Outlines:

1. Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
   
   
   1. Composed over 250 lieder
      
      
   2. Each of his collections of lieder was devoted to a single poet or group of poets.
      
      
   3. He prefered Wagner's approach to poetry and did not use strophic settings or folksong idioms.
      
      
   4. NAWM 122, Kennst du das Land?
      1. The vocal line is almost speechlike.
      2. The piano part rather than the voice part supplies continuity.
      3. His chromatic, ambiguous tonality is inspired by Wagner.
         
         
2. Mahler
   
   
   1. Background
      1. Mahler was a conductor at numerous opera houses, and also conducted the New York Philharmonic.
      2. He composed nine symphonies and five song cycles for voice and orchestra.
         
         
   2. Symphonies
      1. Mahler's symphonies are long, complex, and programmatic.
      2. His symphonies require huge orchestras.
         1. The Second Symphony requires seventeen woodwinds, twenty-five brasses, many percussion, solo voices, and a large chorus.
         2. The Eighth Symphony is popularly known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because it demands so many performers.
      3. He uses daring combinations of instruments, and his orchestral effects range from delicate passages for few instruments to overwhelmingly dense ones.
      4. Programs are not always explicit.
         1. He sometimes quotes his own lieder and sometimes uses voices.
         2. The Fourth Symphony is his most conventional (see etude, p. 454, in CHWM).
            1. The first movement is Classical in form, with precise orchestration and recurring themes.
            2. The second movement is a grim scherzo representing a Dance of Death.
            3. The third movement is the slow movement, with two sections, each restated with variations.
            4. The last movement was composed before the others, and is based on a song from Des Knaben Wunderhorn depicting a child's vision of heaven.
            5. The symphony begins in G major and ends in E major.
         3. The Sixth Symphony, the "Tragic," culminates in a colossal finale that portrays death and defeat.
         4. The Seventh Symphony has two movements of "night music."
         5. The Eighth Symphony ends with a huge choral movements that sets the closing scene from Goethe's Faust.
         6. The Ninth Symphony makes reference to the Lebewohl (farewell) theme of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 81a.
            
            
   3. Lieder with orchestra
      1. Kindertotenlieder (1901–04) is a song cycle for solo voice and orchestra.
         1. NAWM 123, Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgehen (Now the sun will rise again), exemplifies the spare orchestral texture typical of his later works.
         2. Chamber-music transparency allows delicate counterpoint to shine through.
      2. Das Lied von der Erde is based on a cycle of six poems translated from the Chinese.
         1. The orchestra supplements the musical thoughts of the voice.
         2. Instrumental color and the pentatonic scale create an exotic flavor.
         3. Ecstatic pleasure and deadly foreboding combine in Mahler's late style.
            
            
3. Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
   
   
   1. Background
      1. Was the most famous German composer ca. 1900
      2. Was a symphonic conductor
      3. Composed lieder, symphonic poems, and operas.
         
         
   2. Strauss's symphonic poems used both philosophical and descriptive programs.
      
      
   3. Philosphical works include Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration, 1896) and Also sprach Zarathustra (So Spoke Zoroaster, 1896).
      1. Also sprach Zarathustra is a musical commentary on the prose-poem by Friedrich Nietzsche.
      2. Nietzsche's idea of a superman (Übermensch) was popular at the time.
      3. Nietzsche's poem claimed the Christian ethic of humility should be replaced by the ideal of an aristocratic and moral superman who is above good and evil.
      4. The opening of Also sprach Zarathustra is Zoroaster's address to the sun. This section became famous after its use in the film 2001.
      5. A fugue theme using all twelve notes of the chromatic scale represents the all-embracing realm of science and learning.
         
         
   4. Descriptive works include Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, 1895) and Don Quixote (1897).
      1. Till Eulenspiegel has a comic program with some realistic details and a rondo-like form reminiscent of Haydn's humorous works.
      2. Don Quixote (NAWM 124) uses variations to portray the development of Quixote's and Sancho Panza's personalities through thematic transformation.
         
         
   5. Operas
      1. Strauss came to feel the need for words to supplement his orchestral depictions and turned his energy toward opera.
      2. Salome (1905) was Strauss's first successful opera.
         1. Based on the biblical story as portrayed in Oscar Wilde's one-act play
         2. Strauss captures the macabre story of Salome's request for the head of John the Baptist with descriptive harmony and novel rhythms.
      3. Elektra (1908, see etude, p. 460, in CHWM)
         1. The first of seven collaborations with the Viennese playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929)
         2. Based on Sophocles' play of insane hatred and revenge
         3. Strauss portrays the emotions through sharp dissonance and apparent harmonic anarchy based on a single germinal chord rather than traditional tonality (ex., CHWM, 19.5).
      4. Der Rosenkavalier (The Rose-Bearing Cavalier, 1911)
         1. Strauss's operatic masterpiece, set in eighteenth-century Vienna
         2. The singing style is more melodious than the declamatory style of his earlier operas.
         3. Sentiment and comedy are conveyed with lighthearted rhythms and Viennese waltzes.