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Music of
Friedrich Nietzsche
Recordings of 17 compositions for voice, violin, choir, piano, and piano duet
Performers
Valerie Kinslow, soprano; Eric Oland, baritone;
Sven Meier, violin;
The Orpheus Singers, dir. Peter Schubert;
Lauretta Altman, piano;
Daniella Bernstein, piano (in Manfred Meditation);
Wolfgang Bottenberg, piano (in the other works for piano duet)
Production
Artistic supervision, editing, and re-creation of scores:
Wolfgang Bottenberg
Recording supervision and digital editing:
Mark Corwin
Credits
Research assistance:
Faculties of Fine Arts and of Arts and Science, Concordia University, Montreal
Arts Faculty, University of Auckland
Performance material:
Prepared by Wolfgang Bottenberg from original manuscripts and from
Friedrich Nietzsche, Der musikalische Nachlass, ed. Curt Paul Janz, Basel 1976,
with permission of Bärenreiter Music Corp.,
US agent: Foreign Music Distributors
The Compositions
1. Hoch tut euch auf
2. Einleitung
3. Miserere
4. Einleitung
5. Einleitung
6. Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
7. Heldenklage
(2:24)
(2:12)
(6.21)
(1:36)
(1:44)
(1:21)
(1:59)
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8. Klavierstück
9. Zigeunertanz
10. Aus der Jugendzeit
11. Da geht ein Bach
12. Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen
13. Eine Sylvesternacht
14. Junge Fischerin
15. Manfred Meditation
16. Monodie a deux (Lob der Barmherzigkeit)
17. Gebet an das Leben
(2:12)
(2.59)
(2:55)
(1:34)
(1:13)
(11:13)
(3.52)
(9:22)
(4:21)
(2:23)
1. Hoch tut euch auf, for choir. Written December 1858 after a performance of
Handel’s Messiah. The original consists only of parts which do not always match,
and had to be completed for this performance. The text is from a German translation
of The Messiah:
Hoch tut euch auf, ihr Tore der Welt
dass der König der Ehren einziehe.
Lift up your heads, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of Glory shall come in.
2. Einleitung (Introduction), for piano duet. Probably written in 1858 when Nietzsche
became a pupil at Schulpforta, as an introduction for a larger orchestral work.
Extensive revisions were required since the young composer’s imagination
exceeded his technical skills.
3. Miserere, for five-part choir a capella. Written in the summer of 1860, as a
contribution for the Germania Society. The text is part of psalm 51.
4. Einleitung, for piano. Written in the summer of 1861, in connection with the
Christmas Oratorio, his last sacred composition.
5. Einleitung, for piano. This is the introduction to the Christmas Oratorio, to
establish the mood of expectant waiting before the birth of Christ. The music seems
to be influenced by the B flat minor prelude of Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier.
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6. Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin? (Watchman, is night ended soon?), for choir. Part
of the Christmas Oratorio of 1861. The text may be by the composer:
Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
Dunkel deckt das Erdenreich,
Finsternis deckt die Welten
Watchman, is night ended soon?
Darkness covers the earth,
the worlds are filled with gloom.
7. Heldenklage (Heroic Lament), for piano. This is the first of a series of character
pieces for piano, written in 1862 as a contribution for the Germania Society.
8. Klavierstück, for piano. The original manuscript breaks off after twenty-three
bars. The composition heard in this performance has been revised and completed in
the style of Schumann or Chopin, who Nietzsche played frequently at that time.
9. Zigeunertanz (Gypsy dance), for piano. The influence of Liszt is unmistakable.
Part of the original manuscript is lost; the composition has been completed into what
the editor estimated were its original dimensions.
10. Aus der Jugendzeit (From the times of youth), for voice and piano. Nietzsche
was eighteen years old when he wrote this song in 1862 to a poem of Friedrich
Rückert that expresses nostalgia for lost youth. Nietzsche’s sensitive setting may be
a reflection of the loss he experienced in his youth through the loss of his father.
Aus der Jugendzeit
klingt ein Lied mir immerdar.
From my youthful times
do I hear a song so dear.
O wie liegt so weit
was mein einst war.
How remote the times
that were once so near!
Was die Schwalbe sang
die den Herbst und Frühling bringt,
ob das Dorf entang
es jetzt noch klingt?
In the village street
swallows herald fall and spring.
Does their song still greet
what the seasons bring?
Als ich Abschied nahm
When I left from there,
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waren Kisten und Kasten schwer.
Als ich wiederkam
war alles leer.
trunk and coffer, all was full.
Now they are so bare,
and all is dull.
Keine Schwalbe bringt
dir zurück wonach du weinst,
doch die Schwalbe singt
im Dorf wie einst.
Swallows cannot bring
what you are longing for,
but the birds still sing
in the streets as before.
Aus der Jugendzeit
From my youthful times
klingt ein Lied mir immerdar.
O wie liegt so weit
was mein einst war.
do I hear a song so dear.
How remote the times
that were once so near.
11. Da geht ein Bach (A brook goes there), for voice and piano. The text for this
song, by Klaus Groth, was originally in low German dialect, but Nietzsche used a
translation into high German.
Da geht ein Bach das Tal entlang,
Wohin er wohl nur will?
A brook moves through the valleyground
Where leads the water’s quest?
So geht mein Herz den ganzen Tag
und steht nicht einmal still.
My heart moves likewise day and night,
it never seems to rest.
Das steht erst an der Mühle still;
das Rad dreht sich herum.
Da steht es mir auf einmal still,
sag an, mein Herz, warum?
The brook slows down before the mill
the wheel, it slowly turns.
My heart, it almost fails to beat,
expectantly it burns.
Das steht nicht still den ganzen Weg,
It cannot rest along the way,
das wird nicht einmal matt,
und geh’ ich erst den Weg herauf,
so klopft es wie ein Rad.
it never can be still.
and as I walk along the walk,
it knocks just like the wheel.
Das Rad, das dreht, die Mühle geht,
und drinnen ist Gesang.
Komm ich, so guckt ein Kopf heraus,
lässt mich nicht warten lang.
The wheel, it turns, the mill it runs,
and inside, there is song.
I turn my head, a face looks out,
keeps me not waiting long.
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12. Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen (Like the movement of vines), for voice and
piano. The text for this song is by August Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who visited
Schulpforta in October 1863. This may have been the occasion for writing this song.
Wie sich Rebenranken schwingen
in der linden Lüfte Hauch,
wie sich weisse Winden schlingen
lustig um den Rosenstrach,
As the heads of climbing flowers
move in gentle springtime air
vine leaves move in garden bowers
morning glories bloom so fair:
also schmiegen sich und ranken
so my thoughts of eve and morning
frühlingsselig, still und mild
meine Tag- und Nachtgedanken
um ihr trautes liebes Bild.
wind around your image dear,
and my wishes are adorning
memories of blessings near.
13. Eine Sylvesternacht ( A New Year’s Eve), for violin and piano. Written during
the earliest days of 1864 for Nietzsche’s childhood friend Gustav Krug, who became
a composer himself and set many of Nietzsche’s texts to music. This is Nietzsche’s
only completed chamber music composition. A decade later, he used its introduction
in two large-scale orchestral works.
14. Junge Fischerin (Young fisher-maid), for voice and piano. This is the only song
by Nietzsche where, with certainty, he set his own poetry to music. He wrote the
song in 1865; he had written the poem three years earlier, in 1862. As he did with
most of his other songs, he used only part of the poem for the musical setting. The
song is durchkomponiert (through-composed), with a mixture of quiet passages and
violent exclamations. Nietzsche himself characterized it as Zukunftsmusik (music of
the future). There are two versions of this song. This is a performance of the second
version, in which Nietzsche apparently tried to make some improvements over the
first version.
Des Morgens still ich träume
und schau den Wolken nach,
wenn leise durch die Bäume
zittert der junge Tag.
Die Nebel wogen und wallen,
das Frührot drüber hin.
O niemand weiss van allen
dass ich so traurig bin.
In early hours of morning
my dreams, they fly away.
In meadows mists are forming,
sun greets the waking day.
The mists are rolling and heaving,
the air is wet and pure
as dreams of night are leaving
sorrowful thoughts I must endure.
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Die See wogt kühl und leise
vorbei ohn Rast und Ruh,
mir schauerts eigner, eigner Weise,
ich drücke die Augen zu.
Mag nicht die Nebel sehn lauert der Tod darin?
Ach, niemand kann verstehn
dass ich so zage bin.
The sea lies cool and silent,
it never seems to rest.
I stand and shiver, feel abandoned
I close my eyes and take a breath.
What does the fog contain? Is it my death
that’s coming?
Oh! All my tears are in vain
and all my longing.
Mit meinen tränenfeuchten
Augen such ich dich.
Im Frührot seh’ ich’s leuchten
ja, du grüssest mich.
I seek your consolation,
come and make me free.
Your greetings, they bring elation.
Yes, you beckon me.
Du kommst durch Nebelhüllen,
reitest auf dem Wind,
du kommst das Herz zu stillen
dem armen Fischerkind.
You break through fog, I see you
riding through like the wind so wild
No longer stay’st in hiding
Love me! Love your young fisherchild.
15. Manfred-Meditation for piano duet. Dated and signed by Nietzsche April 15,
1872. This is a tone-poem responding to the spirit of Byron’s Manfred. With this
composition, Nietzsche wanted to show that he had, as a composer, reached a
certain maturity. He sent a copy of the score first to his friend Gustav Krug, who
praised it, and then to Hans von Bülow, who replied with a devastating critique. At
first Nietzsche accepted the spirit of this negative judgement as a sign of honesty,
but gradually he recovered his confidence in the artistic value of his composition,
helped by a positive comment of Franz Liszt.
Von Bülow’s completely negative response to Nietzsche’s efforts as a
composer has been accepted widely as the judgement of an expert. The
performance on this recording should give an opportunity to form, one and a half
centuries later, a more balanced opinion of the artistic merit of this work.
16. Monodie a deux (Lob der Barmherzigkeit), for piano duet. Written in February
1873 for the wedding of Olga Herzen (therefore Barmherzigkeit) and Gabriel Monod
(therefore Monodie). The composition is a reworking, with substantial extensions, of
the section dealing with the Annunciation of Mary from the sketches for Christmas
Oratorio of 1861. In a February 1873 letter to a friend, Nietzsche wrote about this
music that “it should be perceived as a prognosis for a good marriage.” Wagner, who
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apparently knew that it was a reworking of a sacred composition, commented in a
humourous manner that, with this wedding present, Nietzsche had wanted to bestow
a papal blessing on the pair, who had avoided a church marriage.
17. Gebet an das Leben (Prayer to Life), for voice and piano. Text by Lou AndreasSalomé. Nietzsche was enthusiastic about some of Lou Salomé’s poems, among
them the Gebet an das Leben, which she gave him as a present at their parting in
August 1873. He immediately set it to music, using his Hymnus auf die Freundschaft
(Hymn to Friendship) of 1873, a melody for which he had not been able to find
suitable words. With some minor adaptations, Nietzsche was able to combine his
previously written music with her text. Nietzsche thought very highly of this symbiosis
of poetry and music, and asked Heinrich Köselitz to make for him a setting for choir
and orchestra. He hoped that a good performance of this work would “seduce”
attentive listeners to his philosophy. Lou Salomé accurately recognized the tension
Nietzsche had created for himself. In her autobiography, she writes: “The higher he
rose as a philosopher in his exaltation of life, the more deeply he suffered, as a
human being, from his own teachings about life. This battle within his soul, the true
source of the philosophy of his last years, are only imperfectly represented in his
words and books, but it sounds perhaps most profoundly through his music to my
poem “Hymn to Life” which he composed in summer 1882 when he stayed with me
in Thüringen close to Dornburg.”
Nietzsche set only one of the two stanzas of Salomé’s poem:
Gewiss – so liebt ein Freund den Freund,
wie ich dich liebe, rätselvolles Leben!
Ob ich in dir gejauchzt, geweint,
ob du mir Leid, ob du mir Lust gegeben,
ich liebe dich mit deinem Glück und Harme,
und wenn du mich vernichten musst,
entreisse ich schmerzvoll mich deinem Arme,
gleichwie der Freund der Freundesbrust.
It is certain – a friend loves a friend the way
That I love you, enigmatic life –
Whether you give me joy or sorrow,
I love you with your happiness and harm,
And if you must destroy me,
I wrest myself painfully from your arms,
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As a friend tears himself away from a friend's breast.
Commentary on the Music of Friedrich Nietzsche by Wolfgang
Bottenberg
The compositions of Friedrich Nietzsche are not as well known as his philosophical
writings or his poems, but Nietzsche himself was convinced that music was one of
his essential means of self-expression. In a letter of October 1887, he wrote: “there
has never been a philosopher who has been in his essence (im Grunde) a musician
to such an extent as I am.”
His musical means of self-expression were through improvisation on the
piano, and through composition. As an improviser, he made a strong impression on
those who heard him, and he retained this ability for some years after his mental
collapse, when he was no longer able to articulate his thoughts through spoken or
written language. His compositions, written before he wrote the majority of his
philosophical works, have so far attracted little attention. There are several reasons
for this. During his life they remained unknown except to his family and a few friends.
Even when his philosophical writings became widely known, his efforts as a
composer were regarded as amateurish and insignificant. Their critical rejection by
Wagner and Hans von Bülow was better known than their actual sound since they
were not available in printed or recorded form. It was only in 1976 that Curt Paul
Janz published them in a complete and scholarly edition (Friedrich Nietzsche, Der
musikalische Nachlass, Bärenreiter Verlag Basel). But even this definitive edition has
not effected a widespread acquaintance with Nietzsche’s music.
If a knowledge of Nietzsche’s compositions could be, as he himself claimed, a
key to the fundamental characteristics of his mind, it should be part of a
comprehensive study of his thought and personality. The following selection of
performances of his compositions is intended as a means of providing this
knowledge. They are presented in chronological order, and they have been selected
as musical illustrations of specific events and thoughts that are discussed in this
book.
Nietzsche’s first attempts at composition date from 1856, when he was not yet
twelve years old. These first attempts are rather ambitious works for piano or
orchestra. In spite of their immaturity, they demonstrate the boy’s eagerness to
participate in his culture not only as a learner, but also as a creator. At that time, he
had competent instruction in piano playing, but not in composition; whatever he
achieved in this field was self-taught. When he became a pupil at Schulpforta, he
intensified his efforts as a composer, largely in the context of making contributions to
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the Germania Society. Among Nietzsche’s contributions are sketches of
symphonies, oratorios, tone poems, and sacred music. Almost all of these
compositions remained incomplete.
During the summer of 1861, Nietzsche must have experienced a crisis both of
his religious faith, and with regard to his abilities as a composer. Evidence of a
religious crisis is the fact that, from that time on, he refrained from writing sacred
music, and gave secular titles to compositions originally intended as sacred works.
Testimony of increased awareness of his limitations as a composer is his
commitment to the creation of shorter forms, such as songs and piano pieces, and
his concern with bringing them to completion and making them ready for
performance.
During his years as a student of philology, Nietzsche wrote only a few
occasional compositions. His friendship with Wagner, though an important influence
on his philosophy, seems to have had little effect on his development as a composer.
Between 1871 and 1874, he wrote a number of extended compositions. The last of
these was the Hymnus auf die Freundschaft of 1873–74, which was intended to be
performed at the festive opening of a temple of friendship that, however, could never
be realized. Eight years later, in 1882, he used this Hymnus as a song to a poem by
Lou Salomé, Gebet an das Leben. It was to be his last composition.
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