From my Life

1844

In the year of Nietzsche’s birth, Arthur Schopenhauer publishes a second edition of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung [The World as Will and Representation], including an additional volume.

1854

Music: Nietzsche hears a performance of Handel’s Messiah in May of this year, which inspires him to compose his own music.

1856

Music: Nietzsche composes two sonatas, one in D major, another in G Major: Sonatine Op. 11, and “Orkadal” Trauerspiel mit Overtu fur Klavier four hdg [tragedy for piano and four hands]. While in the Naumburg church, he listens to a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. On Christmas day, he receives transcriptions of Haydn’s symphonies for piano; also, he seeks out the scores of two Beethoven sonatas, Op. 49 and Op. 7.

Writing: With boyhood friend Wilhelm Pinder, Nietzsche writes his first work, a short play entitled “Die Gotter auf dem Olymp” [The Gods on Olympus]. A list of characters included Jupiter, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Juno, and Pallas Athena; fittingly, if not presciently, Nietzsche, who later said of himself he was not a man, but dynamite, played Mars, the god of war.

Friedrich Nietzsche - Фридрих Ницше - فريدريش نيتشه