VOLUME V, ISSUE I, SPRING 2012
Abstract
In my talk this evening I will focus on the impact of Nietzsche’s knowledge of music on his philosophy and the development of his thought. Along this path, I will also explore some key ideas of Nietzsche’s that bear on music and hope to answer, at least to some extent, what music is for Nietzsche. Nietzsche is one of the few philosophers who was a musician and who could compose music, and this background in music had a significant influence on the way he thought and expressed his ideas; this topic is explored by Georges Liebert in Nietzsche et le music that came out in 1994 in France (also translated into English). Before I explore the music in Nietzsche’s philosophy, I would like to drop a few notes on Nietzsche’s musical development.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in 1844 in Saxony, Germany (at the time a part of Prussia), a region rich in musical traditions; Leipzig is known as the home of many well-known composers (e.g. Schütz, Bach, Handel, Schumann, and Wagner). Nietzsche’s father, a Lutheran minister at the small parish Röcken, used to play the piano when Nietzsche was little, and he died when Nietzsche was five. After his death, the family moved to Naumburg where Nietzsche went to school. Here Nietzsche’s mother, Franziska Nietzsche acquired a piano, took lessons, and became Nietzsche’s first piano teacher (first lessons in 1851). Mother and son would play duets in their back room. After this Nietzsche also took private piano lessons, and in two years he could play Beethoven’s sonatas and some transcriptions of Haydn’s symphonies. In addition to these two composers, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelsohn, and Bach formed the framework of his early music education. Nietzsche also attended public and private concerts and performances in Naumburg in his early teen years.
Around this time he also started composing music; the first attempts were made in his early teens. The earliest composition that survived is from 1857, Allegro for Piano, and most of his compositions are from his late teen years, to be precise from 1861 to 65. They were motivated by his musical demon and inspired by the cultural association called Germania that he had established with two of his friends in 1860. These compositions bear the traces of Liszt (e.g in his symphonic poem Ermanirich), and Schumann (e.g. in his Lieder). During his high school years at Pforta (1858-64) and his university years at Bonn and Leipzig (from1864 to 1868), Nietzsche attended concerts and sang, while composing music. His activities as composer declined when he started teaching at Basel University in 1869, although his Manfred-Meditation, a duet for piano, was finalized during his early Basel years. And by this time he must have lost his ambition to be a composer, although his musical daimon was still raging within him and, despite all odds, he did not entirely cease to compose. Nietzsche’s music was not well received by the leading musicians of his time. Wagner politely reminded him of his poor compositions; Bülow gave a harsh critique to Nietzsche himself on his Manfred-Meditation (your music is “…more detestable than you think”), and Brahms never responded to Nietzsche’s letter. Nor was the audience well disposed towards his music. “He played one of his compositions to an audience in Basel, which was received with displeasure, according to Julius Piccard.” (Köhler, Zarathustra’s Secret, p.121).
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