Ein Heldenleben

Richard Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), composed in 1898, is essentially an autobiographical if somewhat tongue-in-cheek work. Conceived in one continuous movement, divided into six titled sections, it employs a very large orchestra and utilises recurring and easily identifiable thematic motifs as a means of achieving coherence and unity. The work opens with “The Hero”, a relatively short yet luxuriously scored section which is both confident and impassioned in mood. Following a dramatic pause, “The Hero’s Adversaries”, a biting attack on those critics who were particularly hostile to the composer’s work, presents drastically different music that is spiky, snarling, and dissonant. In “The Hero’s Companion”, Strauss delivers a character portrait of his wife with extended and occasionally coquettish writing for solo violin working in vivid dialogue with the rest of the orchestra. But the ensuing love idyll is unexpectedly interrupted by offstage trumpets signalling the beginning of “The Hero in Battle”—which, as its title suggests, depicts a mighty conflict that ultimately results in triumph over evil, a passage realised through a reprise of the assertive music heard at the opening of the work. This leads directly into “The Hero’s Works of Peace”, a fascinating and ingenious collage of themes from many of Strauss’ other works. The last section, “The Hero’s Retirement from this World and Completion”, is more introspective and resigned in character, its final, relatively serene bars achieving a wonderfully satisfying sense of closure.