Richard Strauss was born in Munich, Germany on June 11, 1864. He was born to Franz Joseph Strauss, considered one of the best French horn players of his time, and Josepha Pscorr. Strauss composed Don Quixote, technically known as "Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Chivalric Character", in 1987 and it was first performed on March 8, 1898 in Colgne, Germany, under the direction of Franz Wüllner . It is based on the novel "El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Moncha", written by Michael Cervantes and published in two separate parts, the first in 1605 and the second in 1615. The genre of this piece is called Symphonic Poem, or Tone Poem.A tone poem is a piece of orchestral music based on a non-musical source, for example the content of a poem, a novel, perhaps a painting or even a landscape. Franz Liszt, a Hungarian virtuoso and composer, is believed to have invented the form and the term. In many of his compositions, Liszt uses theater to parallel the non-musical emotions of his sources, "...the poetic idea is simultaneously the formative element. Liszt also stated that "when 'music does not develop intrinsically from within, it becomes 'literary music'." A symphonic poem does not simply copy its source of inspiration, for example by taking its literal meaning, but the music creates its own “self” from the inspiration. One of the best things about this genre is that every composer who has worked within it has approached it in a different way. Remarkably, when the same composer uses inspiration from a novel for one score, then inspiration from a painting for another, you see that even the same composer will differentiate his musical conception based on his source of inspiration. .... . middle of paper......Quixote” amazed people when it was first performed, and it still amazes people today. Works Cited “Richard Strauss”. Richard Strauss online. Dr. Richard Strauss, Bösendorferstrasse 4, A-1010 Vienna / Austria / Europe, nd Web. April 30, 2014. "STRAUSS, R.: Don Quixote / Romance for cello and orchestra." STRAUSS, R.: Don Quixote / Romance for cello and orchestra. Naxos, nd Web. April 30, 2014. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Symphonic poem (music).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, nd Web. April 30, 2014. Posner, Howard. "The sea." LA Phil. Los Angeles Philharmonic, nd Web. April 30, 2014. Kopplin, Dave. “An American in Paris.” LA Phil. Los Angeles Philharmonic, nd Web. April 30, 2014. “Strauss, Richard. » PBS. ©Macmillan Publishers Ltd., nd Web. April 30. 2014.