‘IN MEMORIAM!

’: Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen as a

monument to Austro-German culture

List of Figures

Section I: Introduction

Section II: Strauss, Sacher, and Schuh

IIa: Context of Study

IIb: Strauss in 1945

Section III: An Analysis of Metamorphosen

IIIa: Tonality and Structure

IIIb: ‘C’ as a Framing Tonality
IIIc: A Pupil of Beethoven - Strauss’s Thematic Development

Section IV: ‘MEMORIAM!’, Munich, and Meaning

IVa: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’

IVb: Other Potential Quotations (München, Tristan, et al.)
IVc: The visio-linguistic graphs of Cook and Mawer

Section V: Conclusions

Bibliography

Word Count: 5,1861

1
Excluding Bibliography
1
 List of Figures
Figure 1: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’: Metamorphosen’s closing figures and Eroica Quotation
Figure 2: Tonal and Structural Outline in Metamorphosen
Figure 3: Key Centres in Metamorphosen
Figure 4: Important Themes in Metamorphosen
Figure 5: Beethovenian Thematic Development in Metamorphosen
Figure 6: Thematic Comparisons with Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies
Figure 7: Theme A combined with Theme B
Figure 8: Metamorphosen and Tristan Thematic Comparison
Figure 9: Trauer um München and Metamorphosen Thematic Comparison
Figure 10: Metamorphosen visio-linguistic graph

2
 Section I: Introduction
‘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.’
Richard Strauss 2

In the closing months of the Second World War, Richard Strauss (1864-1949) completed a work that would
define an epoch: Metamorphosen for twenty-three solo strings. Begun the day after the Vienna Opera House
was torn down, the work has several hermeneutic windows through which it can be viewed as an allegory for
the destruction of Austro-Germanic culture.3 Only a few days after its completion, Strauss privately lamented
the ‘bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture’ that the Nazi regime had overseen; the composer was a patriotic
German who was proud of his country’s cultural heritage: he was devastated to witness its destruction. Both
materialistically (for example, though the destruction of the Munich, Vienna, and Dresden Opera Houses)
and intellectually (for example, through the totalitarian control of Austro-German culture and the
denouncement of Jewish composers), the Nazis oversaw a systematic destruction of Austro-Germany’s
musical heritage, an ironic situation considering Hitler’s love of Wagner, Beethoven, and Brahms.
Metamorphosen’s mourning quality is summarised in its final bars, at which point a quotation of a theme from
Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3 (Eroica) is placed next to two crucial words: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’.

This essay argues that Metamorphosen mourns not an individual or people, but both the materialistic and
intellectual destruction of Austro-Germany’s ‘cultural evolution’. The main research question that it thus
seeks to address is: in what ways does Strauss’s Metamorphosen act as an Austro-German cultural monument?
The essay will discuss at length the ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ marking in the final few bars, during which Strauss
included a quotation of Beethoven’s Eroica; this is not, as the essay argues, a specific ‘MEMORIAM!’ either
for Beethoven (Willi Schuh) or Hitler (Matthijs Vermeulen), but for Austro-Germany as a whole.4

In this essay, I use the terms ‘Germany’ and ‘Austro-Germany’ interchangeably. Although this is a contentious
decision, I do it to emphasise the countries’ overwhelming homogeneity in language, culture and politics. In
1945, Austria was still under the control of Germany, and the two countries could hardly be separated. As
Section II explores, Strauss was in his eighties at this time, nearing the end of his long life spent at the
forefront of Austro-German culture.

An analysis of Metamorphosen forms the bedrock of the essay in Section III, during which I attempt to answer
how and why Strauss mourns Austro-Germany. In particular, this essay looks at Metamorphosen’s tonal and
thematic referencing to music by Beethoven, Mahler, and Wagner. Strauss used thematic material and
compositional methods from past composers to reference a culture he thought dead.

Section IV places more emphasis on secondary literature; this section explores the varying interpretations of
‘IN MEMORIAM!’, and the rhetoric around the potential quotations in Metamorphosen. Additionally, this essay
borrows the techniques of Nicholas Cook and Deborah Mawer in order to cement the connection between
Metamorphosen and Austro-Germany.

A detailed analysis of Metamorphosen offers a unique insight into Austro-German culture at the end of the
Second World War, a ‘bookend’ to Austro-Germany’s centuries of dominance in art, music, and literature.
Moreover, Metamorphosen proves crucial in understanding Richard Strauss’s life, music, and ideology: this work
2
Strauss, Richard, quoted in Kennedy, Michael, Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), p. 361
3
The Vienna Opera House was destroyed on the 12th March 1945, whilst Strauss began Metamorphosen (according to the score) on
the 13th March 1945.
4
Vermeulen, Matthijs, ‘Een dubbel Schandaal, het Concertgebouw herdenkt Hitler,’ De Groene Amsterdammer (October 1947)
Schuh, Willi, ‘Greuelmärchen um R. Strauss’ Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweizerische Musikzeitung 87 (1947), pp. 437-38
3
serves to demonstrate that Strauss was a proud patriot, desperate for the return of a national culture he
adored.

Figure 1: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’: Metamorphosen’ s closing figures and Eroica Quotation (bb. 502-10)

Section II: Strauss, Sacher, and Schuh

Section IIa: Context of Study

The amount written on Richard Strauss is wide and far-reaching, yet studies focusing on Metamorphosen are
lacking. Several articles that focus on Strauss’s late period discuss the work, most notably Jürgen May’s ‘Last
Works’, but for the most part these discussions amount merely to a few lines.5 Moreover, their article
partnership with other late works lead many authors (May included) to juxtapose the Oboe Concerto and
Duet Concertino as optimistic and happy and the Metamorphosen and Four Last Songs as negative and tragic:
such a reading obviously oversimplifies both sets of works.

5
May, Jürgen, ‘Last Works’, in ed. Youmans, Charles Dowell, The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
4
Studies focusing on Metamorphosen are mostly out of date and lack the detail that such a complex work
necessitates; this is best represented by Ludwig Kusche and Kurt Wilhelm’s article ‘Richard Strauss’s
“Metamorphosen”’ (1951) which, though a good introduction to the work, is a brief and often subjective
account, frequently relying on unproven assumptions and vague phrases such as ‘a controlled grief and
resignation permeate it’.6 This criticism is also true of Willi Schuh, a central contemporaneous writer in the
context of this study: his critical review of the premiere was adapted into an article published in Die
Schweitzerische Musikzeitung: ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen’ (1946).7 His argument with Matthijs Vermeulen
(Vermeulen, ‘Een dubbel Schandaal, het Concertgebouw herdenkt Hitler’) on whether Metamorphosen was an
elegy for Hitler or Beethoven (Willi Schuh, ‘Greuelmärchen um R. Strauss’ Metamorphosen’) is discussed at
length in this essay; however, this essay disagrees with both Schuh and Vermeulen.8

More recently, Patricia Ann Dobiesz’s 2002 Thesis ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen: A Reception and
Performance History’ is a perceptive and detailed discussion; however, as its title implies, it draws a contrast
to my essay in that it discusses the reception and performance of Metamorphosen rather than analysing the
work itself in detail.9 Meanwhile, Timothy Jackson’s 1992 article and Brigit Lodes’s 1994 paper both represent
crucial contributions to the Metamorphosen literature but, having both been written over twenty-five years ago,
more up-to-date analyses of Metamorphosen are still needed.10

Section IIb: Strauss in 1945

In 1945, Richard Strauss was in his eighties. He was internationally recognised as Austro-Germany’s foremost
composer, already canonised as an operatic composer of incredible stature. But he was also a man in poor
health and desperate to escape the terrifying intensity of Germany. Unable to gain permission to leave his
country by the Nazi government, his friend Paul Sacher (1906-1999) came up with an idea: a commission
from Sacher and his orchestra, the Collegium Musicum Zürich, and an invitation to the premiere in
Switzerland. Strauss subsequently began a work - Sacher requested a ‘Suite for Strings’ - which he dedicated
to ‘Paul Sacher and the Collegium Musicum Zürich’.11 Metamorphosen was completed on 12th April 1945 and
premiered on 25th January 1946 with Sacher conducting.

Section III: An Analysis of Metamorphosen

Section IIIa: Tonality and Structure

Metamorphosen is a work with a rhapsodic nature, constantly unravelling with relentless development of its
themes. Carlo Antonioli’s argument that Metamorphosen is some manner of sonata form has to be questioned,
therefore, but it is true that the piece contains elements of the sonata paradigm.12 The most crucial of these is
the ‘Restatement’ at bar 390, reminiscent of a Sonata Form’s Recapitulation: here, the opening phrases are
repeated, albeit on a larger scale and transposed down a major third. Strauss highlights the importance of this
moment by preceding it with a double barline. Still not satisfied by what is a clear point of arrival, Strauss later
6
Kusche, Ludwig, and Wilhelm, Kurt, ‘Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen”’, in Tempo 19 (1951), pp.19-23
7
Schuh, Willi, ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweitzerische Musikzeitung 3 (1946), pp. 80-83
8
Vermeulen, Matthijs, ‘Een dubbel Schandaal, het Concertgebouw herdenkt Hitler,’ De Groene Amsterdammer (October 1947)
Schuh, Willi, ‘Greuelmärchen um R. Strauss’ Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweizerische Musikzeitung 87 (1947), pp. 437-38
9
Dobiesz, Patricia Ann, ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen: A Reception and Performance History’ (California State University, 2002)
10
Jackson, Timothy, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Metamorphosen: New Analytical and Source-Critical Discoveries’, in ed. Gilliam,
Bryan, Richard Strauss, New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 201-2
Lodes, Brigit, ‘Richard Strauss’ Skizzen zu den Metamorphosen and ihre Beziehung zu “Trauer um Munchen”,’ Die Musikforschung
47 (1994), pp. 234-52
11
Strauss, Richard, Metamorphosen. Studie für 23 Solostreicher, (London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1946)
12
Antonioli, Carlo, ‘Sonata Form and Key Centres in Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen’, Sydney Undergraduate Journal of Musicology 5
(December 2015)
5
begins a ‘Second Restatement’ (b. 433), in which the opening theme is combined with the theme first stated in
bars 9-11. This is preceded by an important structural marker in bar 432: a whole bar fermata, a dramatic and
unexpected climax to the tension that has preceded it.

Elsewhere in Metamorphosen, Strauss uses structural markers to denote the sectional nature of the piece. At bar
82, a double barline and a new key signature herald the arrival of a G major section; a second double barline
occurs at bar 145 and an E major section begins; ‘Agitato’ and a third double barline denote a new section at
bar 213; and a fourth double barline coupled with a revised tempo and metre occur at bar 345. An analysis of
a piece must be defined by what the composer gives us, and in Metamorphosen there are five double barlines
and a fermata bar from which a structure can be gauged: a series of seven structural blocks divided by six
structural markers.

To this, I would add bar 10 and 502 as two further structural markers. The former corresponds with the first
arrival in a key (C minor) as signalled by a perfect cadence, the latter to the point of tonal closure (what James
Hepokoski and Warren Darcy would label as the ‘Essential Structural Closure’), again in C minor.13
Thematically, these two points are of central importance: bar 10 introduces what this essay labels ‘Theme B’,
a melodic cell that combines elements of the opening themes in both Beethoven’s Fifth and the Second
Movement of Beethoven’s Third; bar 502 contains the infamous Eroica quote (labelled ‘IN MEMORIAM!’).

Figure 2 outlines Metamorphosen’s structural outline, key centres, and tonal and thematic trajectory. The major
modality and new, lyrical theme at bar 82 represent a move away from Metamorphosen’s more usual bleak
expression and minor modality. Therefore, I see this point as the end of the opening ‘Theme’ section (in the
loosest sense of the word, as of course this section displays numerous themes) and the start of the ‘Variation’
Sections, during which four Fortspinnung areas continue developing Metamorphosen’s many themes. These
‘Variations’ tonally lead towards Metamorphosen’s ‘Restatement’ at bar 390, a Perfect Cadential Progression of
G-c.

The tripartite nature of Metamorphosen is apparent: ‘Theme’, ‘Variations’, and ‘Restatement’. However, this is
not to be synonymised with ‘Exposition’, ‘Development’, and ‘Recapitulation’. Unlike sonata form,
Metamorphosen does not have Sonata Form’s central feature of possessing two contrasting, opening themes,
usually in differing tonalities, the latter of which is then ‘resolved’. To compress it into Sonata Form would be
reminiscent of Nicholas Cook’s infamous discussion of poor musical analysis:

[...] a good deal of so-called analysis [consists] of no more than fitting compositions into the
straightjacket of traditional form and ignoring the bits that [don’t] fit.14

13
Hepokoski, James, and Darcy, Warren, Elements of sonata theory : norms, types, and deformations in the late eighteenth-century sonata,
(Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)
14
Cook, Nicholas, A Guide to Musical Analysis, (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 10
6
 Figure 2: Tonal and Structural Outline in Metamorphosen

Section IIIb: ‘C’ as a Framing Tonality

At the centre of Metamorphosen is a complex dualism between C minor and C major. This dualism has wider
implications when one considers its connection to great Austro-Germanic works of art such as Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony (1808).

Metamorphosen’s first point of tonal arrival comes at bar 10. This corresponds with the first cadence in C
minor, coming after nine bars of tonal uncertainty (during which almost every diatonic chord is referenced).
As the piece progresses, other places of structural importance coincide with C minor being restated: the
double bar at bar 213, the Restatement at bar 390, and the final ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ section at bar 502,
leading to a C minor final chord. And yet, Strauss always refrains from using a C minor key signature: for
most of the piece, the key signature is left without sharps or flats. C major, therefore, is consistently hinted
towards (Metamorphosen is a tonal work, so we can discount the blank signature as being representative of
atonality). Indeed, C major appears in the Fourth Variation (bb. 345-389) and within the First and Second
Variations. It does not define Metamorphosen, failing to start or end the piece, but does play a strong part.

Moreover, by looking at the nine key centres which occupy Metamorphosen (see Figure 2) we are left with a
sense of C major, not C minor. This is because they all, without exception, sort themselves into the three notes
of a C major Triad: C, E, and G. Figure 3 illustrates this.

Bars Key Centre Reordered as a C major Triad

1-9 e

10-81 c G
82-144 G

145-212 E

213-344 c e-E
345-389 C

7
390-431 c

433-501 c c-c-C-c-c-c
502-510 c

Figure 3: Key Centres in Metamorphosen

C major, therefore, could be described as the ‘Framing Tonality’ of Metamorphosen. Not the key to which the
piece belongs, but the key on which the structure is built. Moreover, the major sections of Metamorphosen are
when the piece feels most harmonically stable. This is best represented in the First Variation which contains
large sections that alternate between G, C, and D triads, forming a complete contrast to the chromatic minor
sections that occur in the Third Variation and the Recapitulation. The combination between major
consonance and minor dissonance leads the listener to conclude that Metamorphosen could end in a major key.

Let us not forget, however, that for all its C major referencing, Metamorphosen defiantly ends in C minor. The
piece therefore forms an antithesis to the Beethovenian c-C model (best represented in Beethoven’s Fifth
Symphony) by toying with the idea of being a ‘darkness to light’ work before defiantly ending in its minor
tonic. Metamorphosen therefore forms a further a link with other Austro-Germanic works such as Maher’s Sixth
Symphony (albeit an a/A dualism) which end in their initial minor tonality after giving hints of a major
conclusion. The Austro-Germanic parallel dualism was a practice often explored in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, and in Metamorphosen this is quintessentially witnessed; there are not many better ways to
memorialise Strauss’s country than embracing such a dialectic.

Figure 2 shows Metamorphosen’s long-term tonal resolution: a work that begins its tonal argument at bar 10 in
C minor, toys with C minor throughout, before defiantly ending in C minor at the piece’s ‘EEC’ in bar 502:
c-[C?]-c.

8
 Section IIIc: A Pupil of Beethoven - Strauss’s Thematic Development

There are two important themes in Metamorphosen. ‘Theme A’, stated in the opening three bars, and ‘Theme
B’, first stated in bars 9-11. Both are shown in Figure 4.

Theme A (bb.1-3)

Figure 4: Important Themes in Metamorphosen

Typical of many of Strauss’s themes, both Theme A and Theme B are tiny melodic cells which are
immediately developed and expanded upon (Fortspinnung) to create much longer melodic lines. This is not
unlike many of Beethoven’s themes: the first movement of his Fifth Symphony again serves as a prime
example. The entire melodic material is built from the first four bars, but Beethoven uses this to create a long
line of continuous melody, albeit one which is passed around different timbres (Klangfarbenmelodie). This is
demonstrated in my analysis below (Figure 5).

9
 Figure 5: Beethovenian Thematic Development in Metamorphosen

The long-term tonal resolution in Metamorphosen (see Figure 2) also has significant thematic connotations.
This is because bar 10 introduces Theme B which, as shown in Figure 6, is a combination of two important
Beethoven themes, including the Eroica quotation. Theme B is continuously developed throughout
Metamorphosen, combining with other themes (such as Theme A, see Figure 7) before culminating in an
extended and climactic Theme B at bar 502: the ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ Eroica quotation (see Figure 1). After
using it to define many of the melodic figures in Metamorphosen, Strauss finally confirms that Theme B is a
quotation. Therefore, bar 9-10 introduces a long-term thematic process, central to the trajectory of
Metamorphosen, which is finally ‘resolved’ at bar 502.

10
Figure 6: Thematic Comparisons between Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Symphonies and
Metamorphosen

Figure 7: Theme A combined with Theme B

11
 Section IV: ‘MEMORIAM!’, Munich, and Meaning

Section IVa: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’

The most obvious and most important musical quotation in Metamorphosen occurs in its final few bars (see
Figure 1). Here, the Double Basses and lower ‘Cellos state the first theme of Eroica’s second movement.
When coupled with the two words written below it - ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ - the potential connotations of this
quotation are plentiful and wide-ranging.

What exactly Strauss was memorialising has been debated extensively since Metamorphosen’s premiere. Many
have argued that ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ was in reference to Beethoven (hence the Eroica quote), and that
Metamorphosen was a memorial to the composer. This was an argument first put forward by Willi Schuh
(1900-1986), a great friend and biographer of Strauss, in an article published in Die Schweitzereische
Musikzeitung in 1946.15 In it, Schuh correctly noted that Beethoven was a figure Strauss had idealised since his
youth: a musical monument to him by Strauss was entirely plausible.

Schuh’s article was in response to one written by Matthijs Vermeulen (1888-1967), who put forward the
suggestion that Metamorphosen was a memorial for a completely different German figure: Hitler. The idea that
Strauss was a fervent supporter of the Nazi regime has been argued for by numerous scholars, most notably
Matthew Boydon in his unfavourable account of the composer’s life.16 However, all the evidence suggests
that Strauss cooperated with the Nazi regime whilst secretly despising it:

I consider the Streicher-Goebbels Jew-baiting as a disgrace to German honour, as evidence of

incompetence—the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and
greater talent.17

His cooperation was undoubtedly motivated through fear (and through his protection of his Jewish
daughter-in-law), not through admiration. Therefore, a secret dedication to the Nazi leader seems unlikely.

Timothy Jackson has toyed with the idea of Metamorphosen memorialising Hitler, but has argued for it being an
elegy for a hero that had fallen into evil rather than for someone who Strauss still admired. This therefore
forms a link with Beethoven’s Eroica, a symphony that had previously been dedicated to Napoleon - ‘to the
memory of a great man’ - before the composer scribbled out the dedication in disgust after Napoleon
proclaimed himself emperor.18 The Hitler argument loses further credibility, however, when one considers
that Metamorphosen is dated ‘12 April 1945’ (as this is at the end of the score, this must correspond with the
date of completion) and Hitler died on 30th April. Strauss may have been convinced his death was coming
(by that point it seemed inevitable), but it seems odd to write a memorial for someone when they are still
alive.

Schuh’s argument of Metamorphosen being a memorial to Beethoven is entirely plausible, but one wonders
whether it could go further. For Strauss, Beethoven’s music was so synonymous with the Austro-Germanic
musical canon that a memorialisation of Eroica could have been an allegory for Austro-Germanic music as a
whole. Metamorphosen’s final ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ could be for the ‘destruction’ of Austro-Germany’s music
culture, using Beethoven as its representative. This therefore forms a link with this essay’s introductory quote,

15
Schuh, Willi, ‘Greuelmärchen um R. Strauss’ Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweizerische Musikzeitung 87 (1947), pp. 437-38
16
Boyden, Matthew, Richard Strauss (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999), pp. 352-60
17
Strauss, Richard, quoted in Kennedy, Michael Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999), p. 274
18
Jackson, Timothy, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Metamorphosen: New Analytical and Source-Critical Discoveries’, in ed. Gilliam,
Bryan, Richard Strauss, New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 201-2
12
a diary entry written a few days after Metamorphosen’s completion: ‘[...] Germany’s 2000 years of cultural
evolution met its doom’; here, Strauss’s lamenting lines are not about Beethoven, but about his country.

Section IVb: Other Potential Quotations (Munich, Tristan, et al.)

The argument that Strauss’s ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ mourned not Beethoven alone gains traction when one
considers the other potential quotations in Metamorphosen. Of these, quotations of Tristan and Isolde seem the
most plausible. Norman Del Mar has pointed out the resemblance of Metamorphosen’s solo viola tune at bar
299 to many of the tunes in Tristan: ‘in a work of mourning for the passing of German culture he would not
have regretted, perhaps, some chance similarities with that most loved opera’.19 Moreover, the similarity
between bars 485-7 in Metamorphosen and the climaxes in Tristan’s ‘Liebestod’ are notable., as demonstrated by
Figure 8.

Figure 8: Metamorphosen and Tristan Thematic Comparison

Tim Ashley has also pointed out the thematic similarity between Metamorphosen and many of the themes in
Tristan, and has posited that Strauss saw part of himself in Tristan’s King Mark (hence his thematic allusions).
When King Mark asks ‘was Mark’s shame the price for countless services?’ this is comparable to Strauss’s
‘sense of betrayal at the hands of the culture he had served’.20 This literal character comparison is slightly

19
Del Mar, Norman, Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on his Life and Works vol. 3 (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1978), p. 430
20
Ashley, Tim, Richard Strauss (London: Phaidon Press, 1999), p. 198
13
far-fetched, but Ashley is right to look at potential reasons why the similarities between Tristan and
Metamorphosen occur. Surely, however, they exist merely for Strauss to honour a composer and a music that he
adored.

A second plausible quotation is one of a work by Strauss himself. Immediately prior to Metamorphosen Strauss
had begun composing an orchestral movement titled Munich Memorial Waltz, sketches of which appear in the
same notebook as the sketches for Metamorphosen. He described these sketches as Trauer um München
(‘Mourning for Munich’). The Waltz was mainly based on music he had written for a 1939 film about Munich,
which had been given the subtitle ‘Gelegenheitswalzer’ (‘Occasional Waltz’). This music was eventually
combined with the 1939 piece as a middle section, headed ‘Minore - In Memoriam’. The Munich Memorial
Waltz was finished on 24 February 1945, and the subtitle ‘Gelegenheitswaltzer’ was replaced with
‘Gedächtniswalzer’ (‘Memorial Waltz’).

The connection between Metamorphosen and Trauer um München is pivotal to an understanding of the former
piece. Given that Strauss began Metamorphosen the day after the destruction of the Vienna Opera House, a
thematic connection to the Trauer um München links it to the destruction of another Austro-German Opera
House: in October 1943, Munich Opera House was burnt to the ground. Kusche and Wilhelm emphasised
the similarity between a theme in the Trauer um München sketches and Theme B in Metamorphosen: ‘This much
is clear: out of the lament for Munich arose the motif ’.21 Figure 9 illustrates the similarity between
Metamorphosen’s Theme B and the Trauer um München sketches. Here, one can see Metamorphosen’s descending
semiquaver-quaver rhythmic (‘Lombardic rhythm’) has a predecessor in the first bar of the Trauer um München
sketch, albeit in a quaver-semiquaver rhythm (‘inverted Lombardic rhythm’). Moreover, the semiquaver
suspension present in Theme B’s third bar bears similarity to Trauer um München’s second bar, in which the
‘alto’ voice descends from an Eb to a D to resolve a G minor chord.

Figure 9: Trauer um München and Metamorphosen Thematic Comparison

21
Kusche, Ludwig, and Wilhelm, Kurt, ‘Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen”’, in Tempo 19 (1951), p. 22
14
A fascinating piece of research on this matter comes from Mathieu Schneider, who looked for other instances
where Strauss used the phrase ‘IN MEMORIAM!’. He found two; in the second Munich Memorial Waltz
(1945), and in a letter to Clemens Krauss on 26 December 1944, following the word ‘Staatsoper’. Given that
both instances reflect Strauss’s devastation at the loss of the Munich Opera House, it is likely that
Metamorphosen’s ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ denotes the piece’s connection to the materialistic destruction of
Austro-German art.

Timothy Jackson, however, has doubted the connection of Metamorphosen to the Munich Memorial Waltzes.
He notes how Trauer um München shows no Lombardic rhythm and is in a key (G minor) not used in
Metamorphosen. Furthermore, his examination of the sketchbooks shows that all the characteristics of the
theme in question, the second theme of Metamorphosen, were already settled before the Trauer um München
sketch was written.22 Brigit Lodes has also doubted Kusche and Wilhelm’s claim, which has led to the current
view among recent academics being to understate the connection between Metamorphosen and Trauer um
München.23

However, I would not be so quick to dismiss this potential quote. In my view, Strauss began quoting
Beethoven’s Eroica in the Trauer um München sketch, and then in turn quoted this in Metamorphosen (Theme B):
the similarity between all three themes is clear. Theme B is therefore a ‘double quotation’, a multifaceted
hermeneutic window which denote Metamorphosen as a memorial for both Beethoven and the Munich Opera
House, two Austro-German cultural pillars.

Section IVc: The visio-linguistic graphs of Cook and Mawer

In order to further grasp the extent to which Metamorphosen is a monument to Austro-German culture, this
essay adopts the visual methodology undertaken by Nicholas Cook’s ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’ and then
adopted by Deborah Mawer in ‘Balanchine’s La Valse: Meanings and Implications for Ravel Studies’.24 This is
best represented by their graphs which are a ‘visual means of exploring relations (be they close or distant)
between two entities, placed left and right’.25 My version (Figure 10) of this graph compares the musical
features of Metamorphosen on one hand with the wider Austro-Germanic situation on the other, in order to
gain a compromise (‘IN MEMORIAM!’) below.

Metamorphosen Musical Features Austro Germanic Situation

● Eroica quotation. ● Systematic destruction of

● Funeral topics: slow 4/4 tempi, minor
modality, adagio Lombardic rhythms.
● Motives from Tristan (not authorially
proven).
● Motives from Trauer um München (not
authorially proven).
Austro-German intellectual culture
(totalitarian state, denouncement of
Jewish composers, etc.)
● Materialistic destruction of Munich,
Vienna, and Dresden Opera Houses.
● Perceived ‘death’ of great composers’
memory.

22
Jackson, Timothy, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Metamorphosen New Analytical and Source-Critical Discoveries’ in Richard Strauss,
New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work, p. 198
23
Lodes, Brigit, ‘Richard Strauss’ Skizzen zu den Metamorphosen and ihre Beziehung zu “Trauer um Munchen”,’ Die Musikforschung
47 (1994), pp. 234-52.
24
Cook, Nicholas, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, in Music Theory Spectrum 23(2) (2001), pp.170-195
Mawer, Deborah, ‘Balanchine’s La Valse: Meanings and Implications for Ravel Studies’, in The Opera Quarterly 22(1) (2006), pp.
90-116
25
Mawer, Deborah, ‘Balanchine’s La Valse: Meanings and Implications for Ravel Studies’, p. 94
15
 Meeting Point: ‘IN MEMORIAM!’

● Quotations are used to mourn bygone composers and musical eras.

● Funeral affections in order to stage a ‘funeral’ for the death of Austro-German culture.
● ‘IN MEMORIAM!’ is a confirmation of the memorialising quality of Metamorphosen
which, considering the plethora of quotations and stylistic references, must be a
monument to Austro-German culture as a whole.

Figure 10: Metamorphosen visio-linguistic graph

Section V: Conclusions

Metamorphosen has been labelled as part of an ‘Indian Summer’ phase of Strauss’s life, a large collection of
pieces in the composer’s final, and very productive, compositional period.26 But perhaps a far better topic to
which Metamorphosen belongs is ‘Austro-German Winter’. This was a composition by a man devastated by the
end of ‘Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution’, who subsequently wrote a work, truly enigmatic in
nature, that mourned Austro-German culture through reference to the musical canon.

In Metamorphosen, nothing is simple. Strauss decided to embrace a complex dialectic between sonata form and
the ‘darkness to light’ trajectory, two musical features at the centre of Austro-German musical discourse, and
build a work that was in constant conversation with the music of the past. Additionally, the musical
quotations, thematic building blocks, and thematic teleological goal in Metamorphosen define it as an essay on
Austro-German musics, in particular (but not exclusively) the music of Beethoven.

Strauss the man never gave away answers easily, and as such we will never know what ‘IN MEMORIAM’
truly meant, or whether Tristan and his Trauer um München were, in fact, referenced in Metamorphosen; the
comparative thematic cells suggest that this is a strong possibility, however. Crucially, given that Metamorphosen
came after expressionism, serialism and neoclassicism, the neo-romantic language of Metamorphosen alone
gives it a historical DNA.

There are many enigmas in Metamorphosen which have been left untouched, but there is one which should be
briefly discussed: the piece’s title. ‘Metamorphosen’ and its connotations to Austro-German literature are
plentiful: Kafka’s Metamorphosis, for example, could have been referenced to represent the ugly transformation
of Austro-Germanic society, from a cultural state to a country containing ‘monstrous vermin’.27 Conversely,
many writers have pointed to a connection with Goethe’s The Metamorphosis of Plants, not least because of
Strauss’s inclusion in his sketchbooks of a poem by Goethe: ‘Niemand wird sich selber kennen’. Stephen
Kohler, seconded by Timothy Jackson, has argued that Strauss adopted the life-philosophy of Goethe, making
a titular reference to the poet very likely.28

Both the Kafka and Goethe theories are likely, and I would argue that both were on Strauss’s mind, a mind
filled with elements of Austro-German history, when he wrote Metamorphosen. Additionally, the gradual
transformation of themes and the drawn-out thematic goal of Theme B must correspond to the literal
definition of ‘metamorphosis’, roughly defined as the transformation and physical development of an animal
after hatching. Or perhaps ‘Metamorphosen’ corresponds to Strauss himself: a composer who was coming to

26
May, Jürgen, ‘Last Works’, in ed. Youmans, Charles Dowell, The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
27
Kafka, Franz, Die Verwandlung, 1915
28
Kohler, Stephen, ‘Von der Fahigkeit zu trauem. Zu Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen o.op.AV 142’
16
the end of his long life, reaching the end of his lifelong transformation from a state of patriotic positiveness
to one of cultural mourning. Metamorphosen was the culmination of Richard Strauss’s ‘metamorphosis’.

17
 Bibliography

Primary Sources

Scores

Strauss, Richard, Metamorphosen. Studie für 23 Solostreicher, (London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1946)

Letters and Interviews

Sacher, Paul, conductor, Zurich, to Richard Strauss, Baden, 21 January 1946, original letter in Paul Sacher
Stiftung, Basel, Switzerland.

Strauss, Richard to Böhm, Karl. 30 September 1944, Archiv der Wiener Philharmoniker, quoted in Timothy
Jackson, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Metamorphosen: New Analytical and Source-Critical Discoveries,’ in ed.
Gilliam, Bryan, Richard Strauss, New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work (Durham: Duke University Press,
1992), p. 225

Strauss, Richard to Böhm, Karl, 17 November 1944, quoted in Mathieu Schneider, ‘Les Metamorphosen de R.
Strauss: In Memoriam...,’ n. 14, (Memoire de maitrise, Universite Marc Bloch, 1999), p. 109

Strauss, Richard, Baden, to Sacher, Paul, Zurich, 21 January 1946, original letter, Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel,
Switzerland

Secondary Sources

Articles and Books

Ashley, Tim, Richard Strauss, (London: Phaidon Press, 1999)

Boyden, Matthew, Richard Strauss, (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999)

Brosche, Günter, ‘Musical quotations and allusions in the works of Richard Strauss’, in ed. Youmans, Charles
Dowell, The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Cook, Nicholas, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, in Music Theory Spectrum 23(2) (2001), pp.170-195

Dobiesz, Patricia Ann, ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen: A Reception and Performance History’ (California
State University, 2002)

Hepokoski, James, and Darcy, Warren, Elements of sonata theory : norms, types, and deformations in the late
eighteenth-century sonata, (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)

Gilliam, Bryan, The Life of Richard Strauss, Musical Lives, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

Jackson, Timothy, ‘The Metamorphosis of the Metamorphosen: New Analytical and Source-Critical
Discoveries’, in ed. Gilliam, Bryan, Richard Strauss, New Perspectives on the Composer and his Work, (Durham: Duke
University Press, 1992)

Kennedy, Michael Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

18
Klein, Michael, Intertextuality in Western Art Music, (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2005)

Kohler, Stephen, ‘Von der Fahigkeit zu trauem. Zu Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen o.op.AV 142’

Krause, Ernst, trans. Coombs, John, Richard Strauss: The Man and His Work, (London: Collet’s, 1964)

Kusche, Ludwig, and Wilhelm, Kurt, ‘Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen”’, in Tempo 19 (1951), pp.19-23

Lodes, Brigit, ‘Richard Strauss’ Skizzen zu den Metamorphosen and ihre Beziehung zu “Trauer um
Munchen”,’ Die Musikforschung 47 (1994), pp. 234-52

Mawer, Deborah, ‘Balanchine’s La Valse: Meanings and Implications for Ravel Studies’, in The Opera Quarterly
22(1) (2006), pp. 90-116

May, Jürgen, ‘Last Works’, in ed. Youmans, Charles Dowell, The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss

Schuh, Willi, ‘Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweitzerische Musikzeitung 3 (1946), pp. 80-83

Schuh, Willi, ‘Greuelmärchen um R. Strauss’ Metamorphosen,’ Die Schweizerische Musikzeitung 87 (1947), pp.
437-38

Vermeulen, Matthijs, ‘Een dubbel Schandaal, het Concertgebouw herdenkt Hitler,’ De Groene Amsterdammer,
11 October 1947

19