In terms of literature, they both display a profound. interest in Greek prose, as it reflects an entirely different society in which man thrived in the arts and culture. The attraction of each man to the love for life is apparent. There is a remarkable reoccurrence of rejecting those who detested life. We know that LvB preferred Goethe and Schiller to Klopstock, specifically because Klopstock did not love life as the other two did. Said by Beethoven, “He(Goethe) has killed Klopstock for me??But he is great and uplifts the soul nevertheless??.If only he did not always want to die!??..But Goethe-he is alive, and he wants us to live with him. That is why he can be set to music.”(Schwaegermann 4/25/01). This is one of the main reasons that FN rejects Schopenhauer and RW, for their philosophies ended with death as the only solution. Neitzsche said, “?..they negate life, they slander it, hence they are my antipodes.”(Nietzsche contra Wagner, Kaufman p. 670) Let it here be noted that this parallel is not between philosophies (for as we know, FN did not believe that a Christian could ever achieve full artistic potential), but rather between specific attitudes towards a specific subject.
Assuming once again that the reader of this paper is somewhat familiar with FN’s three stages of the overman (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), we can easily see the similar paths in each man’s life. I must point out that FN would not have considered Beethoven as a realized overman, for he remains Christian throughout his life, but the stages of Nietzsche’s development towards said-goal are a vantage point from which to see the comparison of life events. LvB meets with Haydn, in 1792 to begin an anticipated training, as the two were the most prominent and noteworthy musicians (one as an accomplished master, the other as a child prodigy), but by 95, this service reaches its end. Maynard Solomon says in his biography of LvB, “The relationship between the two took on a complex and tangled character from the very start. Almost immediately after the start of his lessons, LvB conceived of the notion that Haydn was envious of him, or unconcerned about his progress.” (Solomon, p. 91) The teacher, here, seems more concerned about the vanity of the accomplishments than with the value of the art — we see in RW’s final phase of life a similar ‘counter-art’ ideal. LvB is now in the camel phase. He has been learning his whole life, but now seems to recognize that he has the potential to create, and his desire to release his creation becomes slowly apparent. His first piano concerto and the Sonata Pathetique start to show his brilliance, and his gradual departure from traditional compositional form. In 1801, we see a strong desire to break away from tradition with the Moonlight sonata. Excited about political upheaval and a potential unification of Europe, LvB finds new inspiration – Napoleon. But as the camel bears a great burden of struggle to learn, and the desire to create without full faculty, LvB is seen to struggle very much as the onset of his hearing loss is imminent. He becomes very depressed and detached, and we see that he is at the depths of despair at the end of his camel phase in 1801-02. The Heiligenstadt testament reveals his realization that he cannot take his life for he has not given to man-kind the full extent of his capabilities. The letters LvB wrote in Heiligenstadt expressed a clear desire to take his own life, but as he later writes, “I would have ended my life-it was only my art that held me back.”; “Thanks to (virtue) and my art, I did not commit suicide.”(Solomon, p. 154) –This sense of duty and obligation to his true nature are the virtues that RW lacked, according to FN.– The next year, he is appalled that Napoleon, his hero and liberator, becomes caught up in the vanity of his affairs and crowns himself emperor. He has seen the tragic human vanity and imperfection of his hero, he has recognized that he himself is a great man with a great destiny, and in turn he releases something that has never been seen before, the third symphony, Eroica. Originally dedicated to Napoleon, he changed the title completely before releasing the work. The piece marks the beginning of a new phase, as it was his first truly revolutionary work. It broke all conventional structural forms, and started a new wave of composition. He is now in the lion phase, protesting with all his might everything that has been mandated of him. The infamous fifth and sixth symphonies came after this. We know of one last failed love attempt by LvB because of the Immortal Beloved letters of 1812, and this seems to mark his transition into the third creative period, his child phase, in which his hearing loss increased dramatically. The music in this phase becomes representative of his stream of consciousness. The contrast and overlapping of counterpoint and modal passages (the most intellectually challenging form of composition vs. the commonly used Christian hymnal style) has often been thought of as man’s struggle between science and faith. It is interesting to note that Haydn dies in 1809, and Napoleon is defeated in 1812 (finally and certainly in 1813). The teacher dies, and the new student is soon born-RW. Just as one misuser of potential greatness is defeated in 1813, the next journey destined to fail begins. Let us not forget that RW’s father is born in 1770, paralleling Beethoven. He dies in 1813.
FN’s course seems to be marked by the same pillars as that of Beethoven’s. His camel phase starts probably as early as his high-school years, but most definitively when he obtains his first Schopenhauer text in 1865. FN is a dedicated student, his discle-ship continues as he praises RW and eventually befriends him. He never fully disrespects the clear vanity and lack of strength that RW exhibits in his attempt to re-gain the lime-light with the Beyreuth festivals, even though he is suspicious of his hero. The camel bears the burden, till the summer of 1876– “I said farewell to Wagner in my heart.”(Nietzsche Contra Wagner, Kaufman p 675), and then he releases Human, All Too Human, in which we see his first public and published revolt against RW. He is now in his lion phase. At the release of Parsifal by RW in 1882, FN reports himself as having become sick and disgusted, for he had seen one like himself abandon the journey. After seeing the premiere, he says, “..I trembled; not long after, I was sick, more than sick, namely, weary – weary from the inevitable disappointment about everything that is left to us modern men for enthusiasm, about the universally wasted energy, work, hope, youth, love-weary from nausea at the whole idealistic lie and pampering of the conscience, which had here triumphed once again over one of the bravest?”(Nietzsche Contra Wagner, Kaufman p. 676). And it was in the winter between 1882 and 83 that FN attempted the relationship with Lou Salome, a woman he had become amorous of, and who denied his marriage proposal. The deep depression of the broken-hearted and the grief of seeing the downfall of his hero are the last days of his dependence on worldly matters. It is the start of his child phase. His most memorable works all came after this.
The depravity and suffering of the artist has always seemed to magnify the art from within. This last attempt with a woman can be seen in both men’s lives as the entrance into their child-phase. Beethoven’s questioning of faith begins to appear in his music, and Nietzsche’s most distinctly anti-Christian (i.e. The AntiChrist) are written. For Beethoven, it was a loss of hearing that affected his work. He could no longer conduct his own works, and he had no real way of knowing how the music really sounded, except to himself– a beautiful idea buried in his own mind. But works such as the ninth symphony prove that he wasn’t done yet. The transcendental quality of the piece was RW’s greatest influence in music. It was through much suffering that the task was achieved. For FN, it was a marked increase in rhetoric ability. He began work on his most renowned work, “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, in 1883, immediately after his depression. And he continued to write constantly for the next five years of his life until his untimely mental breakdown in Dec. 1888, Jan. 1889.
So what about RW? RW abandoned his goal. Upon prospect of financial troubles, RW’s last projects in life (Bayreuth, Parsifal) were a submission to conventional practice and belief to ease life’s burden. Unfortunately for RW, he was either one of two things: an overman who didn’t follow his task, and therefore could not survive, or a human who tried to take on the task but failed. Neitzsche concludes that the true overman has not the capacity for such an abandonment. He let vanity, or materialism stand in the way of his art. Haydn, through jealousy and other vain motives, clearly desired that LvB acknowledge him as superior and mentor. (Soloman 97). Again, I must point out that RW’s father was born on the same year as Beethoven, and that RW was born just as LvB was commencing his final stage. FN’s father was born the same year as RW, and FN was born the same year that RW would be starting his lion phase. Since we are not even certain of the identity of Beethoven’s father, it would be hard to speculate as to who his ‘mentor’ was – it would be convenient to my point if it were Haydn. But another strange coincidence has made itself apparent to me. Adolf Hitler was born April 20, 1889, the last year of FN’s child-phase before his catatonic state. He died in 1945, making him 56. He claims to have always thought to RW for inspiration and guidance.
Without any furthur investigation, I might suggest a certain pattern of cyclical overmen – or rather, potential overmen. LvB reaches fruition, RW fails, Nieztsche reaches fruition, Hitler fails. The coincidence of dates is probably just chance, but the frequency at which we see them is a little unnerving, and if nothing else, a cause for the discussion of interesting parallels between interesting people. The reincarnation of ideas and of attitudes towards life is apparent, but to say anything definitive on this happening would not be logical or justified.?..but??
III.
The final part of this work is a scattered and unrefined continuation on the ideas implied and suggested above. The research behind this paper has been a sort of mile-stone in my academic life, and I couldn’t bear to just finish the paper without looking just a little deeper. The idea of reincarnation, of one soul transferred between bodies, has never really occurred to me, but my deep and profound respect for the two men who reached life’s fruition has held my interest in an otherwise dismissable subject. I will generously provide excerpts and relevant resources specific to the reader’s various potential reactions and questions-for this section of the paper is my dedication to an interesting topic, not an argument to justify any sort of thesis or point. All relevant writings are attached, and all websites given. If you aren’t interested, please stop reading. This brief summation of the concept is from Benjamin Cr?me-if you are still interested, please read the following:
??.in the world, today, there are really three approaches to the idea of reincarnation. A two-fold one in the West, where the idea itself is almost non-existent, either a belief in the transmigration of souls – that you could be a human being in one life and an animal in the next, and therefore that there is great danger in swiping flies and treading on ants because it could be your grandmother — or simply an interest in past lives. That is almost the sole interest in the concept of rebirth in the West.
In the East, broadly speaking, people do believe in
1) Beckman, Tad. http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/Nietzsche/wagner.htm , 4/25/01.
2) Beckman, Tad. http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/Nietzsche/biography.htm , 4/25/01.
3) Beckman, Tad. http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/Nietzsche/Salome.htm , 4/25/01.
Cr?me, Benjamin. http://www.shareintl.org/archives/AgelessWisdom/aw_bcreincarn.htm 4/27/01.
John, Nicholas. English National Opera Guide: Tristan and Isolde, Wagner. Calder: London, 1983.
Kaufman, Walter. The Portable Nietzsche. Penguin Books: New York, 1982. -note-this is a collection of Nietzsche’s works. Specific work cited by case in parentheses.
Rickels, Laurence. http://www.substance.org/52/52-rik~1_R.html , 4/29/01.
Schwaegermann, Ingrid. http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/3732/niebeetpages_e.htm , 4/24/01.
Solomon, Maynard. Ludwig van Beethoven. Schirmer Books: New York, 1988.
Interesting links.
http://www.msubillings.edu/modlang/bplank/quantumnietzsche.htm#tableofcontents
http://www.debunker.com/texts/anti_chr.html Nietzsche’s Der Antichrist: Looking Back From the Year 100, Robert Sheaffer.