Richard Strauss
(German; 1864-1949)

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Composed 1896; Duration 30 minutes

Richard Strauss’ father was the principal horn player at the Munich Court Opera, exposing him to a career in composition and conducting. His father’s conservatism guided his music until he succeeded Hans von Bülow as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra in 1885, where the musicians encouraged him to explore the radical futurism of Wagner and Liszt.

The younger Strauss soon found enormous success breaking with traditional musical values in favor of more modern ideas in his groundbreaking tone poems. Rather than emulating the classicists with symphonies, the tone poems were timely narrative works that put character, drama, setting, and, in the case of Strauss, the work’s composer front and center. 

In fact, it was around 1885 that he was reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s new seminal philosophical work Also sprach Zarathustra, with the phrase “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” concluding each of the fictionalized Zarathustra’s discussion topics. Over four volumes, Zarathustra’s discourse reinforces Nietzsche’s ideas on the death of God, the amorality of Nature, and the Übermensch. Both nihilistic and aspirational, the dismissal of religious values amidst the modern and industrial world resonated with Strauss, who was actively shedding the dogmatic strictures of the past, and by 1896, figures himself as the Übermensch, giving meaning to worldly life through music.

For his tone poem, Strauss selected nine key selections, opening on the unforgettable Sunrise, which introduced the “dawn” or “nature” motif, a rising C-G-C. The work continues with “The Backworldsman,” the name Nietzsche gave to those who yearn for the afterlife. Horns announce the Credo, followed by a deeply yearning string line. Continuing with “Of the Great Longing,” in which the Magnificant is quoted alongside the dawn motif, contrasting religion and nature. This boils over into “On Joys and Passions,” a sensuous portrayal of Nietzsche’s assertion that humanity should pursue its animalistic passions. This moves seamlessly to “Song of the Grave,” which is not so mournful as it is an abandonment of antiquated beliefs, and serves as a transition to “Of Science.” 
 
Here, the low strings develop a complex fugue, representing the intellectual height of music to represent scientific development, but the gloomy trudging is interrupted by Zarathustra’s laughter: even science is inadequate to understand nature and the metaphysical. The fuguing continues in “The Convalescent,” but the tone is frantic and treacherous, culminating in an ominous sounding of the nature theme to drive home the point.

Following this massive climactic moment, the music slowly turns the temperature down. An extensive waltz is presented primarily by a violin soloist. While various motifs from earlier in the work are heard throughout, the tone is decidedly lighter, reflecting Zarathustra’s love of dancing. As bells toll midnight, the final section, “The Night Wanderer’s Song,” is a gradual descent into hushed quietude. B major and C major are superimposed to represent the unsolved riddle regarding the relationship between man and nature, but Strauss, wisely, does not dare answer the question.

Chaz Stuart, 2026