Macbeth, Tondichtung für grosses Orchestrer (nach Shakespeare's drama), was composed in 1887. It is actually, in date of composition, the first of Strauss's orchestral tone-poems, though "Don Juan" (see the preceding pages), composed in 1888, bears an earlier opus number—20.
Beyond the title and the acknowledgment—"after Shakespeare's drama"—the score bears no programme or explanation save the word "Macbeth" printed over an imperious phrase for violins, horn, and wood-wind near the beginning, and a quotation from the play, in German, placed above a passage on page 11 of the orchestral score, where flutes and clarinets,pianissimo, give out, over muted[143]horns and strings tremolo, a phrase whose expression is markedappassionata, molto rubato.[144]The quotation is from Lady Macbeth's speech in Act I., Scene V.:
"Hie thee hither,That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,And chastise with the valor of my tongueAll that impedes thee from the golden round,Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seemTo have thee crown'd withal."
German analysts have been, as in the case of all of Strauss's needlessly and perversely recondite programme-music, at pains to explore the music of "Macbeth," and have written with lavish detail in exposition of its significance. The end of it all appears to be that in this tone-poem Strauss has not attempted to illustrate the external events of Shakespeare's tragedy, but has endeavored to portray the character of its protagonist, Macbeth himself, and the struggle which goes on within his soul.