Charles Youmans is Associate Professor of Music at Penn State University. He is the author of Richard Strauss and the German Intellectual Tradition (2005), and his articles and essays have appeared in Nineteenth-Century Music, The Musical Quarterly, the Journal of Musicology, and various edited collections.

• Chronology of Strauss's life and career Charles Youmans; Part I. Background: 1. The musical world of Strauss's youth James Deaville; 2. Strauss's compositional process Walter Werbeck; 3. Maturity and indecision in the early works Wayne Heisler; Part II. Works: 4. The first cycle of tone poems David Larkin; 5. The second cycle of tone poems James Hepokoski; 6. Strauss's road to operatic success: Guntram, Feuersnot, and Salome Morten Kristiansen; 7. The Strauss-Hofmannsthal operas Bryan Gilliam; 8. Opera after Hofmannsthal Philip Graydon; 9. 'Actually, I like my songs best': Strauss's Lieder Susan Youens; 10. Last works Jürgen May; Part III. Perspectives: 11. Strauss's place in the twentieth century Alex Ross; 12. Musical quotation and allusion in the works of Richard Strauss Günter Brosche; 13. Strauss in the Third Reich Michael Walter; 14. Strauss and the business of music Scott Warfield; 15. Kapellmeister Strauss Raymond Holden; 16. Strauss and the sexual body: the erotics of humor, philosophy, and ego-assertion Bryan Gilliam; 17. Strauss and the nature of music Charles Youmans; Bibliography.

'[A] superbly assembled portmanteau portrait … Readers new or already familiar with Strauss will find much else here to engage and argue with in a valuable contribution to understanding the multi-faceted enigma of the man behind the music.' Classical Music