Final Blog Post: For Nietzsche and Radetsky March

Original post:

I selected this piece because I feel it demonstrates the qualities that Nietzsche saw in Bizet. Radetsky March's liveliness coupled with toe-tapping melody is similar to the Bizet's Carmen, particularly in its overture. Radetsky March is not decadent, as Wagner's Tristan and Ilsode tends to be.  There is nothing morbid in the tune of Radetsky March- all tunes are light-hearted. The sense of doom and sorrow is no where present, unlike the heavy melody of Tristan and Ilsode.

Extended post:

Although my purpose originally when selecting Radetzsky March was to provide a parallel piece of music to compare to Bizet’s Carmen, the two works are quite different in theme. Carmen is a tragedy, whereas Radetsky March is not.  Both pieces are lively indeed, but Radetsky March skill cannot be appropriately compared to Carmen.  Nietzsche praised Bizet due to the opera being light and lively despite the death of the main character Carmen and the ruin of her lover.  Such music requires burying ones ears into it to see its depth; it is not apparent to the casual observer that Carmen is a tragedy if he or she only listened on the surface.  On the contrary, Wagner’s Tristan and Ilsode is very clearly a tragedy and Wagner conveys the heaviness of the opera with rehashed, sorrowful melodies.  Thus, Nietzsche described Wagner as “decadent” due to this and the fact that Wagner takes his audience as fools instead of intelligent listeners. Music for fools only allows for surface listening:  it is very clear at first glance how the opera will proceed in terms of theme and atmosphere. Music for intelligent listeners allows for deeper listening: not all about the piece is apparent at once and one must listen carefully and be enraptured in order to understand its full significance. 

Although the feeling of Radetsky March is certainly as upbeat and lively as Carmen, it is slightly out of context to compare the two together as the atmospheres of both are not the same.  A better option I should have picked for comparison to Carmen would be Yoshiwara Lament, a more contemporary Japanese song performed by Waggaki Band.  Although this song is from a completely different culture and was created quite recently, the underlying theme is similar to Carmen as the song’s lyrics come from the perspective of a girl who wishes to be freed from her life as a courtesan and laments her fate. The characters in both Carmen and Yoshiwara Lament barely dwell upon their misfortune. Both Carmen and Yoshiwara Lament are upbeat and if one does not listen carefully, it is easy to miss the significance which lies beneath their melodies.