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Richard Strauss
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No relation to the famous Viennese dynasty of
waltz composers, Richard Strauss was born in Munich and began composing
at the age of 6, achieving success as a composer by the time he was 21.
At 22 he began composing the tone poems that have ensured his enduring
popularity in the concert hall, among them Don Quixote, Till Eulenspiegel's
Merry Pranks, A Hero's Life and Thus Spake Zarathustra (famous today from its use in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey). First devised by Franz Liszt, tone poems (or symphonic poems) originally were one-movement works based
on an extramusical idea, such as a piece of literature or a painting. Strauss,
who expanded the form with multiple movements and an enlarged orchestra, also went on to compose more than a dozen operas, many of which are regularly presented to this day, including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier.
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