Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 09:01:35 -0500 (EST)
From: "John B. Morgan" <jbmorgan-AT-umich.edu>
Subject: Music based on Nietzsche


I don't know if anyone else on the list has an interest in classical 
music, but I thought I'd mention a few outstanding works that are based 
on Nietzsche's writings. There is, of course, Richard Strauss' orchestral
ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA (the prelude being of "2001" fame). I also believe 
that Strauss set a couple of Nietzsche's poems to music in songs. Gustav Mahler
used the "Midnight Song" from "Zarathustra" for the vocal line in the third 
movement of his Third Symphony, one of the most beautiful passages in all 
of Mahler's music. And then there is my most recent discovery, Delius' 
MASS OF LIFE, which is a massive and beautiful choral work based on large 
portions of "Zarathustra". It seems to me that setting Nietzsche to music 
is entirely appropriate to his philosophy. Ironically, both the Strauss 
and the Mahler settings were composed within Nietzsche's lifetime (in the 
1890s), and I think it is a great tragedy that he never got to hear his work
turned into song, something he seems to have wanted to do himself. 

I recommend all of these works to anyone with an interest in such music.
Please let me know if you know of any others. Nietzsche may very well be 
the only philosopher to date to have been put to music!

John Morgan, Research Secretary   "Poetry must be conceived as a violent  
The University of Michigan         attack on unknown forces, to reduce and
Alzheimer's Disease Research       prostrate them before man."
Center (MADRC)                            --F. T. Marinetti,
jbmorgan-AT-umich.edu                          Futurist Manifesto 1909
  





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