Larger Than Life
Rainbow Body - Christopher Theofanidis
Born December 18, 1967, in Dallas, Texas
This work was premiered in April 8, 2000, by the Houston Symphony conducted by Robert Spano. It is scored forpiccolo, three flutes, three oboes, E-flat clarinet, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp, and strings.
Christopher Theofanidis is one of the most proficient and celebrated composers of his generation. Born in Dallas, he was educated at the University of Houston, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. His music has become known throughout the world.
Theofanidis’s has composed works for practically every possible combination of instruments and voices. He has written many chamber works, including pieces for string quartet, piano, and mixed ensembles. He has also composed extensively for chorus and has written concertos for alto saxophone, violin, piano, violin, and cello. There are also numerous works for orchestra. Theofanidis has received many honors, including Charles Ives, Tanglewood, Guggenheim, and Fulbright Fellowships, the 1999 Rome Prize, and a 2007 Grammy nomination. Commissions have come from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. During the 2006-2007 Season, he was Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony.
While thoroughly modern, many of Theofanidis’s pieces reflect his interest in older music. His style often presents the new and old side-by-side, showing similarities and differences in striking contrast. He is also interested in Eastern religions and traditions, sometimes drawing upon Asian philosophy in very meaningful extra-musical gestures
Of all of Theofanidis’s music, his orchestra work, Rainbow Body, is his most popular piece with over 100 performances since its premiere over a decade ago. The composer has written extensively about the work and provides the following vivid and informative description
“Rainbow Body was the coming together of two ideas- one, my fascination with Hildegard of Bingen's music (the principal melody of Rainbow Body is loosely based on one of her chants, "Ave Maria, O Auctix Vite"), and two, the Tibetan Buddhist idea of "Rainbow Body," which is that when an enlightened being dies physically, his or her body is absorbed directly back into the universe as energy, as light. This seemed to me to be the metaphor for Hildegard's music as much as anything.”
“In the past few years I have been listening to the music of medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen a great deal, and as simple and direct as this music is, I am constantly amazed by its staying power. Hildegard's melodies have very memorable contours which set them apart from other chants of the period. They are wonderfully sensual and set up a very intimate communication with the divine. This work is based on one of her chants, 'Ave Maria, o auctrix vite' (Hail Mary, source of life).
“Rainbow Body begins in an understated, mysterious manner, calling attention to some of the key intervals and motives of the piece. When the primary melody enters for the first time about a minute into the work, I present it very directly in the strings without accompaniment. In the orchestration, I try to capture a halo around this melody, creating a wet acoustic by emphasizing the lingering reverberations one might hear in an old cathedral.
“Although the piece is built essentially around fragments of the melody, I also return to the tune in its entirety several times throughout the work, as a kind of plateau of stability and peace within an otherwise turbulent environment. Rainbow Body has a very different sensibility from the Hildegard chant, with a structure that is dramatic and developmental, but I hope that it conveys at least a little of my love for the beauty and grace of her work.”
Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op.47
– Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865, in Tavastehus, Finland
Died September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää, Finland
This work was first performed on February 8, 1904, in Helsinki, with Victor Novacek as soloist and the composer conducting. The premiere of the revised version was given in Berlin on October 19, 1905, with Karl Halir as soloist and Richard Strauss conducting. It is scored woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.
Jean Sibelius was an adult before he decided to concentrate on a musical career. Although he began to study piano at age nine and composition at ten, his first intention was to become a lawyer. In 1885 he enrolled in the University of Helsinki to study law. Within a year, he decided to become a musician. Sibelius worked diligently and, after several early failures, first gained prominence about 1900. He would write for just a few decades before abruptly abandoning his compositional career in 1927 to live in retirement, refusing to even discuss his music. This highly important composer lived a quiet existence in his native Finland until his death thirty years later at the age of 91.
Sibelius was drawn to folklore and many of his numerous works for orchestra, stage, chamber ensembles, and voice and piano were inspired by stories from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem of native legends. Although he lived well beyond the middle of the twentieth century, the spirit of Sibelius belonged to the nineteenth. His music reflects the two great driving forces of his public career – he was a Romantic as a composer and an intense nationalist as a citizen. During his early years he was influenced by the styles of Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Later he developed his own characteristic style but he remained a Romantic. Sibelius was the authentic voice of Finland, not only to his countrymen, but also to the world. Even his works of absolute music express a combination of pastoral moods and rare outbursts of passionate emotion that seem typical of his native land.
Sibelius’s career as a composer first started to blossom about the same time as his aspirations to be a concert violinist melted away. In 1903, when he began work on his own violin concerto, Sibelius was able to incorporate the knowledge of a professional player. A projected 1904 premiere was to include violinist Willy Burmester of the Helsinki Orchestra as soloist, but Sibelius felt unsure of Burmester’s abilities. Since the violinist had scheduling conflicts with the performance date, Sibelius chose another performer. Instead, the February 1904 premiere was entrusted to a second-rate performer, Victor Novacek, who could not play the work with the finesse required. After the inevitable lukewarm reviews, Sibelius revised the work and a second premiere was given in Berlin in October of 1905 with violinist Karl Halir and conductor Richard Strauss. Its success was sealed.
The first movement is in a three-part form, but is quite different than a traditional sonata form. There is virtually no introduction and the soloist begins almost at the outset with a mysterious soaring theme. Although the overall atmosphere is one of brooding and shadowy textures, there are occasional sparkles from the orchestra. Instead of a development section, Sibelius composed a long cadenza to develop the major themes. The recapitulation is rhapsodic – built around the melodies heard earlier in the work, but never quite providing a literal restatement.
Sibelius’s second movement is also a three-part form, but retains the simplicity of a lyrical song. A central section provides an opportunity for virtuosity with many double-stops, before a quiet return of the opening material. The familiar finale is reminiscent of Brahms’s gypsy music – light and lively, but with tinges of sadness – that Sibelius described as a ‘danse macabre.’ A final coda engulfs the proceedings in a fiery flash of violin pyrotechnics.
Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra), Op. 30 –
Richard Strauss
Born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany
Died September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
This work was premiered on November 27, 1896, in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, with the composer conducting. It is scored for two piccolos, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, organ, and strings.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy appeared in fifteen books of which Also sprach Zarathustra (1883) was the seventh. His most important ideas include the concept that faith and religion cannot provide answers that are not already present in the mind. This led to life-affirmation, which is attained by questioning all aspects of existence and belief. Nietzsche believed that truth was a false concept that allowed mankind to escape the problems of the world. In Also sprach Zarathustra, he introduced the idea of the Übermensch (sometimes translated as “Superman” or “Overman”) to represent the ultimate goal of mankind to free itself of worldly baggage. The Übermensch has undergone several corruptions since Nietzsche’s death in 1900, most notoriously in its sinister misinterpretation by Adolf Hitler in 1930s-40s Germany as a reason to commit racial genocide. Nietzsche did not espouse such views.
Richard Strauss explained his attraction to Nietzsche’s book in a letter to his friend, Otto Florsheim:
“I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music Nietzsche’s great work. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as my homage to Nietzsche’s genius, which found its greatest exemplification in his book, Thus Spake Zarathustra.”
In Also sprach Zarathustra, the title character is a hermit who has lived in isolation for a decade. As a preface to the score, Strauss included a passage from Nietzsche’s book that sets the stage for what is to follow:
“Having attained the age of thirty, Zarathustra left his home and went into the mountains. There he rejoiced in his spirit and his loneliness, and for ten years did not grow weary of it. But at last his heart turned—one morning he got up with the dawn, stepped into the presence of the Sun and declared: ‘O great star! What could be your happiness, were it not for those for whom you shine?
“’For ten years you have come up here to my cave. You would have got sick of your light and your journey, but for me, my eagle and my serpent. But we waited for you every morning, and, receiving from you your abundance, bless you for it! Lo! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that has collected too much honey; I need hands reaching out for it. I would gladly grant and distribute until the wise among men could once more enjoy their folly, and the poor once more their riches. For that end I must descend to the depth; as you do at evening, when, sinking behind the sea, you give light to the lower regions, you resplendent star! I must, like you, go down, as men say—men to whom I would descend. Then bless me, oh impassive eye, that looks without envy even upon over-much happiness. Bless the cup which is about to overflow, so that the water, golden flowing out of it, may carry everywhere the reflection of your rapture. Lo! this cup is about to empty itself again, and Zarathustra will once more become a man.’ —Thus Zarathustra’s going down began.
Each of the eighty chapters represents Zarathustra’s views on a different subject. Strauss borrowed eight of the chapter titles as headings for sections of his tone poem. Played largely without pause, each of the sections depicts a different point in the evolution of the human mind.
I. Einleitung (Introduction): The opening is among the most powerful and familiar of Strauss’s works. Beginning in the depths of the orchestra, a low drone gives way to the sunrise, played by the trumpets as three rising pitches. A huge C major cadence occurs after which the volume and intensity build gradually to encompass the entire orchestra, just like a dazzling sunrise floods the world with light as it appears on the horizon.
II. Von den Hinterweltlern (Of the Backworldsmen) Without pause, the music returns to the orchestra’s depths, this time with a pizzicato passage in the low strings to which Strauss adds a quote from Gregorian chant played by the horns. This is especially significant since Nietzsche’s term “backworldsmen” is sometimes translated as “Dwellers of the Prehistoric World,” whose faith in religious dogma is effectively shown by the use of chant. A moving hymn-like passage for strings is heard and builds to one of the most memorable climaxes in the entire work.
III. Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing): In this chapter, Zarathustra declares that the soul and body are one and the same, both of which must be nurtured. Strauss’s depiction of this ideological conflict is agitated with fragmented themes appearing over string tremolos.
IV. Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions): Zarathustra explains that passions and virtues are the same thing. Strauss provides a chromatic web of passions with notable contributions from the low brass instruments.
V. Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave): Oboe and violin solos accompany the hermit’s mournful polemic against growing older. Fragments of earlier themes appear only to recede into the lush and chromatic musical texture.
VI. Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning): To portray the academic, Strauss uses the most learned of all musical devices – the fugue. Throughout this work, there is a struggle between the key of C (representing nature) and the key of B (representing the unnatural) and both surface in the fugue. The struggle between the natural world and the learned one is essentially a development section in which all twelve notes of the chromatic scale appea
VII. Der Genesende (The Convalescent): Zarathustra has a philosophical breakthrough and examines his own mind for answers, eschewing all other opinions. The fugue theme in the low strings becomes more animated and a powerful climax builds.
As a transition to the next section, Strauss launches into a scherzo, first dark in character but brightening as it progresses, in which trumpet calls, bird-like flute figurations, and soaring strings combine to introduce the lovely dance that follows.
VIII. Das Tanzlied (The Dance-Song): Zarathustra explains that he once encountered some young women dancing. After the hermit told them many secrets about the meaning of life, they finished their dance and ran away. Strauss’s depiction of this chapter is as a pleasant Viennese waltz
IX. Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer): Zarathustra and his followers are drinking in the wee hours of the morning as they discuss important matters. As matins bells ring, he recites a poem that urges mankind to experience all joys and woes with the completeness that only the deepest thought can bring (This is the same poem that Gustav Mahler set as part of his Symphony No. 3). This moving episode is depicted in music with great tenderness. Strauss uses the warm key of B major, representing everything against nature and, by extension, the Übermensch. However, the final notes are quite puzzling as the basses repeat an unresolved pizzicato C under a B major woodwind chord. The conflict between man and nature never ends.
©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
Born December 18, 1967, in Dallas, Texas
This work was premiered in April 8, 2000, by the Houston Symphony conducted by Robert Spano. It is scored forpiccolo, three flutes, three oboes, E-flat clarinet, three clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, harp, and strings.
Christopher Theofanidis is one of the most proficient and celebrated composers of his generation. Born in Dallas, he was educated at the University of Houston, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. His music has become known throughout the world.
Theofanidis’s has composed works for practically every possible combination of instruments and voices. He has written many chamber works, including pieces for string quartet, piano, and mixed ensembles. He has also composed extensively for chorus and has written concertos for alto saxophone, violin, piano, violin, and cello. There are also numerous works for orchestra. Theofanidis has received many honors, including Charles Ives, Tanglewood, Guggenheim, and Fulbright Fellowships, the 1999 Rome Prize, and a 2007 Grammy nomination. Commissions have come from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. During the 2006-2007 Season, he was Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony.
While thoroughly modern, many of Theofanidis’s pieces reflect his interest in older music. His style often presents the new and old side-by-side, showing similarities and differences in striking contrast. He is also interested in Eastern religions and traditions, sometimes drawing upon Asian philosophy in very meaningful extra-musical gestures
Of all of Theofanidis’s music, his orchestra work, Rainbow Body, is his most popular piece with over 100 performances since its premiere over a decade ago. The composer has written extensively about the work and provides the following vivid and informative description
“Rainbow Body was the coming together of two ideas- one, my fascination with Hildegard of Bingen's music (the principal melody of Rainbow Body is loosely based on one of her chants, "Ave Maria, O Auctix Vite"), and two, the Tibetan Buddhist idea of "Rainbow Body," which is that when an enlightened being dies physically, his or her body is absorbed directly back into the universe as energy, as light. This seemed to me to be the metaphor for Hildegard's music as much as anything.”
“In the past few years I have been listening to the music of medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen a great deal, and as simple and direct as this music is, I am constantly amazed by its staying power. Hildegard's melodies have very memorable contours which set them apart from other chants of the period. They are wonderfully sensual and set up a very intimate communication with the divine. This work is based on one of her chants, 'Ave Maria, o auctrix vite' (Hail Mary, source of life).
“Rainbow Body begins in an understated, mysterious manner, calling attention to some of the key intervals and motives of the piece. When the primary melody enters for the first time about a minute into the work, I present it very directly in the strings without accompaniment. In the orchestration, I try to capture a halo around this melody, creating a wet acoustic by emphasizing the lingering reverberations one might hear in an old cathedral.
“Although the piece is built essentially around fragments of the melody, I also return to the tune in its entirety several times throughout the work, as a kind of plateau of stability and peace within an otherwise turbulent environment. Rainbow Body has a very different sensibility from the Hildegard chant, with a structure that is dramatic and developmental, but I hope that it conveys at least a little of my love for the beauty and grace of her work.”
Concerto in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op.47
– Jean Sibelius Born December 8, 1865, in Tavastehus, Finland
Died September 20, 1957, in Järvenpää, Finland
This work was first performed on February 8, 1904, in Helsinki, with Victor Novacek as soloist and the composer conducting. The premiere of the revised version was given in Berlin on October 19, 1905, with Karl Halir as soloist and Richard Strauss conducting. It is scored woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings.
Jean Sibelius was an adult before he decided to concentrate on a musical career. Although he began to study piano at age nine and composition at ten, his first intention was to become a lawyer. In 1885 he enrolled in the University of Helsinki to study law. Within a year, he decided to become a musician. Sibelius worked diligently and, after several early failures, first gained prominence about 1900. He would write for just a few decades before abruptly abandoning his compositional career in 1927 to live in retirement, refusing to even discuss his music. This highly important composer lived a quiet existence in his native Finland until his death thirty years later at the age of 91.
Sibelius was drawn to folklore and many of his numerous works for orchestra, stage, chamber ensembles, and voice and piano were inspired by stories from the Kalevala, the Finnish epic poem of native legends. Although he lived well beyond the middle of the twentieth century, the spirit of Sibelius belonged to the nineteenth. His music reflects the two great driving forces of his public career – he was a Romantic as a composer and an intense nationalist as a citizen. During his early years he was influenced by the styles of Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Later he developed his own characteristic style but he remained a Romantic. Sibelius was the authentic voice of Finland, not only to his countrymen, but also to the world. Even his works of absolute music express a combination of pastoral moods and rare outbursts of passionate emotion that seem typical of his native land.
Sibelius’s career as a composer first started to blossom about the same time as his aspirations to be a concert violinist melted away. In 1903, when he began work on his own violin concerto, Sibelius was able to incorporate the knowledge of a professional player. A projected 1904 premiere was to include violinist Willy Burmester of the Helsinki Orchestra as soloist, but Sibelius felt unsure of Burmester’s abilities. Since the violinist had scheduling conflicts with the performance date, Sibelius chose another performer. Instead, the February 1904 premiere was entrusted to a second-rate performer, Victor Novacek, who could not play the work with the finesse required. After the inevitable lukewarm reviews, Sibelius revised the work and a second premiere was given in Berlin in October of 1905 with violinist Karl Halir and conductor Richard Strauss. Its success was sealed.
The first movement is in a three-part form, but is quite different than a traditional sonata form. There is virtually no introduction and the soloist begins almost at the outset with a mysterious soaring theme. Although the overall atmosphere is one of brooding and shadowy textures, there are occasional sparkles from the orchestra. Instead of a development section, Sibelius composed a long cadenza to develop the major themes. The recapitulation is rhapsodic – built around the melodies heard earlier in the work, but never quite providing a literal restatement.
Sibelius’s second movement is also a three-part form, but retains the simplicity of a lyrical song. A central section provides an opportunity for virtuosity with many double-stops, before a quiet return of the opening material. The familiar finale is reminiscent of Brahms’s gypsy music – light and lively, but with tinges of sadness – that Sibelius described as a ‘danse macabre.’ A final coda engulfs the proceedings in a fiery flash of violin pyrotechnics.
Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra), Op. 30 –
Richard Strauss
Born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany
Died September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
This work was premiered on November 27, 1896, in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, with the composer conducting. It is scored for two piccolos, three flutes, three oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, timpani, percussion, two harps, organ, and strings.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy appeared in fifteen books of which Also sprach Zarathustra (1883) was the seventh. His most important ideas include the concept that faith and religion cannot provide answers that are not already present in the mind. This led to life-affirmation, which is attained by questioning all aspects of existence and belief. Nietzsche believed that truth was a false concept that allowed mankind to escape the problems of the world. In Also sprach Zarathustra, he introduced the idea of the Übermensch (sometimes translated as “Superman” or “Overman”) to represent the ultimate goal of mankind to free itself of worldly baggage. The Übermensch has undergone several corruptions since Nietzsche’s death in 1900, most notoriously in its sinister misinterpretation by Adolf Hitler in 1930s-40s Germany as a reason to commit racial genocide. Nietzsche did not espouse such views.
Richard Strauss explained his attraction to Nietzsche’s book in a letter to his friend, Otto Florsheim:
“I did not intend to write philosophical music or to portray in music Nietzsche’s great work. I meant to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as my homage to Nietzsche’s genius, which found its greatest exemplification in his book, Thus Spake Zarathustra.”
In Also sprach Zarathustra, the title character is a hermit who has lived in isolation for a decade. As a preface to the score, Strauss included a passage from Nietzsche’s book that sets the stage for what is to follow:
“Having attained the age of thirty, Zarathustra left his home and went into the mountains. There he rejoiced in his spirit and his loneliness, and for ten years did not grow weary of it. But at last his heart turned—one morning he got up with the dawn, stepped into the presence of the Sun and declared: ‘O great star! What could be your happiness, were it not for those for whom you shine?
“’For ten years you have come up here to my cave. You would have got sick of your light and your journey, but for me, my eagle and my serpent. But we waited for you every morning, and, receiving from you your abundance, bless you for it! Lo! I am weary of my wisdom, like the bee that has collected too much honey; I need hands reaching out for it. I would gladly grant and distribute until the wise among men could once more enjoy their folly, and the poor once more their riches. For that end I must descend to the depth; as you do at evening, when, sinking behind the sea, you give light to the lower regions, you resplendent star! I must, like you, go down, as men say—men to whom I would descend. Then bless me, oh impassive eye, that looks without envy even upon over-much happiness. Bless the cup which is about to overflow, so that the water, golden flowing out of it, may carry everywhere the reflection of your rapture. Lo! this cup is about to empty itself again, and Zarathustra will once more become a man.’ —Thus Zarathustra’s going down began.
Each of the eighty chapters represents Zarathustra’s views on a different subject. Strauss borrowed eight of the chapter titles as headings for sections of his tone poem. Played largely without pause, each of the sections depicts a different point in the evolution of the human mind.
I. Einleitung (Introduction): The opening is among the most powerful and familiar of Strauss’s works. Beginning in the depths of the orchestra, a low drone gives way to the sunrise, played by the trumpets as three rising pitches. A huge C major cadence occurs after which the volume and intensity build gradually to encompass the entire orchestra, just like a dazzling sunrise floods the world with light as it appears on the horizon.
II. Von den Hinterweltlern (Of the Backworldsmen) Without pause, the music returns to the orchestra’s depths, this time with a pizzicato passage in the low strings to which Strauss adds a quote from Gregorian chant played by the horns. This is especially significant since Nietzsche’s term “backworldsmen” is sometimes translated as “Dwellers of the Prehistoric World,” whose faith in religious dogma is effectively shown by the use of chant. A moving hymn-like passage for strings is heard and builds to one of the most memorable climaxes in the entire work.
III. Von der großen Sehnsucht (Of the Great Longing): In this chapter, Zarathustra declares that the soul and body are one and the same, both of which must be nurtured. Strauss’s depiction of this ideological conflict is agitated with fragmented themes appearing over string tremolos.
IV. Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften (Of Joys and Passions): Zarathustra explains that passions and virtues are the same thing. Strauss provides a chromatic web of passions with notable contributions from the low brass instruments.
V. Das Grablied (The Song of the Grave): Oboe and violin solos accompany the hermit’s mournful polemic against growing older. Fragments of earlier themes appear only to recede into the lush and chromatic musical texture.
VI. Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science and Learning): To portray the academic, Strauss uses the most learned of all musical devices – the fugue. Throughout this work, there is a struggle between the key of C (representing nature) and the key of B (representing the unnatural) and both surface in the fugue. The struggle between the natural world and the learned one is essentially a development section in which all twelve notes of the chromatic scale appea
VII. Der Genesende (The Convalescent): Zarathustra has a philosophical breakthrough and examines his own mind for answers, eschewing all other opinions. The fugue theme in the low strings becomes more animated and a powerful climax builds.
As a transition to the next section, Strauss launches into a scherzo, first dark in character but brightening as it progresses, in which trumpet calls, bird-like flute figurations, and soaring strings combine to introduce the lovely dance that follows.
VIII. Das Tanzlied (The Dance-Song): Zarathustra explains that he once encountered some young women dancing. After the hermit told them many secrets about the meaning of life, they finished their dance and ran away. Strauss’s depiction of this chapter is as a pleasant Viennese waltz
IX. Nachtwandlerlied (Song of the Night Wanderer): Zarathustra and his followers are drinking in the wee hours of the morning as they discuss important matters. As matins bells ring, he recites a poem that urges mankind to experience all joys and woes with the completeness that only the deepest thought can bring (This is the same poem that Gustav Mahler set as part of his Symphony No. 3). This moving episode is depicted in music with great tenderness. Strauss uses the warm key of B major, representing everything against nature and, by extension, the Übermensch. However, the final notes are quite puzzling as the basses repeat an unresolved pizzicato C under a B major woodwind chord. The conflict between man and nature never ends.
©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com