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Friederich Nietzsche: A Classical

PerspectivePerspective
On this date in the year 1844, in a small town near Leipzig, Germany, the philosopher (and
sometime musician) Friedrich Nietzsche was born. The man so famously quoted for saying “God
is dead” was the son of a Lutheran minister. Nietzsche first studied theology and philology (the
close reading of ancient Greek and Latin texts), and lost his Christian faith at around age 20. At
24 became one of the youngest Classics professors ever appointed at the University of Basel. In
the following years he began serious study of philosophy, especially the writings of
Schopenhauer. Ill health was among the factors that forced Nietzsche’s retirement from the
university after just ten years there, and he spent the rest of his life as an independent author. He
died in 1900 at age 55.

Below: Nietzsche's own charming piano miniature, 'Heldenklage' tr: “Heroic Action”:

Hear it here: https://youtu.be/chX9WpxY0Tc

There are at least a dozen of Nietzsche’s major literary works available in English, along with
many other lesser writings. To condense his thoughts into just a few lines is almost impossible,
not only because of their breadth and depth, but because interpretations of his work vary, and
misinterpretations are said to abound. But in addition to the idea that “God is dead” (which
Nietzsche wasn’t the first to state) and many other topics, he wrote about these ideas:

 Nihilism – the concept that values have no base and that nothing can be truly said to be
known.
 The Übermensch – sometimes translated as “overman” or “superman” a human being
who strives against nihilism and the perceived emptiness of our existence to become a
truly free, fully expressed individual.
 The Will to Power – all of mankind’s efforts are a struggle against our environment, and
that struggle is our most fundamental reason for living.
 Eternal Recurrence – the idea that we should embrace who we are fully, for we may be
doomed to repeat our lives many times. (Woody Allen commented on this idea with these
words: “Nietzsche says that we will live the same life, over and over. God, I’ll have to sit
through the Ice Capades again.”)

Nietzsche, who studied and wrote music and played the piano, was for a time an intimate friend
of Richard Wagner and his wife, Cosima, and was a great admirer of Wagner’s work. But later
Nietzsche rejected the composer for embracing anti-Semitism, although he retained his
recognition of Wagner’s artistic achievements.

Opening credits to Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'

(MGM)
Nietzsche’s most famous musical moment comes courtesy of another composer, Richard Strauss,
whose tone poem Thus Spake Zarathustra takes its title from one of the philosopher’s books.
Strauss said his music was “freely based” on Neitzsche’s work, and explained in a program note
for its first Berlin performance:

"I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music

Nietzsche’s great work. I wished to convey by means of music an idea of the
development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of
its development, religious and scientific, up to Neitzsche’s idea of the
superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as a homage Nietzsche’s
genius, which found its greatest expression in his book Thus Spake
Zarathustra.”
Perhaps it’s the heaviness of the source material that keeps Strauss’s homage from being
performed as often as his other symphonic poems. But everybody knows “Sunrise,” the opening
section of Thus Spake Zarathustra, thanks to its use in Stanley Kubrick’s film "2001: A Space
Odyssey." If Nietzsche’s writings remain out of reach of most of us, the music he inspired
Strauss to create touches just about all of us.
Below: Watch the complete Also Sprach Zarathustra, performed by the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons.

Hear it at: https://youtu.be/hC-PA0YGzK0

There are at least a dozen of Nietzsche’s major literary works available in

English, along with many other lesser writings. To condense his thoughts into
just a few lines is almost impossible, not only because of their breadth and
depth, but because interpretations of his work vary, and misinterpretations are
said to abound. But in addition to the idea that “God is dead” (which Nietzsche
wasn’t the first to state) and many other topics, he wrote about these ideas:

 Nihilism – the concept that values have no base and that nothing can
be truly said to be known.
 The Übermensch – sometimes translated as “overman” or “superman”
a human being who strives against nihilism and the perceived
emptiness of our existence to become a truly free, fully expressed
individual.
 The Will to Power – all of mankind’s efforts are a struggle against our
environment, and that struggle is our most fundamental reason for
living.
 Eternal Recurrence – the idea that we should embrace who we are
fully, for we may be doomed to repeat our lives many times. (Woody
Allen commented on this idea with these words: “Nietzsche says that