Peter Gast

Summary

Dominique Pagani mentions Peter Gast only as Nietzsche's musical correspondent, and almost always as the recipient of two letters that he quotes. The first concerns Parsifal: in it Nietzsche praises the prelude to Wagner's opera1. Pagani comes back to it from 2016 to 2022, in varied contexts ranging from Hegel to Leibniz and the "Musicosophie" sessions23. The second letter, which Nietzsche writes from Corsica or about Corte, comes up in sessions from 2016 to 202045. Pagani describes Gast as a mediocre composer6. He points out a paradox: this musician of little stature is the one Nietzsche chooses to tell all the bad things he thinks of Wagner7, yet it is also to him that Nietzsche confides his admiration for the prelude to Parsifal8. Pagani thus uses this correspondence to show Nietzsche's ambivalence toward Wagner.

1. 1#12 Nietzsche (right up) against Wagner28 Jan 2021 · 1:53:34
2. 2Hegel on the Beach 1/51 Feb 2016 · 2:30:10
3. 3#1 Schubert and the master singers3 Dec 2020 · 44:34
4. 4At the bistro (part 2)19 Jun 2016 · 35:32
5. 5Ecologism is the opium of the beautiful people: preface to Dominique Mazuet's book, “Of Calves and Things”4 Oct 2020 · 9:59
6. 6Clouscard: The metamorphoses of class struggle2 Sept 2024 · 10:15
7. 7#12 Nietzsche (right up) against Wagner28 Jan 2021 · 1:10:52
8. 8#15 Nietzsche: philosophical or musical relevance? Answers to questions23 Jun 2022 · 1:17:44

Summary produced automatically from 11 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.