Nietzsche and Richard Strauss

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“I stand before my final peak now and before now I must face my hardest path! Alas, I have begun my loneliest walk! But whoever is of my kind cannot escape such an hour – the hour which says to him: ‘Only now are you going your way to greatness! Peak and abyss—they are now joined together. ‘You are going your way to greatness: now that which has hitherto been your ultimate danger has become your ultimate refuge. ‘You are going your way to greatness: now this must give you the greatest courage that there is no longer any path behind you, and over it there is written: impossibility.” (Nietsche 152-153).

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra between 1883 and 1885. In this piece of literature, Zarathustra, named after the Persian prophet Zoroaster, climbs a mountain to overcome his current way of thinking and strengthen his personal will. Nietzsche uses Zarathustra as a type of Űbermensch or superman to advocate self-mastery and the need for the rise of a new man. In 1896, Richard Strauss used Neitzache’s literature as a direct inspiration for his Also Sprach Zarathustra. For many, this piece is immortalized as the opening theme of the film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

In this piece, Strauss uses the tone and timbre of different instruments and dynamics in order to portray the rising of the sun as well as the superman on his climb up the mountain. It is the dawn of a new age and new beginning. The piece begins with a slow rumble of the double basses, contrabassoon, and organ playing a double low C as if from the lowest depths of the earth. Strauss chooses instruments with a low register to play this depth. The drums push the hero forward as he climbs with the climbing notes of the brass instruments going up the scale. Next, the trumpets burst forth as “rays of light that ascend in pitch, get louder, and grow in warmth” as Strauss introduces more instruments (Wright). This produces the climax as the hero finally reaches the top and the music brightens into a sing able melody. Typically, trumpets signify a heroic deed or the entrance of something important. Strauss’ piece depicts the philosophies of the need and will of the superman through the use of instruments and rhythm.