Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Also sprach Zarathustra (“Thus spoke Zarathustra”) is a symphonic poem composed in 1896 by Richard Strauss. As can be quickly determined from the name, the musician draws inspiration from the eponymous philosophical essay by Friedrich Nietzsche, father of the controversial—and often misinterpreted—concept of Übermensch (or “overhuman”). Strauss’ composition tries to set this feeling of power and success to music by synthesizing the past and present. In fact, the second movement, titled Von den Hinterweltlern (“Of the Backworldsmen”), quotes the Gregorian chant Credo in unum Deum! However, the most famous movement of the whole symphony is the introduction, made popular to the general public by Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and by many others. Here, Strauss sets to music the sun’s rays behind the mountain, the Creation, and the advent of the overhuman; in brief, the impetus of life! Perhaps his most clever innovation was to finish the last movement with the first note of the introduction, as if Strauss wanted to recall the nietzschean idea of the “eternal return!”