ion, or a landscape, or an idea--that is to say, the most volatile
and varied impressions of his capricious spirit--is very marked here. It
is true that he falls back on several popular subjects, whose meaning
would be very easily grasped in Germany; and that he develops them, not
quite in the strict form of a rondeau, as he pretends, but still with a
certain method, so that apart from a few frolics, which are
unintelligible without a programme, the whole has real musical unity.
This symphony, which is a great favourite in Germany, seems to me less
original than some of his other compositions. It sounds rather like a
refined piece of Mendelssohn's, with curious harmonies and very
complicated instrumentation.

[Footnote 173: Composed in 1894-95, and played for the first time at
Cologne in 1895.]

There is much more grandeur and originality in his _Also sprach
Zarathustra, Tondichtung frei, nach Nietzsche_ ("Thus spake Zarathustra,
a free Tone-poem, after Nietzsche"), op. 30.[174] Its sentiments are
more broadly human, and the programme that Strauss has followed never
loses itself in picturesque or anecdotic details, but is planned on
expressive and noble lines. Strauss protests his own liberty in the face
of Nietzsche's. He wishes to represent the different stages of
development that a free spirit passes through in order to arrive at that
of Super-man. These ideas are purely personal, and are not part of some
system of philosophy. The sub-titles of the work are: _Von den
Hinterweltern_ ("Of Religious Ideas"), _Von der grossen Sehnsucht_ ("Of
Supreme Aspiration"), _Von den Freuden und Leidenschaften_ ("Of Joys and
Passions"), _Das Grablied_ ("The Grave Song"), _Von der Wissenschaft_
("Of Knowledge"), _Der Genesende_ ("The Convalescent"--the soul
delivered of its desires), _Das Tanzlied_ ("Dancing Song"), _Nachtlied_
("Night Song"). We are shown a man who, worn out by trying to solve the
riddle of the universe, seeks refuge in religion. Then he revolts
against ascetic ideas, and gives way madly to his passions. But he is
quickly sated and disgusted and, weary to death, he tries science, but
rejects it again, and succeeds in ridding himself of the uneasiness its
knowledge brings by laughter--the master of the universe--and the merry
dance, that dance of the universe where all the human sentiments enter
hand-in-hand--religious beliefs, unsatisfied desires, passions,
disgust, and joy. "Lift up your hearts on high, my brother