The Will to Affirm Music: Overmusic and Last Music in Nietzsche's Philosophy

Kevin Ralph Capstone Advisor: Dr. Justin Marquis Honors Capstone Spring 2013 University Honors in Philosophy

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Abstract:

This paper addresses the significance of music in Nietzsche's philosophy, for he establishes that there is a strong link between music and his method of philosophy. Central to my argument is the application of the Overman, the proper philosopher and freethinker, and the

Last Man, the man of the herd who subscribes to ideology. I argue that the parallel between music and Nietzsche's philosophy can go further, that the existence of the Overman and the Last

Man must be met with a similar polar structure between Overmusic and Last Music. For this analysis, I use a survey of Nietzsche's philosophical works, biographical information, and a comparison of the music that he advocates for and the music that has his contempt. In my paper,

I first outline the arguments that form Nietzsche's Overman and Last Man. Doing so is necessary to draw out the similarities between music and philosophy. Part of this discussion involves the role of music in Nietzsche's personal life, which I will elucidate through the often-quoted maxim from Twilight of The Idols: “Without music, life would be an error” (TI “Maxims” 33). Then, I analyze the reasoning that allows him to distinguish the higher types of music from the lower types, which I will link to the Overman and the Last man. This allows me to make the argument for Overmusic and Last Music, and I use Wagner's Parsifal and Bizet's Carmen as case studies for each.

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Introduction and Thesis:

Through a survey of Nietzsche's works, it is clear that he places high value on music. In

The Case of Wagner, he states that “music liberates the spirit...gives wings to thought” and makes “one [become] more of a philosopher the more one becomes a musician” (CW 1, p. 614).

The more one is acquainted with music, either by listening or especially by performing, the more one is in tune with their passions and their perception. Because of this, music must then be the same as philosophy. However, he makes distinctions in the different types of music as he does with different types of people and philosophies. He establishes the conditions that makes one an

Overman or Last Man, and similarly he makes claims that there are better types of music than others.

I argue that the parallel between music and Nietzsche's philosophy can go further, that the existence of the Over and Last Man must be met with a similar polar structure between

Overmusic and Last Music. Making this distinction not only shows how music and philosophy are equated, but also shows that there is a moral structure that belongs to music to compliment

Nietzsche's own understanding of morality. First, I outline the arguments that form Nietzsche's

Overman and Last Man. Doing so is necessary to draw out the similarities between music and philosophy. Part of this discussion involves the role of music in Nietzsche's personal life, which

I will elucidate through the often-quoted maxim from Twilight of The Idols. Then, I analyze the reasoning that allows him to distinguish the higher types of music from the lower types, which I will link to the Overman and the Last man. This allows me to make the argument for Overmusic and Last Music, and I use Wagner's Parsifal and Bizet's Carmen as case studies for each.

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Philosophy According to Nietzsche:

Proper Philosophy:

Nietzsche's understanding of philosophy lies in direct contrast with the tradition that precedes him. He understands philosophers are unable to obtain truth when they posit a dogma.

In the Preface to Beyond Good and Evil, he reasons “that the gruesome seriousness, the clumsy obtrusiveness with which they have usually approached truth so far have been awkward and very improper methods” for reaching truth (BGE “P,” p. 192). The problem of having such systems is that they do not allow for people to exercise will to power, to experience life as something that is uniquely his or her own. Instead, thought and ethics are held up to single standard, an ideal that rules upon them and that they must adhere to, even blindly. This abandonment is not an error committed out of ignorance or blindness, but instead an act of cowardice (EH “P,” p. 674). For this is to follow a given system rather than creating one, to adhere to givens rather than to act out the will to power and create. A dogmatic system, akin to religion, provides limitations that are shameful to transgress, because supposedly following a system will result in a higher end. This foolish belief provides the “inclination to depreciate himself, to let himself be robbed, lied to, and taken advantage of,” the result of the “modesty [or shame according to Kaufmann's footnote] of a god among men” (BGE 4:66, p. 269).

Proper philosophy, according to Nietzsche, is more of an autobiography and a critique than a proposition of a dogma. The autobiographical nature is representative of enacting the will to power, the drive for life. This involves the person realizing their fullest individuality in overcoming the ideals that guide and cause certain values and actions. This means that the truths that they produce are no longer supposed to be taken as universals. In fact, “it must offend their Kevin Ralph 5 pride, also their taste, if their truth is supposed to be a truth for everyman,” so there must be a degree of individual ownership that comes with these truths (BGE 2:43, p. 243). Otherwise, it would be a contradiction of terminology, for “whatever can be common always has little value,” so to follow a universal principle is degrading to the will to power (BGE 2:43, p. 243). The philosopher according to Nietzsche must exercise the resources to the best of his or her potential, to eat well and to keep health and to stay active instead of relying on given values. This affirmation of the senses and the experience of life reveals Nietzsche's love and recurrent use of

Dionysus as central to his philosophical project. Nietzsche categorizes himself as “a disciple of the philosopher Dionysus,” a satyr in contrast to a saint (EH “P,” p. 673). In The Birth of

Tragedy, Dionysus is the art deity for the nonimagistic arts, especially music. This is highly important because Dionysus is the god of the passions. Completely separate from the dogma that separates people, the primal nature of the passions allows anyone to share in them. There is therefore the opening to create values out of the open passions.

It is upon this divergence between creation and stagnation that Nietzsche posits the distinction in the typology of man that is found throughout his works: the typology of the

Overman and the Last Man. In this next section, I describe each and why the Overman is favored over the last man.

Overman and Last Man:

The Overman, the proper philosopher, is the one who surpasses all of the conditions that degrades the significance of humans. Nietzsche's Zarathustra proclaims that “man is something that shall be overcome,” that there is something about man that keeps people grounded, unable to actualize the will to power (Z:1 “Zarathustra's Prologue”). Throughout his works, it is clear that Kevin Ralph 6 nihilism must be overcome, which can come from many sources, including Christianity, pity, and the Western philosophical tradition. Both Christianity and the history of philosophy perpetuate nihilism through preaching dogmatisms. Again, the fruitful life is that which exercises the will to power, the force of life that is created through the individual's practices of perspective and action. Despite the intentions of allowing a person to fully realize their potential through guiding principles and protections, like having the grace of the Holy Spirit guiding the individual through moments of temptation and sin, such a system is nihilism because it does not allow for the full experience of the moment. Importance is not on being in the sense that a set of rules is followed, but rather on “the innocence of becoming,” on the person enacting their will to power to the fullest extent and experiencing the consequences (WP 552, p. 299). When realizing their will to power, the individual is able to think freely without constriction. The ability to adapt to any new stimulus is affirmed by the will to power, since the focus is on the use of perception rather than adherence to a fixed set of values. Coming from this line of thought, Nietzsche posits that the situations of the people, including diet and climate, are the important characteristics to their being, for they make decisions based on the stimulus that affects them.

From the emphasis placed on the situation rather than some sort universal set of values, the key to the life of the Overman is the affirmation of life and the body. This focus on vitality is how Nietzsche also affirms the love of fate, the “amor fati” (GS “Sanctus Januarius,” 276, p.

223). The Overman must affirm what he is given. The proper practice of philosophy aims to

“see as beautiful what is necessary in things... [t]o not...wage war against what is ugly” (GS

“Sanctus Januarius,” 276, p. 223). One cannot negate any aspect of life that he or she does not find agreeable or pleasant. The Overman “remain[s] faithful to the earth” and does “not believe Kevin Ralph 7 those who speak of otherworldly hopes,” and affirms what the Last Man would not (Z: 1

“Zarathustra's Prologue”).

It is this faithfulness to the world and the Dionysian that Nietzsche's Zarathustra posits that the Overman's spirit goes through three metamorphoses. The first stage is when it becomes a camel, the animal that is well loaded, well spirited, and is able to traverse deserts and climb mountains. No matter the climate or the landscape, the Overman is able to carry their values and their will to power through any hardship. The second stage is when the camel becomes a lion,

“who would conquer his freedom and be master in his own desert” (Z: 1 “Three

Metamorphoses”). With the will to power and individuality affirmed, the lion guards these treasures and asserts them. The spirit then becomes a child for the purposes of creating new values. Zarathustra notes that unlike the lion's aggressive nature, “the child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred 'Yes'” (Z:

1 “Three Metamorphoses”). This is the innocence that Nietzsche describes as essential to the will to power, since it emphasizes the necessity of new experiences and interpretation. In Will to

Power 254, he argues that with these affirmations, “moral evaluation is an exegesis,” something that is dependent on the effects rather than on some sort of ideology (WP 254, p. 148). The

Overman does not wait for an outsider to say “Yes,” he speeds ahead with his own affirmation.

This is also how Nietzsche determines that the Overman should go under to be among the

Last Man without succumbing to pity and losing touch of the will to power. Zarathustra descends to the people to give them the gift of knowledge, but he does not let them keep him down. This is a product of his double will. Robert Gooding-Williams notes that Zarathustra is torn by the will towards man on one hand, and the lion will on the other. To go under and Kevin Ralph 8 successfully hold onto the will to power, Zarathustra has to fuse “the voice of the lonely, leonine sublimity with that of the human longing to redeem man's past.”1 It is important to be among man and to understand their ways, but it is crucial for the Overman to hold on to their creative and perspective faculties. If they pity man and subscribe to the “fundamental principle[s] of society,” they fall into the trap of the “will to the denial of life,” they become absorbed into the ideology of the Last Man (BGE 9:259, p. 393).

In direct contrast with the Overman's affirmation of life, the Last Man negates life by minimizing vitality. He or she does not love life as it is fated. Instead, he or she “resolve[s] to find the world ugly” by positing that there is a way to make the world more beautiful, or rather that there is something better waiting in heaven (GS “Book Three,” 130, p. 185). The Last Man believes that the world is imperfect, that there is an ideal that is not being followed and is transgressed, because “bad has made the world ugly and bad,” (GS “Book Three,” 130, p. 185) that sin causes the world to be as it is. The Last Man therefore strips the will to power, the ability to shape values and to interpret, of its importance. He or she sacrifices their becoming and their innocence. The Last Man cannot be like the child who is able to experience and create, but rather must stay within given parameters of being.

This negation of the will to power is exemplified by the “Despisers of the Body” (Z: 1

“Despisers”). These are the people who subscribe to ideals and dogmatisms, who believe that there is a soul trapped by the body. Zarathustra notes that these dogmatists are wrong in their belief of a soul separate from the body; instead, the “soul is only a word for something about the body” (Z: 1 “Despisers”). Therefore, the Last Man attempts to remove the body from any idea of

1 Robert Gooding-Williams, “Eternal Recurrence, Acts I and II,” in Zarathustra's Dionysian Modernism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 246. Kevin Ralph 9 the good or beauty, for it corrupts that which is supposedly ultimately good. This asceticism is dangerous to the vitality of the person, even a type of suicide as it is a “slow destruction of [the] body” (GS “Book Three,” 131, p. 185). They deny their own body and place the virtue in a foreign body, which has the potential to result in harm.

The stark contrast of the Overman and the Last Man is the separation of the proper philosophy and the nihilistic philosophy of the Western tradition. Whereas the Overman and the proper philosophy allows the individual to keep their perspective and their will to power, the

Last Man's sacrifice of the self to fulfill an ideal results in nihilism, in the negation of life. The only proper negation that Nietzsche posits is the act of looking away, of using the lion will to look away, to deny the negation, and to will onwards.

Nietzsche, Philosophy, and Music:

Nietzsche gives music a special place within his philosophy. The related, often-quoted maxim is from Twilight of the Idols: “Without music, life would be an error” (TI “Maxims” 33).

While this is a preliminary introduction to the place of music in Nietzsche's philosophy, the full maxim provides much more that needs to be unpacked: “How little is required for pleasure! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs” (TI “Maxims” 33). I believe that this full maxim encapsulates the value of music, and I will show how by dissecting the maxim and proving the significance of each part.

How Little is Required for Pleasure! The Sound of a bagpipe:

This first part reveals how music can be distinguished from the other arts because it is the

Dionysian art. Kathleen Higgins notes that the primordial nature of the passions result in the Kevin Ralph 10

“capacity to experience music... [being] something like a transcendental precondition for the possibility of language,”2 that one can experience the passions that literally transcend language.

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche describes that the melody is a part of nature that is interpreted and systematized by the human. The Dionysian is the “'tonal subsoil' of language” because the pitch and function become “the most fundamental aspect of language.”3 Music therefore returns him to the intoxication, the boundless ecstasy, of the Dionysian. The differences that separate man are forgotten in this revelry.

The separation is a result of the rationalization that is a function of the Apollonian, the art of the “god of all plastic energies” and “the soothsaying god” (BT 35). Robert Luyster notes that there is something ultimately psychologically insightful about the Apollonian. Whereas it is clear that the Dionysian is a practice of passions and primordial unity, the God of Light “may be regarded as an attempt by the ego to resist and overcome by force all that threatens its perpetuation, rather than the willingness to surrender to”4 the Dionysian forces. It is this force of order and rationalism that allows the musician to take the primal melodies and order them into a structured entity. It is also the site of language formation, for the melody and the rhythm of the passions are then transcribed into communicable gestures and sounds. As Luyster's psychoanalytical understanding reveals, this requires the ego, the person's perception to categorize the sensory datum. So whereas the Dionysian is the unification in the primal qualities, the Apollonian introduces the rationalization that creates different perspectives and different systems.

2 Kathleen Higgins, “Nietzsche on Music,” in Journal of the History of Ideas 47, no. 4 (October-December 1986): 663. 3 Higgins, “Nietzsche on Music,” 665. 4 Robert Luyster, “Nietzsche/Dionysus: Ecstasy, Heroism, and the Monstrous,” in Journal of Nietzsche Studies, no. 21 (Spring 2001): 8. Kevin Ralph 11

Music as the Dionysian art requires very little to produce pleasure. In Beyond Good and

Evil, Nietzsche exclaims that “in music, the passions enjoy themselves” (BGE 4:106, p. 274).

There is no need for any sort of hyper-rationalization because there is no need for division. The passions do not require thought. The return to the Dionysian is the return to simplicity, to the joys that anyone can relate to.

When Nietzsche brings up the bagpipe, I find that this furthers the Dionysian explanation, for it is a simplistic instrument of passion. For example, the Great Highland Bagpipe, of which I am trained, is constructed to harmonize around one note: the low A of the chanter. The two

Tenor drones keep a constant A of one octave below that of the chanter, and then the one Bass drone keeps a constant A of two octaves below. The chanter itself, the melody-making piece of the instrument, only contains 9 conventional notes, an octave from a low G to a high G with the following high A, all accidentals, thereby having no sharps or flats. The instrument is simple in its construction, but no doubt is it passionate. It is used throughout military bands to instill courage and to intimidate the enemy. The passions that the pipes express transverse boundaries, even the boundaries of its own design, and can be understood by all.

Without Music, Life Would Be an Error:

Music constitutes a major part of Nietzsche's life. Without a doubt his musical involvement is part of his situation that he discusses in Ecce Homo that allows him to be such the thinker that he is along with diet and climate. He is the composer of works for multiple voices, for violin, and for piano. During his life, he worked his way into the circles of maestros including Richard Wagner, a critical relationship that shaped Nietzsche's perspective on philosophy, German culture, and aesthetics. Not only is music an expression of the Dionysian Kevin Ralph 12 passions, but it is also for necessary critical evaluation.

In Nietzsche & Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation, Joachim Köhler chronicles Nietzsche's first experiences with the Dionysian. With the passing of his father, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, still haunting the family, the mother, Franziska Nietzsche, decided to move Friedrich and his sister

Elisabeth to Naumburg. Friedrich was sent to Schulpforta, a famous boarding school, and his mother pressured him to take up poetry and music. Köhler notes how the father shaped the mind of the philosopher. The townspeople called Friedrich Nietzsche “'the little pastor,'” and a

“longing for the divine and” an obsessive “fear of hell...developed...the perfect pupil.”5 He developed into a prodigy at an early age, writing poetry and improvising on the piano.

Additionally, Köhler notes that the expectations placed upon the future philosopher by his colleagues, his faculty, and Nietzsche himself began the degradation of his mental health.

Music also had a crucial role near the end of Nietzsche's life, especially to help him through his madness. Frederick R. Love notes that his compositions especially served some therapeutic purpose, as they “were charged with a significance for him that is completely disproportionate to their intrinsic importance,”6 meaning that he put more weight into them than another one would assume. Nietzsche remarks about this new personal value of music as if it is bringing back into the natural world by “'detach[ing] me from myself, reduc[ing] my self- intoxication, as if I were surveying myself from some distance, even monitoring my feelings.'”7

He also is given a new lens to appreciate music that he was formerly critical of. Love makes special note of Nietzsche's supposed first time of listening to the prelude to Parsifal, an opera by

5 Joachim Köhler, Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation, trans. Ronald Taylor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 16. 6 Frederick R. Love, “Nietzsche, Music, and Madness,” in Music & Letters 60, no. 2 (April 1979): 191. 7 Love, “Nietzsche, Music, and Madness,” 196. Kevin Ralph 13

Wagner. Whereas he is harsh on Wagner in the past, his changed perspective allowed him to enjoy his experience of the Prelude to the point where he had tears in his eyes.8 Music provides comfort in his dark times, for the passions return him to a time when little was required of him.

Dionysus transcends his madness and reaches his passions.

When discussing his father's early death and his mental illness, I do not mean to say that these expectations harmed Nietzsche to the point that he could not have expressed his will to power to the fullest extent. Rather, these experiences, and Nietzsche's acceptance of them, is the affirmation of the amor fati that is central to the will to power. In Ecce Homo, he reveals that he is truly grateful to be in the situation that he is in, that it is “a great privilege to have had such a father” that shaped his experience in such the way that it did, and that it is no unfair trade to

“pa[y] with [his] life for this privilege” (EH “Wise,” p. 682). Despite the suffering, Nietzsche must affirm his life and carry on with his will to power. Therefore, through the expression of the passions, music affirms life and its suffering, the hardships that shape the perception of the will to power.

The Germans Imagine Even God Singing Songs:

This final part of the maxim relates to Nietzsche's disdain for Germanic culture, language, and music. He is critical of Germanic and Prussian culture throughout his works, but a locus of his criticism is made clear in the Peoples and Fatherlands section of Beyond Good and Evil. As with other assertions made on the topic of nihilism and idealism, the German culture is at fault of forwarding an ideology over the will to power. He refers to them as the “deceiver people” because of their preference of a supposed German ideology over finding the true values through a genealogical understanding, or studying the work that is done by perception over time and

8 Love, “Nietzsche, Music, and Madness,” 195. Kevin Ralph 14 thusly noting changes (BGE 8:244, p. 370). The German soul is not built upon contradictions, out of the ignorance of their multiple ancestries and instead continual strive to match what it means to be German, thus ideological. Therefore, it also shuts down any opportunity for

Dionysian unity in the passions, as the Germans will always set themselves apart from other peoples.

This Apollonian-German idealism is represented in the written and performing arts, both of which are an offense to taste and art. Nietzsche loathes the Romantic style for it makes writing “torture...for anyone who has a third ear,” for anyone who listens for the artistry in writing (BGE 8:246, p. 372). On the same token, he observes that the German music style is characteristic of the “fact that precisely our musicians write badly” (BGE 8:247, p. 373). Both are at fault seemingly for relying too much on the Apollonian use of language of replacing the passions with understanding. He finds it evident that the German composers and writers do not read aloud, as shown through their poor use of language and artistic expression. For example, he finds no recognition that “there is art in every good sentence...that must be figured out if the sentence is to be understood,” and misunderstanding a characteristic of the sentence like its scansion leads to a misunderstanding (BGE 8:246, p. 372). To write without recognition of these qualities shows a misuse of the Apollonian as the means for expressing the passions. Language is not used playfully, but is rather used militaristically, to make characteristically German remarks.

This reliance on the Apollonian follows the Christian tradition of rhetoric that Nietzsche outlines in Beyond Good and Evil 247. Whereas the ancients took delight from writing and reading aloud, the Germans only did so on the pulpit. This serves as a detriment to art in two Kevin Ralph 15 ways. First, the German style becomes “short of breath” (BGE 8:247, p. 373). Reading a text aloud not only allows for the artistic qualities of the text to be drawn out, but it also serves as a means of practicing art. By reading aloud, one becomes more eloquent of a performer and a writer as they learn through experience. The practice of the pulpit is not rhetorically demanding like the ancient practice because “the preacher alone knew what a syllable weighs, or a word, and how each sentence strikes, leaps, plunges, runs, runs out” (BGE 8:247, p. 374). This knowledge is not only esoteric in that only the priestly class could access it, but it also reveals the rigid nature of German rhetoric. The argument could arise that the preacher's focus on language could actually follow an artful expression of scansion, rhyme, and other devices, and therefore reveal a planned composition. However, this refutation does not take into account the preconceived value of the German language and its practice: “scornful, cold, indifferent, and careless” among other descriptions like vulgar and arrogant (GS “Book Two,” 104, p. 161). Rigidity is placed upon an already rigid system.

The second detriment of the Christian tradition in the Apollonian setting is that it reveals that the German art is founded upon nihilism. Nietzsche bemoans the loss of the “'good old time'” of music which has been replaced with the fallacious Romanticism and post-Romanticism, both of which are superficial (BGE 8:245, p. 370). Thus far, the argument is reminiscent of the proper philosophy and the differentiation between the Overman and the Under Man because it follows the characteristics of Apollo and Dionysus. Therefore, music and philosophy must be linked. The next section is devoted to showing the link.

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The (Will to) Power of Music:

Music and philosophy are inseparable because they share in the passions of Dionysus.

Nietzsche's personal experience with music provides the account that “music liberates the spirit,” that it has the ability revel in the Dionysian pleasures (CW 1, p. 614). The affirmation of the will to power is active as a result, for the musician is able to act upon their perspective. When presented with a piece of music, the conductor is presented with a set of guidelines and the openness for interpretation. He or she must follow the tempo markings and time signatures that are written by the composer. However, the read of the music is dependent upon the different conditions. For example, a composer may find that a specific section requires a slower pace so that the musicians can express a powerful moment in the piece, or at least to better fulfill a technical requirement like a chromatic scale. Or, the conductor may decide that the acoustics of the space are not optimal, that he needs to adapt the dynamics of the orchestration in order to ensure the best sounding performance. These examples show the will to power in action, as they are completely exegetical, therefore dependent on the moment and the perception instead of some static ideology.

This distinction needs to be parsed out. It is more clear how correct and incorrect philosophy would appear, but is it possible to even have proper and improper styles of music? If such differences can exist in music, how would these even sound? I find that the answer for the first question is most certainly yes, for just as there is an Overman and a Last Man to represent philosophy and nihilism, there must be an Overmusic and a Last Music to represent music and nihilism. The musical characteristics for each type depends on the level of artistic integrity granted to the individual, on how much the musician can create rather than adhere to a system. Kevin Ralph 17

Song of the North vs. Song of the South:

In the Peoples and Fatherlands section of Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche makes multiple references to the music of the North and the music of the South. Northern music includes music from Germany and England, and the Southern music includes the Mediterranean.

Interestingly enough, Nietzsche positions France as a synthesis of North and South. The reason for this is that France both superior to Germany and also subject to its weaknesses. It is superior because it has “a psychological oversensitivity and curiosity of which in Germany...one simply has no idea” that comes from the French moralistic culture (BGE 8:254, p. 383). Unlike the mythology of a true German, the French recognize that their culture is manifold, thereby having many different cultures within the nation of France. On the other hand, France is still suffering the growing culture of Wagner, who is the face of modern music. Therefore, the more modern the music becomes, the more German it sounds.

The solution to the Germanization of music is to adopt a Southern taste. According to

Nietzsche, music from the Mediterranean is the “great school of convalescence,” the cure to the sickness that is German-Wagnerian nihilism (BGE 8:255, p. 385). This is why the French composer Bizet is such an important composer to Nietzsche, for he is the “last genius...who discovered a piece of the south” and incorporated it into his own works, thus working to redeem the North of its sickness (BGE 8:254, p. 385). Furthermore, Southern music is referred to as supra-German, thus alluding to its pre-Apollonian characteristics. Its music is more characteristic of Dionysus.

Thus, Northern music follows the rationalism of Apollo while Southern music expresses Kevin Ralph 18 the Dionysian passions. This is not the only place that the aesthetic separation takes place. In the next section, I split these two music types into Overmusic and Last Music, which allows me to expand upon the aesthetic qualities of each and the relation of music to philosophy. Then, I will contrast Bizet's Carmen to Wagner's Parsifal to further separate the two.

Overmusic:

In The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche contends that “music should be Mediterranianized” because it is the embodiment of the will to power (CW 3, p. 615, Kaufmann provides the English translation of this maxim in his footnote). Just as the Overman conquers the nihilism of life negation, Southern music conquers nihilism by returning music and the values expressed within back to nature, back to the Dionysian pleasures. The music does not adhere to a nationalized style or an ideological value akin to hymns, but is a music that is “more profound, more powerful” than German music, one that “prevails even before the brown sunsets of the desert...[that] feels at home and knows how to roam among great, beautiful, lonely beasts of prey” (BGE 8:255, p. 385). The Southern music is not an ideology in itself, but rather is the typology for a practice of the will to power. The example that Nietzsche gives in the text is love.

Contrasted to the Northern, and no doubt Christian, idealism of a “'higher virgin,'” love is once again akin to amor fati: “love as...fatality, cynical, innocent, cruel” (CW 2, pp. 614-615). Thus, life is affirmed, especially through the suffering and the contradictions.

This does not mean that the Overmusic is heavy and dark, something that would sound like the Overture to Tannhauser or another Germanic piece. Instead, the proper music, like the proper philosophy, “approaches lightly, supplely, politely,” thereby presenting no façade of style but pure passion (CW 1, p. 613). As with the Overman, beauty must be found in what is Kevin Ralph 19 necessary, in what is. The music must affirm life in the face of nihilism.

Last Music:

In contrast with the Overmusic's affirmation of vitality and fate, Nietzsche directly criticizes German music for “creating an immense artificial noise that does not even need to be very loud” (GS “Book Two,” 103, p. 158). Both the Last Man and Northern music err by positing an ideal in place of vitality, of positing that there is something beyond human, beyond perception, and thereby is set in idealism. This is often a Christian value, as is what drove

Wagner and Nietzsche apart. Wagner was once a revolutionary, both musically and politically.

Nietzsche took to him because they both rejected German ideology. However, Wagner betrayed him and “condescended to the Germans... [and] he became common cause with the new German

Empire,” so he assimilated back into the German culture and politics (EH “Clever,” p. 704).

Whereas Nietzsche held onto the Dionysian value of the passions and the individual's creativity,

Wagner accepted the idealism of Germany and Christianity.

Wagner, as with the music of the North, must be one of the “Despisers of the Body” that

Zarathustra warns of, for his music turns one away from the body. Nietzsche himself recognizes that Wagner is a sort of hashish, an intoxicant so that he may escape Germanic culture and music.

However, this part of the passage in full does not favor Wagner, but rather further portrays him as a nihilist. In full, the testimonial reads: “for I was condemned to Germans. If one wants to rid oneself of an unbearable pressure, one needs hashish. Well then, I needed Wagner. Wagner is the antitoxin against everything German” (EH “Clever,” p. 705, the italics are included in the text). It would seem that his music is necessary to lift Nietzsche out of the spell of nihilism, that

Wagner provides a temporary release. However, I find the use of italics for the word Kevin Ralph 20

“condemned” reveals that this passage is a criticism on Wagner by revealing his ability to impose an ideology on people. Earlier in Ecce Homo, Nietzsche discusses his decision to abstain from liquor and caffeine because he does not like the effects that they have on his body and mind (EH

“Clever,” p. 695). Following from these accounts, I find it incorrect to believe that Nietzsche advocates for the use of Wagner as a drug. Rather, because he is condemned to the German people, he must use his will to power as he pleases to perceive the situation. Using a drug would negate life, as it would allow him to escape the passions that he does not want to experience, to subject himself to nihilism. Instead, as Zarathustra advocates to the despisers, Nietzsche must surpass himself through creation.

Carmen vs. Parsifal:

Nietzsche has written about both Wagner and Bizet. While Bizet does not get as much attention as Wagner, he still is highly important to the philosophical project. Nietzsche writes that Bizet is “the only [orchestral tone] [he] can still endure,” thus revealing that Bizet is the composer for the Overman (CW 1, p. 613). Nietzsche praises Carmen, Bizet's canonical opera, because it makes a “better philosopher” of him (CW 1, p. 613). As for Wagner, it is clear that he holds Wagner in a high level of disregard for returning to German nihilism, thus being the Last

Man's composer. A piece particularly held in contempt is Parsifal, which Nietzsche finds can be easily interpreted as a joke on the “whole gruesome earthly seriousness and misery of his previous works,” a self-parody of the composer (GM: 3:3, p. 535). To further expand on the differences between the two, I will compare the preludes of both of these operas to each other and examine and how Nietzsche's theory matches the music, if at all. Kevin Ralph 21

The Prelude to Carmen9 is much more up-tempo than the Prelude to Parsifal10, and it is much shorter in comparison, 4:19 to 14:29 respectively. These preliminary qualities already reveal a lot about the relation of the music to Nietzsche's writing. Carmen understandably contributes to Nietzsche's happiness because of its bright key signature and pace before leading into the ominous chords that lead into the first act. The drawn out nature and the solemn tonality to Parsifal almost makes it comical when contrasted directly to Carmen.

Also, whereas the theme shifts three noticeable times in Carmen to cover the major themes of the whole opera, the Prelude to Parsifal is more representative of variations on a theme. There is only one major interlude, going from 5:29 to about 6:36, between what appears to be a continuing theme. This simplistic strategy is revealing of another criticism that Nietzsche has on Wagner. He claims that Wagner's musical theory is that “'the drama is the end, the music is always a mere means,'” meaning that the drama dictates the music (NCW “Objections,” p.

665). Instead of exerting the will to create new themes, Wagner stays close to an ideology that runs throughout the prelude.

Conclusion:

Nietzsche's project of philosophy is directly linked to his musical project, meaning that there is an Overmusic and a Last Music to complement the Overman and the Last Man. Music requires the same thought processes as philosophy does because of this link. This also means that it requires the same attention to detail and the same genealogical method. It is not

9 Georges Bizet, Carmen, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, recorded 1973 Deutsche Grammophon, AAC audio file. 10 Richard Wagner, Parsifal Overture, with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alfred Scholz, on Wagner: Lohengrin Opera Prelude Act 1 - Lohengrin Opera Prelude Act 3 - Parsifal Overture, 2009, SLG, LLC, AAC audio file. Kevin Ralph 22 something to be taken lightly, and not something that is meant to reproduce the same type of artists, songs, and other values. Nietzsche would find fault with modern popular music, which depends on following the ideologies that are trends in music and style rather than creating. This

Last Music is the music of the herd, the music for the Last Man. An artist like Wagner perpetuates nihilism. Music must be an exercise of the will to power, and must therefore express the creativity of the subject. Anything that is grounded in any sort of ideology, or that abides strictly to a structure, is small compared to the greatness that is the music of the Overman.

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Nietzsche's Works Cited:

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Beyond Good and Evil,” in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 179-436.

- - “The Birth of Tragedy,” in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 1-144.

- - “The Case of Wagner,” in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 601-654.

- - “Ecce Homo,” in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 655-802.

- - Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann (Random House, Inc., 1974).

- - “Genealogy of Morals,” in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 2000), 436-600.

- - “Nietzsche Contra Wagner,” in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin Group, 1982), 661-683.

- - “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin Group, 1982), 103-439.

- - “Twilight of the Idols,” in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin Group, 1982), 463-564.

- - The Will to Power, ed. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, Inc., 1968).

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Additional Works Cited:

Bizet, Georges. Carmen, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, recorded 1973 Deutsche Grammophon, AAC audio file.

Gooding-Williams, Robert. “Eternal Recurrence, Acts I and II,” in Zarathustra's Dionysian Modernism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 236-268.

Higgins, Kathleen. “Nietzsche on Music,” in Journal of the History of Ideas 47, no. 4 (October- December 1986): 663-672.

Köhler, Joachim. Nietzsche and Wagner: A Lesson in Subjugation, trans. Ronald Taylor (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

Love, Frederick R. “Nietzsche, Music, and Madness,” in Music & Letters 60, no. 2 (April 1979): 186-203.

Luyster, Robert. “Nietzsche/Dionysus: Ecstasy, Heroism, and the Monstrous,” in Journal of Nietzsche Studies, no. 21 (Spring 2001): 1-26.

Wagner, Richard. Parsifal Overture, with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alfred Scholz, on Wagner: Lohengrin Opera Prelude Act 1 - Lohengrin Opera Prelude Act 3 - Parsifal Overture, 2009, SLG, LLC, AAC audio file.

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Appendix A: Key to Abbreviations

BGE: Beyond Good and Evil

BT: Birth of Tragedy

CW: The Case of Wagner

EH: Ecce Homo

GS: Gay Science

GM: Genealogy of Morals

NCW: Nietzsche Contra Wagner

TI: Twilight of the Idols

WP: The Will to Power

Z: Thus Spoke Zarathustra