The Midnight Song
From Thus Spoke Zarathustra
By Friedrich Nietzsche
O Humanity! Beware!
What does the Deep Midnight now declare?
I slept, I slept,
From a deep dream I awoke,
The world is deep,
And deeper than the day had been aware.
Deep is the world’s woe,
Its joy deeper still than misery.
Woe says: “Be gone!”
Yet all joy wants eternity,
Wants deep, deep eternity.
In the fourth movement of his Third Symphony, Gustav Mahler’s ladder of consciousness reaches humanity. It is a dramatic orchestral song for mezzo soprano that explores the meaning of existence, with lyrics from Nietzsche’s book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”
The Midnight Song
From Thus Spoke Zarathustra
By Friedrich Nietzsche
O Humanity! Beware!
What does the Deep Midnight now declare?
I slept, I slept,
From a deep dream I awoke,
The world is deep,
And deeper than the day had been aware.
Deep is the world’s woe,
Its joy deeper still than misery.
Woe says: “Be gone!”
Yet all joy wants eternity,
Wants deep, deep eternity.
Guests include:
• Carter Brey, Principal Cello, New York Philharmonic
• Caroline Kita, Washington University in St. Louis
• Ioannis Konstantakos, University of Athens, Greece
• Marilyn McCoy, Columbia University, New York
• Joanna Neilly, Oxford University, England
Music used in Episode 4. All titles used with permission.
Symphony No. 3 in D Minor: IV Sehr langsam, Misterioso
By Gustav Mahler
Sung by Nathalie Stutzmann with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton
Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
Delos (DE3248)
“Das zerbrochene Ringlein” (“The broken little ring”)
By Friedrich Nietzsche
Performed by Jeroen van Veen, piano
Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
Brilliant Classics (95492)
Also Sprach Zarathustra
By Richard Strauss
Performed by the South West German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Francois-Xavier Roth
Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
SWR Klassik (CD93.320)
A Mass of Life
By Frederick Delius
Performed by the Bach Choir, Bournemouth Symphony, conducted by David Hill
Alan Opie, Baritone
Courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
Naxos (8.572861)
© 2020 Aaron Cohen