I've been happy to see a couple of positive reviews, in Opera News and The Musical Times, of Charles Youmans's Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss, to which I contributed an essay entitled "Strauss's Place in the Twentieth Century." Both reviews took notice of my claim of a possible connection between Strauss and Messiaen, the common thread being Messiaen's teacher Paul Dukas, who admired Strauss and was admired by him in turn. Above are two musical examples, from the Presentation of the Silver Rose in Der Rosenkavalier and from Messiaen's youthful piano prelude "Cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu." They don't sound alike as much as they look alike, but the resemblance is striking all the same.
*Title courtesy of Chris Walton.
