[149] Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher, poet, and mystic, was born at Röcken, near Lützen, Germany, October 15, 1844; he died insane at Weimar, August 28, 1900. He was, at one time, a close friend of Richard Wagner's and a passionate adherent and champion of his cause in the days when Wagnerism needed such devoted and effective advocacy as his. Later he became estranged from the author of "Parsifal," and his antagonism was as fervent as had been his partisanship. His bitter and savage Der Fall Wagner (1888) is famous. Also sprach Zarathustra, written in 1883-1885, was published in 1892. Nietzsche's "Zarathustra," it may not be superfluous to add, has nothing whatever in common with the Zarathustra (Zoroaster) of the Persians.
[150] "The German word is untergehen; literally, to go below. It means both 'to perish' and 'to set' (as the sun sets)."—W.F. A.
[151] "In the original: 'ein Übergang und ein Untergang'; literally, 'a going over and a going under.'"—W. F. A.
[152] "This title is in allusion to the old Northern Ragnarök—Götterdämmerung, or 'Twilight of the Gods'—which Wagner took for the title of the closing drama of his Ring des Nibelungen."—W. F. A.
[153] The titanic orchestral proclamation with which the tone-poem begins has been interpreted as a musical illustration of the opening paragraphs of the preface quoted in the score, suggesting the apparition of the rising sun on the mountain-tops, and Zarathustra's apostrophe. The trumpet theme which is intoned at the beginning of this passage over a crescendo roar of the drums and organ has been called both the "Zarathustra" motive and the "Nature" theme.—L. G.
[154] See page 12 (foot-note).
[155] This and the foregoing translations from Cervantes are from the English version of Thomas Shelton.
[156] It has been held that Strauss is here autobiographic, that he here objectifies and pillories those critics of his own works "who have not been prudent enough to proclaim him great." For, Mr. James Huneker declares, "there can be no doubt as to the identity of the protagonist of this drama-symphony—it is the glorified image of Richard Strauss."
[157] See page 12 (foot-note).
[158] When the "Domestica" was first performed in London (February 25, 1905), Mr. Ernest Newman, discussing the stand-point of Strauss towards his works and the public, relieved his mind as follows (it is well to reproduce his comment here, since it may obviate some confusion in the thought of the reader unacquainted with the history of Strauss's relation to programme-music in general and his own in particular): "It has been said very confidently that here Strauss has forsaken programme-music and gone back to music of the absolute order; it has also been said, with equal confidence, that he has done nothing of the kind. Strauss himself has behaved as foolishly over it as he might have been expected to do after his previous exploits in the same line. He writes a work like 'Till Eulenspiegel,' that is based from start to finish on the most definite of episodes, and then goes through the heavy farce of 'mystifying' his hearers by telling them he prefers not to give them the clue to the episodes, but to leave them to 'crack the nut' as best they can. All the while he is giving clue after clue to his personal friends, till at length sufficient information is gathered to reconstruct the story that Strauss had worked upon; this gradually gets into all the programme books, and then we are able to listen to the work in the only way it can be listened to with any comprehension—with a full knowledge of the programme. With each new work of Strauss there is the same tomfoolery—one can use no milder word to describe proceedings that no doubt have a rude kind of German humor, but that strike other people as more than a trifle silly. So it is now with the 'Symphonia Domestica.'"