Alexander Ritter

Alexander Ritter, also known as Sascha, was a German composer and violinist born in Narva, in what is now Estonia, on 27 June 1833, and died in Munich on 12 April 1896. His importance rests chiefly on his close links with Wagner and Liszt and, most notably, on the influence he exerted over the young Richard Strauss.

Following his father's death, the family moved to Dresden in 1841, where he became a violin pupil of Franz Schubert and struck up a friendship with Bülow. His mother supported him financially for years, and in 1854 he married the actress Franziska Wagner, the composer's niece. Between 1849 and 1851 he studied with Ferdinand David in Leipzig; that same year he accepted Liszt's invitation to take the post of second concertino in Weimar. He then held positions in Stettin, Schwerin and Würzburg, where he remained for nineteen years from 1863. To ease a precarious financial situation, he opened a music shop in 1875, and in 1882 he joined the Hofkapelle in Meiningen on Bülow's recommendation.

In Meiningen he met Richard Strauss, whom he steered towards Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz, as well as towards Schopenhauer, and whom he encouraged to write symphonic poems. When Strauss was engaged in Munich in 1886, Ritter settled there too. His operas Wem die Krone? and Der faule Hans are his principal stage works; the former was premiered in Weimar in 1890 under Strauss's direction. His output includes some sixty lieder, several symphonic poems, choral works, a string quartet and a piano quintet.

Today Ritter is remembered less for his catalogue than for his role as Strauss's mentor, whose development towards the symphonic poem was decisively spurred on by him, according to Strauss's own testimony.