1, through the "Kammersymphonie," Op. 9, are full of a
fervent lyricism, a romantic effusiveness. "Gurrelieder," indeed, opens
wide the floodgates of romanticism. But these compositions are somewhat
uncharacteristic and derivative. The early songs, for instance, might
have proceeded from the facile pen of Richard Strauss. They have much of
the Straussian sleepy warmth and sweet harmonic color, much of the
Straussian exuberance which at times so readily degenerates into the
windy pride of the young bourgeois deeming himself a superman. It was
only by accident that "Freihold" was not written by the Munich
tone-poet. The orchestral poem after Maeterlinck's "Pelleas" is also
ultra-romantic and post-Wagnerian. The trumpet theme, the "Pelleas"
theme, for instance, is lineally descended from the "Walter von
Stolzing" and "Parisfal" motives. The work reveals Schoenberg striving
to emulate Strauss in the field of the symphonic poem; striving,
however, in vain. For it has none of Strauss's glitter and point, and is
rather dull and soggy. The great, bristling, pathetic climax is of the
sort that has become exasperating and vulgar, rather than exciting,
since Wagner and Tchaikowsky first exploited it. On the whole, the work
is much less "Pelleas et Melisande" than it is "Pelleas _und_
Melisanda.
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