Richard Strauss was born June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany. The German composer-conductor is best known for his operas and tone poems. His father was Franz Strauss, one of Germany's leading horn players. Strauss's musical career began at the age of 4 when he learned how to play the piano. By the age of 6 he was composing and by the age of 11 he was studying theory and composition [5, par. 1870]. At the age of 20, he made his conducting debut in Munich. This led him to the Meiningen Court Orchestra. After a month there he was in charge.
             In 1886, Strauss became third conductor at the Munich Opera. A second conductorship at Weimar enabled him to astonish the world with the performance of his tone poem "Don Juan" (1888)[3, 46]. His first opera "Guntram" was performed at Weimar in 1894. During rehearsal for this opera Strauss began a relationship with the lead soprano, Pauline de Ahna. After she threw a tantrum one-day, Strauss announced that they were to be married.
             That autumn he became the court conductor of the Munich Opera. Here, he wrote the tone poems "Till Eulenspiegel" (1895), "Als Sprach Zarathustra" (1896) (based upon Nietzsche's book of the same name), "Don Quixote" (1897), and "Ein Heldenlieben" (1898)[1, 39-51].
             From 1900 till 1911, Strauss concentrated primarily on operas. The more advanced "Salome" (1905) and the powerful "Elektra" (1909) followed the cynical "Feuersnot" of 1901 [3, 47]. His crowning achievement, "Der Rosenkavalier" (1911), brought him fame and fortune.
             Strauss, later became co-director of the Vienna Opera where he set "Die schweigsame Frau" (1931) to a libretto by Stefan Zweig [5, par. 1935]. Which was subsequently banned by the Nazis, in 1935, after two performances because Zweig was Jewish. Strauss became involved in political conflict and his music was banned for a year because his daughter-in-law and grandsons were of Jewish ancestry. Strauss was forced to make a deal wi
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