othervitalistsglorified,instead
of rejecting it as being itselftoo decadent. His music feels morally
obliged to betteritself,to make itselfmore distinguishedthan it was
to begin with; nor is this the least cause of its aura of interest.Of
course,the artisticmoralityof nervousnessis nourishedby impatience
of a more practical nature. It simplycannot stay put, much like big
entrepreneurswho are afraid of being ruined once the volume of
business is no longer on the increase. Yet since the restless person
continuallyexperiencesthismode of reactionas self-inducedsuffering,
as an illness-"neurasthenia"-he cannot bear it any more than he
can the boredomfromwhich it flees. Such sufferingdraws his reac-
tions back to the "health"he abhors, just as Strauss colors and con-
sumes the cadence only to restoreit. The proud neuroticclings to
a would-benaturein which he is ill at ease.
The dramaturgicformulaefor Strauss's alertness are the begin-
nings, where he leaps into his subject matterwithout preparation.
His most brilliantoperas have no overturesbut begin with the rising
curtain.8Strauss was the masterof the first250 measures,in Salome,
Elektra, even as late as the fortune-teller scene from Arabella. In
return, the endings slip away from him. Some, worst of all in Die
Frau ohneSchatten,are pompouslyinflated;others,as in Salome, mis-
treat the musical form for the sake of dramatic effect,as heroes
mistreatvanquishedslaves; these are debatable. Most frequently, how-
ever,he findsnone at all. As early as the Domestica, one coda follows
another.More than a subjectivelydeficientfeelingforformis responsi-
8 Certain conductorsand directorsof Salome betray both crass lack of
style and
little understandingof the Straussian spiritwhen they timidlyallow the scene to be-
come visible withoutmusic and only afterwardshave the clarinetsplay theirpassage,
which refersnot only to the serpentinegliding of the princessbut also to that of the
curtain,with which it must be synchronizedand yet still clearly audible.
*
115.

ble. The time which informsStrauss's music is the same as that of
the industrialprocess,physical-technical, linear,infinitetempsespace.
Against this his horrorvacui unconsciouslyreacts. Stubbornly,it seeks
life, one which would be immediate and have its own fulfilledtime.
But as arrangement,the idealized image of such time, Strauss's Life
remains within the orbit of that which it would like to exorcise.
Interminable,measurable time overwhelmsworks which cannot an-
chor themselvesin an immanenttime and denies them that through
which theycoalesce to form,a conclusiveend. Strauss's formsthem-
selves are inconclusive.Their insufficiency, theirfutileSisyphean re-
iteration,is imposed on them by the contradictionbetween the
contentthattheycite and its absence. By no means the least important
functionwhich the formalconventionsand theirscenic offspringper-
formedin the economyof the work of art was to underwritethe end.
Historically,this is over. The arbitraryquality of Strauss's develop-
ments,however,preventsthemfromever coming to a stringentcon-
clusion. Their immanentpathos itself,that of the unconstrainedlife,
cannottoleratean end since thiswould involvean admissionoffatigue,
whereas unbounded energy is supposed to be its very essence. And
yet, artisticformis finite;it is compelledto end. As long as musical
motionis invokedas a principle,as in Strauss, it stops by chance, like
that dynamicfor its own sake which he worships blindly.
Everythingbecomes brittle; even the Wagnerian mirrorbreaks.
Among the arts of his predecessor,Strauss spurnsthemostimportant,
that of transition.Instead, motifs-oftenof minimalimportance-line
up like pictureson an unendingfilmstrip,at times virtuallyunrecog-
nizable in the backgroundof the sound events,such as thatof Clytem-
nestra.It is idle to argue whetherthis picture-likequality,the tumult
of juxtaposed elements,causes the short-windedness of the individual
melodic formations,or whetherit is produced by them as a peculiar
featureof Strauss's musicality.The hand behind the magic lantern
can change picturesso swiftlythattheirmonadlikeaspect is no longer
recognizable. Strauss was a composer in the most literal sense, one
who "puts together";he controlsthe still pictures and the dynamic
impulse is his, hardlyever that of the motifswhich are stilledforthe
photograph. The most conspicuous aspect of his music, agitation
heightenedto idiosyncrasy,is also externalto it; as an aesthetictraffic
agent, he transportsbeyond the borders of the photograph. His
methodresemblesthat of the film;it was consistentfor him to have
abandoned Der Rosenkavalierto it. The more the expressivetension
relaxes, the more inexorablythe operas tend toward mere depiction,
toward film-music;this begins with Arabella if not earlier. The
S116

Straussianelan, however,is nothingbut the quintessenceof the stage-
directionwhich the composer,who not withoutreason worked with
Reinhardt,exercised over his music. The category of dlan did not
simplyfall fromthe blue; Weber's overtureto Euryantheprophesied
it in Strauss. But the guiding gesture of the composer also has its
pre-historyin Romanticism.For the sake of the lyrical theme, the
Romantics individualized single figures within movements,made
them self-containedcomponents, at the expense of that practice
which in Viennese Classicism with Beethoven took its point of
departurefromthe incompleteness,the povertyof the single figure,
its unrealized being. In order to make the, as it were, all too plastic
details into independententities,a composerlike Chopin already had
to treatthem as would a novelistwho guides his heroes throughthe
changing perspectivesof theiradventures.In Strauss this becomes a
permanentand hence self-consumingattitude. It is the will of the
composingsubject alone which synthesizesthe music; the elan is his
and representsan idea of life throughwhich the by then unrelated
many may be conceived as the relation of everythingto everything.
He appropriatedthe categoryof Life, which investseverythingwith
a meaning, however questionable,instead of searching for meaning
as thatof music itself.Nietzsche'scritiqueofWagner is fullyrealized
in Strauss. He cured theatricalmusic of theatricality,its pretenseto
objectivity,by remindingit that it is nothingmore than what the
composingsubject chose to put into it. The theaterconfesses.Much
can be learned about Strauss fromwhat the Bayreuthianersaw in
Wagner. He preferredthe early Wagner, not the composer whose
workexacted strictcoherence;in this respect,too, Strauss's modernity
combinesstrangelywith anachronisticbackwardness.The paradigms
of Straussian showmanship,its mixtureof elan and banality, were
the Venusberg music and, above all, the Prelude to the third act of
Lohengrin.
As composer,on the contrary,Strauss's productivepower realizes
itselfin pictures,tightlypacked moments.His abilityto compressthe
plenitude of emotions,including those which are incompatible,into
isolated complexes,to fitthe up and down oscillationof feelinginto a
single instant,has no prototype,with the possible exceptionof the
paradoxical equilibriumbetweendelight and horrorat the end of the
firstact of Tristan. In the dissonantchordof recognitionfromElektra
there is concentrateda wealth of musical antagonismstruly
beyond
the reach of words. The stylisticnear-impossibility of leaving just
this complex chord tremblingon the sweet Ab-major field seems to
succeed, as though the energy which the chord stores up in itself
S117

thenstreamsout intothe resolution.Here it is not yet distortedby the
element of "refreshment,"with which the composer will seek to
supporthis countlesssubsequent copies of this resolutionfield.Even
earliera relatedintentionwas manifestedin the mixtureof major and
minortowardthe end of the frequentlybitonalSalome,9afterthe kiss.
The mostextremeexample of thisis probablyprovidedby the passage
fromDer Rosenkavalier,over the organ point Bb upon the entrance
of the Marschallin in the thirdact as dea ex machina; already,it may
be noted,the passage lacks dissonance. In this act the action findsits
nocturnal kairos, identifiedwith the heartbreakingpassion of the
loverswho have lost themselvessenselessly.Such momentsmusicaux
are heralds in Strauss's modernismof a futureyet to be realized; at
the same time,they are by no means always "advanced" in terms of
their materials. In general, no direct relation prevails in Strauss
between the progressivenessof the sounds and that of the ideas. In
Ariadne, which is orientedto the past, and especially in the Vorspiel,
he makes use of a practice which was forgottenuntil Berg turned
to it again in Lulu: thatofdistinguishingdramaticfiguresand spheres
fromone anotherby associatingthemwith the same timbrethrough-
out, Ariadne withthe harp and harmonium,Zerbinettawiththe piano
which also serves as the leading instrumentfor the athlete in the
circus in Lulu. The vulgarityof the piano, historicalproduct of the
so-called "Parisian ensemble" of the nineteenthcentury,becomes an
expressivevalue in the score. Berg learned more fromStrauss than
is generally suspected; sense impressionsin the background, as in
the fieldscene fromWozzeck, are containedin Salome in the inter-
mittentphantasies of Herod; Strauss invested an entire generation
with ideas, such as this, which already transcendthe realms of psy-
chology.10The Clytemnestrascene is inexhaustiblein this respect;
not merely the section beginning with the words, "Ich habe keine
guten Naechte" ("I have no good nights"), but the scene as a whole,
9 Study Score, p. 349, fromno. 348 on. The beautifullyengraved Study Scores of
Strauss's four most-performed operas are far too little known; they enable every
musician to become familiar with the orchestra of his mature period. The service
performedby the publisher,FuerstnerVerlag, is all the greater in view of the fact
that Strauss's revision of Berlioz' Treatise on Instrumentationmakes only sparse
contributionsto the actual art of instrumentation;it remains essentiallyan instrument
handbook. Strauss, in the industrial spirit, kept close watch over his production
secrets.
10The influenceof Strauss on the followinggenerationof composerswas universal.
It is presentin Stravinskyno less than in Berg. The gasping, high horns of Herod
(two beats after no. 300 of Salome, Fuerstner's Study Score), as well as certain
expressionlessoctaves in the woodwinds which increase the potential of expression
throughnegation, as though music were unequal to it and would be crippled by an
excess of it (piccolo and firstoboe beforeand afterno. 355) -all this is continuedin
the Sacre, despite the wholly transformedgeneral orientation.
* 118

includingits buildup to the finale-likepresto. The fact that even this

scene, the climax of Strauss's work,was infiltrated,with his approval,
by some of the most vulnerable passages, raises the suspicion that
the mature Strauss was seized by the fear of an "ego-alien" force,
which drove him far beyond what he himselfwould have wanted.
It would be unfairto accuse him of that abominable malpractice of
maturejudgment,weeding out what is best, as Hindemithdid with
the dissonancesof the Marienleben. He probablyfelthis ego-controls
in danger of being swept away by a music which was eluding him.
What once burst out in Strauss was in essence close to the dread he
had of it, and as powerful.Throughouthis life,such Angst expended
its furyin overzealoustransfigurations, and, during the end-phase,in
his aversionnot onlyto dissonancebut virtuallyto the minoras such.
Law-abiding citizens thus shrink from utteringthe word "death."
Its repressionis the shadow in which the glaring metaphysicsof Life
is grounded.This dread manifestsitselfin even the most daring con-
ceptions; in the need to hold the antiformaltendenciesof Salome in
check by means of an unproblematic,long drawn-outpiece of music.
As a means to this end, thedance offereditselfby virtueof its position
in the course of the whole, as well as by its independencefromthe
poeticword. In his search,notwithoutreason,foran absolutemusical
counterweight,Strauss conceived of the dance as the sonata develop-
mentof the opera. The mostimportantleitmotifsare treatedas models
of the individualdevelopmentsections.But when he played this inter-
mezzo to Mahler, the latterobservedat once thatjust this piece, with
all its methodicalplanning,had missed its mark. The motifs,designed
formomentarycharacterization,fail to functionas symphonicmodels,
whereas the idea of the developmentcollides with that of the dance.
There is no compellingrhythmicalstructurecreated,eitheron a large
or small scale; the movementis tediously fragmentedinto episodic
segments to which the oriental strummingclings like ballast. The
sound itselfbecomes sluggish and thick. Strauss's music slackens as
soon as he relaxes the reins and leaves it to itself. These abortive
dances were not the least importantcause of Stravinsky'srebellion
and the indescribable effectof the Sacre du printemps.Bombastic
gesturesseek in vain to conceal such weaknesses; more and more they
reveal that what eruptedlike a revolutionis only froth.Through its
mannerof presentation,Strauss's music passes, as it were, too quickly
to the appearance of its objectification.Dread of his own daring does
not leave the latteruntouched;even boldness changes to "let's get it
overwith."He is afraidnot merelyof stopping--becauseof the flimsi-
ness of many details-but of gettingstuck. Invention-valid for the
S119

momentwhich it accompaniesand supportedby the surpriseprinciple
to such a degree that it cannot properlylive itselfout-wilts easily.
Strauss's nervousness,which warns him against repetitionand elabo-
ration,reflectsthe guiltyconscienceof the composer,who must fear
thathis music will be caught if it does not get away quickly.The idea
of elan itself,music as curve, implies a fall fromthe heights; what
was thrownby the composinghand must sink abruptlyin a meteoric
arc. This was the almostvisual formof Strauss's firstauthenticwork,
Don Juan; never again did he achieve the same unity of program,
thematiccontent,and formaldevelopment.
That curve dominatesboth him and his work. His mannerof com-
posing, from individual themes to the so-called large forms, is in
accord with the parabolic decline of his later development.The lack
of consistencyto which the surprise principlecondemns the details
spreads to them.Without any power overthe originaltonal materials,
they become masks of what is considered"normal" according to the
topoi of colloquial musical language; piquant "spots" in the peinture.
Hence, they allow themselvesto be easily managed; they are not
binding because they are not what they sound. Of themselvesthey
almost beg to be pushed aside. Among the dissonances the ear can
still hear the regular tones. They are never themselvesbut always
substitutes;that separates Strauss inexorablyfrom the new music.
His own aversionto it recognizedthis fact far more accuratelythan
did the enthusiasmof those who observedliteral similaritiesbetween
some of his sounds and the later ones. The index of the Straussian
"as though" is the fact that many of his scores-most obtrusively,
that of Ein Heldenleben,but also that of Salome-sound simplerthan
they read on paper. The polyphonyfor which he unquestionably
strove,as a means of releasing the orchestra,cloaks relativelyprimi-
tive intervallicrelationshipsand hence melts away in the chord pro-
gressions. He seldom devised plastic counterpointslike Mahler's;
he concocted certain contrapuntal formulae-often combinations
of quarter notes with slurred eighth-note triplets-which are
always available. Schuh's remark, made in regard to Daphne, in
which he points out a harmonicallysimple basic framework,"expres-
sively animated and invigoratedby strictthematicfigurationand by
a free and highly personal technique consisting of incidental notes
foreignto the chord,"" is not onlyphenomenologically correctbut also
unintentionally critical; it should be qualifiedat most only inasmuch
as the primaryconcernis a tonal reserveof individual sounds rather
than the scheme, since for Strauss it is preciselythat regularityof
11 Willi Schuh, Ueber Opern von Richard Strauss (Zurich, 1947), p. 89.
* 120
?

intervallicprogressionwhich is of littleimportance.His phrase, like
that of almost all the composers of his generationwho considered
themselvespolyphonic,is in principleharmonic.The interweavingof
voices stands under the vertical. Sometimes it even covers up the
main melodic figure,as with Salome's barely audible second main
theme, the A-major presto of her entrance. The willingly enriched
Straussianphrase,however,lends his music a tinsel-likequalitywhich
easily degeneratesintojingle-jangle,firstin the celesta chords of Der
Rosenkavalier,then in those of Ariadne, fromBacchus' entranceon;
accompanied by varying simplificationsof the musical fibre,it ven-
tures forthwith ever-increasingboldness. Sounds which lack a con-
structivefunction,detached ornamentsin the broadestsense, inexora-
bly become cheap glitter.Nearby the Grand Hotel looms the Grand
Bazaar. The bold discoveryof the sound dimensionas one in its own
right ages quickly. Hackwork, in whose studio Strauss had once
flungopen the windows,is smuggledback in. His banalityis not only
naive backwardness, uncriticizedby the process of composition.It
takes place withinthe compositionalprocess itself.Because Strauss's
innovationsconcern solely the idiom and not its constituents,crass
raw material sticks out uncountedtimes. To this is added the phan-
tasma of the reconciliationof art and life, cornerstoneof commercial
art and ideology. The spectral synthesisof advertisingand artistic
adventuremakes its appearance. Just as the Toulouse-Lautrec of the
Montmartreposterscaught the alertpainter'seye, so Strauss attracted
the quick ear of the composerwho was realisticallyattunedto chang-
ing situationsand ready to react. Strauss walks a tightropebetween
vulgarityand taste; distinguishedgentlemenmight search out their
Munich affairamong the lower classes withoutcompromisingthem-
selves. An idealized pictureof the Volk sets offthe chosen few, as in
the Munich periodical Jugend; its "cover-girls,"coquetting with
audacity, oftenenough domesticatedthe Impressionisticcommas as
gross accents, or, in the language of the time, as "the radiance of
peasant women." The Blood-and-Soil ideology was close at hand;
what is astoundingis how littleStrauss exploitedit forhimselfafter
1933, in contrastto certain stalwarts of Simplicissimus.12 To his
credit,he had involvedhimselftoo deeply in what the National So-
cialists trampled under foot as "decadent" to crawl for cover to
Heimatkunst;he settledinstead formore or less general fanfaresfor
the True, Good, and Beautifulof Hitlerianculturalpolicy.
The agglomerationof the elegant and the gross, the detached and
the pastose, internationalup-to-datenessand the carefullypreserved
12 The most prominentsatirical magazine in Weimar
Germany. [Trs.]
0
121.

remnantsof a provincialismfrom which, in turn, the cosmopolitan
effectthen profited-all that suggests the analogy with the German
variant of Impressionism. Such analogies, technically difficultto
substantiate,awake skepticism;but the fact remains that Strauss's
music pretendedto paint and its originalmilieuwas thatof a painters'
town. Impressionismin general is suggested by the priorityof color
over contour; the formershines without muddy browns. German
Impressionismis characterizedby a peculiar audaciousness, like that
of the late Corinthwho was obsessed by sensoryvalues to the point
of destroyingthe object depicted; on the other hand, in contrastto
Debussy, thereis an absence of principlewhich has a moderatingin-
fluence.Strauss had alreadydisposed of Debussy withthe backwoods
verdictof "all too aesthetic."He committedhimselfto no theoryof
perception,rifus, preformationof the material, or any strictcanon
of procedures.He will take anythingwhich his productiveapparatus
can in any way assimilate.Because the art of arrangementpossesses
no criterionother than taste, his liberality,which indiscriminately
brought him the wealth of the German compositionaltradition,be-
came his most sensitivedeficiency.The aestheticismwhich bade him
seek Hofmannsthalwas accompaniedby a hardened lack of taste; he
is constantlymaking faux pas. This is because his style,which sup-
presses coherentcompositionand in which everythingis supposed to
finda place, is a fondperdu; it is the inventionof the individualwill
acting entirelyon its own, and as such represents the excessive
intensification of what alreadyin the farmore discriminatingWagner
is the will-to-style;the binding stylisticprinciple,6lan, is also sub-
servientto Strauss's programmaticself-exaltation or thatof thefigures
with whom he identifies.His contingentactualityelevated itself to
the status of arbiter. Style becomes something unfounded, mere
arrangementwhich in turn is the negation of style. This conditions
that aspect of Strauss which has been criticized-and by no means
solelyby the devoteesof Inwardness-as empty.His bourgeoissolem-
nity,the pathos of his minortrombones,is not a lapse. They explode
the objective nonexistenceof the meaning which this music desper-
ately avers. The passages intendedas "high style"have a conciliatory
innocenceof tone much like officialspeakers with classical citations,
or a latitudinarianministerat a cremation.Strauss's antiquityis of
this stamp. It is not the mythicanticlassicismof the Nietzschean,not
"thewish to oppose this demonic,ecstaticGreece of the Sixth Century
to Winckelmann's Roman copies and Goethe's Humanism,"'3 but
13 Richard Strauss, Recollectionsand Reflections(London, 1953), p. 115. Transla-
tion changed in part. [Trs.]
* 122 *

ratherBoecklinian, withmanypillarsand cypresses;it is theFreund-
licheVisionof a beautycalled up out of the void and deformed by
the proseof a man who can affordan elegantprivatehousewhere
he longsto take the girl of whomhe can proudlyand possessively
reportthat"shelikeshim,"-is "eine,die ihnliebhat."The composer
would like to give the musicits contentthroughhis own gesture.
Throughmiming, theparticularsubjectis able to convincehispublic
thathe possessesjust thatauthority which,as an individual, psycho-
logicalbeing, he must lack. This is thecomplexion oftheJugendstil;
Straussbelongsto it literally,not throughthe metaphorsof intel-
lectualhistory; as ifto putthisbeyondall doubt,he tooktheJugend-
stilpoem,"Stellauf den Tisch die duftenden Reseden,"afterit had
becomepopularas a sentimental song, and set it to musica second
time.Jugendstilwas the art-exercise whichascribedto what was
properly a polemicalneed-revulsionat thegreynessoftheadvanced
industrialage-the powerto transform abstractnegationintoa sub-
stantialunitywhichwouldresemblethecomprehensive stylesof the
past in whicheverything is supposedto have had its properplace,
includingartin life.Advancedliberalistsociety,whichwas boththe
premiseandsubstratum oftheJugendstil, remained beyonditsgrasp.
Strauss'sNeo-Romanticism was inspiredby thesame "newyearning
forbeauty"as weretheyoungGeorgeand Hofmannsthal, despitethe
drosswhichalreadyin Strausshad distorted theideal,stigmatized by
virtueofitsownunattainability. Butall Impressionism haditsJugend-
stilaspect:it is unmistakable in thelaterMonetand musically, in the
Debussy of the Proses of
lyriques; Debussy's works forthe stage,one
was composedon a textby Maeterlinck, anotheron one by D'An-
nunzio.The Straussianelan transposed theJugendstil ornament into
musical lineation.Feuersnot,whichis a Jugendstilworkpar excellence,
is also perhapsthemostStraussian;ifany,itdeservestobe performed
again. The fatuoustextcould standconsiderablerevision,although
it is certainly
noworsethantheespritofClemensKraussin Capriccio.
The StraussofFeuersnotdid nothaveto makeanydemandsofhim-
self whichlay outsidehis mode of reaction,not denyhimselfhis
heart'sdesire.Nature,the desireof the artist-hero forthe beautiful
girl, works itselfup into magic, a kind of monist-transcendence.
Neveragain did Strausswritemusicwhichwas as spontaneous. Yet
his calcification,
theobjectofunflagging his
ridicule, plagiarism from
his ownarchetypes, was nota biologicalphenomenon of aging."Der
Kaiser muss versteinern" ("The Kaiser must turnto stone") is the
curseKeikobadplaceson theyounghunter.Strauss'sbeingis rigidi-
fleda priori;the self-proclaimedLife, an illusionin realitystrictly
S123

subservientto the politico-economic schemeof productionforthe sake

of production,as deceptiveas the dynamicsof a societywhich,under
the law of commodity,makes commoditiesout of everyliving being.
Alban Berg observed that Strauss, who sampled styles as he did
epochs, found no style for his old age; the work of his later years
parodies eternal youth; the entire Impressionistgeneration seemed
to stand under the same curse. In the old Strauss, the sensoryappear-
ance did not yield to the primacyof essence. The essence shrivelled.
For appearance was its own law. The more it realized itself,the less
of it remained;the moreeven the appearance witheredto a shell. The
catastrophehappened so early that one may question whetherit hap-
pened in time at all and was not ratherpreexistent;whetherit was
not only the fatality of that idolized Life, which became visible
throughan historicalprocess which led musicallyto Strauss's allergic
reactionto that which fascinatedhim. The caesura between Elektra
and Der Rosenkavalieris obvious, althoughthe step fromthe Chry-
sothemispassages to the latterwas very small; the self-revocation of
the Straussian curve was aestheticallyratifiedin Ariadne, a "stylish"
piece, in the sense that one spoke at the time of "stylish"clothes. As
a fillingfor Moliere's comedy,the curve archaicized itselfand, even
by comparisonwith Der Rosenkavalier,behaved in a manner both
ironicand simple,a side-stepout of the work as a whole. Its intended
listenerscould call it, disgracefully,a "tidbit,"as he himselfspoke,
helas, of Capriccio. The renunciationsof the Ariadne score, including
the abandonmentof its stylisticprinciple,remainedbinding for the
entirelater Strauss. Perhaps it was only in dream and elevationthat
he forgotthe everydaylanguage to which he now confinedhimself.
Afterthe Alpensinfonieand Die Frau ohne Schatten, however, his
productiveapparatus became a composing machine into which the
main motifsand situationswere fed and which turned them out as
finishedoperas. The incalculable happened: the surprise principle
ebbed away in the ever-sweeterdelightsof an ever more softlysplash-
ing musical stream. Even his flexibilitygradually rigidified;as had
happened once before, he too composed from measure to measure,
as thoughthe habits of notationwere the law of progression-a sure
sign of feebleimpulses.Parallel to such propriety,his general position
took an ominousturnto thepositive.If the wild pain of an earliertime
had already in Der Rosenkavalierquieted itselfto the sentimentality
of a lady who has not yet even begun to age, then the darker sides
have now become a lightingeffect,to vanish finallyin the last operas
beforethe implicitbut no less unmistakableassurance thateverything
is for the best, in the world as in the musical cosmos. Strauss may
S124

have done Hofmannsthal's poetry great injustice and utterly dis-

graced it by his choice of the three unspeakable successors; yet
Hofmannsthal,surely without intendingit, paid him back bitterly.
Hofmannsthalhimselfcontributedto the taming of Strauss's music
throughhis own developmentinto a "Yes-man";alreadyin Der Rosen-
kavalierhe sees to it thatyouthfindsits way to youth,and in Ariadne,
the doomed woman to her new God, according to Zerbinetta'ssober
fabula docet. The literaryelect which fancies itselfso infinitelysu-
perior to the composer's vulgarity, the cult of transparency,the
resurrectionof the conversationpiece in higher spheres,the nouveau
riche epithetagainst the learned opera which "stinks"of music-all
that becomes both a fetterof the Straussian music and a ready alibi
to gain dispensationfrom the effortof composition,a dispensation
which now that the times of Rossini are gone inevitablydepresses
musical quality. Simplificationthrough"taste" becomes the simplistic
treatmentof a subject matterwhich by its definitiondemands dis-
crimination.If it is true that the slogan "clarification"was never
worthverymuch, it is utterlydiscreditedby Strauss's development;
the transparencyof his later works, which crescendo at such length
that finallyin Capriccio thereis nothingleftin the glass house worth
seeing, possesses no more intrinsicmerit than does complexityas
such. The two can be ranked solely on the basis of the exigencies of
composition. The assertion that Strauss made progress after the
raging orchestra of Elektra, simply because the singers could be
heard and the texts understood-an understandingfor which one
subsequentlyhad littledesire-could come only fromcriticswho had
not understoodSalome and Elektra. Of course, Hofmannsthalpro-
vided the necessaryideology; among otherresentments,he cherished
the layman'sagainst all music with a claim to autonomy.The relative
evaluation of the later works depends on the very "taste" which they
violatein directproportionto theirzeal in choosingit as theircriterion.
The comedies set in a modernmilieu, like Intermezzo and Arabella,
are more bearable than the mythologies;they do not feign an ideal
distance for the music to disgrace. The nadir is Capriccio; even the
attractiveidea of beginningan opera witha chambermusic movement,
whichis unconcernedwiththe divisionbetweenthe loweredand raised
curtain,is ruinedby the opera's garrulous inanity.The firstbeats of
Daphne, with which the old gentlemanobviously took great pains,
still succeeded in strikingthe bucolic tonejust as exactlyas his begin-
nings had once done withtheirsubjects. The whole is scarcelyaudible
because of propped-up,sugary melodies which are stretchedfar be-
yond their endurance, or because of their surrogate,tones selected
S125

afterdue considerationof vocal ranges,designed to please the public's

ear while bearing no relationto the motiviccontent,contemptibleends
in themselves.The so-called typicallyStraussian "turns"are emascu-
lated by speculationabout the listenerwho will be delightedto recog-
nize somethinghalfwayfamiliar.
In retrospect,it is puzzling thatthe authorof Salome and Elektra,
whose intelligencehardlydiminished,should not have been aware of
the decline of his last thirty-five
years,thathe did not tryto arrestthe
process, or be silent. But the evil had its own inexorablelogic. One
need onlyimaginehow good, in Strauss's terms,the consonancesmust
have tasted afterthe dissonances in Elektra. The distinctionbetween
the two is left undisturbed;dissonance retains its relation to con-
sonance instead,as in the new music,of abolishingit and itselfas well.
Inversely,in the last scores the exhumed consonance is already so
putrifiedthat it arouses nausea; music which has been debased to a
delicacy comes to self-consciousnesswith revulsion. Between it and
the cultureindustrysans fagonthereprevails a prestabilizedharmony.
The changes which Hofmannsthal'sLucidor sketch underwent in
Arabella seem to have been prescribedby a voluntaryself-censorship.
If Strauss's decline was teleologicallyanticipatedin the threeor four
works of his best period,it nonethelessacquires an unfortunateretro-
active power. The later works disgrace the early ones by caricaturing
them.Very littleis safe fromthis fate,primarilythose works,such as
Don Juan, which do not pretendto be anythingbut what theyare.
To do justice to Strauss means to reject the patronizinghistorical
observationwhich assertsthatat the startof the centuryhe was ahead
of his contemporaries,including Mahler, that he set a standard of
liberatedand richlyimaginativemusic which no one could thereafter
ignore and without which neitherthe late Mahler nor Schoenberg
would have been possible. It is entirelypossible that Strauss's work
may one day be more importantformusical history,which would not
have taken the same course withouthim, than it is on its own. To
proclaim Strauss an inalienable asset is to pronouncejudgment on
him-a "culturalasset." But the ambivalencewhich he, like Wagner,
provokes,points to a fluctuationin his objective content.This is not
explained by merelycitingthe Straussian "as though"character.The
mediumof artremainsa semblancefromwhichit cannotescape; artis
intrinsicallybound to thatdecorativeelementwhichit todayis seeking
to cast off.The Straussian defectis ratherthat withinhis semblance
too littleconsiderationis given to that which is potentiallynot sem-
blance, thaton which semblancethrivesand throughwhich,by draw-
ing it up into itself, it becomes more than mere semblance. His
S126

semblancewas that of civilizationimmediatelybeforeit unleashed its
own barbarism and condemneditselfas wrecked. Hence, apologetics
must also be shunned: the assertionthat Strauss gave the so-called
spiritof the time its most exact musical embodiment,that he was a
chroniclerwho, out of devotionto his epoch, sacrificedhis own via-
bilityin orderto become its unadulteratedecho. Such meritcould be
claimedby theSiegesallee and everypopular song long beforeStrauss.
What must be salvaged is his idiosyncrasy,his hate of everything
which, in his own words, was "rigid." This conditionedhis indiffer-
ence to "ideas" and thematicdevelopment,his toleranceforthe banal,
and that cavalier disdain for work which provokesthe catchwordof
"superficiality."It is this-the scandalous aspect of Strauss-which is
crucial. He rebels against thatsphereof the German spiritwhich self-
righteouslyarrogatesthe epithet"substantial,"the indefatigableshop-
keepers; he shoves it aside with a degoaitwhich would not have been
unworthyof Nietzsche. He delightsin change forits own sake, what
Wagner's Fricka imputedto her husband. The Don Juan who in the
symphonicpoem of the same titledid not disdain to place the brutal
sound of militarymusic next to the most astoundingmixtures,14still
managed to vindicate himselfin the spirit of the monogamic-patri-
archal taboos which are indispensable to his class. For the latter,
Strauss was an unreliable ally. His specificimage of life,the driving
force of everyone of his beats, is phantasmagorial:the image of an
entitywhich is nonexistent;socially, of what was lost in the course
of rationalization,throughthe repetitionof what is always the same,
and being lost, transfigureditselfto the ideal it never was because it
nevertrulyrealized itself.The tempestuous,livelyLife which Strauss
staged and directedis not the reflectionit would like to be but rather
somethingunmitigatedlyimaginary,which cannot grant itself in a
positive formto art no matterhow greatlythe latterwould like it.
His music is illusoryinasmuch as it is the semblance of a life which
itselfdoes not exist. Where it fails to succeed, it is in revengefor its
grandiose audacity in envisioninga utopian immanencewhich would
be so vital as to be morethan merelyimmanent.Chance, the negation
of a negative,means in Strauss thatwhich is unregimented,and yetin
the societywhich gave his music its meaning it is only the blind spot
of lawfulness. It delivers everythingwhich crosses its path up to a
14To cite only one, cf. p. 65 of the miniaturescore. The episodic themeintroduced
by the oboe then passes to the clarinets.Two flutesand a bassoon accompanyit with
an organlike pianissimo. The harp doubles the fauxbourdon sixths in the middle
register.It changes theircolorationentirely,takes away theirrigiditywithoutthicken-
ing them,yet is not obtrusiveand keeps itselffree of that stickinesswhich so easily
becomes troublesomein a solo harp. Strauss's works are a compendiumof such arts,
which anyone wanting to compose afterhim must master.
*
127"

meaningless fate.Suchis Strauss'scontingency, refugeforthefugitive

and emptycell in one. His semblanceis Baudelaire'spraise of the
lie elevatedto a universalformprinciple;he fabricatesan absent
meaningout of therubbleof a realitywhichalreadyrulesoverthe
geniuswho cannotsurvivein it. His musicabandonsitselfas sem-
blance.The spotsare not simplyimpressionistic devices,disruptive
acts withintherattlingrationality of thetonalsystem.In theirvery
conception theytendto be indissoluble, likethedreamedoflifewhich
gathersimperceptibly in them. They returned in thenew music;its
aging can be described as their Yet theyexpressthe
obliteration.15
truthaboutthatlife.WhereasStraussutilizeddeathas a darkcon-
trastingcoloralongsideother"values,"it nestledintotherepresenta-
tiveand still-incommensurable tadches whichpermeatehis musicand,
againstits will,accuseits hedonism.Nothingcouldtestify moreau-
thentically to this entanglement of completesemblancewith truth
thanthemoments ofStrauss'smemoire involontaire.
Unexpected, they
flashthrougheventheweakscores.When in thefirstact ofArabella
thesled ofthethreecountsawaitsthehighlydisagreeableheroine,a
djda vu flaresup, theirrevocably departedchildhoodfeelingof bells,
glistening snow, and cuddly fur.It soundsas thoughit wouldredeem
thewholerestof lifeif one could onlyhave it oncemore.But such
momentsare artificial in Strauss,righteouslies forthe sake of the
ensrealissimum. Hofmannsthal's wordstouchedon thisin thefamous
scenewiththesilverrosefromDer Rosenkavalier. "Wo warichschon
einmalundwarso selig?"("Wherewas I onceandwas so blissful?")
sing the two as the rose scent fillsthe air, and in all innocence
Octaviantellsof the artificial flower,"Ja,ist ein Tropfenpersischen
Rosenoelsdareingetan"("Yes, there'sa drop of Persianrose-oilin
it"). Spontaneity producedby technique, thisis theStraussianmagic
formula; the
yet na'ivet6 with which he layshis cardson thetableand
revokestheact of illusionreconciles.It is thechildlikespeechof the
dying."Denn alles gefaelltjetzt,/ Einfaelltiges aber/ Am meisten"
("For everything delightsnow,/ Yet simplethings/ Most")."' The
Goethianfrivolity which Hofmannsthal had in mind in the buffo
scenesof Ariadnewas also dear to Strauss,just as his illustrations
weretheGoethiandregsoftheabsurd.Senileand infantile, hismusic
respondsthroughmimesisto the universaldomination of the calcu-
lated effectin whichit becameensnared;it thumbsits nose at the
15 Cf. Theodor W. Adorno, "Das Altern der Neuen Musik," in Dissonanzen.
Musik in der verwaltetenWelt, 2nd expanded edition (Goettingen,1958), pp. 120-43.
For a rough paraphrase in English see The Score, xvHi (December, 1956), 18-29.
[Trs.]
16Hoelderlin,Friedensfeier,Saemtliche Werke III, Kleine StuttgarterAusgabe, p.
431.
. 128
?

censors. It does not take part, however,in the process of self-preser-
vation. The life which celebrates itself in this music is death; to
understandStrauss would be to listen for the murmurbeneath the
roar,which,inarticulateand questioning,becomes audible in the final
measures of Don Juan and is his truth-content. Solely in decline,
perhaps, is there a trace of what might be more than mortal: in-
extinguishableexperiencein disintegration.
[Translated by Samuel and ShierryWeber]
S129


Richard Strauss, Theodor Adorno

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Richard Strauss, Theodor Adorno

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Richard Strauss.

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THAT STRAUSS'S neverslips fromthe forminghand is

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includingits buildup to the finale-likepresto. The fact that even this

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This content downloaded from 193.105.245.160 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:39:15 AM

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subservientto the politico-economic schemeof productionforthe sake

This content downloaded from 193.105.245.160 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:39:15 AM

have done Hofmannsthal's poetry great injustice and utterly dis-

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afterdue considerationof vocal ranges,designed to please the public's

This content downloaded from 193.105.245.160 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:39:15 AM

This content downloaded from 193.105.245.160 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:39:15 AM

meaningless fate.Suchis Strauss'scontingency, refugeforthefugitive

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