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Hasenohrl, whose name can be translated as "Bunny-Ears," also went by that pseudonym. He was an Austrian composer who lived from 1885 to 1970. Though his works are rarely performed, he was a prolific composer, producing symphonies, concerti, chamber music, Keyboard, vocal, and choral music. He spent most of his professional career as a professor of music at the University of Vienna. His transcription of Strauss's Tone Poem can be viewed as "a joke on a joke," requiring great skill and ingenuity; reducing Strauss's mammoth orchestra to an ensemble of five! Sixteen first and sixteen second violins have been reduced to a single violin. The double-bass is used as a substitute for the percussion section. The musical content has been somewhat condensed, while retaining the sweep and flow of the original. The work was published in 1954 and first performed by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. |