Aus Italien, Op. 16

Composer: STRAUSS, Richard
  • Written in 1886 while touring Italy for several weeks, a 22-year-old Strauss took his “first hesitant step into the realm of the tone poem” with Aus Italien (From Italy).1
  • Aus Italien contains four movements:
    1. Auf der Campagna (On the Roman Campagna)
    2. In Roms Ruinen (In the Ruins of Rome)
    3. Am Strande von Sorrent (On the Beach of Sorrento)
    4. Neapolitanisches Volksleben (Neapolitan Folk Life)2
  • Listen for: the 4th movement, “Neapolitan Folk Life,” is based on the Neapolitan folk tune “Funiculi funicula.” Strauss mistakenly thought it was a folk tune, but the song had actually been written about 6 years earlier by Luigi Denza to commemorate the construction of the funicular on Mount Vesuvius.3

Sources

  1. Bryan Gilliam and Charles Youmans, “Strauss, Richard,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 16, 2026, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040117.
  2. “Aus Italien, Op.16 (Strauss, Richard),” IMSLP, accessed October 16, 2026, https://imslp.org/wiki/Aus_Italien,_Op.16_(Strauss,_Richard).
  3. Bryan Gilliam and Charles Youmans, “Strauss, Richard,” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

16340