RICHARD STRAUSS

BORN 11 June 1864, Munich, Germany. DIED 8 September 1949, aged 85, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. FAMILY Son of Franz, principal horn player at the Court Opera in Munich, and Josephine.

Born into the steam age and dying in the atomic one, he lived through two world wars and the rise of Nazi Germany. He was a leading conductor and writer of songs, operas and tone poems – music to illustrate the words of a poem or story – such as Thus Spake Zarathustra, the ‘Sunrise’ opening of which was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.