ABSTRACT
Music is clearly very important to Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) and his philosophy. Nietzsche’s first book was originally titled The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music (1872). He commented on classical music and the music of his day throughout his writings. He composed music and was an accomplished interpreter and improviser on the piano (Liébert 2004: 13–29). He wrote to Hermann Levi, “Perhaps there has never been a philosopher who, to such a degree, was at bottom so very much a musician as I am” (Schacht 2003: 131). Yet, Nietzsche nowhere gives us a discreet philosophy of music, never goes so far as to specify what he thinks music is. We will attempt to fill part of that void here by connecting what Nietzsche says about music with what he says about philosophy and by highlighting how Nietzsche uses Dionysus as a figure for both. As we shall see, everything there is to say about philosophy and music in Nietzsche’s writings passes through the figure of Dionysus. A careful consideration of the way Nietzsche figures Dionysus in his writings – from the earliest to the last – will clarify what very well may have been Nietzsche’s considered views about music, philosophy, and the relations between the two.
