Editing Richard Strauss (section)

===Early life and career (1864–1886)===
[[File:Franz Strauss.jpg|thumb|upright|Franz Strauss, father of Richard Strauss]]
Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in [[Munich]], the son of Josephine (née Pschorr) and [[Franz Strauss]], who was the principal [[Horn (instrument)|horn]] player at the Court Opera in Munich and a professor at the [[Königliche Musikschule]].<ref name="g1"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Richard_Strauss.aspx|title=Richard Strauss facts, information, pictures|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> His mother was the daughter of Georg Pschorr, a financially prosperous [[Hacker-Pschorr Brewery|brewer from Munich]].<ref name="g1">{{harvnb|Gilliam|Youmans|2001}}</ref> 

A [[child prodigy]] in composition, Strauss began his musical studies at the age of four, studying piano with August Tombo who was the harpist in the Munich Court Orchestra.<ref name="g1"/> Soon after, he began attending the rehearsals of the orchestra, and began getting lessons in music theory and orchestration from the ensemble's assistant conductor. He wrote his first composition at the age of six, and continued to write music almost until his death. In 1872, he started receiving violin instruction from [[Benno Walter]], the director of the Munich Court Orchestra and his father's cousin, and at 11 began five years of compositional study with Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer.<ref name="g1"/> In 1882 he graduated from the Ludwigsgymnasium and afterwards attended only one year at the [[University of Munich]] in 1882–1883.<ref name="g1"/>

In addition to his formal teachers, Strauss was profoundly influenced musically by his father who made instrumental music-making central to the Strauss home. The Strauss family was frequently joined in their home for music making, meals, and other activities by the orphaned composer and music theorist [[Ludwig Thuille]] who was viewed as an adopted member of the family.<ref name="g1"/> Strauss's father taught his son the music of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert.<ref name="g1"/> His father further assisted his son with his musical composition during the 1870s and into the early 1880s, providing advice, comments, and criticisms.<ref name="g1"/> His father also provided support by showcasing his son's compositions in performance with the Wilde Gung'l, an amateur orchestra he conducted from 1875 to 1896. Many of his early symphonic compositions were written for this ensemble.<ref name="g1"/> His compositions at this time were indebted to the style of [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn]], true to his father's teachings. His father undoubtedly had a crucial influence on his son's developing taste, not least in Strauss's abiding love for the horn. His [[Horn Concerto No. 1 (Strauss)|Horn Concerto No. 1]] is representative of this period and is a staple of the modern horn repertoire.<ref name="g1"/>

In 1874, Strauss heard his first [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] operas, ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' and ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]''.<ref name="B"/> In 1878 he attended performances of ''[[Die Walküre]]'' and ''[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'' in Munich, and in 1879 he attended performances of the entire ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring Cycle]]'', ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]'', and ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]''.<ref name="g1"/> The influence of Wagner's music on Strauss's style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, and it was not until the age of 16 that Strauss was able to obtain a score of ''Tristan und Isolde''.<ref name="B"/> In 1882 he went to the [[Bayreuth Festival]] to hear his father perform in the world premiere of Wagner's ''[[Parsifal]]''; after which surviving letters to his father and to Thuille detail his seemingly negative impression of Wagner and his music.<ref name="g1"/> In later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagner's progressive works.<ref name="B">{{harvnb|Boyden|1999|p={{Page needed|date=December 2013}}}}</ref>

[[File:Richard Strauss 20OCT1886.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Strauss aged 22]]
In early 1882, in Vienna, Strauss gave the first performance of his [[Violin Concerto (Strauss)|Violin Concerto in D minor]], playing a piano reduction of the orchestral part himself, with his teacher Benno Walter as soloist. The same year he entered [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]], where he studied philosophy and art history, but not music. He left a year later to go to Berlin, where he studied briefly before securing a post with the [[Meiningen Court Orchestra]] as assistant conductor to [[Hans von Bülow]], who had been enormously impressed by the young composer's ''Serenade (Op. 7)'' for wind instruments, composed when he was only 16 years of age. Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the young man, and Strauss considered him as his greatest conducting mentor, often crediting him as teaching him "the art of interpretation".<ref name="g1"/> Notably, under Bülow's baton he made his first major appearance as a concert pianist, performing Mozart's [[Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart)|Piano Concerto No. 24]], for which he composed his own [[cadenza]]s.<ref name="g1"/>

In December 1885, Bülow unexpectedly resigned from his post, and Strauss was left to lead the Meiningen Court Orchestra as interim principal conductor for the remainder of the artistic season through April 1886.<ref name="g1"/> He notably helped prepare the orchestra for the world premiere performance of [[Johannes Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 4]], which Brahms himself conducted. He also conducted his [[Symphony No. 2 (Strauss)|Symphony No. 2]] for Brahms, who advised Strauss: "Your symphony contains too much playing about with themes. This piling up of many themes based on a triad, which differ from one another only in rhythm, has no value."<ref name="g1"/> Brahms' music, like Wagner's, also left a tremendous impression upon Strauss, and he often referred to this time of his life as his 'Brahmsschwärmerei' ('Brahms adoration') during which several his compositions clearly show Brahms' influence, including the [[Piano Quartet (Strauss)|Piano Quartet in C minor]], Op. 13 (1883–84), ''[[Wandrers Sturmlied]]'' (1884) and ''[[Burleske]]'' (1885–86)."<ref name="g1" />