Richard Strauss lived and worked through one of the most turbulent periods of German history.

Introduction; 1. Musical development and early career; 2. 'Onward and away to ever-new victories': Strauss's emergence as a tone poet; 3. The rise of an opera composer; 4. Between two empires: Strauss in the 1920s; 5. After Hofmannsthal: personal and political crises; 6. 'Now the day has made me tired': the War and its aftermath.