Die Philosophie Westeuropas im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert (review)

286 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY does not lie deeply concealed within you but immeasurably high above.., what you usually take for your ego," you might ask yourself: "What have you really loved till now?" The allegedly Schopenhauerian traits, then, that the young Nietzsche goes on to describe so lovingly are plainly offered as a portrait of that self which the young author himself would like to realize one day. This excursus goes beyond Love's book but is entirely consistent with it. To return to Love: "As for Wagner's music, it can be stated unequivocally that D/e Meistersinger was the only one of the mature works which Nietzsche acquired fully on his own and the one which he knew best from actual performance" (p. 63). Tristan he heard only twice, in June 1872, in Munich where "Hans von Billow gave the European musical public its second chance to experience a production of Tristan" (p. 64). Love thinks that Tristan "became for Nietzsche the permanent symbol of his unforgettable Tribschen experience" because "Wagner himself must have opened his mind to the deeper meaning of his most radical work" (p. 65). Though Love does not mention this, the tribute to yon Billow in Ecce Homo, quoted above, evidently conflates two events, the one in 1861 to which Nietzsche refers, the other in 1872. Incidentally, Love refers to (p. 69) but does not quote von Biilow's scathing letter to Nietzsche about one of Nietzsche's compositions. Nietzsehe himself refers to this letter in Ecce Homo and mentions that yon Billow had accused him of "rape of Euterpe." It is doubly noteworthy that he went out of his way to voice his gratitude to von Billow. Nietzsche's last composition, says Love, was a Hymn on Friendship (1873): his music for Lou Salomd's Hymn on Life, published in 1886 and mentioned in Ecce Homo, was based on the chorale of the earlier hymn. Neither version could be called Wagnerian. Indeed, looking back over his compositions in 1874, Nietzsche himself commented "how in music the unalterability of character is revealed," for "he had once again returned, after a brief struggle ... to the area of his natural inspiration...in what amounted to a reaffirmation of the consistency of his musical character." And Love concludes that "Nietzsche's infatuation with Wagnerian music.., may indeed be regarded as an aberration." The notion, long popular in some circles, that Nietzsche betrayed himself when he left Wagner and began to write aphorisms, is certainly fantastic. It has long been obvious that Nietzsche had to break with Wagner or give up his own work. The composer, born in 1813 like Nietzsche's deceased father, appreciated the young professor as a welcome apostle and as a friend who could be asked to do one's Christmas shopping. Wagner asked for changes in the final sections of The Birth and the meditation on Schopenhauer, and he regretted the absence of any reference to himself in the meditation on history. Moreover, Nietzsche had misgivings about Wagner's hatred of the French and the Jews, discounted these eccentricities as long as his fascinating friend lived a lonely life in Switzerland, but had to take a stand when Wagner moved to Bayreuth and became a major influence in the new German Empire. Love does not include a study of Nietzsche's break with Wagner, but there was no need of that. By showing how Nietzsche never was "a passionate devotee of Wagnerian music," Love adds some pertinent information. In sum, this solid and unpretentious little book rounds out the picture previously available by showing that Nietzsche's musical compositions and tastes are consistent with the conclusions to which one is driven when investigating his intellectual and stylistic development. WALTER KAUFMANN Princeton University Die Philosophie Westeuropas im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. By Hermann Noack. (Basel/ Stuttgart, Benno Schwabe & Co., 1962. Pp. 370.) This volume forms an introduction to a series of books entitled Die philosophischen Bemi~hungen des 20. Jahrhunderts (The philosophical efforts of the twentieth century). The introduction is supposed to provide for the reader a general orientation of the over-all trends BOOK REVIEWS 287 in the philosophy of the twentieth century and to present...