746853

The Private Intellectual Context of Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra"
Author(s): Charles Youmans

Source: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 101-126
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746853
Accessed: 18-11-2016 01:40 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/746853?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
19th-Century Music
This content downloaded from 216.165.95.7 on Fri, 18 Nov 2016 01:40:25 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
The Private Intellectual Context of
Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra

CHARLES YOUMANS
Few commentators on the music of Richard
who marked the passing of his beloved collabo-
rator Hofmannsthal by setting to work on

Strauss have proven less reliably sincere than
Arabella (he could not bear to attend the futhe composer himself. For most of his career
neral), did everything in his power to convince
this tireless, devoted artist, who while lying
the public that composition was nothing more
near death with pneumonia at twenty-six immersed himself in the score of Tristan,' and
to him than a way to earn a good living. Selfstyled as a world-famous craftsman, Strauss
delighted in histrionic displays of boredom
while conducting his own works. Even his family encountered this mask; in 1948 he presented
19th-Century Music XXII/2 (Fall 1998). ? by The Regents
of the University of California.
the incomparable letzte Lieder to his daughter-
in-law Alice with the perfunctory announceAn earlier version of this essay was read at the sixty-second annual meeting of the American Musicological Sociment, "here are the songs your husband orety, Baltimore, November 1996. I am deeply gratefuldered."2
to
Richard Strauss, grandson of the composer, and his wife
Gabriele Strauss, for their kind assistance during my work This kind of behavior is often taken as typiat the Richard-Strauss-Archiv, and for permission to quote
cal Bavarian irony, and obviously there was an
from materials housed there. Many thanks also to James
element of down-to-earth humor in Strauss's
Hepokoski, who provided detailed comments on several

attitude toward his work. But the complexities
versions of this article; to Bryan Gilliam, ever generous
with his deep knowledge of Strauss; and to David Haas, for
of his publicity campaign suggest something
many helpful discussions of musical aesthetics in latedeeper than the simply coy. Even his notorious
nineteenth-century Germany. My research in Munich and
predilection for musical autobiography served
Garmisch was made possible by a grant from the Duke
University Center for International Studies.
'The result was a thorough Nuancierung of the opera, mak-
2The family, of course, recognized the ironic tone in such

ing it viable on the stage of the tiny Weimar Court Thestatements. Bryan Gilliam learned of this incident from
ater. See Willi Schuh, Richard Strauss: Jugend und friihe
Strauss, the composer's grandson; see Gilliam,
Meisterjahre: Lebenschronik 1864-1898 (Zurich, 1976), Christian
pp.
233-38.
The Life of Richard Strauss (Cambridge, forthcoming).

101
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
as a disguise; what could be less consistent

Berlin shortly thereafter, this kind of language
with honest self-expression than Straussian
crossed over into hyperbole, with the claim
bombast? On the level of public perception,
that those who sought "philosophy translated
self-erasure was an aesthetic necessity
forinto tones" would be surprised to find
directly
Strauss, whether he was acting as composer,
"a musical work constructed according to the
conductor, or promoter.
laws of purely musical logic," in C major, com-
sions needs to be borne in mind when con-
ture.5 Although there is at least a grain of truth
plete bewith "the dualism of a male and female

Strauss's sensitivity to the distinction
main
theme" and a quasi-four-movement structween an artwork's public and private
dimen-
in this curious declaration, the sarcasm is evifronting a work like Also sprach Zarathustra,
dent and indicates impatience with listeners
which marked the end of a lengthy and traureluctant to take him at his word. In later years
matic emergence into artistic maturity. As efStrauss settled on a more believable version of
fectively resistant to convincing interpretation
this story, explaining the work in terms of the
as any composition in his ceuvre, this tone
specifically musical "conflict" (Kampf) between
poem elicited a fair amount of public commenthe keys C major and B minor.6
tary from Strauss, both in direct statements
Walter Werbeck has recently shown that
and in the explicitly sanctioned Erlduterung by
Strauss's public utterances about Zarathustra
Arthur Hahn.3 The idea of commenting pubneed to be understood in the context of a blazlicly on a work, for the good of the general
ing controversy that had erupted around the
listener, was nothing new for Strauss; he himpiece even before Strauss began the orchestraself had written the guide to his Schumannesque
tion.7 The spark here was not only NietzscheF-Minor Symphony (1883-84). But the content
and character of his utterances about Zarathusthough that name did elicit passionate reactra imply something beyond sympathetic con- tions-but the mere fact that a composer would
cern-something more like a need for control attempt a musical exegesis of a particular philosophy. One critic wondered how long it would
over the available interpretive options.
Strauss's comments on Zarathustra share at
be before someone attempted to compose Kant's
least one important bit of common ground, and Critique of Pure Reason.8 While not averse to
a mildly curious one given the title of the work: advance publicity, Strauss was unusually gunshy in early 1896, being less than a year rethey all deny, explicitly or implicitly, any detailed correspondence between the tone poem moved from the spectacular flop of his first
and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The
work's subtitle, "frei nach Nietzsche," states
sitionen" von Richard Strauss und Gustav Mahler (Frankwith pith what Strauss would reiterate in more
furt a. M., 1992), p. 164; Walter Werbeck, Die Tondichtunstraightforward terms at the premiere, that he gen von Richard Strauss (Tutzing, 1996), p. 258, n. 663.
"did not intend to write philosophical music or 5"Wer in meinem Werke direkt in Tone iibersetzte
Philosophie erwartet, diirfte arg enttiuscht sein, wenn er,
portray Nietzsche's great work musically."4 In
wie es in meiner Absicht liegt, in 'Also sprach Zarathustra'
ein nach rein musikalisch-logisch Gesetzen aufgebautes
3Arthur Hahn, "Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung frei
Musikstiick, noch dazu in C-dur, findet, das den aus allen

klassischen Symphonien uns wohl vertrauten Dualismus
nach Fr. Nietzsche: Op. 30," in Richard Strauss: Sympho- eines mannlichen und weiblichen Hauptthemas beinahe
nien und Tondichtungen, ed. Herwarth Walden (Berlin, in der alten Viersitzigkeit entwickelt" (Berliner Tageblatt,
n.d.), p. 109. Hahn's Fiihrer first appeared alone, published 589 [18 November 1896]; quoted in Werbeck, Tondichtin 1896 by H. Bechhold, Frankfurt a.M., in conjunction ungen, p. 257).
with the premiere of the tone poem in Frankfurt on 27 6Werbeck presents two such examples, both from the 1920s;
November 1896. On the question of Strauss's involvement Tondichtungen, p. 61, n. 73.
7This helpful discussion contains numerous excerpts from
with this guide, see below, n. 9.
4Henry T. Finck, Richard Strauss: The Man and His Works contemporaneous periodical literature. Ibid., pp. 253-60.
(Boston, 1917), p. 181. The original German source of this 8"Wird nicht einst einer kommen der den 'Einzigen' Max
program seems not to have been cited in any treatment of Stirner's componirt, der Kant's 'Kritik der reinen Vernunft'
the work; Anette Unger and Walter Werbeck, both of whom in ein ironisches Scherzo verwandeln, der aus der Philosorecently conducted thorough investigations of the sources, phie Eduard von Hartmann's eine Ouverture 'Der
cite the version given by Norman Del Mar, who appar- UnbewuBte' machen wird?" (Ferdinand Pfhol, review of
ently drew the passage from Finck. Anette Unger, Welt, the Berlin premiere, Hamburger Nachrichten, 3 December
1896; quoted in Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 254, n. 646).
Leben und Kunst als Themen der "Zarathustra-Kompo102
opera Guntram at its Munich premiere. He

certainly did not want to repeat that debacle
less than a year later in a genre that, after the
success of Till Eulenspiegel, belonged to him.
Before the premiere of Zarathustra Strauss retained a special kind of control over the work,
given the desperate curiosity of the German

musical world, and it seemed wise to make
some kind of definitive statement before the

matter was out of his hands.
CHARLES
Hahn took as his point of departure the idea
YOUMANS
of "evolution" (itself a Darwinian buzzword

Also sprach
Zarathustra
capable of raising eyebrows in the 1890s),
a
notion already introduced by Strauss." With
"evolution" as a unifying programmatic theme,
Hahn provided a friendly road map of the musical and programmatic events.'2 But despite the
obvious fascination of an "analysis" approved

by Strauss, the guide's introduction may hold
even greater interest, with its careful delimitaThis, then, is the background of his decision tion of the discussion. From the first page, Hahn
to present an "official" position, through a pro- carefully played up the "freedom" of the work's
fessional writer, the Munich critic Arthur Hahn,connections to Nietzsche. He began by admonwho prepared the guide "precisely" (genau) ac-ishing those surprised at Strauss's choice of
cording to the composer's specifications.9 Of subject to remember the "thoughtful poet" (der
course, what that precision tells us is not en-tiefsinnige Dichter) in Nietzsche, who had
tirely clear. Werbeck, who repeatedly calls at-worked alongside the philosophical Nietzsche
tention to the fact of Strauss and Hahn's colin Zarathustra much as Goethe's poetic and
laboration, may have too optimistic an outlook
philosophical sides had cooperated in Faust.'3
in this regard; that Strauss told Hahn whatIn
tofact, according to Hahn, Faust itself had
exercised considerable influence on Strauss's
say does not mean that he handed over his
private reading of the piece, or even thatcomposition-or
he
more precisely, the common
was honest. Fundamentally this was a publicground between Faust and Zarathustra had exity document, with a goal of diverting attenercised considerable influence-and in any case,
the creative stimulus here had been "the
tion away from philosophical matters.1'
composer's subjective observations and
9So claimed Strauss himself, in a letter to Josef Sittard of
13 January 1898. His specific claim was that the guides
to
"Following
the denial (cited in Finck, Richard Strauss, p.
Till and Zarathustra "genau nach meinen Angaben
angefertigt worden sind." Henning Siedentopf, Musiker der
Spatromantik: Unbekannte Briefe aus dem Nachlaf3 von
Josef und Alfred Sittard (Tiibingen, 1979), p. 78. The letter's
significance was noticed by Werbeck; see Tondichtungen,

pp. 8, 251, 255.
'0Werbeck has traced the history of Strauss's Informationspolitik vis-a-vis the tone poems, establishing a dual motivation of the composer's concern for public understanding
of the works' "poetic content" (poetischer Gehalt), and his
interest in marketplace success. For Werbeck, Strauss's

activities in this sphere clashed with his stated beliefs
that well-written music would need little or nothing in
the way of a published program, and that ultimately "poetic content" could only be adequately communicated by
music itself. That the level of programmatic detail released to the public increased with each tone poem from
Don Juan to Till Eulenspiegel was interpreted by Werbeck
as an evil that Strauss tolerated because it improved the
tone poems' public reception; when problems cropped up
with Don Quixote, Strauss changed his strategy.
While I fully agree that concern for reception shaped
Strauss's decisions about how to inform the public about
his works, I do not believe that (in the case of Zarathustra,

or any tone poem) Strauss released information simply to
help the public to hear the music the way he did. Public
and private modes of interpretation might at times coin-
cide, but they could just as easily diverge. See

Tondichtungen, pp. 281-89.
181) of having composed "philosophical music," Strauss
continued: "I meant rather to convey in music the idea of

the evolution of the human race from its origin, through
the various phases of development, religious as well as
scientific, up to Nietzsche's idea of the Ubermensch. The

whole symphonic poem is intended as my homage to the
genius of Nietzsche, which found its greatest exemplifica-
tion in his book Also sprach Zarathustra." John Williamson

has provided a critical synopsis of Hahn's guide in Strauss:
Also sprach Zarathustra (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 64-67.

12The vision of "nature," construed as the "world-riddle"
(Weltriftsel) (C major); the human protagonist's "longing"
(Sehnsucht) for a meaningful solution (B minor); successive attempts at enlightenment through religion (a hymn
in A? major), passion (a robust Allegro in C minor), and
science (a fugue in C), each followed by disappointment
(returns to B minor or major); and finally a crisis (a reprise

of the introduction), leading to redemption in cosmic laugh-
ter and dancing (the waltz), but no solution to the riddle

(the famous "polytonal" ending).
'3"Man hatte dabei [when surprised at Strauss's choice of
subject] wohl uiber dem grossen Philosophen Nietzsche
etwas den tiefsinnigen Dichter vergessen, von dem ein
moderner Komponist doch am Ende ebensogut seine

Anregungen empfangen konnte, wie etwa aus dem
gleichfalls dichterische und philosophische Gedanken in
sich vereinigenden Goethe'schen 'Faust,' von dem iibrigens

auch mancher Zug in die Strauss'sche Tonschopfung mit
hineinspielt" (Hahn, "Zarathustra," p. 109).
103
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
thoughts concerning Nietzsche and his

work"
Apart
from a few Nietzschean headlines, then,
(die subjektiven Betrachtungen und Gedanken
Hahn preferred to leave philosophical issues
des Komponisten fiber Nietzsche und
sein in favor of a cogent introduction to the
aside,17
Werk).14
composition as a whole.
During the ruckus that surrounded theThis

tone
choice, which demonstrates the subtlety
poem's early performances, those who

of wished
Hahn's understanding of what his guide was
to defend Strauss against accusations meant
of musito accomplish, may explain what
cal philosophizing followed Hahn's lead.
Otto called the "naivety of the language
Williamson
Lessmann, for example, reviewing the
BerlinHahn expressed his programme."18
in which
premiere (30 November 1896, the work's
secStrictly
speaking, the "official" position on
Zarathustra was not that evidence of
ond performance), described as "nonsense"
(Unsinn) the notion that Strauss hadNietzsche's
"set to
philosophy could not be found i
music" (vertont) a philosophical work;
only
a
the
music,
but that one did not need to con
sider
evidence in order to make sense of
failure to see "that Nietzsche's book is,
atthat
the
very least, just as much a poetic work
as
the
the piece as a member of the general public
wouldhave
want to make sense of it. Thus while
product of philosophical thought" could
led to such a misjudgment.15 If we hearHahn
a recogdid not provide much assistance to those
nizable echo of Hahn, however, we should

notthe former interpretive line, he did
pursuing
overlook the simultaneous intensification of
not deny that line's existence. In our own time,

the rhetoric, for the earlier writer's stance had
Hahn's reticence (and the composer's), in com-
not been quite so unequivocal. Indeed, Hahn

bination with the evolutionary program, has
suggested to commentators such as John
explicitly declined to investigate any common
Daverio that Strauss did not understand

ground between program and philosophy, say-
ing that "Nietzsche connoisseurs" (NietzscheNietzsche's philosophy.19 In Strauss's time, it

Kenner) could do that for themselves. Short
was taken as evidence that he probably did.
excerpts from Nietzsche, and presumably the
Even before the end of 1896, by which time
kind of philosophical commentary that could
Zarathustra had seen only four performances,
Max Marschalk attacked the position reprefit into an eighteen-page guide, would more
likely confuse than enlighten those not already
sented by Lessmann: whether the tone poem
familiar with the whole of Nietzsche's work.16
14Ibid., p. 111.
'5"Welcher Unsinn von den verschiedensten Seiten dabei
embodied "the development of the higher man

into the (Jbermensch," or "the composer's sub-
jective observations and thoughts concerning

Nietzsche and his work," the topic was philosophical, not poetic.20 Likewise Max Loewen-
zu Tage gef6rdert worden ist, sei nur an dem Beispiel einer

siiddeutschen Musikzeitung konstatirt, in der zu lesen war,
'7For example, he omitted any reference to the portion of
Rich. Strauf habe das gleichnamige Buch F. Nietzsche's
Nietzsche's prologue with which Strauss prefaced the

'vertont.' Daf Nietzsche's Buch mindestens ebenso sehr
printed score and discussed only some of the chapter headDichtwerk ist wie das Ergebnif philosophischen Denkens
ings that appear in the score. See Werbeck, Tondichtungen,
scheint Denjenigen, die in dem Straufischen Werke schon
p. 256, n. 657.
im Voraus in Musik gesetzte philosophische Probleme
'8For Williamson, this naivet6 amounts to a "grave charge"
witterten, nicht klar gewesen zu sein" (Otto Lessmann,
against Hahn's work. Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 67.
Allgemeine Musikzeitung 23 [1896], 704).
19John Daverio, "Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra

'6"Bei der Erliuterung der Tondichtung musste
and the 'Union' of Poetry and Philosophy," chap. in Nineselbstverstdndlich genau den Spuren des Programms nach-
gegangen werden, wie es der Komponist in freiem
Ankniipfen an das Werk des Philosophen gedacht hat. Den

jeweilig engeren oder loseren Zusammenhang mit diesem
selbst wird der Nietzsche-Kenner ja leicht herausfiihlen.
Von Citaten aus Nietzsche's 'Zarathustra-Buch' wurde nur
teenth-Century Music and the German Romantic Ideology (New York, 1993), pp. 214-15, 221. Daverio makes no
mention of the Hahn guide, the "reticence" of which was
in any case a projection of Strauss's own.
20"Ob wir aus Straufens symphonischer Dichtung nun

in begrenztem Maasse Gebrauch gemacht, da schon in erfahren sollen, wie sich die Entwickelung des hoheren
Anbetracht der genialen Wesens dieser Dichtung iiberhaupt, Menschen zum Uebermenschen v6llzieht, oder ob wir des
ein herausgerissenes Stiick den mit dem Ganzen nichtKomponisten subjecktive Betrachtungen und Gedanken
oder nur wenig Vertrauten in vielen Fallen wohl mehriiber Nietzsche und sein Werk in ihr finden sollen: in
verwirren als aufklaren diirfte" (Hahn, "Zarathustra," pp.beiden Fallen will es mir scheinen, als ob das Problem,
111-12).
dessen L6sung versucht wird, ein vorwiegend philoso104
gard concluded, a propos of the same Berlin

performance, and having read the same analyses, that Strauss had written "philosophische
Musik." Loewengard found claims to the contrary disingenuous, and assertions about the
music's formal self-sufficiency or the universal
human character of the program "completely

untenable" (v6llig unhaltbar).21
It happens that these antagonists of the work
were Berliners-probably those with whom
Strauss had already become impatient-and one
wonders whether the annoyance was provoked
by the criticism's accuracy. If so, that sort of
irritation would not necessarily damage the validity of the "evolutionary" program, as Hahn
made clear. It would, however, strengthen the
case for discussing the work on the philosophical plane. At least one early critic believed that
adequate interpretation of Zarathustra necessarily involved separating levels of meaning
that existed simultaneously and independently
of one another. Hans Merian, author of the
masterpiece among studies of this work (and
perhaps of Strauss tone poems in general),
named this kind of "ambiguity" (Mehrdeutigkeit) as the very hallmark of artistic profundity
and cited Also sprach Zarathustra as evidence

that in this respect music could rise to the
level of Titian's Heavenly Love, Max Klinger's
Salome, or Goethe's Faust.22 Strauss's presen-
The citation of Faust may not indicate theCHARLES
YOUMANS
influence of Hahn, but many features ofAlso sprach
Merian's analysis show a reliance on this model. Zarathustra
All the more interesting, then, is his indictment of the very genre of the musical guidebook. In a sharply worded attack, Merian held
that by unduly simplifying a composition-for
example by reducing it to a series of appearances of fancifully named LeitmotifsErliiuterung authors often falsified the works
they hoped to explain, and undermined pro-
grammatic music itself. "Thus, for a large por-
tion of the public, the act of listening to the
program-symphony unfortunately does not destroy the all too naive view of its structure and
essence, with the humorous consequence that

programmatic music often finds enthusiastic
devotees among deeply unmusical individuals."24 Apparently such individuals bothered
Strauss less than they did Merian, and it is not
difficult to imagine why.25 In any case Merian
was not deterred, for he believed that this work
and programmatic music in general demanded

a more complicated interpretive strategy than
anyone had yet attempted.
This more complex approach has informed

recent considerations of Zarathustra, particularly those by Werbeck, Unger, Daverio, and
Williamson. Each of these authors has ap-
proached the piece from a more or less fresh

tation of human evolution to the level of
perspective: Werbeck through the formal imZarathustra, for example, might also be underplications of the principle of "intensification"
stood as the history of a single individual, (Steigerung),

or as
along with evidence in the sketches
a more general history of human development.
that music and program developed simultaThe artistic power of the work depended
on and symbiotically; Unger through the
neously
interactions of this kind: "Wo der Ktinstler am
idea of Zarathustra as a microcosmic history of
tiefsten greift, da ist er immer 'vieldeutig'."23
musical form; Daverio (using ideas of Friedrich
Schlegel) within a theory of program music as a
"means of imbuing 'poetry' with 'philosophy'";
phisches und nicht ein vorwiegend dichterisches ist" (Max

Marschalk, review of Zarathustra in Die Zukunft 17 [1896],
24"Das Anhbren der Programmsymphonie zerst6rt also
leider die allzu naive Ansicht von ihrem Bau und Wesen
617).
21Max Loewengard, "Also sprach Zarathustra," Das
bei einem grofien Teil des Publikums nicht, und die lustige
Magazin fiir Literatur 65 (1896), pp. 1544, 1542.
Folge von alledem ist, dafg die Programmmusik manchmal
22Hans Merian, Richard Strauss' Tonduchtung "Also sprach
gerade unter herzlich unmusikalischen Leuten recht warme
Zarathustra": Eine Studie iiber die moderne ProgrammAnhanger findet" (ibid., p. 12).
symphonie (Leipzig, 1899), pp. 14-15. The Titian reference
25Indeed, the existence of what Werbeck has called two
is probably to the painting now known as "Sacred and
Profane Love," an allegory with an interpretive history as
problematic as Zarathustra's. My thanks to William R.
Levin for this information.
'-Ibid., p. 15.
separate programs-the Hahn guide, and the implicit program of the prologue and chapter headings-made Strauss
so uncomfortable that he attempted to suppress the second of these after the premiere. See Werbeck, Tondichtungen, pp. 258-59.
105
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
and Williamson from a rich variety of Wagner's

analyti-niece Franziska, Ritter had failed as a
cal ("rhetorical" as well as structural), programcomposer but succeeded almost too well as a
matic ("narrative"), and historical standpoints.
Wagnerian Parteimann, and by 1885 he had
Daverio has even gone so far as to claimdeveloped
that inan elaborate, idiosyncratic theory of
the Schopenhauerian
significance of New Gerspite of the "wrongheaded" interpretation
of
man music.29
Strauss swallowed it whole;
Nietzsche embodied in Strauss's program,
"the
within
two years he was hard at work on the
music projects another, more sophisticated
readlibretto
of the epigonic tragedy Guntram, and
ing of Nietzsche."26 At present, then, our
view
by 1889 he could reflect that whatever the vexaof the piece is anything but one-dimensional.
of his career, "with Ritter's help I am at
We do not, however, have an adequatetions
account
least equipped with a potent philosophy of life
of the tone poem's relationship to the philosoart."30
phy of Nietzsche, largely because we doand
not
yet
Ritter's worldview has remained largely a
understand the issues behind Strauss's turn to
mystery, not least because of the characteristic

vagueness of Strauss's relevant comments.31 Its
that enigmatic figure.
Although clearly a product of Strauss's maturity (it postdates Don Juan by eight years), Also
sprach Zarathustra was deeply engaged with29A twelve-part biography of Ritter by Friedrich R6sch ap-
the dilemmas of its composer's earlier student peared in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt from 30 December 1897 to 14 April 1898. A decade later Siegmund von
years. Two matters in particular are of crucial Hausegger published Alexander Ritter: Ein Bild seines
importance: Strauss's so-called conversion inCharakters und Schaffens (Berlin, 1907) as vols. 26-27 of
the monograph series edited by Strauss, Die Musik. Other

works on Ritter include Max Schillings, "Alexander Ritter,"
concomitant
Redende Kunst 2 (1896); Josef Hofmiller, "Alexander Ritter,
1885-86 from musical traditionalism to the
New German perspective, and his

der Dichter und Komponist," Die Gesellschaft (1894), 4,
grounding of that reorientation in new philoand (1898), 8; Hermann Teibler, "Alexander Ritter," Die
sophical convictions.27 While a conducting Musik
ap- 1/4 (1902); Hans Joachim Moser, Geschichte der
prenticeship beginning in October 1885 with
deutschen Musik, vol. 3 (Stuttgart, 1928), pp. 222ff.; and
idem, Das deutsche Lied seit Mozart, vol. II (Zurich, 1927;
Hans von Builow and the famed Meiningen
rev. edn. Tutzing, 1968), pp. 180ff. Most recently, Roswitha
Court Orchestra offered him unique opportuniSchlotterer has re-examined the Ritter-Strauss friendship
ties to hone his craft, it was his acquaintance
in "Richard Strauss uns sein Mtinchner Kreis," in
with the second violinist and obsessed musical
Jugendstilmusik?: Miinchner Musikleben 1890-1918, ed.

Robert Miinster and Hellmut Hell (Wiesbaden, 1987), pp.
metaphysician Alexander Ritter (1833-96) that 13-24.

Strauss later called "the most important event
30"Mit Ritters Hilfe bin ich jetzt allerdings mit einer
of that winter in Meiningen."28 Son of Wagner's kriftigen Kunst- und Lebensanschauung ausgertistet"
erstwhile patron Julie Ritter, and husband of (Schuh, Richard Strauss, p. 170).
26Daverio, "Poetry and Philosophy," p. 221.

27Strauss's correspondence with Ludwig Thuille shows that
he had an impressive acquaintance with Wagner's works

while still an adolescent. Indeed, by 1879 he had attended
at least one performance of every dramatic composition by

Wagner from Tannhiiuser to G6tterdadmmerung. The improbability of a "conversion" occurring at that early date
is also demonstrated by those letters, much to the chagrin
31That is not to say that Strauss was laconic. At one time

or another Strauss credited Ritter with explaining to him
the music-historical significance of Wagner and Liszt; curing him of his prejudices against those composers; introducing him to the writings of Wagner and Schopenhauer;
defining Hausegger's concept of Ausdruck; demonstrating
how a poetic idea could generate a musical structure, and
thereby replace the depleted formal archetypes handed
down by older musical traditions; and finally stamping
him as a Zukunftsmusiker ("[Ritter] mir . . . durch

langjahrige liebevolle Bemrhungen und Belehrungen
endgiltig zum Zukunftsmusiker gestempelt hat"). This
of the older Strauss. See Richard Strauss/Ludwig Thuille: last comment comes from the autobiographical sketch
Ein Briefwechsel, ed. Franz Trenner (Tutzing, 1977). It Strauss gave to James Huneker in 1898, which has now
took the unifying cultural theory of Ritter to complete the been published in Werbeck, Tondichtungen, pp. 527-30.
process of Umstellung, a notion that apparently originated
with Steinitzer and not Strauss himself.
28"Das Hauptereignis des Meiningen Winters war fuir mich

die Bekanntschaft mit Alexander Ritter, der im Orchester
an der ersten Geige mitspielte" (Richard Strauss, "Aus
meinen Jugend-und Lehrjahren," in Betrachtungen und

Erinnerungen, ed. Willi Schuh [2nd edn. Zurich, 1957], p.
209).
Other published writings by Strauss about Ritter's influence include "Aus meinen Jugend- und Lehrjahren" and
"Erinnerungen an die ersten Auffihrungen meiner Opern,"
in Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen, ed. Willi Schuh (2nd
edn. Zurich, 1957); the unpublished memoir "Meine

Freunde und Forderer" (housed in the Richard StraussArchiv [hereafter RSA]), excerpts from which appear in
Schuh, Richard Strauss, p. 137; and notes for an unwritten
106
essentials can be recovered, however, through
anachronism), and "a few others" had all de-
a scrutiny of the documents related to Strauss's
voted themselves to this objective, Wagner with
subsequent repudiation of Ritter's theory and

his espousal of a new philosophy, a change of
view that entailed the collapse of the StraussRitter friendship in early 1893. The cause of
the difficulty was Guntram. In December 1892,
Strauss completed a substantial revision of the
last act of his opera and declared the work to be
finished.32 In this final version the protagonist
renounced his membership in the "Champions
of Love" (Streiter der Liebe), a medieval broth-
CHARLES
YOUMANS
Also sprach
special efficacy, for he had wielded an art
Zarathustra
uniquely suited to the task.35 Ritter's interest

in Strauss had been motivated, as he explained,
by a belief that this gifted young composer
would be able "to build upon Wagner's achievement in his [Wagner's] sense." A thorough understanding of "Wagner's worldview, which is
based solely on Schopenhauer's epistemology

and ideal-Christian religiosity," had enabled
Strauss to penetrate the mysteries of New German music and ultimately to create new works
the spiritual redemption of the Volk. Declaring
in that idiom.36 But now Strauss was throwing
erhood of minstrel-missionaries dedicated to
music a hindrance rather than a help to that

it all away, through a willful detachment of
mission, Guntram smashes his lyre to bits, dismusical technique from philosophical purpose.
misses his mentor, Friedhold, and withdraws
The agonizing conclusion: "nothing remains of
to a life of asceticism. Notwithstanding
Guntram's rejection of music, Arthur Seidl (a

close friend of Strauss from youth) and others
held this plot to be autobiographical, with

Guntram as Strauss, Friedhold as Ritter, and
the brotherhood as the "Wagnerian Grail Fel-
lowship."33 That is precisely how Ritter interpreted the work, and within days of reading the
revision he produced a desperate, pathetic, and
(for us) informative attempt to reeducate Strauss
and draw him back into the fold: a fifteen-page
outcry-still unpublished in its entirety-dated

17 January 1893 (during which time Strauss
was on an extended journey to Greece and
Wagner's worldview in you. What alone has

survived of Wagner in you? The mechanics of
his art."37
Strauss responded to this critique on 3-4

February 1893 with a subtle piece of Schopenhauerian argumentation. "The task of uniting
art and religion"--the goal to which not only
the Streiter der Liebe but also Ritter himself
was dedicated-he called "Utopian," and he
noted that Schopenhauer had reached the same
verdict in book 3 of Die Welt als Wille und
35"Ich gebe Ihnen gerne zu, lieber Freund, daB es recht

langweilig und listig werden kann, monatelang einen
Egypt, convalescing from a recurring lung ailment).34
Weimarer Freund uiber 'Willensvemeinung' faseln zu h6ren.
monstrable goal" of human existence (der einzig
Daseins. Dies hat uns Gott [ ... ] durch den Geist des
Erlisers, den Geist Schopenhauers, Wagners, Liszts, und
einiger anderer, ffir uns nicht ganz uncompetenter,
verkiindigt. Daran halten wir fest, wir Wenigen-wie
For Ritter, Schopenhauer's "denial of the

Will" (Willensverneinung) was the "only de-
nachweisbare Zweck unseres Daseins). Wagner,
Liszt, Schopenhauer, Jesus (Ritter's devout Ca-
tholicism outweighed any uneasiness with
Dennoch bleibt das Streben nach m6glichster
Willensverneinung der einzig nachweisbare Zweck unseres
heif~en wir doch?-nun: wir Bayreuther." [Describing his
aesthetic standpoint at the time he met Strauss:] "Ich hatte

in Wagners Werk den kiinstlerisch offenbarten H6hepunkt
philosophischer u. zugleich religioser Cultur erkannt"
(ibid.).
3611"[. ..] ich endlich in Ihnen, theurer Freund, eine Begabung

erkannte, von der ich glaubte annehmen zu diirfen, datg sie
article on Ritter's operas (also at RSA), partly reproduced

Sie einst befahigen wtirde, Wagners Werk in seinem Sinne
weiterzubauen.
in Schuh's biography, pp. 200-04.
32Except for the orchestration, which Strauss considered Jene tiefe, innige Freude ldiut sich nicht in Worten
peripheral to "composition."
schildern, welche ich nun empfand, als ich sah wie Ihnen das
33"Guntram aber ist Strauss; der Bund die Wagner'sche
Verstandnif~ des Wagner'schen Werkes mehr und mehr
Grals- und Idealgemeinde; Friedhold, der Abgesandte desaufging, wie Sie in Wagners Weltanschauung, welche
Ordens, kein anderer als-Alexander Ritter, des jungen
lediglich auf Schopenhauers Erkenntnit3weise und idealchristlicher Religiositi t beruht, mehr und mehr eindrangen
Komponisten langjahriger Freund und Ffihrer!" (Seidl wrote
in the Neue Deutsche Rundschau (Freie Biihne) [Berlin] 5und sie ganz zur Ihrigen machten" (ibid.).
[1894]; the excerpt appears in Schuh, Richard Strauss, p.37"Von Wagners Weltanschauung steckt also gar nichts
304).
mehr in Ihnen. Was ist Ihnen von Wagner einzig noch
34The letter is now housed at the RSA.
geblieben? Die Mechanik seiner Kunst" (ibid.).
107
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
Vorstellung.38 Art could have no meaningful

Strauss himself was not entirely comfortable
connection to ethics, with ethical conduct
with this
un-new position, however. In the followderstood in Ritter's sense as personal dedicaing months he broached the subject with
Cosima Wagner, who had served as a close
tion to Willensverneinung. "You will object
adviser since 1889, and Friedrich Risch, a friend
that the two cahnot be separated; but I believe
from
the Gymnasium. With palpable apprethat they are separate, in principle!"39 The
opStrauss confessed to Frau Wagner on 1
erative passage in Schopenhauer was to behension
found
March 1893 that he felt unable to follow
at the end of book 3, in which the philosopher
Schopenhauer now that he understood him: "I
declared art ultimately ineffective at stilling
the Will: "It does not become for him a extincannot help myself, the halo will never be my
guisher of the Will, as we shall see in the fol-lot."42 R6sch was told the same, and he
lowing book in the case of the saint who has promptly reminded Strauss that Willensverneinattained resignation; it does not deliver himung remained a practical possibility; "millions"
from life forever, but only for a few moments.'"40 had already achieved it in India, although EuGuntram's new devotion to asceticism thus
rope lagged far behind.43 It is no surprise then
reflects the same shift in focus as that found
that Strauss, a confirmed artist whatever the
between the final two books of Die Welt als
consequences, began at once to develop a criWille und Vorstellung. Art, which initially tique of Schopenhauer.
seemed promising as a means of "denial," is The basis of that critique was a shrewd sugfound wanting, while a life of saintly self-de- gestion (in the 1 March letter to Frau Wagner)
nial gains acceptance as the true redemptivethat Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung depath. If Ritter wished to criticize the third act served to be considered an "artwork."44 In
of Guntram, then-or so Strauss argued-he Schopenhauer's system, aesthetic knowledge,
had no reasonable Schopenhauerian grounds for the knowledge of the "genius," holds a higher
place than does scientific knowledge, both bedoing so.
It is doubtful that Strauss comforted his mencause it circumvents the "principle of sufficient reason," reaching directly to the Ideas,
tor by insisting, "please do not confuse me
and because it provides moments of "Will-less"
with my dramatic figure. I am not giving up
knowledge.45 By lauding the "artistic" qualities
art, and I'm not Guntram either."41 Guntram
and Strauss were indeed opposites, but both
were now equally abhorrent to Ritter, for while
Guntram had purged art from his metaphysics,
Strauss had purged metaphysics from his art.
42"[. . .] ich kann mir nun einmal nicht helfen, der

Heiligenschein wird mir doch nie beschieden sein" (Cosima
Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 148).
43"Denn ffir Europa war diese Lehre entschieden niegelnagel-neu, wenn sich auch in Indien (wo aber auch schon
Millionen von Menschen ihr Leben wirklich 'verneint'
uralt ist" (unpublished letter from Rbsch to Strauss,

38"Guntram ist aus einem Bunde hervorgegangen, der haben)
sich
15 March 1893, RSA).
eine Vereinigung von Kunst und Religion in dem Sinne
441"Ich nenne es ein Kunstwerk, weil es sich in der

zur Aufgabe gestellt hat.... Dies hat sich bis jetzt immer
Erkenntnis des wahren Wesens der Welt doch weit iiber
als Utopie herausgestellt, war schone Utopie-aber leider
alle 'Wissenschaft' erhebt und in seiner sch6nen Form und

doch eine Utopie (auch Freund Schopenhauer ist dieser
seinem wundervollen sinfonischen Aufbau wirklich
Ansicht im III. Buch der Welt als Wille und Vorstellung)"
(Schuh, Richard Strauss, pp. 290-91).
h6chstes asthetisches Wohlgefallen erregt" (Cosima
Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 148).
39"Sie werden mir vielleicht entgegnen: das ist fiberhaupt
45Schopenhauer's words for the "principle of sufficient reanicht zu trennen; ich glaube aber doch, im Prinzip!" (ibid.,
son" are "der Satz vom zureichenden Grunde," or occap. 291).
sionally the shortened "der Satz vom Grunde." A repre4011[. . . wird sie ihm nicht, wie wir es im folgenden Buche
sentative statement of the difference between scientific
bei dem zur Resignation gelangten Heiligen sehn werden,
and aesthetic knowledge comes in section 36: "Da die
Quietiv des Willens, erl6st ihn nicht auf immer, sondern
nur auf Augenblicke vom Leben" (Arthur Schopenhauer,
geniale Erkenntnit, oder Erkenntnitg der Idee, diejenige
ist, welche dem Satz vom Grunde nicht folgt, hingegen
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. I [Stuttgart (after
the edition of Arthur Hfibscher), 1987], p. 384).
4111"ch bitte mich, auch hier nicht, mit meiner dramatischen
Figur zu verwechseln! Ich hinge die Kunst nicht an den

Nagel; ich bin auch nicht Guntram!" (Schuh, Richard
Strauss, p. 291).
die, welche ihm folgt, im Leben Klugheit und
Verniinftigkeit ertheilt und die Wissenschaften zu Stande
bringt." In section 38 Schopenhauer reiterated the two

essential features of the aesthetic Betrachtungsweise: "Wir
haben in der asthetischen Betrachtungsweise zwei
108
of this wissenschaftlich text, then, Strauss

granted it a higher epistemological status than
it claimed. But he did so with ulterior motives.
philosophical argument abandoning "denial"

as a goal of life, he was going to have to do
better.48 Once again having received no support

Characterization of Schopenhauer as an artistfor his new position and now finding himself
allowed Strauss to claim that the creative pro-out of philosophically informed friends, Strauss
CHARLES
YOUMANS
Also sprach
Zarathustra
cess had gone out of control in book 4, wherebegan to panic. To R6sch: "You should help
Schopenhauer drew "conclusions that do notme, not instruct me about things I already
stand wholly in accord with the wonderfullyknow" (emphasis in original).49 That help would
objective attitude of the first books. Here I am not come, of course, and with a growing sense
thinking especially of the somewhat one-sidedof isolation he began to realize that a laterepresentation of the 'sufferings of the world' nineteenth-century German composer wanting
and the glorifying of the modification of theto reject Schopenhauer would have difficulty
Will in the lives of the saints." Strauss here
finding authoritative support for his position.
effectively repudiated Willensverneinung and

declared that Schopenhauer had erred in recAbout this time (the first months of 1893)
ommending it as a practical response to the
Strauss began writing down philosophical rehuman condition. In the real world, the most
flections in a notebook that he had been using
one could accomplish relative to the Will was
to work out operatic scenarios.50 Schuh tran"consciousness" (Bewufltsein); "our intellect,
scribed the most interesting of these musings
bound as it is to time and space, can goinno

his biography, observing tellingly that they
further without becoming Utopian."46
were "the only reflections of their kind that
Not surprisingly, Cosima Wagner provedStrauss
of
left." The ideas expressed in this source
are even more radical than those he had been
little help with this dilemma, confessing with
a yawn on 15 March 1893 that her only knowlfloating toward Bavaria, and they show that his
edge of Schopenhauer came from her late
husband's essay "Beethoven."47 Strauss received
a substantially more direct, and troublesome,
response from R6sch, to whom he had declared

that "up until now progress in the denial of the
Will against the affirmation of the same is nowhere to be found." R6sch felt differently, as
we have seen, and called his friend's assertion

"a great naivet6"; if Strauss wanted to devise a
critique of Schopenhauer had progressed further than anyone might have guessed. Calling
Schopenhauer a "pessimist" and his philoso-
4811[. . .] bis jetzt nirgends von einem Fortschritt der
Verneinung des Willens gegen die Bejahung desselben etwas

zu bemerken sei." "Es ist also wirklich eine grofe Naivetit,
dem armen Schopenhauer zu imputiren, er habe die simple
Wahrheit (d.h. genau genommen: die einfache Tautologie),
dafg der Wille selbst immer "wolle" d.i. immer bejaht,
aber nie vemeint, nie erlost werden wolle, ganz uibersehen."
unzertrennliche Bestandtheile gefunden: die Erkenntnifg
des Objekts, nicht als einzelnen Dinges, sondern als
Platonischer Idee, d. h. als beharrender Form dieser ganzen
Gattung von Dingen; sodann das Selbstbewuftseyn des
[Following an explanation that "denial" comes from individual Erkenntnis, not from the Will itself:] "So-das ist
Schopenhauers Standpunkt, den man nicht so einfach durch

einen TrugschluE oder einen Machtspruch umstofen kann,
sondern hOchstens durch schwierigen Beweisgrunde, was

allerdings-nichts so einfach ist" (The letters from Strauss
to Rbsch have not yet been found; these fragments are
quoted by Rbsch in the letter to Strauss of 15 March 1893,
RSA.)
46"[. . .] Schliisse zieht, die nicht ganz mit der wundervollen
49"Du sollst mir helfen-nicht mich belehren uiber Dinge
objektiven Haltung der ersten Biicher im Einklang stehen.
Ich meine hier speziell die etwas einseitige Darstellung
die ich schon weif" (quoted by R6sch in his next letter to
der 'Leiden der Welt' und die Glorifizierung der
Strauss, 9 April 1893, RSA).
Modifikation des Willens im Leben der Heiligen." "Das SoThe earliest material in this "Diarum," as it is described
bis jetzt einzig erkennbare Ziel des Willens ist: dafg er sich by Schuh, stems from Strauss's early Weimar period (1889im Menschen seines Wollens bewuf3t geworden ist, dagf er 94). Sporadic entries, made through 1893 and adding up to
erkennt, ob er (kraft der Pridestination im einzelnen twenty-nine pages of written material, include notes for a
Individuum) bejahen oder vemeinen will-weiter kann, Weimar newspaper article on Alexander Ritter, historical
glaube ich, unsere allerdings an Zeit und Raum gebundeneinformation gathered during the composition of Guntram,
Erkenntnis nicht gehen, ohne utopistisch zu werden" and plot sketches of a "Don Juan" opera and the unfin(Cosima Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 148).
ished "Das erhabene Leid der Kbnige" and "Der Reichstag
Erkennenden, nicht als Individuums, sondern als reinen,
willenlosen Subjekts der Erkenntnif" (Schopenhauer, Die
Welt als Wille, pp. 278, 287-88).
47Ibid., p. 150.
zu Mainz." It is now held at the RSA.
109
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
appraisal of the book's "anti-democratic tenphy of suffering "thoroughly subjective"
(durchaus subjektiv), Strauss argued that

aesdency"
as "highly sympathetic" confirms that
he understood
Nietzsche's identification of
thetic experience could obviate the need
for
denial: "Artistic contemplation, artistic Schopenhauerian
creativpessimism with democracy,
a political
ity (and philosophy) outweighs all suffering
ten- movement Nietzsche called "the will
fold in its joy." In place of "denial" Strauss
to the denial of life" (der Wille zur Verneinung
now advocated "affirmation of the Will,"

in
des Lebens).55
The wholesale appropriation of
direct contradiction of Schopenhauer.Nietzschean
Happibuzzwords-"affirmation," "optiness of a spiritual, redemptive sort thatmism,"
we do "becoming," and the like56-strongly
suggests that Strauss believed that he had found

not normally identify as a concern of Strauss,
critical
depended on "conscious affirmation," his
that
is, response to Willensverneinung.
on the deliberate rejection of the conclusions
On returning to Munich in July 1893, Strauss
of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.51evidently pursued his interest in Nietzsche furThere is more than a hint of Nietzschean
ther, for by autumn Arthur Seidl (recalling the
influence in these remarks, and other evidence
events in 1896) noted with pleasure his friend's
confirms that Strauss had indeed been studying
familiarity with the philosopher's "main
works."57 Seidl, the dedicatee of Till Eulenat least one work by that newly popular thinker.
spiegel, had been discussing Schopenhauer with
After denying to his father and Ritter that
Nietzsche's ideas had lain behind the revision
Strauss since 1882 (when they had attended
Friedrich Jodl's lectures on the philosopher at

of Guntram, Strauss finally admitted to Cosima
the University of Munich), and he had followed
Wagner (of all people) that he had consulted
Strauss's "conversion" and subsequent SchoBeyond Good and Evil (Jenseits von Gut und
penhauer-Lektiire with fascination.58 In

B6se) in hopes of finding a solution to his probGuntram he found Strauss still not fully devellems concerning Schopenhauer.52 That he had
oped; the composer stood at a "point of pasread Nietzsche would have surprised no one.
sage" (Durchgangspunkt) from "WeltverneinDuring the early 1890s, Nietzsche's writings-ung" to "Selbstbejahung," from "democratic"
particularly the late ones53-were causing a sento "aristocratic" principles. But the immediate
sation in Munich, and even R6sch, a decided
future promised mature works of a more "puriopponent of this new philosophy, had read evfied" (geldiuterten) Nietzschean substance.59
ery available work by 1893.54 But the speed and
specificity with which Strauss applied these

ideas to his own situation would surely have
55Friedrich
raised an eyebrow at home. In particular his
Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und B6se, Nietzsche
Werke, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, pt. 6,
vol. II (Berlin, 1968), p. 217.

56To Frau Wagner: "[...] am Ende halten Sie mich gar-flir
"5111Es sind die einzigen Betrachtungen dieser Art, die uns
von Strauss iiberliefert sind." "Kfinstlerische Anschauung,
kiinstlerische Produktion (auch die Philosophie) wiegt in

ihrer Freude alle Leiden zehnfach auf." "Das Bewuf/tsein
der Bejahung des Willxens ist unser letztes Ziel-bis jetzt.
Was noch kommen soll, wer weiB es! Ich bejahe bewuflt,
dies ist mein Glick!" (Schuh, Richard Strauss, pp. 315, 319).
52At this stage he claimed, perhaps for Frau Wagner's benefit, that he did not find Nietzsche completely adequate to
the task. "[... . die Zweifel, die Schopenhauer mir erweckt,
hat Nietzsche auch nicht ganz gelist" (letter of 10 April

1893, Cosima Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 155).
S3These would include Jenseits von Gut und B6se (1886),
Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887), Der Fall Wagner (1888),
G6tzen-Dammerung (1889), along with the first three parts
of Also sprach Zarathustra (1883-84).
54Rbsch to Strauss, in a letter of 9 April 1893: "Mein lieber
Freund, Du kennst eben nur 'Jenseits von Gut u. Bise,'

wiihrend ich alle Bicher von Nietzsche kenne, zum Teil
sehr genau kenne" (RSA).
einen Optimisten!" (Cosima Wagner/Richard Strauss, p.

148). And in the notebook, he describes "h6he Glick" as
"das Bewutftsein des Ewigseins in ewig neuem, nie
endenden Werden" (Schuh, Richard Strauss, p. 316).
57"Als ich im Herbste 1893 bei meinem Abschiede von
Weimar den Dichterkomponist-und das ist er!-zuletzt

aufsuchte, sprachen wir noch von Nietzsche, und er las
mir einige Stellen aus dessen Hauptwerken vor" (Arthur
Seidl, "Richard Strauss-eine Charakter-Skizze (1896),"
chap. in Straussiana: Aufsditze zur Richard Straufl-Frage
aus drei Jahrzehnten [Regensburg, 1913], p. 33).

58"Eben dazumal [during the winter semester 1882-83 at the
University] war es ja auch 'in holder Jugendzeit,' daB wir an
der Hand eines 'publicums' des derzeitigen Prager Professors
Jodl unsere Anschauungen iiber Schopenhauer in
gegenseitiger Aussprache zu klaren suchten" (ibid., p. 64).

5911[. . .] indem er hier Schopenhauer zu Nietzsche in sich
selbst gleichsam weiter entwickelt, Weltverneinung zu
Selbstbejahung fortbildet, vom demokratischen Prinzip ab
zum streng aristokratischen sich bekehrt und fiir den
Individualismus der Eigenpersbnlichkeit sich entscheidet,
110
One such composition was already in the works:
a new orchestral piece that would take "Human, All Too Human" (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches) as its "subject" (Gegenstand) but
would receive the title Also sprach Zarathustra.60
Given Seidl's close relationship with Strauss,
that did nothing to support the claims of his CHARLES

YOUMANS
publicist. And Werbeck's recent study of the Also sprach
sketches produced no evidence that Strauss was Zarathustra
thinking of Zarathustra before the late stages
of composition.63 Nevertheless, Seidl's com-
ment would seem to offer little more than a
provocative dead end, absent specific statements
it is surprising that this extraordinary claim by the composer concerning how he might have
about the program of Also sprach Zarathustra drawn a program from an aphoristic philosophielicited no direct response from other contem-
cal treatise.
porary writers, either refuting or developing
While the scarcity of available evidence limthe idea.61 Hahn steered well clear of the issue, its what we can know in this regard, it is fairly
taking the trouble to state explicitly what ev- easy to imagine why Strauss would have taken
eryone would assume: that the work not only up that particular work by Nietzsche at that
bore the title Also sprach Zarathustra but drew particular moment. Menschliches, Allzumenits programmatic inspiration from Nietzsche's schliches, published in 1878, marks the most
"poetic-philosophical creation" (poetisch-
important turning point in Nietzsche's intel-
lectual life, his rejection of the "Romanticism"

There was good reason for Hahn to limit this of Wagner and Schopenhauer.64 In the straightdiscussion; his rhetorical aim was to parry those forward, relaxed style of his middle years,
critics who found too much philosophy and Nietzsche here addressed the very doubts that
not enough poetry in the tone poem, and draw- were afflicting Strauss and provided answers
ing Menschliches, Allzumenschliches into the that the composer had been laboring to devise
mix would have undermined that argument. for himself. In Nietzsche's view, music had no
Strauss, on the other hand, never named a par- responsibilities or capacities in the metaphysiticular work as source of the program, a choice cal realm: "No music is in itself deep and full
philosophische Sch6pfung) of the same name.62
of meaning. It does not speak of the 'Will' or

the 'thing in itself'." What is more, a person's
educational
development, which involved geterscheint sein Schaffen in dieser Entwicklungphase
als
Obergangstufe, gibt sich sein Werk als Durchgangspunkt
ting "beyond superstitious and religious conzu ferneren, geliuterten Umbildungen zu erkennen, nimmt
cepts and fears," ultimately demanded "a last
daher auch 'Guntram,' die Dichtung, ganz sicherlich eine
intense
Art Mittelstellung in seinem geistig-kiinstlerisch-ethischen
Werdeprozesse zur Seit noch ein" (ibid., p. 46).
effort to overcome metaphysics."65 In

the period following the revision of Guntram,
60"[Following Till Eulenspiegel] ist der nunmehr vollstandig
ausgereifte junge Meister an ein weiteres Orchesterwerk
gegangen, iiber dessen Idee nur erst zu verraten ist, daBi es

'Menschliches, Allzumenschliches' zum Gegenstand haben
63Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 142.
will, und daBi es den Namen 'Also sprach Zarathustra'

64In the new 1886 preface written for Menschliches,
erhalten soll" (ibid., p. 62).
Allzumenschliches, Nietzsche admitted deceiving himself
61The earliest, and only, discussion of this remark known
in this regard as late as 1876. [Before Menschliches, one
to me is that in Williamson, Zarathustra, pp. 27-28. could have accused him of various forms of self-deception,
Williamson points out the seeming "absurdity" of the idea
for example] "dass ich mich fiber Richard Wagner's
that the more traditionally philosophical Menschliches,
unheilbare Romantik betrogen hitte, wie als ob sie ein
Allzumenschliches might have inspired instrumental muAnfang und nicht ein Ende sei" (Friedrich Nietzsche,
sic, but admits that Seidl might have been suggesting "that
Menschliches, Allzumenschliches, vol. 1, Nietzsche Werke,
Nietzsche's assault on Christianity was a major startinged. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, pt. 4, vol. 2
point, but hardly the subject, of the tone poem."

[Berlin, 1967], p. 8).
62"Als es seiner Zeit bekannt wurde, dass Richard Strauss
65"An sich ist keine Musik tief und bedeutungsvoll, sie
im Begriff stehe, ein neues symphonisches Werk zuspricht nicht vom 'Willen,' vom 'Dinge an sich'." "Die
schreiben, welches den Titel 'Also sprach Zarathustra'
eine, gewiss sehr hohe Stufe der Bildung ist erreicht, wenn
fiuhren und in dem Ideengange des zu Grunde gelegten
der Mensch iber abergliubische und religose Begriffe und
Programms an Friedrich Nietzsche's gleichnamige poetischAengste hinauskommt und zum Beispiel nicht mehr an
die lieben Englein oder die Erbsiinde glaubt, auch vom
philosophische Sch6pfung ankniipfen werde, da konnte man
in der musikalischen Welt verschiedentlich dem Ausdruck
Heil der Seelen zu reden verlernt hat: ist er auf dieser
der Verwunderung diber die Wahl dieses Stoffes alsStufe der Befreiung, so hat er auch noch mit h6chster
Anspannung seiner Besonnenheit die Metaphysik zu
Ausgangspunkt ffr eine Komposition begegnen" (Hahn,
"Zarathustra," p. 109).
iberwinden" (ibid., pp. 177, 37).
111
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
attention,
however, that these same enemies
Strauss found himself engaged in precisely
that
played
prominent
roles in Nietzsche's Also
effort, and utterly without the support of simisprach
Zarathustra.
His approach to that work
larly disposed contemporaries.66 It was of sub-
and
his interpretation
of Menschliches,
stantial import, then, that he came
upon
exAllzumenschliches,
surely, were conditioned
plicit, authoritative confirmation of
the con-
clusions to which his own studies had led him.

If we assume that Strauss had read
intellectually as well as musically by that real-
ization.
Menschliches, Allzumenschliches in this

way,
Nietzsche's
most direct, concise presentation of of
his character's new philosophy comes
it seems plausible that a general critique
toward
the end of part 3 of Also sprach
metaphysics could have served as, or
at least
could have had some relationship to, Zarathustra,
the "sub- in "The Convalescent" (Der
ject" of a tone poem called Also sprach

Zarathustra. Indeed, some would say that it
became the subject of all of Strauss's mature
Genesende), which amounts to a primer of the
sitionally stimulating relationship that Strauss
collapses, and remains prostrate for seven days.
Allzumenschliches as with the ideas them-
at man" (der Oiberdruss am Menschen), a real-
Nietzschean worldview. In this scene, after

boldly summoning his "abyss-deep thought"
(abgriindlicher Gedanke)-the nature of which
music, which on some aesthetic level reflects a
post-Schopenhauerian view of the relationship Nietzsche for the moment left unspokenbetween art and metaphysics.67 But the compo- Zarathustra is overcome with "disgust" (Ekel),
found in Nietzsche's two texts was more spe- On recovering, he finds himself newly enlightcific and had as much to do with personal reac- ened, but "still sick with [his] own redemption to the ideas presented in Menschliches, tion."69 His breakdown was caused by "disgust
that the pathetic metaphysical longing
selves. In spite of the corroboration thatization
he
of "accusers of life" (Ankliiger
pulled from Nietzsche's writings, Strausscharacteristic
redes Lebens) (a euphemism for "afterworldsmained plagued by doubts about his emerging
men") is a condition of all humanity.70
antimetaphysical aesthetic-which of course
Zarathustra's
newly divined response to this
placed him on a collision course with the reignsituation,
the
doctrine of the "eternal recuring axioms of Austro-Germanic music. The
rence" (ewige Wiederkunft), is not a corrective,
panic that had boiled over in the letter to R6sch
but instead a willing acceptance that this crippersisted even during the sketching of Ein
pling epiphany must take place again and again,
Heldenleben (1898), in which the hero's princiwithout end. The "great destiny" that falls to
pal antagonists are not music critics but "inner
Zarathustra as the first teacher of this doctrine
enemies (doubt, disgust)" (innere Feinde
[Zweifel, Ekel]).68 It did not escape Strauss's must also necessarily become his "greatness
danger and sickness," since those to whom and
of whom he teaches, whether great or small,

are "all too similar to one another, even the
antimetaphysical artist: "[. ..] man kann aus ihnen [religreatest all too human."71 Zarathustra is of
gion and art] das Wesen der Dinge gerade gar nicht besser
66Nietzsche recognized the loneliness of the
himself human, and he comes no closer

verstehen, obschon diess fast Jederman glaubt" (ibid., course
pp.
45-46).
67See, for example, James Hepokoski, "Fiery-Pulsed
to the Ubermensch than merely to prophesy of
Libertine or Domestic Hero?: Strauss's Don Juan
Reinvestigated," in Richard Strauss: New Perspectives on

the Composer and His Work, ed. Bryan Gilliam (Durham,
Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch
N.C., 1992), p. 165; and Bryan Gilliam, preface to 69Friedrich
Richard
fir Alle und Keinen, Nietzsche Werke, ed. Giorgio Colli
Strauss and His World (Princeton, N.J., 1992), p. viii.
and Mazzino Montinari, pt. 6, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1968), pp.

266-67. "[... ] krank noch von der eigenen Erlhsung" (p.
ard Strauss.
269).
70Ibid.
68A facsimile of this sketch appears in Schuh, Richard
71"Dass du als der Erste diese Lehre lehren musst,-wie
Strauss, p. 496. The transcription contains errors that have
sollte diess grosse Schicksal nicht auch deine grPsste Gefahr
had a significant effect on the reception of Heldenleben.
und Krankheit sein!" "[. . . I allzudhnlich einander,See Bryan Gilliam, "Richard Strauss," in The NineteenthCentury Symphony, ed. D. Kern Holoman (New York,
allzumenschlich auch den Grissten noch!" (ibid., pp. 270,
272).
1997), p. 365, n. 47.
Gilliam traces the evolution of this view from Zarathustra
through Der Rosenkavalier in chap. 4 of The Life of Rich-
112
his coming. His highest attainable aspiration is

to experience with joy rather than dread the
endless cycles of disgust at his own humanity.
So far as we can ascertain, then, the
CHARLES
YOUMANS
Nietzschean subtitles were applied to a work

Also sprach
already highly developed, although not quiteZarathustra
a
That Strauss found in Zarathustra's new selffinished product. That does not mean, howawareness an analogue of his own struggles ever, that Strauss added them for the sake of a
with metaphysical longing is suggested not only superficial Nietzschean appeal. The relevance
by the substance of his private philosophical of Strauss's "thoughts" to the philosophical
inquiries but also by his choice of the subtitles dilemma that entangled him, and to the solusituated throughout the tone poem Also sprach tion that he hoped to find in Nietzsche, is if
Zarathustra. Clearly these subtitles do not
anything more direct than that of the subtitles
amount to the program of the work in any themselves. Strauss of course ultimately retypical sense, even when taken in conjunction moved these early labels, and we have seen
with the portion of the prologue that served as that when public speculation about the philopreface. Werbeck has shown that Strauss added sophical substance of Zarathustra got out of
them during the orchestration, well after mu- hand he attempted to suppress the subtitles as
sic and program had taken firm shape.72 If pro-
well. Werbeck's research shows that at least
that the reverse was often true in Strauss's
feel that he was giving too much away.74 Hence,
grammatic ideas did shape musical decisions- two further subtitles were removed before puband Werbeck has demonstrated convincingly lication of the score, as if Strauss had begun to
compositional practice-they were the ideas

while the citations of Nietzsche's chapter titles
expressed in the one-word "thoughts aboutdoa not constitute a program, and do not lay out
new tone poem" that Williamson thought too
a narrative to be followed by the music, they
vague to convey anything useful regarding mumay indeed tell us something of import, par-
sic or program: "beholding, worship, doubt, exticularly given the relationships between them.
perience, doubt, recognition, despair" (Schauen,Strauss's choices in this regard imply that he
Anbeten, Zweifeln, Erleben, Zweifeln,
understood the role of "Der Genesende" as a
Erkennen, Verzweifeln).73 Aside from the first

distillation of the book's main ideas, a sort of
mention of "doubt," which Strauss dropped,
replaying of events always already in the past
these descriptions find musical expression suc-and the future throughout the book.75 In the
cessively in the introduction and in the secoration "Von den Hinterweltlern," the first
tions that came to be known as "Of the
heading chosen by Strauss, Zarathustra identiBackworldsmen" (Von den Hinterweltlern),

"Of
fies himself
as "the convalescent," to whom "it
the Great Longing" (Von der frossen Sehnsucht),
would be suffering and torment to believe in
"Of Joys and Passions" (Von den Freudenund
. . . phantoms";
but recognition of the
Leidenschaften) (both "experience" and
inescapability of that suffering is the very es-
"doubt"), "Of Science" (Von der Wissenschaft)sence of convalescence, as he tells his animals
and at m. 329; this plan remained relativelyafter the crisis. The discourse against "pity"
stable from the beginning, although the remain-(Mitleid) and "the little man" (der kleine
der of the piece went through several versions Mensch) in "Der Genesende" reopens a discus-
before Strauss was satisfied.

74"Das Nachtlied," at m. 629, and "Das Ja- und Amenlied,"
73Ibid., pp. 136-37. Werbeck derived this sequence of words
at m. 685. Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 142.
by conflating two sources: a sketch showing "anbeten7"The section headings added throughout the score are, in
zweifeln" and "erkennen-verzweifeln" (or "Zweifel
order: "Von den Hinterweltlern" (Of the Afterworldsmen,
erkennen-verzweifeln"); and a diary notation with

part I/section 3), "Von der grossen Sehnsucht" (Of the
"Schauen-Anbeten, Erleben-Zweifeln, Erkennengreat Longing, 111/14), "Von den Freuden und
Verzweifeln" (see Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 31). TheseLeidenschaften" (Of Joys and Passions, 1/5), "Das Grablied"
sources complicate Daverio's suggestion that "Worship-(The Grave-Song, II/11), "Von der Wissenschaft" (Of SciDoubt-Despair-Freedom" mirror a four-movement planence, IV/15), "Der Genesende" (The Convalescent, 111/13),
for the work; in any case, these four words do not appear"Das Tanzlied" (The Dance Song, most likely III/15, "Das
in so simple a configuration in the sources. Daverio, "Po-andere Tanzlied" [The Other Dance Song]-see n. 77), and
etry and Philosophy," p. 218.
"Nachtwandlerlied" (The Night-Wanderer's Song, IV/19).

113
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
Strauss's reading of Also sprach Zarathustra

sion already concluded in "Von den Freudenwas that
of a composer occupied by the exigenund Leidenschaften," where Zarathustra
proof programmatic composition, and these
nounces man "something that must cies
be overdictated
come," knowing that any "overcoming"
sim-that he reduce the book to a single
concise
idea susceptible to musical elaboration.
ply begins the process anew.76 A similar
con-
nection exists between "Der Genesende" and
This reduction was apparently underway in the

summer of 1895, when Strauss described to
"Von der Wissenschaft," in which Zarathustra
von Hausegger piano improvisations
describes the pre-history of man as a period Friedrich
of
in the effort "to cut Nietzschean paracourage, and the arrival of man as the onset made
of
doxes down to a manageable size" (Nietzan era of fear. In a spiral conception of history,
schesche Paradoxe klein zu schlagen).80 Seidl
the notion of "arrival" has an unusual meaning.
clarified this necessity in his analysis of ZaraA similar process of selection binds together
thustra, distinguishing between "thoughts"
those sections devoted to the concept of the
"eternal recurrence." Music and dance are rec(Gedanken), which belonged to a process of
ognized by Nietzsche's Zarathustra in "Der reasoning and thus had no place in music, and
Genesende" as the means of grasping and liv-"ideas" (Ideen), which began as thoughts but
ing out that doctrine; hence the inclusion ofhad been suffused with "emotion" (Geffihl) and
"Von der grossen Sehnsucht," representing the "imagination" (Phantasie).81 Liszt had shown
longing for the redemption represented by song,the way here, by choosing subjects that boiled
and "Das andere Tanzlied," as the arrival of the down to a "general human type" (allgemeinlonged-for.77 The pregnant declaration in "Das menschlicher Typus) well suited to treatment
Grablied" that "only where there are graves areas instrumental music.
there resurrections" makes sense only after the As early as 1889 Cosima Wagner had disarrival in "Der Genesende" of the moment pow-cussed this point explicitly with Strauss in reerful enough "to make even the graves listen," lation to Don Juan (1888), a work that had
the moment when the meaning of the eternalfailed, in her opinion, because it relied on
recurrence becomes clear.78 That meaning finds"Intelligenz" rather than "Gefiihl" to achieve
literally poetic expression in the "Nachtwand-its effect.82 The terms of her argument were
lerlied," which Strauss placed at the end of his those framed by Wagner in his open letter "On
tone poem, completing the progress toward theFranz Liszt's Symphonic Poems," where
doctrine of eternal recurrence in the same manBerlioz's musical illustration is denigrated in
favor of the Lisztian practice of setting a proner as "Der Genesende" completes the
gram that has been reduced to a "thoroughly
"downgoing" begun in the prologue.79
compact ideal form" (durchaus konkrete ideale
76"Leiden ware es mir jetzt und Qual dem Genesenen,

solche Gespenster zu glauben. .. ." "Der Mensch ist etwas,
das fiberwunden werden muss" (Nietzsche, Also sprach
Zarathustra, pp. 32, 40).
77"Aber willst du nicht weinen, nicht ausweinen deine

purpurne Schwermuth, so wirst du singen miissen, oh
meine Seele!" (ibid., p. 276). The easy solution to the ques-
tion of whether Strauss intended to cite "Das Tanzlied" or
80This remark is contained in an 1895 response to a

questionaire about the creative process circulated by
Friedrich von Hausegger. Various paraphrases and excerpts

of the document (labeled "Schaffen") have been published,
but it appeared in its entirety for the first time in Werbeck,
Tondichtungen, pp. 534-39.

81["Ideas," as opposed to "feelings," could be brought to
"expression" (Ausdruck) through music.] "Und dieses
Letztere braucht uns auch weiter gar nicht Wunder zu
"Das andere Tanzlied" is probably also the correct one:
nehmen, wenn wir nur daran festhalten wollen, dafi 'Idee'
"Hier ist Donners genug, dass auch Graber horchen lernen!"
[Regensburg, 1913], p. 83).

82"Mir ist es in ihrem 'Don Juan' erschienen, als ob mehr
"Das andere Tanzlied," with its preparatory discussion of

the twelve strokes of the bell, fits most easily into the
overall scheme. See Williamson, Zarathustra, pp. 55-56.
78"Und nur wo Graber sind, giebt es Auferstehungen."
(Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, pp. 141, 266).
79The last words of the first section of "Zarathustra's Pro-
logue"-"Also begann Zarathustra's Untergang"-are answered by his last words in "Der Genesende": "Also-endet Zarathustra's Untergang" (ibid., pp. 6, 273).
einen bereits in's Gemiitsleben eingetauchten, den mit

Geffihl versetzten und von Phantasie durchtriinkten
Gedanken bedeutet" (Arthur Seidl, "Also sang Zarathustra," chap. in Moderner Geist in der deutschen Tonkunst
das Gebaren Ihrer Personen Sie eingenommen hitte, als

wie dai die Personen selbst zu Ihnen gesprochen hitten.
Das nenne ich eben das Spiel der Intelligenz gegen das
Gefiihl" (Cosima Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 31).
114
Form).83 Of crucial import here is concentration on a single idea. Nietzsche's text may have
been "rich in 'formal motives'," as Daverio has
remarked, but if he wanted to achieve Wagne-
CHARLES
when calling Zarathustra a "symphony.""s That
YOUMANS
the idea implied a linear development-progress
Also sprach
Zarath ustra
toward, through, and beyond an epiphany-al-
lowed Strauss to indulge his penchant for narrative procedures without fundamentally chalhis choices down to one.84 We may assume that
lenging the now-traditional practice described
Strauss consulted Wagner's essay in the edition
by Wagner and his admirers, and therefore withof his writings given him by Ludwig Thuille out
in undermining the structural musical cohe1889; in the early 1890s he studied much sion
of that that practice was designed to effect.88
Wagner's prose both privately and as part of The
his first section of the prologue (which be-
rian coherence Strauss would need to narrow
role as leader of the Weimar chapter of the

came the preface of Strauss's published score)
Wagner Gesellschaft.85 In any case, by the time

plays a crucial role here, by establishing the all-
he approached Also sprach Zarathustra he did

important image (although to Strauss, a pri-
so with a firm understanding of the New Gervately held one) of the sun at the work's open-
ing, and by conveying Zarathustra's wish to

man perspective on how such a project might
be accomplished.
become like the "great star."89 In his sketches
Strauss labeled this opening motive as the "sun
The presence of a "Nietzschean narrative"
in Zarathustra, such as that described by
theme" (Sonnenthema), and he inscribed "the
Williamson (after Hahn), does not signal a re- sun rises" (die Sonne geht auf) at the beginning
jection of the practice advocated by the Wagners; of the particell.90 The Hahn guide uses "naas Strauss told Cosima Wagner, these distinct ture" (Natur), but whatever the label, Strauss
here painted an unmistakable static image of
levels of programmaticism could coexist.86 And
in Nietzsche's idea of "convalescence" Strauss
the primal essence of the "universe" (yet another term with which he described this pasfound a programmatic subject seemingly desage) in musical signs as old as the Ninth Symsigned for the recommended kind of musical
phony: "hovering open [octaves], pianissimo, a
treatment, as if Nietzsche had been serious
missing third, a sense of expectancy, soon to be
fulfilled by a quickening into life and the force83Richard Wagner, "Ober Franz Liszt's symphonischeful emergence of a theme and a definite tonal-
Dichtungen: Brief an M. W.," in Gesammelte Schriftenity."91 The physical, the objective, the explic-
und Dichtungen von Richard Wagner, vol. 5 (Leipzig, n.d.),

pp. 193-94.
"8The notebook contains reflections on Oper und Drama87Daverio has compiled a list of the letters in which
that show Strauss working from the ground up, for ex-Nietzsche made this remark. Daverio, "Poetry and Phiample: "Oper und Drama S. 231. Der Irrtum im Kunstgenrelosophy," p. 258, n. 12.
der Oper bestand darin daf3 ein Mittel des Ausdruckes (die "88As we have seen in n. 86, Strauss decided early in his
Musik) zum Zwecke, der Zwecke des Ausdruckes (Das career as a programmatic composer that a productive tension could be maintained between illustrative and strucDrama) aber zum Mittel gemacht war" (RSA).
86In other words, a modern composer could give free reintural concerns, rejecting what he took to be an overly
to "intelligence" in a work otherwise appropriately con- simplistic Wagnerian view.
structed: "With regard to the outweighing of emotion by89Commentators on the tone poem have uniformly failed
intelligence, it is my belief (speaking generally) that in theto discuss the substance of this section: Zarathustra's need
case of a broad and generously disposed artistic nature theto descend to his fellow men and, like the sun, distribute
unconscious and the instincts, which together form the his wisdom. Zarathustra's subsequent actions make no
fundamental basis of every true and intensive creative urge,sense outside of the context of this need. "Ich muss, gleich
whether in the creative or the interpretive artist, will al-dir, untergehen, wie die Menschen es nennen, zu denen
ways be more powerful than the intellect, however highly ich hinab will" (Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra, p. 6).
developed the latter may be" (Beziiglich des Oberwiegens90Sketches and particell are held at the RSA. Transcrip-
der Intelligenz iiber das Gefiihl glaube ich [allgemeintions
of these and other annotations can be found in Franz
gesprochen], daBi bei einer grotiangelegten KiinstlernaturTrenner, Die Skizzenbiicher von Richard Strauss aus dem
das Unbewuiftsein und die Unwillkiir, die doch den Richard Strauss Archiv in Garmisch (Tutzing, 1977), pp.
Urgrund jeden wahren und intensiven Schaffensdranges,3-6. Werbeck's treatment of these sources deals with musei es nun beim producierenden oder beim reprocudierendensic as well as text and is at times more thorough; henceKiinstler, bilden, immer noch machtiger sein werden, alsforth I shall refer to his book when citing sketch material.
der Intellekt, sei er noch so hoch entwickelt) (letter of 391Maynard Solomon, "The Ninth Symphony: A Search for
March 1890, Cosima Wagner/Richard Strauss, p. 29; see Order," chap. in Beethoven Essays (Cambridge, Mass.,
1988), p. 3.
Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 64).
115
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
the I-IV-V-I motion of the first phrase dupliitly nonhuman thus takes on a recognizable
cates
approach to the C-major cadence at
audible guise from the first moments
ofthe
the
m. 19.93) G dissolves quickly, but into an expiece and stands available to mark the progress
of the human Zarathustra in his struggle
to
tended arpeggiation
of C minor, as if the music
transcend himself.
were transforming itself from within; we move
That struggle controls the harmonic shape through Ek at m. 46, C minor at m. 48, then on
of the piece, with the powerfully established C to A minor before returning to C minor (secmajor standing for Zarathustra's goal, and keys ond-inversion "tonic") at m. 51. This encoun-
that in one way or another lean toward C major ter with C is recalled at the end of the section
representing his progressive but ultimately fu- as a whole, with a G dominant-seventh chord
tile efforts to transcend his humanity. With a that decays (m. 74, second beat), slipping down
typically sure sense of pacing and direction, a half step to a six-four on B minor. After the
Strauss set a course from Ab (an ersatz C minor) developmental interlude of "Von der grossen
in "Von den Hinterweltlern" through C minor Sehnsucht," the closed formal structure in "Von
in "Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaften" to a
den Freuden- und Leidenschaften" (cadence at

thirdless C major in "Von der Wissenschaft."92 m. 157) firmly establishes C, but only in the
Following a reprise of the introduction at m. minor mode. Here the firmness with which the
329, and a lengthy transition that settles on the music is stamped as minor is felt both hardominant of C, the "Tanzlied" seems to achieve monically (the middle section is in Eb major,
the composition's musical-programmatic goal, with authentic cadences at mm. 138 and 146)
with a closed section in authentic C major
and melodically (Ek is the first and longest note
(mm. 409-527; the section is ternary, with the
of the melody at m. 115). A further step toward
proves unsustainable, however. Next we hear a
with the "Natur" theme at the head of the
middle subsection centered on A). The key
return of Zarathustra's "Dance theme" (Tanzthema) (so labeled by Hahn), in C major for the
first time; this would seem to mark the work's
climax, but after traveling through F and B (in
another clear ternary section) the music lands
on G (m. 613). The following closed Ab unit
signals further backtracking, and although the
triumphant appearance of the "Longing"

(Sehnsucht) theme in C at m. 738 makes a
powerful gesture in that key, we soon learn

that the hope of ending the piece in C is doomed.
During the "Nachtwandlerlied," the E pedal, a
C major is taken in "Von der Wissenschaft,"
subject and a descending chromatic tetrachord

in C in the upper voice of the subject. Describ-
ing this music as in the major mode would of
course be an overstatement; the E? that we hear

in the first measure (m. 201) disappears at once,
thus highlighting its absence from the empty
fifth of the subject. But the direction of the
musical-programmatic motion is clear.94

It is of course significant that the successful
arrival at C major comes only at the center of
"Der Genesende," after the fearsome return of
"Natur," which despite its violence is recog-
full seventy measures long, affirms that, however weighty the suggestion of C at this stage, a
collapse onto B is inevitable.

The work's grinding pursuit of C-major objectivity makes itself felt in musical details all
along the way. The opening of the A& "devout"
(andiichtig) section in "Von den Hinterweltlern"
presents the curious spectacle of a parallel period that begins in Ab and ends in G, the domi-
nant of C (mm. 35-42). (As Daverio has noted,
94With a phrase like "musical-programmatic motion" I
mean to revive Merian's argument that programmatic music is no more and no less representational than painting,
sculpture, or poetry. In contrast to Williamson, for example, who held that "it is at best doubtful if music can
be, as opposed to represent, a narrative," Merian found
music (at least in the hands of Strauss) capable of a communicative specificity equivalent to that of words and
visual images. This capacity had nothing to do with banal
pictorialism, for example (to abridge Merian's example),
four tones to represent "the elephant," a rising and falling
figure for "the mountain," simultaneous presentation of
both
92The V7 in F# at the end of "Das Grablied" resolves (as
anfor "the elephant climbing the mountain," and so on.
"Zarathustra," pp. 12-13; Williamson, Zaraaugmented sixth) to C major at m. 201, giving one toMerian,
hear
thustra, p. 54.
the fugue subject as beginning in C major.
116
nizable as a reprise of the work's opening.95

Merian called this moment the tone poem's
"peripeteia" and interpreted what came after
as an attempt to begin anew.96 If he was right,
then this passage holds a multitude of interpre-
tive opportunities-first among them, an explanation of why C major becomes an attainable goal, yet attainable only on a temporary
basis. Strauss himself thought this reprise important enough to mark with a provocative annotation in the particell, presumably as an aid
to working out his own understanding of the

moment, although, as we shall see, some version of the idea did reach the public through
Hahn.
brashly Faust declares himself the apparition's
CHARLES
YOUMANS
"equal," the clearer becomes the distinction Also sprach

between them, until the spirit vanishes, leav- Zarathustra
ing Faust "collapsing" (zusammenstiirzend).
Similarly, Zarathustra's crisis is precipitated
by an inability to "remain true to the earth"that is, to give up the "superterrestrial hopes"
that define humanity as a state to be "overcome."98 He is crushed by recognition of his
hopeless alienation from the objectivity he has
attempted to emulate, the objectivity of the

"world."
Not coincidentally, "Welt" is another of the
labels Strauss used for his "Nature" theme,

and it is surely in this sense that the music was
Just after the triple-forte explosion of "Natur" to convey the idea of the "natural."99 As the C-
(mm. 329-36), Strauss added the single wordG-C motive suggests, however, nature is static,
"shattered" (zerschmettert) and quoted the and to create a musical work Strauss needed
Earth Spirit of Goethe's Faust (part 1, lines motion, progress, striving-just the sort of thing
512-13)-"You resemble the spirit whom youprovided by the human interactions with nature that lead to crises in Faust and Nietzsche's
imagine, not me!"'97 Not the least interesting
fact concerning this citation is that it comesZarathustra. In all three artworks, the crisis
from virtually the same page of Faust on which
highlights this motion by stopping it, allowing
Goethe coined the term Ubermensch-a fact
the reader and listener to consider in a rather
more spatial sense the entire course of the

certainly not lost on the Goethe-lover Strauss.
drama. Thus as Seidl noted, Strauss here put a

In any case, Strauss recognized that the relationship between Faust and Zarathustra is more
spotlight on the motivating conflict of the work:
the conflict between humanity, a condition of
profound at this moment than the terminologi-
cal connection indicates. Faust's intellectual
slavery to an undeniable metaphysical drive,
exhaustion, his willingness to try any meansand

of the pure physicality of the earth.100
gaining knowledge, and his plunge from philo-It is around these points more than any oth-
sophical overconfidence ("am I a god?") to ers

ab- that inadequate conceptions of the
Nietzschean Ubermensch have led interpretject hopelessness-all these return in Zaraers of Strauss's Zarathustra astray. For
thustra, who suffers horribly from the realizaNietzsche, the "overcoming of man" consisted
tion that he is powerless to reach the condition
of Nature.
not in ultimate success at leaving behind one's
The crucial area of nexus here is the concept
of "earth." Both writers set this notion in oppo-
sition to humanity, such that inherent weaknesses preclude a human subject from approach-
humanity but in admitting that this cannot be

done, indeed in joyfully willing the recurrence
of endless cycles of optimism and despair. The
original subtitle of the tone poem, "Symphonic
ing an "earthly" condition. Faust meets ridi- Optimism in Fin-de-siecle Form, dedicated to
cule for suggesting even a feeling of kinship the twentieth century," is a perfectly clear reformulation of this antithesis; it uses a stanwith the Earth Spirit, whose contempt for the
"frightened, cringing worm" (ein furchtsam dard reading of that provocative French phrase
weggekriimmter Wurm) before him underlies
the sarcastic epithet "superman." The more
981"Ich beschwbre euch, meine Bruder, bleibt der Erde treu
und glaubt Denen nicht, welche euch von iiberirdischen

Hoffnungen reden!" (Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra,
9sSee, for example, Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 81.
96Merian, "Zarathustra," p. 16.
p. 9).
97"Du gleichst dem Geist, den du begreifst, nicht mir!"
(Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 142).
'?Seidl, "Also sang Zarathustra," p. 91.
117
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
and is certainly not "intended to hold out the

promvariation set.104 Ironically, the success of
ise for things to come in the new century"
(at newer commentaries has depended on a
these
least in the sense meant by Daverio).101

willingness to problematize the work, and to
Zarathustra is emphatically not the OLber- accept the existence of simultaneous, interacmensch-rather he is merely his prophet-but tive formal layers. By now the necessity of conhe begins to understand the condition that we
sidering Zarathustra as a sonata-form movemight awkwardly term Ubermenschlichkeit, ment and as a "multimovement" work has
as we learn from the music's tonal progress. In gained general acceptance; discussion along
terms of key, Zarathustra is inextricably bound these lines is necessarily supplemented by into B, the key in which he first expresses his vestigation of other kinds of relationships, pardefinitively human "Sehnsucht" and into which ticularly thematic/leitmotivic.
he withdraws after each failed effort to achieve
C major.
Merian identified B as the "key of the ideal"
In the work of Williamson, Daverio, and

Werbeck, discussion of the sonata/symphony
perspective is nearing consensus, although at
(die Tonart des Ideals) in this work, an obser- the level of nuance important issues remain to
vation by no means incompatible with Strauss's be resolved. Williamson's 1993 treatment lays
association of B with the "Individuum" (and

one that supports Williamson's assertion that
keys themselves operate as Leitmotifs in the
piece).102 In the Nietzschean view, a concept
out (elliptically) the case for sonata and sym-
phony, without pressing either one to completion.105 After the opening "exposition of mo-
tives," we find an incomplete slow movement
such as the "ideal" always has roots in the "all- (m. 35, Ab, mit Andacht), a "developmental
too-human," and it is this connection between link," and in "Von den Freuden- und
humanity and metaphysics that defines the key Leidenschaften" a sonata-form first subject that
of B in Zarathustra.103 After the peripeteia, C preserves its function in terms of "expression
major does finally emerge, but this in no way and rhetoric" but not form. (Presumably this
signals the achievement of that toward which theme would also serve as a "first movement.")
Zarathustra had been striving; we hear C major A rather hesitantly suggested reading of the
only temporarily, marked by the sounds of the "Grablied" as a second subject is followed by a
salon and that preeminent sign of subjectivity, fugal/developmental section (with fugues in
"antique and modern" styles), a reprise of the
the solo violin. The point here is that
Zarathustra must inevitably sink back into hisintroduction that inaugurates a retransition, and
humanity, into B, and the manner in which hea fusion of scherzo and recapitulation at the
"Tanzlied."
does so, rather than the fact that he does so,
The similarly motivated account of Daverio
will determine his redemption.
fills in some of the gaps that Williamson chose

to leave, for example by completing the fourRecent analyses of the form of Zarathustra have
movement scheme with a third movement begiven us a much more satisfying picture of the
ginning at "Von der Wissenschaft."106 Generwork than was available during much of this
ally Daverio provides a more watertight vercentury, when discussions alternated between
the flimsy ad hoc notion of a "symphonic fan-sion of both sonata and symphony; thus he
construes mm. 1-114 as (among other things) a
tasy" and simplistic accounts using models of
colossal sonata-form introduction. Again the
sonata form, the four-movement symphony, or
"Grablied" is put forth as a second subject (in
the diagram but not the text; the reticence may
'O'Daverio, "Poetry and Philosophy," p. 216.
102Merian, "Zarathustra," pp. 20-21; Werbeck,
Tondichtungen, p. 141; Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 72.
'04For discussions of this literature, see Williamson,
Zarathustra, pp. 70-87; and Werbeck, Tondichtungen, pp.
'03Gustav Brecher saw C as the "Realittitstonart," B as412-17.

"metaphysisch." Gustav Brecher, Richard Strauss: Eine losWilliamson, Zarathustra, pp. 77-83.
'06Daverio, "Poetry and Philosophy," pp. 212-14.
monographische Skizze (Leipzig, 1900), p. 32.
118
be noteworthy), and the recapitulation falls at

the beginning of the "Tanzlied." Daverio placed
the coda at the "Nachwandlerlied," rather than
at the arrival on B major (m. 946), perhaps relying too heavily on Strauss's labels.
In a characteristically useful survey of the
literature on this topic, Werbeck arrived at con-
clusions much like those of Williamson and
CHARLES
cadence (m. 681) as that of the first subject
in
YOUMANS
the exposition (m. 157). Aside from theAlso
fact
sprach
Zarathustra
that this renewed emphasis on Ab represents
another example of the backtracking from C
characteristic of the music that follows the
waltz, we have here a direct reversal of sonata-
form practice-a "revaluation of values" that
might easily have occurred to a composer some-
Daverio, with rather more emphasis on what

the too familiar with the ruts of sonata form
sonata than the symphony.'o7 He disagreed
(as the first movement of his F-Minor Symstrongly with the idea of the "Grablied"phony
as attests).
second subject, however, granting that status
Yet, if we take the appearance of "Sehnsucht"
to the Ab "Andacht" section in what he saw as
at m. 30 as the second subject, and B minor as
a "typical" Straussian reversal of first and sec-the second key area (which is difficult without
ond themes. (The evidence here is the firstusing hindsight, given the relative power with
movement of Aus Italien, as analyzed by
Strauss.) "Von der grossen Sehnsucht" thus be-
comes (at least on this level) a transition between first and second subjects. Other qualifications added by Werbeck-for example, the
observation that the development intensifies
which C major is established in the introduction-Daverio left this modulation to B en-
tirely unmentioned),'09 we have a second theme

that at least goes through the normal motions.
The return of "Sehnsucht" in C at m. 738 is
probably the closest thing to triumph in the

tone poem and fulfills an expectation raised
ment" combines signs of scherzo and finale-- again and again (not least by the successive
are relatively minor.
presentations of "Sehnsucht" in C and B at
with the second fugue, or that the last "move-
Werbeck's decision in favor of the "free so-
mm. 686-99). But if this is resolution of a strucnata" probably owes something to the fact that tural dissonance, it does not hold, for the theme
in works of this sort, analysis of different returns in B major in the epilogue, as a bassoon
"movements" tends to stall at identification; acounterpoint to one of its own extensions (mm.
ternary cantilena in a relaxed tempo may sug-954ff.). Here too, then, Strauss seems to be
gest a slow movement, but genuine analysis saying that sonata form will not work; for whatneeds to go further, particularly in music con- ever reason, the C-major tonic does not possess
ceived as an advance over the episodic tech- the power to draw the music back to itself.
nique of Liszt.08os The sonata proves more fruit- When isolating structural units in the music
ful in this respect. For example, if we followof Strauss, it is essential to consider the
composer's dependence on what Bryan Gilliam
ject, or more precisely take the Ab tonichas
ofcalled the "clarifying, affirming power of
the
"Andacht" as the second key area of the piece-- cadential gesture.""01 As one who worked
Werbeck and call "Andacht" the second sub-
which is a rather natural thing to do after the

in a forbiddingly complex tonal idiom, Strauss
first seventy measures of Zarathustra-then
relied heavily on the cadence as a sign of what
mattered at the structural level and what didn't;
the recapitulation begins to speak more clearly.
There the expected resolution of the structural
in particular, he used the specific gesture of the
perfect authentic cadence only sparingly, and
dissonance is replaced by a return of the first
virtually always at moments of structural sigsubject ("Von den Freuden- und LeidenschafIn Zarathustra, the only perfect auten," according to all three analysts), in nificance.
the
thentic
cadences that function structurally (that
second key of the work, ending on as solid
a
is, by marking the end of formal sections con-
t07Werbeck, Tondichtungen, pp. 412-17.
'08Williamson has discussed Strauss's conscious efforts to
'lgDaverio, "Poetry and Philosophy," pp. 213-14.

move past the "unity of image characteristic of the Lisztian lloBryan Gilliam, Richard Strauss's Elektra (Oxford, 1991),
p. 74.
symphonic poem" (Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 75).
119
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
trolled by a particular key) are in C Werbeck,

and Ab:the antico fugue corresponding to the
those in C occur in the introduction tonally
(m. 19),
"unidirectional" (geradlinig) intensifi-
"Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaft" (m.

157),
cation
in C (mm. 685-789), the modern version
and the "Tanzlied" (m. 527); those in Ab
at the
to the
thematically and tonally fragmented sec-
end of the "Andacht" section in "Von den
ond (mm. 805-77)."5s Whereas the first half col-
Hinterweltlern" (m. 66) and the "dark"lapses

(as in rubble (B-C trill/pedal, crushing reStrauss wrote in the sketch)"' return of
the
turn
of "Nature"), the second recedes smoothly
"Freuden- und Leidenschaften" during into
thethe transfigured B major of the coda.
Analytically, this account of the form does
"Tanzlied" (m. 681). There is only one such
cadence in the key of B, and it comes at
nothing
the to undermine sonata- and symphonybased
beginning of a section rather than the- end
(m. readings of the music (which in their
239, following the first fugal section).1"2 own ways admit the whole to be "irredeemably
fractured" on the level of harmonic organizaFocusing attention on the sections marked

by Strauss with cadences lends supporttion,
to in Williamson's phrase); it simply disMerian's notion of "concealed symmetry"
inanother layer of organization.116 Programcloses
the form of Zarathustra. Merian argued (somematically, it supports the idea that the longwhat less systematically than one mightawaited
have arrival in C major in the "Tanzlied"
hoped) that the tone poem consists of twoactually
simi- initiates a movement away from that
key and what it represents."117 The second half
larly constituted halves, separated by a "transhasreno greater chance of ending in C than the
formation" (Wandlung) extending from the
turn of the introduction through the retransition
first, but that fact now appears in an entirely
newaslight, above all at the cadence at m. 965, a
(mm. 329-408).113 Table 1 shows how this
move afrom dominant to subdominant prosertion might be fleshed out. In each half,
foundly reminiscent of Tristan (and in the same
closed section in C major leads (via a modula-
key). The vain struggle of the first half, then,

tory transition with its own thematic material)
way in the coda to the wisdom of accepto a closed section in A1 major. During thegives
first
half, this process goes through another tance.
cycle,
with a tonally mobile section that ends on the
Given that the form of Zarathustra is to some

dominant of C leading to the closed C-minor
extent adapted to a single unifying programunit, "Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaften."
Strauss's use of the "Freuden- und Leidenmatic idea, we would expect to find thematic
schaften" thematic material in the A? section
processes similarly affected. Here Williamson's

of the second half suggests that the two cyclesidea (drawn from Derrick Puffett) of a "conof the first half have been telescoped;114 presen-tinuum of meaning for Leitmotifs" in
tation of another closed section in C would
Zarathustra can be extended, so that musical
have contradicted the musical-programmaticrelationships as puzzling as they are audible

begin to make better sense."18 Each of the three
momentum, which is moving away from C.
The two fugues find their analogues in the two
massive Steigerungen usefully discussed by
"Ibid., p. 363. Werbeck does not suggest a correspondence

between the two fugues and the Steigerungen. His separation of the A6 section (mm. 629-81) from what follows it
makes more sense musically than Daverio's extension of
"'Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 142.
the trio to mm. 737ff., whether or not we take into ac"2Undervaluing of cadential significance often leads to
problematic interpretations of tonal structure, as incount Strauss's attitudes toward the cadence. Daverio, "PoDaverio's reading of the "Dance-Song." C/B/C is a ratheretry and Philosophy," p. 219.
forced hearing of mm. 409-613; the section in B alluded to "6Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 72.
in the diagram (mm. 561-68?) has far less weight than"7This idea is also supported by Werbeck's observations
either section in C, and whereas the first ternary sectionthat the "Dance-Song" seems not to have a strong harmonic goal, and that no theme seems adequate to the key
in C (with a middle subsection in A) ends in that key, the
second has a firm cadence in G, which then gives way toof C major. Werbeck, Tondichtungen, pp. 367, 424.
Ab at m. 629. Daverio, "Poetry and Philosophy," p. 213. "8Williamson's decision not to pursue this approach be"-With the trills beginning at m. 409, "die grofie Wandlungyond a few brief examples illustrates the difficulty of making convincing arguments of this sort. Williamson,
ist vollzogen" (Merian, "Zarathustra," p. 45).
Zarathustra, p. 74.
"4Compare Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 366, n. 144.
120
Table 1
Concealed Symmetry
HINTERWELTLERN SEHNSUCHT UND LEIDENSCHAFTEN WISSENSCHAFT
INTRODUCTION VON DEN VON DER GROSSEN VON DEN FREUDEN- DAS GRABLIED VON DER DER GENESENDE
Freuden- und
Leidenschaften)
Ab
closed
(B)(F)C
(e)
(6/3)
96
open
NAC
DAS
open
m.
(modulation)
(F)
681)
(D)
m.
613)
(PAC
(PAC
(themes: (Steigerung 1) (Steigerung 2)
open
TANZLIED
closed open closed open closed open open open "Wandlun

(fugue 1) (fugue 2) Natur;
m. 66)
C (f) (b) A6 b C: V c b F#:

(PAC m. 19) (PAC (PAC m. 157)
DAS
C
527)
m.
m.
closed
(PAC
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
motives identified by Merian as the

Urmotive
Nietzsche's
philosophy. More than this, though,
his construction of the motive itself demonhas something to offer in this respect.119
Werbeck has taken the progressivestrates
transforStrauss's philosophical sensitivity, by
mation (or "history" [Geschichte], inthe
hisefficiency
words) with which it captures the es-
of "Sehnsucht" as itself a "formal plane"

sence of the argument. Disgust is the product
(formale Ebene). In this view, "Sehnsucht" is of an irrepressible drive (the tritone F-B) to
gradually supplanted by its own continuation reach (resolve to) a state (C major) that is avail(the "Tanzthema," heard first at m. 252), which
in turn grounds an important tonal move by

changing from a B-major theme, to a B-major
theme over a C dominant-seventh chord (mm.
400ff.), to a C-major theme (mm. 529ff.), to a
fragment in B6 (mm. 806ff.). Another way to
able to humanity only in corrupt form (an augmented triad built on C).121 For Strauss, it was
only natural to compose out the motive, as for
example at the beginning of the "Hinterwelt-
lern," where the modulation from F minor to B

minor creates the same impetus toward C that
approach this motive might be to follow
is embodied in the first two notes of "Ekel"
shows the motive at its first appearance, then
at mm. 348ff. in rapid-fire exchanges that leave
descent to the raised mediant; in B minor, with

an extended continuation; in B minor, with an
Merian located its defining feature in its lack of
dominant; in C major, but otherwise as before;
Riddle" (Weltrdtsel), an idea that Seidl dis-
continuation finally completed. If there is a
by the absence of a third, and every restatement of the motive consists of only the first
"Sehnsucht" itself to the end of the piece-for (mm. 23-32). But for those sensitive to Strauss's
by no means does it disappear after the first language, the motives themselves tell an eloappearance of the "Tanzthema"-with an eye quent version of the story. Thus the inevitable
on its various continuations and what they sug- breakdown of metaphysical "Sehnsucht" in
gest about its developing meaning. Example 1 Nietzschean "Ekel" is finally stated explicitly
in subsequent appearances in B minor, with

the characteristic octave leap followed by a
the two motives indistinguishable.

As to "Natur" (C-G-C), both Hahn and
modal definition; Merian called it "the Sphinx

ascending continuation; in B major, also with nature, that stares at us with dark, empty
an ascending continuation; in B major, with a eyes."'122 It was the emptiness of this missing
new descending continuation stepwise to the third that Hahn alluded to with his "World-
in C major, with an extended descending
missed as "stupid" (if the term originated with

stepwise continuation; in D major, without an Strauss, there is no independent evidence that
appoggiatura on the penultimate note; and he used it). Either way, the real question here
finally in B major, with the descending stepwise would seem to be why, if the motive is defined
history here, it would appear to be the history
of the stepwise descent, which only gradually
comes into focus and then requires three separate attempts to reach completion. Once again,
a process that cannot quite succeed in C major
(notwithstanding the textural density and dy-
namic power of the passages in C) reaches its
three notes, the introduction dwells on the third
in such a spectacular fashion. The famous interchanges of major and minor mediant (mm.
6-7, 10-11) are unquestionably not part of
"Natur," if we accept the Hahn/Merian view.

Yet they go on to have considerable thematic
goal in B, within five measures of the transfig- influence on the piece, as shown in ex. 2.
The identification of exs. 2b-d with subjecuring cadence at m. 965.
The label "Ekel"-Merian's second
tivity (the backworldsmen; B-centered humanity; C defined subjectively by the "Tanz"Urmotiv"-has particularly strong Nietzthema's" "history" and by the absence of a
schean resonance, as we have seen, and Strauss's
cadence in that key) raises the possibility that
choice of it (he used it in the sketches)120 confirms his understanding of its centrality to
"19Merian, "Zarathustra," pp. 16-17.

'20Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 138.
'21The agent of "corruption" here, G#, is the enharmonic

equivalent of Ab.
122"[.. .] die Sphinx Natur, die uns mit leeren, sternlosen

Augen anstarrt" (Merian, "Zarathustra," p. 17).
122
a. mm. 26-27
CHARLES
YOUMANS
Bsn
Also sprach
Zarathustra
-f
b. mm. 30-32
Vc., D.b.
c. mm. 75-78
1 v1. 4 L 4 J
f 1, , OF Ti I i ir -- I I
if
e. mm. 249-52
f. mm. 381-82
g. mm. 685-91
Vc.
Solo
if
h. mm. 737-46
Str.
i. mm. 849-57
Trb., Tb
j. mm. 953-60
Bsn.S
3o
h m3
Example 1: The "history" of "longing."

123
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
a. mm. 10-11
Tpt., Vn.
e >- - 0
D.b.
in Zarathustra than commentators have cared
to mention, although their reserve is understandable, given the cryptic quality of the pas-
sages in which E is at issue. Werbeck has been
the only writer seriously to attempt an explanation of the lengthy E pedal beneath C major
b. mm. 37-38
at the end of the "Nachtwandlerlied"; he ana-
lyzed it as a premature subdominant bass, draw-
ing the music back to B.123 Both Hahn and
Werbeck considered the abbreviated entrance
of the fugal subject on E in "Von der
Vc.
Wissenschaft" (m. 217, with a renewed attempt

at m. 219) a significant moment, particularly as
c. mm. 251-53
the fugue in "Der Genesende" begins with a

full statement of the subject on E, then re-
.W
sumes the circle-of-fifths pattern.124 Hahn also
took note of the near climax in E (in second
inversion) during the modulatory section of the
"Andacht" episode (mm. 55-58), a passage re-
d. mm. 528-30
called nearly verbatim during "Von der grossen
Sehnsucht" (mm. 103-06). In the coda, it is an

E triad, the subdominant of B, that lends the
"transfiguring" cadence at m. 965 its singular
Vn
ff Vc., D.b.
pizz.
Example 2
much of what we hear in the introduction is

not intended to be "nature" tout court but a
effect. Here our sense of E as a goal is height-
ened by the bassoon's retrograde presentation

of the motive in the first violin, m. 946 (a
transposition of the motive in the violins and
upper winds at mm. 924-26 and 930-32, which
is itself a recall of m. 241). At m. 962 this line
begins precisely at the completion of the final
version of "Longing."
human perception of nature-a vision, already

The sketches indicate that these passages
mediated, as in Nietzsche's prologue. The only
may be vestiges of what once was an even
accidentals that appear in the introduction, Eb

larger role for E in the piece: at one stage Strauss
and A?, play crucial roles in the first two subeven planned to end the work in E major.125 A
jective attempts to reach C, as we have seen.

comprehensive explanation of the meaning of
The next attempt, the fugue, takes the thirdless

these E references may be difficult to come by,
"Natur" motive as its starting point, thus prebut one possibility is suggested by a remark in
senting a more focused vision of the goal,Steinitzer's

in
frustratingly brief analysis of
Steinitzer (who as Williamson has
line with the Hahn/Merian understanding Zarathustra.
of
this motive. But the cadence at m. 19, indisputreminded us was engaged in a polemical exably the most powerful of the work, leaves no
change with the dead Eduard Hanslick) exdoubt that the aim here is C major, a chord
with rather different connotations than the
'23Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 364.

emptiness characteristic of "Natur."
"Zarathustra," p. 37; Werbeck, Tondichtungen,
What differentiates C major from "Natur"124Merian,
is
p. 361.
the presence of the pitch E, which serves as '25At
thethe end of one of the prose plans for the work we find
the phrase "dann ins Edur ganz ffir zuletzt" (Werbeck,

target of the shifting-mediant motive in its first
Tondichtungen, p. 135; cf. Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 35).

and last appearances: during the introduction
The sketches also show a discarded theme in E minor that
(m. 11) and at the motive's climax (beginning
Strauss labeled "base passions" (niedrige Leidenschaften).
Tondichtungen, p. 140.
at m. 529). Strauss had a deeper concern withWerbeck,
E
124
plained the so-called bitonal closing measures
Merian, who read Steinitzer's first chord as an

"incomplete supertonic seventh chord in E mi-
seem, but "human nature" is embodied in this CHARLES

YOUMANS
music, as the atheist Strauss believed it to be Also sprach
when it contemplated objective reality. Here Zarathustra
we might remember a sketch for Strauss's uncompleted symphonic work "Der Antichrist,"
a portion of which became Eine Alpensinfonie.
At the end of a planned second movement,
itself the culmination of the Nietzschean work,
we were to hear "worship of eternal glorious
zweiten Stufe von E-moll). Even more interestingly, Merian believed this chord functioned as
Natur).'30 This may be as close as Strauss ever

came to expressing a private feeling for reli-
much as Werbeck explained the E pedal in mm.
joyful existence free of metaphysical hopes, a

lasting implementation of the experience (C
major) of (objective, natural) reality (C-G-C),
of the work as a simple alternation of subdominant (with added sixth) and dominant triads in
E minor.126 This is undoubtedly a rhetorical

oversimplification of a chord that has a long
and complicated history in this tone poem, but
the basic validity of the idea is supported by
nor" (unvollstandiger Septimenaccord auf der

a "mediator" (Vermittelung) between B and C,
876-945.127
A closer look at the "Ekel" motive shows B
nature" (Anbetung der ewigen herrlichen
gion. Yet he knew as well as anyone that a
was too much to ask of a mere human. That

and E framing a chromatic fourth-a tonal identifier used in at least two other places by Strauss
would be left to the being whom Zarathustra
in this work alone.128 Within "Ekel," then,could
an
only prophesy, whose state of existence
unsuccessful attempt to move from B to CZarathustra
is
could not achieve any more than E
mediated by (a sign of) E. If, as Strauss held in
could bridge the gap between B and C: the
(ibermensch.
his later years, Zarathustra was about the impossibility of reconciling these two neighboring keys, then it is clear that E, insofar asAt
it this stage it may be useful to note that the
climax of Zarathustra, the return of the
acted as an agent of reconciliation, would have
to fail. And failure is one feature shared by all

"Tanzthema" in C major (mm. 529ff.), is a prothe puzzling E references in the tone poem. But
grammatic and musical reworking of the introwhat of E as a sign of subjectivity in the introduction. The motivic push from E? to E that we
duction-as the tone that transforms "Natur"
have identified as emblematic of the subjective
into a subjective perception of "Natur"? This

experience of nature is here laid over "Natur"
too amounts to a shift between objectivity and

itself; ideas heard originally in succession, tosubjectivity, but one that succeeds and becomes
gether comprising the motivating factor of the
a model the attempted emulation of which

entire work, now return simultaneously (ex.
makes up the substance of the piece.
2d). The Strauss of our popular imagination
In a little-known interview given during his
might have ended the piece here, and indeed
1921 American tour, Strauss gave his only the
de- early plans called for a conclusion in C
scription of the "Natur" music that actually
major with the "Tanzhymnus."'31 But the inused that word: "When I wrote Zarathustra, I
adequacy of this idea was apparent to one who
wished to embody in it the conflict between understood Nietzsche, and Strauss was left to
man's nature as it is and man's metaphysical
search for a more suitable key in which to end.
attempts to lay hold of his nature with his
The mere fact that the work begins in one
intelligence."129 Not mere "nature," it would
key and ends in another raises questions, among
them the substance of Zarathustra's relation-
ship to Mahler's contemporaneous works and

to Strauss's own operas. In fact, Strauss had
dealt with the issue specifically, if ironically,
'26Williamson, Zarathustra, pp. 41-42; Max Steinitzer, Richard Strauss (5th-8th edn. Berlin, 1914), p. 152.
'27Merian, "Zarathustra," pp. 52-53.
128These places are in the oboe at the beginning of "Das
Grablied" (mm. 166-67), and in the upper voice of the

fugal subject in "Von der Wissenschaft" (mm. 201-05). 130Ibid., p. 198.
129Quoted in Werbeck, Tondichtungen, p. 61.
'31Ibid., pp. 136-37.

125
19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
in a footnote at the end of "Wenn" (1895),

a
organicism"'32
actually defines the "symphonic
Lied that begins in Eb but ends in E-unless
it
optimism"
Strauss believed he had composed.
is being performed in the nineteenth century,
And it is in that "optimism" that we find the
when performers should feel free to conclude
solution he devised, under the influence of
and with significant intellectual exin Eb. As a work literally dedicated to theNietzsche
twentieth century (Strauss did not provide a substiertion, to the private philosophical
tute dedicatee when he changed the subtitle),

dilemma
Zarathustra would seem required to partake of
of his youth. 0
the same method of harmonic organization.

But this time the content of the work truly
'32Fragmentation is the implicit formal result, as
demanded a "progressive" harmonic scheme.
Williamson explains, of Zarathustra's key plan.
The fragmentation implied here of "musical
Williamson, Zarathustra, p. 72.
IN OUR NEXT ISSUE (SPRING 1999)

ARTICLES RICHARD L. COHN: As Wonderful as Star Clusters: Instruments for
Gazing at Tonality in Schubert

RAYMOND KNAPP: Suffering Children: Perspectives on Innocence
and Vulnerability in Mahler's Fourth Symphony
STEPHEN DOWNES: Kierkegaard, a Kiss, and Schumann's Fantasie
WAYNE C. PETTY: Chopin and the Ghost of Beethoven
126

746853

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

746853

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Private Intellectual Context of Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra"

Author(s): Charles Youmans

The Private Intellectual Context of

Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra

Few commentators on the music of Richard

who marked the passing of his beloved collabo-

rator Hofmannsthal by setting to work on

Hepokoski, who provided detailed comments on several

University Center for International Studies.

'The result was a thorough Nuancierung of the opera, mak-

2The family, of course, recognized the ironic tone in such

The Life of Richard Strauss (Cambridge, forthcoming).

as a disguise; what could be less consistent

laws of purely musical logic," in C major, com-

sions needs to be borne in mind when con-

ture.5 Although there is at least a grain of truth

plete bewith "the dualism of a male and female

3Arthur Hahn, "Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung frei

Musikstiick, noch dazu in C-dur, findet, das den aus allen

opera Guntram at its Munich premiere. He

success of Till Eulenspiegel, belonged to him.

given the desperate curiosity of the German

some kind of definitive statement before the

of "evolution" (itself a Darwinian buzzword

obvious fascination of an "analysis" approved

Till and Zarathustra "genau nach meinen Angaben

angefertigt worden sind." Henning Siedentopf, Musiker der

Spatromantik: Unbekannte Briefe aus dem Nachlaf3 von

Josef und Alfred Sittard (Tiibingen, 1979), p. 78. The letter's

significance was noticed by Werbeck; see Tondichtungen,

interest in marketplace success. For Werbeck, Strauss's

his works, I do not believe that (in the case of Zarathustra,

cide, but they could just as easily diverge. See

181) of having composed "philosophical music," Strauss

continued: "I meant rather to convey in music the idea of

the various phases of development, religious as well as

scientific, up to Nietzsche's idea of the Ubermensch. The

tion in his book Also sprach Zarathustra." John Williamson

Also sprach Zarathustra (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 64-67.

(returns to B minor or major); and finally a crisis (a reprise

ter and dancing (the waltz), but no solution to the riddle

moderner Komponist doch am Ende ebensogut seine

sich vereinigenden Goethe'schen 'Faust,' von dem iibrigens

thoughts concerning Nietzsche and his

During the ruckus that surrounded theThis

poem's early performances, those who

nizable echo of Hahn, however, we should

overlook the simultaneous intensification of

not deny that line's existence. In our own time,

not been quite so unequivocal. Indeed, Hahn

Daverio that Strauss did not understand

ing that "Nietzsche connoisseurs" (NietzscheNietzsche's philosophy.19 In Strauss's time, it

familiar with the whole of Nietzsche's work.16

'5"Welcher Unsinn von den verschiedensten Seiten dabei

embodied "the development of the higher man

jective observations and thoughts concerning

zu Tage gef6rdert worden ist, sei nur an dem Beispiel einer

Nietzsche's prologue with which Strauss prefaced the

19John Daverio, "Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra

gegangen werden, wie es der Komponist in freiem

Ankniipfen an das Werk des Philosophen gedacht hat. Den

in any case a projection of Strauss's own.

20"Ob wir aus Straufens symphonischer Dichtung nun

gard concluded, a propos of the same Berlin