Overtones, a book of temperaments : $b Richard Strauss, Parsifal, Verdi, Balzac, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Turgénieff — Nietzsche — John Shaqi
Overtones, a book of temperaments : $b Richard Strauss, Parsifal, Verdi, Balzac, Flaubert, Nietzsche, and Turgénieff
Nietzsche · en
as audacious was ever penned by the hand of man—in music.
The Nature theme is ingeniously designed. It is, in the most natural
of tonalities, C major, and consists of C, the fifth, and the
octave above it. The third is missing out of the chord, and this
makes the “tonal sex” of the chord variable. It is, says Merian,
hermaphroditic, as is Nature itself. Major and minor are not yet
divided. And the missing third makes this theme one of the World
Riddle: “It is the sphinx Nature, who is staring at us with empty,
lustreless eyes, inviting confidence, yet awesome.”
In the midst of the dancing orgy of joy sounds the bell of midnight.
This is the final division, The Song of the Night Wanderer.
Nietzsche, in the later editions of his book, gave this chapter the
heading, The Drunken Song; and on the heavy strokes of _Brummglocke_
he wrote:—
ONE!
O man, take heed!
TWO!
What speaks the deep midnight?
THREE!
I have slept, I have slept—
FOUR!
I have awaked out of a deep dream—
FIVE!
The world is deep,
SIX!
And deeper than the day thought.
SEVEN!
Deep in its woe—
EIGHT!
Joy, deeper still than heart sorrow:
NINE!
Woe speaks: Vanish!
TEN!
Yet all joy wants eternity—
ELEVEN!
Wants deep, deep eternity!
TWELVE!
But Strauss chooses this symbol as the time when Zarathustra
begins his journey into eternity. The hour of midnight is the hour
of death, the goal of Zarathustra’s career. This episode is an
emotional parallel to the period when Zarathustra is felled to earth
with conflicting longings. And the Theme of Disgust here stands
forth as the Motif of Death, controlling the scene. Zarathustra’s
earthly death is wonderfully translated into tone. The Theme of
Death struggles with that of earthly strife, and both succumb in a
broken chord of C major. Then without any modulation the Theme of
the Ideal sounds in B major and the transfiguration is achieved.
Again there is a faint reminiscent plea of the conquered themes. The
Theme of the Ideal sways aloft in the higher regions in B major; the
trombones insist on the cryptic unresolved chord of C-E-F sharp; and
in the double basses and celli is repeated C-G-C—the World Riddle.
Emil Paur, ever an ardent Strauss pioneer, produced Also sprach
Zarathustra in New York, December, 1897.