The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980) offers ample reason why the complete score to Strauss's Salome is worthy of study. "It is virtuoso display of the creation of atmospheric colour by instrumental means." There are, of course, other reasons -- it is enough to say that since opening night (December 9, 1905) it has ranked among the basic works of 20th-century music.
Salome (after the Oscar Wilde play) was...