Liu, Xiaopei Jennie

English

University of Denver

University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship Musicology and Ethnomusicology 11-2019 How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)? Xiaopei Jennie Liu University of Denver, Jennie.Liu@du.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/musicology_student  Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Liu, Xiaopei Jennie, "How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)?" (2019). Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship. 56. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/musicology_student/56 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This Bibliography is brought to you for free and open access by the Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Musicology and Ethnomusicology: Student Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact jennifer.cox@du.edu,dig-commons@du.edu. How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)? This bibliography is available at Digital Commons @ DU: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/musicology_student/56 How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr.Nietzsche)? Annotated BibliographySwift, Christopher. “Listening to Zarathustra: Friedrich Nietzsche and Rhetoric.” PhD Diss., Northwestern University, 2006.In this dissertation on the philosophical work Zarathustra, the author proposes that Zarathustra is concerned with “creating a discourse suitable both to one’s solitary wisdom and to the generalizations demanded by an audience,” albeit with little success. Zarathustra then “resolves to address his speeches to those with wills related to his.” Parallels can be found in Strauss’s compositional philosophy, as expounded by musicologist Charles Youmans in his works on Strauss’s life and mind.Wilde, Denis Gerard. The Development of Melody in the Tone Poems of Richard Strauss: Motif, Figure, and Theme. Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music; v. 32. Lewiston, N.Y. : E. Mellen Press, 1990.This is one of the few books that analyses primarily the melodic material of Strauss’s tone poems in relations to the dramatic elements that I was able to find. The author spends a chapter on Also Sprach Zarathustra, summarizing Strauss’s compositional traits after giving a brief history of the work and its programme. Youmans, Charles Dowell. Richard Strauss’s Orchestral Music and the German Intellectual Tradition: The Philosophical Roots of Musical Modernism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.This book will supply me with the bulk of my research materials. Youmans has written many works on Strauss, and this one in particular is closely related to my topic. The author suggests that Strauss is much more intellectually informed and engaged than the commercially successful, flashy composer image he purposely crafted for himself. The book introduces key thinkers of late nineteenth century Germany, namely Schopenhauer,Wagner, Nietzsche, and Goethe, and Strauss’ intellectual evolution in relation or in opposition to them. Youmans makes the intriguing proposition that all Strauss’s tone poems since the Zarathustra are “plagued” by and are manifestations of Nietzsche’s existential angst. Upon the author’s studies, the readers are convinced that Strauss himself believes that as a musician, he is obligated to convey a metaphysical truth through music writing. Youmans’ commentary on Strauss’s own annotated, unpublished copy of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra also sheds light on the secretly philosophically brilliant mind of Strauss. 

How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)?

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=musicology_student

How “frei” Was Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra: Tondichtung (frei nach Friedr. Nietzsche)?

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