An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss which premiered in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 125 players and a typical performance usually lasts around 50 minutes.Richard Strauss, Eine Alpensinfonie and Symphonia Domestica, Dover 0-486-27725-9 (New York: Dover Publications, 1993) The program of An Alpine Symphony depicts the experiences of eleven"An Alpine Symphony", LA Phil; accessed 6 December 2020. hours (from daybreak just before dawn to nightfall) spent climbing an Alpine mountain.
History Strauss's An Alpine Symphony was completed in 1915, eleven years after the completion of its immediate predecessor in the genre of the tone poem, Symphonia Domestica.Charles Youmans, "The Role of Nietzsche in Richard Strauss' Artistic Development", The Journal of Musicology 21, No. 3 (Summer 2004): 339. In 1911, Strauss wrote that he was "torturing [himself] with a symphony – a job that, when all's said and done, amuses me even less than chasing cockroaches".Marc Mandel, "Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64", Boston Symphony Orchestra; accessed 2 March 2009.
One point of influence comes from Strauss's love of nature. As a boy, Strauss experienced an Alpine adventure similar to the one described in his An Alpine Symphony: he and a group of climbers lost their way heading up a mountain and were caught in a storm and soaked on the way down.Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 105. Strauss loved the mountains so much that in 1908 he built a home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, that boasted stunning views of the Alps. This interest in nature can also point to Strauss's following of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.Youmans, "The Role of Nietzsche in Richard Strauss' Artistic Development", 339.
The original drafts of An Alpine Symphony began in 1899. It was to be written in memory of the Swiss painter, Karl Stauffer-Bern, and the work was originally titled Künstlertragödie (Tragedy of an Artist). This fell by the wayside, but Strauss began a new four-movement work called Die Alpen (The Alps) in which he used parts of the original 1899 draft. The first movement of Die Alpen evolved into the core of An Alpine Symphony. Sketches were made, but Strauss eventually left the work unfinished.Mark-Daneiel Schmid, ed., The Richard Strauss Companion (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2003), 112.
Years later, upon the death of his good friend Gustav Mahler in 1911, Strauss decided to revisit the work. In his journal the day after he learned of Mahler's death, Strauss wrote: The death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist [is] a grave loss ... Mahler, the Jew, could achieve elevation in Christianity. As an old man the hero Wagner returned to it under the influence of Schopenhauer. It is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity ... I shall call my alpine symphony: Der Antichrist, since it represents: moral purification through one's own strength, liberation through work, worship of eternal, magnificent nature.Bryan Gilliam, "Strauss, Richard", Grove Music Online; accessed 21 February 2009.
The resulting draft of the work was to be a two-part work titled Der Antichrist: Eine Alpensinfonie; however, Strauss never finished the second part. Instead, he dropped the first half of the title (named after an 1888 book by Nietzsche) and called his single-movement work simply An Alpine Symphony.Schmid, The Richard Strauss Companion, 112. After so many years of intermittent composition, once Strauss began work on the piece in earnest the progress was quick. Strauss even went so far as to remark that he composed An Alpine Symphony "just as a cow gives milk". Orchestration for the work began on 1 November 1914, and was completed by the composer only three months later.Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 106. In reference to this, his final purely symphonic work, Strauss famously commented at the dress rehearsal for An Alpine Symphony's premiere that at last he had learned to orchestrate. The entire work was finished on 8 February 1915. The score was dedicated "in profound gratitude" to Count Nicolaus Seebach, director of the Royal Opera in Dresden, where four of the six operas Strauss had written by that time had been premiered.Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 121.
Scoring and structure
An Alpine Symphony is scored for a large orchestra consisting of:
Woodwinds
1 heckelphone 1 clarinet in E 2 clarinets in B
Brass
4 trumpets 4 trombones 2 tubas
12 offstage horns 2 offstage trumpets 2 offstage trombones
Percussion timpani (2 players)
snare drum bass drum cymbals triangle tam-tam cowbells wind machine thunder machine glockenspiel
Keyboard celesta organ
Strings 2 harps (2 parts)
18 violins I 16 violins II 12 violas 10 cellos 8 double basses (5- part string section)
Strauss further suggested that the harps and some woodwind instruments should be doubled if possible and indicated that the stated number of string players should be regarded as a minimum.
The use of "Samuel's Aerophon" is suggested in the instrumentation listing. (Strauss probably misunderstood the name – it was originally called the Aerophor.) This long-extinct device, invented by Dutch flautist Bernard Samuels in 1911 to assist wind players in sustaining long notes without interruption, was a foot-pump with an air-hose stretching to the player's mouth.Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 107. However, modern wind players make use of the technique of circular breathing, whereby it is possible to inhale through the nose while still sustaining the sound by matching the blowing pressure in the mouth.
Another oddity with the scoring is that the part written for the heckelphone goes down to F2, while the lowest note the heckelphone can play is A2. Attempts to address this issue have led to the invention of the lupophone.
Program
Although performed as one continuous movement, An Alpine Symphony has a distinct program which describes each phase of the Alpine journey in chronological order. The score includes the following section titles (not numbered in the score):
Nacht (Night) Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise) Der Anstieg (The Ascent) Eintritt in den Wald (Entry into the Forest) Wanderung neben dem Bache (Wandering by the Brook) Am Wasserfall (At the Waterfall) Erscheinung (Apparition) Auf blumigen Wiesen (On Flowering Meadows) Auf der Alm (On the Alpine Pasture) Durch Dickicht und Gestrüpp auf Irrwegen (Through Thickets and Undergrowth on the Wrong Path) Auf dem Gletscher (On the Glacier) Gefahrvolle Augenblicke (Dangerous Moments) Auf dem Gipfel (On the Summit) Vision (Vision) Nebel steigen auf (Mists Rise) Die Sonne verdüstert sich allmählich (The Sun Gradually Becomes Obscured) Elegie (Elegy) Stille vor dem Sturm (Calm Before the Storm) Gewitter und Sturm, Abstieg (Thunderstorm and Tempest, Descent) Sonnenuntergang (Sunset) Ausklang (Quiet Settles / Epilogue)There is no direct translation for the German word "Ausklang", but the meaning suggests finality. Nacht (Night)
In terms of formal analysis, attempts have been made to group these sections together to form a "gigantic Lisztian symphonic form, with elements of an introduction, opening allegro, scherzo, slow movement, finale, and epilogue." In general, however, it is believed that comparisons to any kind of traditional symphonic form are secondary to the strong sense of structure created by the piece's musical pictorialism and detailed narrative.
Themes, form, and analysis Introduction Though labelled as a symphony by the composer, An Alpine Symphony is rather a tone poem as it forgoes the conventions of the traditional multi-movement symphony and consists of twenty-two continuous sections of music.Gordon Kalton Williams, "Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64", Sydney Symphony Online; accessed 4 March 2009. Strauss's An Alpine Symphony opens on a unison B in the strings, horns, and lower woodwinds. From this note, a dark B minor scale slowly descends. Each new note is sustained until, eventually, every degree of the scale is heard simultaneously, creating an "opaque mass" of tone representing the deep, mysterious night on the mountain. Trombones and tuba emerge from this wash of sound to solemnly declaim the mountain theme, a majestic motive which recurs often in later sections of the piece.
This passage is a rare instance of Strauss's use of polytonality, as the shifting harmony in the middle part of the mountain theme (which includes a D minor triad) clashes intensely with the sustained notes of the B minor scale.
As night gives way to daylight in "Sunrise", the theme of the sun is heard—a glorious descending A major scale which is thematically related to the opening scale depicting night time. A secondary theme characterized by a tied triplet figure and featured numerously in the first half of the piece appears immediately afterwards and fully establishes itself 7 measures later in D major (the relative major of B minor).
Exposition In terms of form, the section labelled "The Ascent" can be seen as the end of An Alpine Symphony'''s slow introduction and beginning of the work's allegro proper.Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 108. Harmonically, this passage moves away from the dark B minor of the opening and firmly establishes the key of E major. It is in "The Ascent", the first subject theme, that Strauss presents two more main musical motives which will prominently return throughout the entire piece. The first is a marching theme full of dotted rhythms which is presented in the lower strings and harp, the shape of which actually suggests the physical act of climbing through the use of large upwards leaps.
The second is a pointed, triumphant fanfare played by the brass which comes to represent the more rugged, dangerous aspects of the climb.
It is just after the appearance of this second climbing motive that we hear the distant sounds of a hunting party, deftly represented by Strauss through the use of an offstage band of twelve horns, two trumpets, and two trombones. As Norman Del Mar points out, "the fanfares are wholly non-motivic and neither the hunting horns nor their phrases are heard again throughout the work".Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 109. The use of unique musical motives and instrumentation in this passage reinforces the idea of distance created by the offstage placement—these sounds belong to a party of people on an entirely different journey.
Upon entering the wood there is an abrupt change of texture and mood—the "instrumental tones deepen as thick foliage obscures the sunlight".Del Mar, Richard Strauss, 110. A new meandering theme in C minor, which acts as the second subject theme, is presented by the horns and trombones:
This is followed by a more relaxed version of the marching theme, presented in A major. This theme serves as a closing theme of the exposition. Birdcalls are heard in the upper woodwinds and a solo string quartet leads the transition into the next musical section.
Development The following portion of the piece can be interpreted as a large development-like section which encompasses several different phases of the climb. In "Wandering by the Brook", there is an increasing sense of energy—rushing passage-work gives way to cascading scale figures in the winds and strings and marks the beginning of the section which takes place "At the Waterfall" and "Apparition". The brilliant, glittering instrumental writing in this passage makes it one of the most "vividly specific" moments of tone painting within An Alpine Symphony.