h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Gnomon:

This is really an excellent article that is
fine the way it stands.

The way "Metamorphosen" was explained on the
radio channel where I first heard it, Strauss
was lamenting the destruction of Muncken
(i.e. Munich). It would make sense to write a
tone poem about a cityscape that metamorphoses
into rubble during a long, nasty war. (I was
in Munich in 1970, but it had been rebuilt
by then.)

My other point is that Strauss wrote a piece
based on Moliere's "Le bourgeois gentilhomme."
It's a piece I love dearly. Probably not
required listening, but amusingly awkward.

It makes sense that Strauss had a horn-player
as a parent. In many of his compositions,
there is a highly assertive line for horns,
cutting through the texture of the piece.
If I hear an unfamiliar piece from that era
(the harmonic structure usually gives you clues
about the era ), and I hear horns used
in that way, I assume the piece is by Strauss.