Howard Goodall and Suzy Klein discuss Dance of the Seven Veils from Strauss' Salome
The story of music in 50 pieces.
With Howard Goodall and Susie Klein.
Howard we're at the turn of the 20th century and composers like Richard Strauss are bringing us the shock of the new.
They're exploding the 20th century in front of our ears with works like Salome.
Richard Strauss is a fascinating example because he starts off in the early part of his career, at the very end of the 19th century, writing the sequel, and he's still very much in the 19th century mode.
And a piece like Alzo sprach Zarathustra is very much in a kind of tonal world of c major.
And we're kind of expecting it's music that we might expect to hear from a composer at that fin de siecle moment.
And he writes some very beautiful songs, etcetera.
And then suddenly, apparently out of nowhere, although these things never are out of nowhere, because he had a personal score to settle on the operatic scene.
But in fact, it appears to us to be out of nowhere.
He writes, this opera anime is premiered in 1905, which is of a totally new style, incredibly modernist, very dissonant.
Probably some of the most dissonant chords ever heard in music are erupting in this piece.
Now, his view, and this is true of the opera that followed it, Elektra.
His view is the events I'm describing.
A man murdering, getting soldiers to murder his own daughter, or the seduction scene of a teenage girl trying to win over her own stepfather.
It's a very peculiar story, Sal.
I mean, let's remind ourselves.
Last not least, it's a resolution with the head of John the Baptist being kissed in a very erotic way by psalm.
So these are events Strauss would say, well, what music would you have for this?
You wouldn't have nice, sweet chords.