15 MEANING IN MUSIC

The composer Richard Strauss (1864—1949) did not write easy classical music, but in his time, he was a celebrity. His notoriety came in handy when U.S. forces occupied his native Bavaria at the end of the Second World War. As the New Yorker critic Alex Ross tells the initial story:1 The G.I.s had intended to commandeer [Strauss's] house as a temporary headquarters. After listening to Strauss play excerpts from [his opera] "Rosenkavalier" at the piano, they let him be, and moved on to another destination.