Also sprach Zarathustra – Richard Strauss

Also sprach Zarathustra – Richard Strauss

‘Also sprach Zarathustra!’, (‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’) is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra!’. The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt.

The piece is divided into nine sections played with only three definite pauses. Strauss named the sections after selected chapters of Nietzsche’s novel highlighting  major moments of the character Zarathustra’s philosophical journey in the novel. The general storylines and ideas in these chapters were the inspiration used to build the tone poem’s structure.


The initial fanfare (‘Sunrise’) became well known after its use in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’  and was also often used as a portent of a significant event to come or regularly used for space-related scenes.

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Der Rosenkavalier (Walzerfolge No. 2) – Richard Strauss

Der Rosenkavalier (Walzerfolge No. 2) – Richard Strauss

‘Der Rosenkavalier’, Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was first performed at the ‘Königliches Opernhaus’ in Dresden on 26 January 1911 and the opera became immediate and profound popular.

As one would expect of a commercial hit, the music was pressed into all manner of use through arrangements and transcriptions. Strauss produced the earliest orchestral extract himself  in 1911, directly on the heels of the premiere; he titled it ‘Walzerfolge Rosenkavalier 3. Akt’ (‘Waltz Sequence from Rosenkavalier Act 3’) which in the end was entitled as ‘Walzerfolge No. 2’ (‘Waltz Sequence No. 2’).

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Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini – Rachmaninov

Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini – Rachmaninov

InstrumentationPiano & Wind Band
Grade5
Duration30 minutes
PublisherBaton Music

In the summer of 1934 Rachmaninoff composed the ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ at his summer home, the Villa Senar in Switzerland.

It’s a concertante work written by for piano and orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto in a single movement.

After a brief introduction, the first variation is played before the well known ‘Paganini theme’ and then followed by the other 23 variations.

The work is performed in one stretch without breaks but it can be divided into three sections. These correspond to the three movements of a concerto: up to variation 10 corresponds to the first movement, variations 11 to 18 are the equivalent of a slow movement, and the remaining variations make a finale.

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Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Franz Liszt

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Franz Liszt

InstrumentationWind Band
Grade5
Duration12 minutes
Publisher→ Baton Music

The Hungarian-born composer and pianist Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale, rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression.


‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian rhapsodies Liszt composed but it is by far the most famous of the set. It was dedicated to Count László Teleki and first published as a piano solo in 1851.

Its immediate success and popularity on the concert stage led to an orchestrated version, arranged in 1857–1860 by the composer in collaboration with Franz Doppler.

For this transcription I used as well the Doppler version as the version by Müller-Berghaus.

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Tod und Verklärung – Richard Strauss

Tod und Verklärung – Richard Strauss

Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op. 24, is a tone poem for large orchestra by Richard Strauss.

Strauss began composition in the late summer of 1888 and completed the work on 18 November 1889.

The work is dedicated to the composer’s friend Friedrich Rosch. The music depicts the death of an artist. At Strauss’s request, this was described in a poem by the composer’s friend Alexander Ritter as an interpretation of ‘Tod und Verklärung’, after it was composed.

As the man lies dying, thoughts of his life pass through his head: his childhood innocence, the struggles of his manhood, the attainment of his worldly goals; and at the end, he receives the longed-for transfiguration ‘from the infinite reaches of heaven’.

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Scossa Elettrica – Giacomo Puccini

Scossa Elettrica – Giacomo Puccini

Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827) was and Italian physicist whose invention of the electric battery provided the first source of continuous current. In 1899, the Italian city of Como hosted a celebration of Alessandro Volta, for whom the electrical term ‘volt’ is attributed. Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924), at that time already a renowned opera composer was commissioned to write a celebratory march for the occasion. The result was ‘Scossa elettrica’ (Electric shock),  a small brilliant march.

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Requiem – Giuseppe Verdi

Requiem – Giuseppe Verdi

After Gioachino Rossini’s death in 1868, Giuseppe Verdi suggested that a number of Italian composers collaborate on a Requiem in Rossini’s honor. Unfortunately the project was abandoned by the organisation. But not much later, upon hearing of the death of the Italian writer and humanist Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Verdi resolved to complete a Requiem, this time entirely of his own writing.

The ‘Messa da Requiem’ is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around 85-90 minutes in length.

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L’Italiana in Algeri – Gioacchino Rossini

L’Italiana in Algeri – Gioacchino Rossini

‘L’Italiana in Algeri’ (The Italian Girl in Algiers) is an operatic ‘drama giocoso’ in two acts by Gioacchino Rossini. The music is characteristic of Rossini’s style, remarkable for its fusion of sustained, manic energy with elegant, pristine melodies. The overture is widely recorded and performed today, known for its distinct opening of slow, quiet pizzicato basses, leading to a sudden loud burst of sound from the full orchestra. This ‘surprise’ reflects Rossini’s early admiration for Joseph Haydn, whose ‘Symphony No. 94’ in G major, ‘The Surprise Symphony’, is so named for the same shocking and semi-comic effect.

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© text: Baton Music Eindhoven