Hymnus an das Leben

The "Hymn to Life" is a musical composition for mixed chorus and orchestra by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Oft-regarded to be idiosyncratic for a philosopher, Nietzsche accorded to his music that it played a role in the understanding of his philosophical thought. In particular, this was laden upon "Hymn to Life". This song's melody was also used earlier in "Hymn to Friendship" for piano, which was once conducted by Nietzsche at Bayreuth for the Wagners and had, according to Cosima Wagner, led to the first sign of a break with his friend Richard, in 1874. In spite of Nietzsche's intonations about his music, his music has largely been regarded as a biographical curiosity, irrelevant to his philosophical work.

Origin

Nietzsche stated, after communicating the main idea of "Zarathustra" along with an aspect of his "gaya scienza", in "Ecce Homo": "...that "Hymn to Life"...—a scarcely trivial symptom of my condition during that year when the Yes-saying pathos "par excellence", which I call the tragic pathos, was alive in me to the highest degree. The time will come when it will be sung in my memory" (trans. Walter Kaufmann). The composition "Hymn to Life" was partly done by Nietzsche in August and September 1882, supported by the second stanza of the poem "Lebensgebet" by Lou Andreas-Salome.

During 1884, Nietzsche wrote to Gast: "This time, 'music' will reach you. I want to have a song made that could also be performed in public in order to "seduce" people to my philosophy." With this request "Lebensgebet" was further emended to "Friendship" and orchestrated by "maestro" Pietro Gasti" ["Ecce Homo", trans. Walter Kaufmann] , who modestly denied any reference in publication to his alterations of what Nietzsche had done previously. (Some, on the other hand, including Benjamin Moritz, conclude that these changes are significant enough to demerit "Life" as an unfeigned work by Nietzsche and classify it as a work by Köselitz.) Thereafter it was published under Nietzsche by E. W. Fritzsch in Leipzig as the first edition amid the summer of 1887, which is "Friendship" simply put to Andreas-Salome's "Lied" and with orchestral alterations, entitled "Hymnus an das Leben".

In October of the same year, Nietzsche wrote a letter to the German conductor Felix Mottl, to whom he expressed about his composition "Life" that which pertains to its high aesthetical import for his philosophical oeuvre: "I wish that this piece of music may stand as a complement to the word of the philosopher which, in the manner of words, must remain by necessity unclear. The affect of my philosophy finds its expression in this hymn." The following December, he wrote to Georg Brandes a letter in which he commented: "A choral and orchestral work of mine is just being published, a "Hymn to Life". It is the one composition of mine that is meant to survive and to be sung one day 'in my memory'...."

ee also

*List of works by Friedrich Nietzsche
*Nietzsche Music Project

References

External links

* [http://nietzschemusicproject.org Nietzsche Music Project]
* [http://www.johnbellyoung.com/frame-discography.html John Bell Young's discography, displays of his work on Nietzsche's music are included.]
* [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000049P9 Customer review by John Bell Young on Nietzsche's music with criticism of the reviewed CD, Lauretta Altman, etc.]
* [http://sitemaker.umich.edu/bmoritz/nietzsche_project "The Music and Thought of Friedrich Nietzsche"—a dissertation by Ben Moritz (PDF)] : "the original "Hymnus an die Freundschaft" is a generally well-written and delightful work, worthy of inclusion in the piano repertoire."
* [http://www.nietzsche.ru/english/music.php3 Nietzsche's music in four volumes.]
* [http://www.virtusens.de/walther/n_komp_e.htm Nietzsche as Composer]