Metamorphosen
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Metamorphosen is a composition for 23 solo strings by Richard Strauss. Written during the closing months of the Second World War, and first performed in January 1946 (by Paul Sacher and the Zürich Collegium Musicum), it was written as a statement of mourning for Germany's destruction during the Second World War, in particular the Munich Opera House, the Göthehaus, which Strauss called in a letter to Josef Gregor, "the world's most holy shrine—destroyed!"
The piece uses as its primary motivic element a passage from the funeral march from Beethoven's Third Symphony. In the final bars of the piece the funeral march occurs literally in the bass part, accompanied by the words "In Memoriam!" in the score. At least one early critic interpreted the composition as mourning Hitler and the dismantlement of the Nazi regime; however, it is generally accepted that Strauss's melancholy in the piece stems from the toll of war on the German culture and aesthetic in general.
As one of Strauss's last works, Metamorphosen masterfully exhibits the type of complex contrapuntal harmonies for which Strauss was known.
fr:Métamorphoses (Richard Strauss)
