Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss celebrates his birthday on June 11th. He was born in Germany in 1864 and died September 8th, 1949 at the age of 85.

He started learning piano at age 4 and started composing music at the age of 6.

His tone poems became very popular. A tone poem is a piece of orchestral music that has a story attached to it. They can be quite long and based on something non-musical, such as a story or a painting.

Two popular tone poems were Don Juan written in 1888 and Sprach Zarathustra writen in 1896.

Don Juan

(this is based on man who isn't a very good guy)

Let's listen to some violin excerpts:

Sprach Zarathustra

(This is based on a book)

It was also used in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey. Let's watch the opening credits of that movie to hear the music.

Here is animated version of the song:

The drums you hear in this piece of music are called timpani or kettle drums.

They are large copper bowls with a skin-like material stretched over the top. They can be tuned to play different notes.

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After 1990 he spent most of his time writing operas.

He was also a very good conductor and often conducted his own music.

He is not related the Strauss Family that are famous for their waltzes.

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Let's see what you remember: Try this worksheet out. If there isn't a choice of answers it means you need to type your answer in.

Let me know how you do. You can either email me your answers at tgange@srsd119.ca

or use the key code: gtmi8cz5ob.

Give me your grade and put "music" as your subject