A Study of the Fünf Klavierstücke, Op. 3 and the Sonata for Piano in B Minor, Op. 5 of Richard Strauss: Toward an Emerging Style

Abstract

The piano works of Richard Strauss (1864-1949) are not performed as often as his other works—lieder, opera, and orchestral works—and his piano music remains largely unexamined by scholars. His Fünf Klavierstücke, Op. 3, and Sonata in B Minor, Op. 5 composed between 1880 and 1881, when he was only seventeen. Both were important early experiments in Strauss’s emergent compositional style, clearly borrowing from the writing of Beethoven, Grieg, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Schumann, and Brahms. This study provides a performance analysis which will focus on the design of the work, notable compositional material, interpretative and technical challenges, and references and relationships to other works—particularly those of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Brahms, and Schumann. The romantic lyricism that Strauss had occasionally attempted in his early piano works is further enhanced in Strauss's tone poem, where he is able to emphasize his own character through more chromatic effects. It is my hope that my work will stimulate further research on Strauss’s early piano literature, and that his compositions may assume a prominent place in the standard repertory.