The Compositional History of Richard Strauss's “Dance of the Seven Veils” and its Significance

The “Dance of the Seven Veils” is the most famous part in Richard Strauss's opera Salome. However, the literature pertaining to it so far tends to put more emphasis on its dance than its music. This study analyzes the relevant pages in the composer's sketchbooks. It on the one hand reconstructs the compositional history of this music, but on the other hand it also compares the drafts with the finished version. With the aid of the correspondence during the preparation of its printing and premiere this study also interprets this piece of music as a solution to Strauss's time pressure as well as his bottleneck to the composition of a dance in an opera.