It was like a man of great intellectual activity, such as Richard Strauss is, to select for musical illustration the Faust of modern literature--Nietzsche's "Zarathustra." The composer became interested in Nietzsche's works in 1892, when he was writing his music-drama, "Guntram." The full fruition of his study of this philosopher's works is "Thus Spake Zarathustra." But this is not an attempt to set Nietzsche to music, not an effort to express a system of philosophy through sound. It is rather the musical portrayal of a quest--a being longing to solve the problems of life, finding at the end of his varied pilgrimage that which he had left at the beginning, Nature deep and inscrutable.
Musically, the great _fortissimo_ outburst in C major, which, at the beginning of the work, greets the seeker on the mountain-top with the glories of the sunrise, is the symbol of Nature. The seeker descends the mountain. He pursues the quest amid many surroundings, among all sorts and conditions of men. He experiences joy, passion, remorse. In wisdom, perchance, lies the final solution of the problem of life. But the emptiness of "wisdom" is depicted by the composer with the keenest satire in a learned, yet dry, five-part fugue. The seeker's varied experiences form as many divisions of the tone poem. There is even a waltz theme. Unending joy! Therein he may reach the end of his quest.
But hark! a sombre strophe, followed twelve times by the even fainter stroke of a bell! Then a theme winging its flight on the highest register of modern instrumentation, until it seems to rise over the orchestra and vanish into thin air. It is the soul of the seeker, his earthly quest ended; while the theme which greeted him at sunrise on the mountain-top resounds in the orchestral depths, the symbol of Nature, still mysterious, still inscrutable.
Even this brief synopsis suggests that "Zarathustra" is planned on a large scale. It presupposes an intellectual grasp of the subject on the composer's part. In its choice, in the selection and rejection of details and in outlining his scheme, Richard Strauss shows that he has thoroughly assimilated Nietzsche. But, at a certain point, the musician in Richard Strauss asserts himself above the litterateur. "Thus Spake Zarathustra" was not intended for a preachment, save indirectly. From what occurs during that vain quest, from the last deep mysterious chord of the Nature theme, let the listener draw his own conclusion. In the last analysis, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is not a philosophical treatise, but a tone poem. In the last analysis, Richard Strauss is not a philosopher, but a musician.