User:Byronmercury/Utan svafvel och fosfor

Utan svafvel och fosfor
Utan svafvel och fosfor (TrV 159) is an acapella work for male voice choir written by Richard Strauss in 1889. It sets the words found on a Swedish matchbox.

Composition History
Strauss had arrived at Weimar as Kapellmeister on September 8 1889, the residency of the Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The Hofkapellmaster I(chief music director)was Eduard Lassen (1830-1904) who welcomed the young Strauss and "readily acknowledged his artistic superiority" Strauss finished orchestrating his his tone poem Death and Transfiguration soon after his arrival on 18th Novemeber 1889 and on 11 November, he premiered Don Juan. "He spent many of is evenings, mostly in the company of Eduard Lassen, at the The Künstlerheim, which he described to his father as 'a frivolous means of passing the time, in a charming old smithy'. An Artiste's Ball was held there on December 7, in imitation of the Paris Universal Exhibition of that year, which Richard attended as a moorish sweet seller. It was for this occasion that he composed, on December 7, his Scherzo-Quartet for male voices on a text he had found on a box of matches made in Sweden (Schwedischer Zündholzschachtel) Utan svavfel och phosphor"

The piece is written for two tenor parts and two bass parts and takes a little over 3 minutes to perform. The piece was written with an alternative German translation of the lyrics Ohne Schwefel und Phosphor. Strauss did not give the piece an opus number, indicating thta he did not think it an important work. The work has been recorded by the Berlin radio chorus, conducted by Robin Gritton.

Source

 * Schuh, W. Richard Strauss: A Chronicle of the Early Years 1864-1898, (translated by Mary Wittal), Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-521-24104-9.