ABSTRACT

Friedrich Nietzsche is consistently full of praise for the work of the eighteenth-century Jesuit priest, polymath and diplomat Boscovich. For Nietzsche, the path of discovery goes way beyond introspection, reflection and even ‘reflexivity’. Nietzsche’s rebuttal of bourgeois Christian morality is prelude to a more severe morality. The immediate contribution Nietzsche makes to the domain is at an intrapsychic level. Nietzsche’s dislike of morality is motivated by a desire to puncture its rigid claims on human experience and expression. Music played a key role in Nietzsche’s life; what he revered most was the power of musical improvisation. Philosophy in Nietzsche’s sense is an ongoing experiment – a series of repeated attempts/temptations for which no suitable environment has been created yet. Musical improvisation is one of the keys for approaching Nietzsche’s thought and getting closer to a compositional stance that blends melody with logic, using the varied tempos of rapture, aphoristic synthesis and ironic fugues to interrupt, disrupt, and enrich logical reason.