Moritz Benjamin T. - The Music And Thought Of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche Studies
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//-->NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITYTHE MUSIC AND THOUGHT OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHEA MAJOR DOCUMENTSUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF MUSICIN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTfor the degreeDOCTOR OF MUSICField of Piano PerformanceByBenjamin T. MoritzEVANSTON, ILLINOISJune 2002AbstractDue to the relative obscurity of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s piano music, it isof considerable interest to musicians in general and pianists in particular to becomefamiliarized with this overlooked portion of Nietzsche’s works. In order to do this, Ipropose to thoroughly study the body of works, evaluate their potential appeal to pianists,and present my findings. In so doing, I also hope to discover the relation between hisphilosophical works and their application in his music. Underneath this conceptualumbrella, several different areas will be researched, and I have undertaken to describethese potential avenues for research in this brief.I am approaching this subject as perhaps many others who are aware ofNietzsche’s musical output have approached it; that is by means of his philosophy.Nietzsche was first and foremost a thinker and throughout his writings you find anunusual capacity for disciplined, critical and intensive thought aimed at anythingstumbling into his mental path. In this particular example, his writings on music farsurpass his music both in sheer quantity and, as most critics charge, quality. To namejust the larger works,The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Nietzsche Contra Wagner,andThe Antichristall deal at length with the subject of music. Add to that the numeroussmaller essays, letters to friends, and the large correspondence between Nietzsche andWagner, and you find that Nietzsche is unique among philosophers in the level ofimportance placed upon music. In contrast, his actual musical writings (recentlycompiled and published asDer Musicalische Nachlassby Curt Paul Janz) fill only onevolume, and if only complete works are taken into consideration, even less than that.iiTherefore, if Nietzsche himself wroteaboutmusic more than hewrotemusic, I willfollow his lead and examine his philosophy first. As to the objection that music muststand on its own and not rely on external explanations for validation, I will not use thisbriefto get into such lengthy debates. In the more specific case of Nietzsche, he was aspiritual descendent of Hegel (antithetically), Schopenhauer, and for the early years of hislife, an eager protégé of Richard Wagner. As with these thinkers, Nietzsche strongly feltthat musicdidsomething, that it had aesthetic value insofar as it had cognitive value.Therefore if one does not know what the music is to do, one can hardly evaluate itseffectiveness in reaching that goal.Despite the far-ranging acceptance of Nietzsche and the accompanyingtranslations scholars have carried out to expose others to Nietzsche’s writings, many ofhis shorter essays and correspondences remain exclusively in their original German. Thisis especially applicable to his writings about his own music, which he never publishedand exist only in collected correspondences. A final arm of my research will delve intothe relation of Nietzsche and Richard Wagner and use this understanding to shed light onNietzsche’s early musical works; those of which that were written during his infatuationwith Wagner. Nietzsche’s intense and volatile relationship with Wagner played such alarge role in Nietzsche’s life and thought that any investigation into his philosophicalthought, let alone his musical thought, would be incomplete without delving into this“friendship.”iiiACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank Jesse Rosenberg who gave me a great deal of helpful advicewhen I began tackling this project and pointed me towards people and sources thatproved indispensable to my research. Among these was Tali Makell, a founder of theNietzsche Music Project and a helpful and charitable researcher. James Porter providedimportant insight into Nietzsche’s early works and our conversations led to my closescrutiny of Nietzsche’s use of quantitative rhythms. Without Curt Paul Janz’smonumental accomplishment of compiling, editing and publishing Nietzsche’s music,this project would not have been possible at all. Finally I would like to thank my wife,Kristina Schmidt, my brother Tom Moritz, and my parents, Rick and Jill Moritz, for theirsupport and endless patience.ivABBREVIATIONSBGEBTCWDEHGSBeyond Good and EvilBirth of TragedyThe Case of WagnerDaybreakEcce HomoThe Gay ScienceHKB I-IVHistorische Kritische BriefeHK I-VIMNNCWTSZTIWMUWHistorische Kritische WerkeFriedrich Nietzsche: Der musikalische NachlaßNietzsche Contra WagnerThus Spoke ZarathustraTwilight of the Idols: or, How one Philosophizes With a HammerOn Words and MusicUnpublished WritingsThe works listed correspond to the complete citations found in the Works Consultedsection. In accordance with style manuals, the first citation of each source is cited in full,and subsequent citations will use the above abbreviations.Note:The accepted method of citing Nietzsche’s published works is to indicate sectionnumbers rather than page numbers, due to his unique style and the continuity of sectionnumbers from one edition to another. In order to conform to Northwestern’sbibliographical guidelines, I have chosen to cite both. The page number comes first,followed by a colon and then the section information.e.g. TSZ, 317: IV, The Drunken Song, 1 – refers toThus Spoke Zarathustra,page 317,book four, chapter entitled “The Drunken Song,” section 1.For his unpublished letters, journals and music, only page numbers are used.v
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