Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss wrote for an orchestra larger than anything Brahms used and treated it as a set of solo voices rather than a block of sound. A line that another composer would give to the whole violin section he gives to one player, and the effect is closer to speech than to song.
His main work between 1888 and 1904 was the symphonic poem: single movements built around a subject rather than a fixed plan. After that he turned mostly to opera, and the orchestral habits stayed: a character gets an instrument, and the instrument argues with the others.
He is the composer who most often puts an identifiable object in the score. A sheep, a windmill, a battlefield. This can be treated as a joke, but it is also a practical guide for a listener: if you can name what you are hearing, you can follow where it goes.
What to listen for
- Count the solo lines. In a loud passage try to pick out one instrument playing something the others are not; that line is usually the subject of the moment.
- Watch for the horn. Strauss's father was a horn player and the heroic themes almost always start there.
- Themes return transformed, not repeated. The same tune can come back as a march, a waltz or a funeral procession, and the change of dress is the argument.
- Section joins are smooth. In a symphony you hear a movement end; here one section runs into the next, so listen for a change of instrument or speed instead of a full stop.
Source: Richard Strauss