Hochzeitlich Lieds Op37

Richard Strauss

Hochzeitlich Lied Op.37 No.6 (1898)

Strauss’s wedding song trembles with erotic anticipation. In one of the most elaborately detailed of all his piano parts, the “fairy-tale bells” of the fifth line ring throughout as a chain of thirds in triplet rhythm, chromatic harmonies proliferating both here and in the seductive inflections of the vocal line. In case the message is not clear Strauss has the piano interpolate an allusion to the Venusberg music from the first act of Tannhäuser in the last stanza.