Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra

Richard Strauss’ fame first began in the late 1800’s when his tone poems became extremely popular. One of his most popular tone poems that also brings him his claim to fame and acknowledgement in the musical world was Also Sprach Zarathustra, or in English, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The work itself has been an extremely important contribution to music and movie history, as it is extremely recognizable because of its use in modern and historical media. The symphonic work was first premiered in 1896, and since, it has been an extremely important part of the development of classical music in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Strauss was born in 1864 in Munich, Germany and began composing music at the age of six. He created his first major works,
such as his Opus 1, as well as over one hundred smaller works before he was twenty years old. Later on in his life, he began to write tone poems and eventually moved onto symphonies and operas. Strauss also wrote a variety of solo pieces for natural horn, concert horn, piano, oboe and many other instruments. Most of his musical style was based on the works of Wagner, despite the fact that Strauss had an extremely conservative father who wouldn’t Wagner’s work in the house. Later on in his life, Strauss would have to work for the Nazi’s despite the fact that he did not agree with them and he would write some his most influential operas. In 1897, his son Franz Strauss was born. Eventually the heir would rise to the throne of his father’s business in composing for orchestra as well as for horn and other solo instruments.
Also Sprach Zarathustra, helped to kick off Richard Strauss’ major fame, before he began to write his major operas and symphonies.
The work itself is considered a classical piece from the post-romantic era. It was written in the summer of 1896 and premiered later that year on November 27 in Frankfurt. It was first recorded in 1935 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and it has been re recorded in multiple types of media by many different symphony orchestras since. In 1944 Strauss conducted his own recorded version of the piece with the Vienna Philharmonic that was later made into a record, or LP, and then into a CD that is still listened to
today.
The piece is considered a tone poem, or a symphonic poem, in that it is only one movement with various different parts that help to tell a story. This type of piece was becoming more popular at the time, however, this specific piece created new musical motives that would eventually lead to a basis for modern film scoring. It was like many of Strauss’s previous tone poems, in that it used the power of each individual instrument and instrument family to create giant musical motives. Strauss steps away from this in later sections of the piece, however, when he uses the soft musical aspects of the orchestra to create new characters in shorter motives that transform throughout the piece.
The piece itself is broken up into nine different parts.
The most recognizable part of this tone poem is the opening fanfare entitled “Sunrise”. This particular piece of the work is still popular today, as it appears in major modern films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. “Sunrise”, however is only one part of the entire tone poem. This part utilizes the brass and the timpani to create a powerful, moving opening fanfare that is immediately followed by a softer motive with the woodwinds and strings in the next section of the piece entitled, “Of Those in Backwaters”. “Of the Great Longing” comes righter after the softer motive and then “Of Joys and Passions” tells an entirely different story with a whole other character. The next movements are “The Song of the Grave” otherwise known as “Funeral Song”. There is some dispute about it, because the actual names of every part of the work are translated from German. There is then the song “Of Science and Learning” followed by “The Convalescent” and soon after “The Dance Song”. The work ends mysteriously with “Song of the Night Wanderer”. In this last movement, the themes from the previous movements pop up again showing a sense of cycling; almost as though the work could be listened to on repeat seamlessly. The final part of the piece ends on a strange dissonance that leaves the piece wanting to resolve, but it never doing so. When listening straight through, it is hard to sense the end because of this atonal ending.
From looking at the titles of each of the parts, it can be deduced that the work covers an extremely wide range of emotion and story. The feelings and different characters are well incorporated into the sound of the piece. All of these different themes and ideas which create the different characters and feelings are based off of the philosophical novel, Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche, written in 1883.
In conclusion, Also Sprach Zarathustra, was an extremely influential tone poem from the late 19th century. It was extremely important for the evolution of music leading to popular film scoring in the mid to late twentieth century. While it was slightly different in style from the previous works of Strauss, it contained some of the fundamental themes found in most of Strauss’ most popular work. The large themes and characters of the piece were influential to more modern and later pieces by Richard Strauss. Overall, Also Sprach Zarathustra, brought Richard Strauss an early claim to fame that would eventually be followed by later, greater works and would leave a resounding mark on musical history.