Hi everyone
Just been set my first assignment for univeristy historical and analytical studies and was wondering if anyone could reccommend any websites/books etc that might help me with my research.
The question i have been set is to analyse Don Juan poem by strauss and discuss the representation of drama and gender. And also looking at the similarities/differences between stauss's compositional style and that of composers such as liszt, semtana, mussorgsky et al.
Any help/pointers would be most appreciated :-)

QUOTE (deborah_L_watson @ Oct 7 2004, 11:34 AM)

Hi everyone Just been set my first assignment for univeristy historical and analytical studies and was wondering if anyone could reccommend any websites/books etc that might help me with my research. The question i have been set is to analyse Don Juan poem by strauss and discuss the representation of drama and gender.

I don't envy you that essay subject, and I'm grateful to my university for never asking me to analyse anything in such literary terms. Note that Strauss's tone poem is based on a poem by Nicolaus Lenau. My Eulenberg score has both the poem (in German only, which I don't read) and an analysis by Richard Specht of Strauss's music. The programme of the music is said to match the poem fairly closely, and the character of Don Juan is not the traditional immoral rake counting his conquests but an idealist eternally in search of female perfection.

QUOTE

And also looking at the similarities/differences between stauss's compositional style and that of composers such as liszt, semtana, mussorgsky et al.[...]

You have two schools of composition represented there and could structure your comparison around that. The first consists of composers influenced by Wagner: Liszt (whose daughter Wagner married), Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler, Smetana, Dvorak - but you will need to read about each of them to determine the balance of W's and other influences. Liszt in particular was an important innovator in his own right, being credited by some with the first steps towards both so-called Impressionism (Debussy, Ravel) and atonalism (Schoenberg). The second is the Russian nationalist school: Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korskov, otherwise known as "The Five" or "The Mighty Handful", who tried to avoid Germanic influences and follow the path first explored by Glinka.

There is enough material in all of that for a 40000 word thesis, so you will need either to treat it very succinctly or leave some of it out. Good luck!