It is in no way a traditional philosophical tract but rather, a super-intense, virtuosic prose poem: a symphony of impassioned words and ideas, one that features just the sort of convoluted, over-heated, semi-philosophical writing produced by Nietzsche’s hero-turned-nemesis, the composer and self-styled “artistic philosopher” Richard Wagner.įriedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a total brainiac. Nietzsche – who had been trained as a composer and numbered among his professions that of music critic knew precisely what he was saying when he called his Zarathustra a “symphony”. “Where does Zarathustra really belong? Almost, I think, among the symphonies.” Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a “symphony about a symphony”: a multi-movement orchestral work about Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical-slash-poetic masterwork of the same title. Richard Strauss in 1894, looking a bit like Colin Kaepernick (A plug: Lecture 22 of my Great Courses/Teaching Company survey, “The Thirty Greatest Orchestral Works” is dedicated to Thus Spoke Zarathustra.) It is a magnificent piece, though not a particularly easy one to get to know.

Unfortunately, that’s about all most folks know of this sprawling, 60 minute-long work: its first 90 seconds.

“The theme from 2001” refers to the opening minute-and-a-half of Richard Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra, an opening that is heard at the beginning, during, and at the conclusion of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Among the most common requests I received in the 1970s were: “hey man, can you play ‘The Sting?’” (meaning Scott Joplin’s classic rag, The Entertainer), Love is Blue, Classical Gas, Brian’s Song, and. One of the occupational hazards of playing the piano in public is the request. (“Cold Sun” and “Hot Borscht”: temperature challenged tags in both cases.)Īs a solo player I’ve played pretty much everything, from cocktail parties, weddings, sing-a-longs, awards shows, and receptions to a long-running gig at a long defunct restaurant in Oakland, California called The Pewter House. My first band (a rock & roll garage band) was called “Cold Sun” and the last was a Klezmer group called “Hot Borscht”. The best band I ever played with was led by the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz the worst was a disco band the name of which will remain my little secret. The bands ranged from fairly high end to not fairly high end.

Over the course of the first half of my musical life I played a lot of gigs, both in bands and as a solo piano player. 121 years ago today – on Novem– Richard Strauss conducted the premiere performance of his sprawling orchestral tone poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra in Frankfurt.

Friedrich nietzsche zarathustra