ref. 25790 — Leipzig, Verlag von C.G. Naumann, (1888.) Two works in one volume. (8), 144 pp.; (8), 57, (1) pp. 8vo. Contemporary half cloth, spine lettered gilt, marbled boards, corners. First work: Schaberg 56. First edition of the "Twilight of the Gods" and written during an incredibly productive six month period before Nietzsche's collapse in Turin. It was also the last book published during his lifetime. The title refers to an image in the preface: idols "are touched with a hammer and a tuning fork to determine whether they are hollow", which is of course a sarcastic allusion to Wagner, both personally and as a symbol of the German spirit. Nietzsche had 1,000 copies of this work privately printed. Originally to be called "A Psychologist at Leisure," Nietzsche changed the title at the suggestion of his friend, Gast and the book was released a few weeks after Nietzsche collapsed in Turin. The "Idols" that Nietzsche singles out here are those of the philosophers and the moralists. The Preface clearly states that the work at hand is to be "the revaluation of all values". Socrates and Christianity are particular targets although modern Germany and other contemporary ideas are also taken to task in the normally acerbic style of the author. (This book also contains some of Nietzsche's most frequently quoted phrases beginning with Aphorism #8: "What does not kill me only makes me stronger".)Second work: Schaberg 54.First edition, second issue. The book was published on 22 September 1888. Five hundred copies were printed, but 500 additional copies were printed at this time and falsely marked as second edition by the addition of "Zweite Auflage" in the middle of the ornamental rule and the deletion of the publication date. The true second edition of a 1000 copies was printed in October of 1891.The book is a critique of Richard Wagner and the announcement of Nietzsche's rupture with the German artist, who had involved himself too much, in Nietzsche's eyes, in the Völkisch movement and antisemitism. His music is no longer represented as a possible "philosophical affect," and Wagner is ironically compared to Georges Bizet. However, Wagner is presented by Nietzsche as only a particular symptom of a broader "disease" which is affecting Europe, that is nihilism. The book shows Nietzsche as a capable music-critic, and provides the setting for some of his further reflections on the nature of art and on its relationship to the future health of humanity.This work is in sharp contrast with the second part of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, wherein he praised Wagner as fulfilling a need in music to go beyond the analytic and dispassionate understanding of music. Nietzsche also praised Wagner effusively in his essay 'Wagner at Bayreuth' (part of the Untimely Meditations), but his disillusion with Wagner the composer and the man was first seen in his 1878 work Human, All Too Human. One of the last works that Nietzsche wrote returned to the critical theme of The Case of Wagner. In Nietzsche contra Wagner, Nietzsche pulled together excerpts from his works to show that he consistently had the same thoughts about music, only that he had misapplied them to Wagner in the earliest works. - First and last leaves a bit foxed, some scattered annotations in blue pencil and lead pencil.Provenance: from the library of A. Diepenbrock, with his signature on the first free endpaper (and date Jan. 1889) and second title-page (with the date Sept. 1888.) Alphons Diepenbrock was a Dutch composer, essayist and classicist. Although he showed musical ability he studied classics at the University of Amsterdam, gaining his doctorate cum laude in 1888 with a dissertation in Latin on the life of Seneca. The same year he became a teacher, a job which he held until 1894, when he retired from that position and decided to devote himself to music. As a composer, he had been completely self-taught from an early age. He created a musical idiom which, in a highly personal manner, combined 16th-century polyphony with Wagnerian chromaticism, to which in later years was added the impressionistic refinement that he encountered in Debussy's music. His predominantly vocal output is distinguished by the high quality of the texts used. Apart from the Ancient Greek dramatists and Latin liturgy, he was inspired by, among others, Goethe, Novalis, Vondel, Brentano, Hölderlin, Heine, Nietzsche, Baudelaire and Verlaine. As a conductor, he performed many contemporary works, including Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony (at the Concertgebouw) as well as works by Fauré and Debussy. Throughout his life, Diepenbrock continued his interests in the wider cultural sphere, remaining a classics tutor and publishing works on literature, painting, politics, philosophy and religion. Indeed during his lifetime his musical skills were often overlooked. Nonetheless, Diepenbrock was very much a respected figure within musical circles. He counted amongst his friends Mahler, Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg.
