Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical poem, Also sprach Zarathustra, was a huge success at the end of the 19th century. It was greatly discussed among artists and in intellectual circles, it disturbed everyone, exciting either passionate revulsion or enthusiasm. It is no surprise then, that Richard Strauss, who was almost hyper-sensitive to intellectual fashions, decided to set Nietzsche’s (now seen as being rather over-written) poem to music. He began work a year after his great success with Till Eulenspiegel in 1896 and the end result was a symphony poem, lasting almost an hour, which he described as a "homage to Nietzsche’s genius."

The work begins with what is perhaps the most effective evocation of the rising sun ever penned. After almost two minutes of build up, the sun bursts through in majestic splendour, and the orchestra is reinforced by the organ. Zarathustra, after ten years of solitude, decides on this miraculous dawn to leave his lofty mountain peak and acquaint himself with the secular life. A more dramatic contrast can hardly be envisaged: after the stunning fortissimo in C major, we hear a hushed, muted B in the orchestra’s lowest register. Zarathustra descends into the darkness and fog, into the vale of tears. Throughout the work, Strauss consciously exploits the tension created by the clash of tonalities governed by these two adjacent notes.

The process of acquaintance with the world is divided into eight phases, each of which are titled, some obscure and poetic, others less ambiguous. Most interesting of all is the section devoted to science. Nietzsche believed that science, as it was generally pursued, was inhuman and superfluous. Strauss accepts this vision: the alienation of science from nature is illustrated with a unique musical idea – he writes a fugue on a theme that utilises all twelve notes of the scale. In view of the adoption of twelve tone note rows in the next century, Strauss’ decision takes the quality of an eerie premonition. Ironically, Schoenberg (who ushered in this controversial revolution) defended it by saying it was a "natural" progression of what had come before …

Besides the introduction, it is perhaps the dance song melody that makes the greatest impression on first hearing (some of the more pedantic critics took Strauss to task for the seeming frivolity of this section). Zarathustra becomes disgusted by the secular world he has experienced and finds a way out in dance, that transcends everything. This thought was to exert a profound influence on an entire generation. For example, the young Béla Bartók wrote to one of his friends in 1905: "everyone should endeavour to rise above all things, let nothing touch him, let him be entirely independent, entirely indifferent. Only in this way can we become reconciled with mortality, with the pointlessness of life." Bartók thus approached Nietzsche through Strauss. He first heard this symphonic poem in Budapest in 1902. He later wrote that this remarkable music seemed to jolt him out of his intellectual torpor. He began to attempt to compose like Strauss (the best example being Kossuth), and even described himself in a letter to a girl that he was a follower of Nietzsche. However, this phase did not last long. He soon turned away from this world, embracing first Debussy and then peasant music. It was this latter that stayed with him for his entire creative life.