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A Christian Response to the Impact of Nietzschean Philosophy on Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra Musical Offerings Volume 10 Number 1 Spring 2019 Article 2 4-18-2019 A Christian Response to the Impact of Nietzschean Philosophy on Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra Amanda N. Staufer Cedarville University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings Part of the Christianity Commons, Esthetics Commons, Musicology Commons, New Religious Movements Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to [email protected]. Recommended Citation Staufer, Amanda N. (2019) "A Christian Response to the Impact of Nietzschean Philosophy on Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra," Musical Offerings: Vol. 10 : No. 1 , Article 2. DOI: 10.15385/jmo.2019.10.1.2 Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol10/iss1/2 A Christian Response to the Impact of Nietzschean Philosophy on Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra Document Type Article Abstract This article explores the way Friedrich Nietzsche’s worldview influenced the compositions of Richard Strauss, specifically Strauss’s most famous work—a tone poem called Also sprach Zarathustra. This tone poem is a fascinating piece of music because it reflects Strauss’s philosophical inquiries into the nature and meaning of life. Although Strauss left relatively limited explanations of Also sprach Zarathustra, his few words regarding the tone poem reveal his intention to convey in music an idea of man’s evolution from his original state up to Nietzsche’s idea of a superman. First, this article surveys the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche as it is displayed in his book Thus Spake Zarathustra. Secondly, this article explains the way Nietzsche’s worldview and writings influenced Richard Strauss’s personal life and consequent compositions. As Strauss stated explicitly, he did not intend to put Nietzsche’s book to music, yet the tone poem still bears the marks of a philosophical journey investigating the nature and purpose of human life. Finally, this article suggests a thoughtful Christian response to music which reflects an anti-God worldview. Keywords Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophy, worldview, nihilism, Christianity, Ubermensch, Superman, Richard Strauss, Also sprach Zarathustra, Thus Spake Zarathustra, purpose, meaning, religion, humanity, anthropology, music Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This article is available in Musical Offerings: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol10/iss1/2 Musical Offerings 2019 Volume 10 Number 1 13 ⦁ ⦁ ⦁ A Christian Response to the Impact of Nietzschean Philosophy on Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra Amanda N. Staufer Cedarville University cience fiction. Space and time. Showdown between man and machine. Connection between past and future. When the opening S notes of Richard Strauss’s famous tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra pierce the air, Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey likely comes to mind. However, have you ever stopped to consider the man behind the music? Do you wonder what kind of mental capacity, creativity, and even angst might be at the core of such a powerful, iconic masterpiece? This article aims to show how Strauss’s embrace of an anti-metaphysical worldview impacted his life and compositions. Because of its distinctly philosophical themes, Also sprach Zarathustra provides an insightful example. In 1896, Richard Strauss composed his tone poem called Also sprach Zarathustra. A tone poem is a one-movement musical piece intended to portray an extramusical idea. This concert work received widespread acceptance as well as criticism, as did Strauss himself. Also sprach Zarathustra is a fascinating piece of music because it reflects the composer’s philosophical journey through deep questions about the nature, purpose, and meaning of life. Strauss was greatly influenced by the works of several philosophers, especially Friedrich Nietzsche. Although Strauss left relatively little explanation of Also sprach Zarathustra, his few words regarding the tone poem reveal his aim to depict in music an idea of man’s evolution from his original state, “through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific,” up to Nietzsche’s idea of a superman.1 This idea was largely 1 Michael Kennedy, Richard Strauss; Man, Musician, Enigma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 112. Musical Offerings 10, no. 1 (2019): 13-27 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2019, Amanda N. Staufer, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) 14 Staufer Nietzsche’s Impact on Strauss inspired by Nietzsche.2 Named after Nietzsche’s⦁ book, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra contains Nietzschean subtitles, although these were added after the tone poem was already composed. As Strauss stated explicitly, he did not intend to put Nietzsche’s book to music.3 Also sprach Zarathustra both reflects the impact of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra on Strauss’s philosophical inquiries and begs a thoughtful Christian response. Richard Strauss’s Life and Philosophy Richard Strauss composed his music in Germany during the late Romantic and early Modern era. Born into a musical family in 1864, Strauss composed his first work (‘Schneider’ Polka for Piano) in 1870 at the age of six.4 By his ninth birthday, young Strauss had completed no less than thirty-five compositions in every major genre of his day: symphonies, symphonic poems, operas, songs, piano solos, and choral and chamber works.5 His most famous works include three operas (Salome, Arabella, and Der Rosenkavalier), and four tone poems (Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung, and Till Eulenspiegel). Many of Strauss’s compositions can be read as a history of his struggle with specific intellectual-philosophical concerns. Although Richard Strauss attended a Cathedral School as a child, he later became a confirmed atheist.6 According to Strauss, Christianity only had the capacity to be uplifting for a certain time.7 Germany would gain renewed strength by being released from the weak-minded thinking of Christianity.8 Strauss thought that Christian faith resulted in child-like religious feelings and that maturity meant rejecting Christianity in favor of independent thinking.9 Throughout his lifetime, Strauss wrestled with deep philosophical and existential questions. He steeped himself in the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, a nineteenth-century philosopher who 2 Kennedy, Richard Strauss; Man, Musician, Enigma, 112. 3 Ibid. 4 Raymond Holden, Richard Strauss; A Musical Life (Cornwall: TJ International Ltd, 2011), 8. 5 David Hurwitz. Richard Strauss: An Owner’s Manual (Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Amadeus Press, 2014), Preface. 6 Holden, Richard Strauss; A Musical Life, 8. 7 Kennedy, Richard Strauss; Man, Musician, Enigma, 175. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. Musical Offerings 2019 Volume 10 Number 1 15 argued that human⦁ action⦁ is ultimately⦁ directionless, driven by the dissatisfied, metaphysical will. After his deep study of Schopenhauerian philosophy, Strauss described a person (probably himself) who had mastered the details of Schopenhauer but had not yet come to understand that perpetual suffering is necessary to all life.10 Even as he formed his own worldview, Strauss critiqued Arthur Schopenhauer extensively. Strauss disagreed with Schopenhauer’s philosophy that life was primarily driven by the metaphysical “Will” and found himself agreeing with an anti-metaphysical worldview. An anti- metaphysical worldview holds that “perspectives are positions from which meaning is imposed” (essentially, there is no objective truth, only subjective opinion), and “the imposition of meaning is a function of the will to power.”11 This critical view of Schopenhauer was largely influenced by Strauss’s interest in Nietzschean philosophy. In addition to his study of Schopenhauer, Strauss explored Nietzsche’s writings. Nietzsche’s book, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (Human, All Too Human), “addressed the very doubts that were afflicting Strauss and provided answers that the composer had been laboring to devise for himself.”12 Strauss was concerned with self-justification of the individual, and this corresponded with Nietzsche’s rejection of Christianity, of which Strauss approved.13 Like Strauss, Nietzsche also subscribed to an anti-metaphysical worldview. Yet, Strauss was still plagued by doubts about his developing anti- metaphysical aesthetic.14 Both the tonal structure and handling of themes in Also sprach Zarathustra depict Strauss working through existential anxieties to completely embrace an anti-metaphysical worldview.15 In his 1998 research on Strauss and Also sprach Zarathustra, Charles Youmans commented, “That Strauss found in Zarathustra’s new self- awareness
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