22 Overture
one's consciousness. The sobered ecstatic succumbs to a "will-nullifying
frame of mind" (1,56). At this moment, he resembles Hamlet, who is
similarly revolted by the world and can no longer brace himself to act.
At times the experience of music is so overpowering that one fears
for one's poor ego, which threatens to be submerged in the pure rapture
of music, in an "orgiastic celebration of music" (1,134; BT§ 21). It is
therefore essential that a distancing medium be inserted between music
and the listener receptive to Dionysian influences: a myth of words,
images, and the action onstage. A myth understood as such "protects us
from the music" (1,134; BT§ 21), which is relegated to the background.
From this position, music bestows such an intensity and significance on
the actions, words, and images in the foreground that the viewer hears
the whole thing "as though the innermost abyss of things were speak-
ing to him perceptibly" (1,135; BT§ 21). It is difficult to imagine any per-
son, claimed Nietzsche, capable of experiencing the third act of
Wagner's Tristan and Isolde "without the aid of word and image, simply as
a mighty symphonic movement, without drawing his final breath in a
spasmodic spreading of all wings of the soul" (1,135). Hearing this
music puts our ears "virtually up to the heartbeat of the world will"
(1,135), and only the graphic action in the foreground saves us from los-
ing consciousness of our individual existence altogether.
But surely Nietzsche was overdoing the pathos here? Undoubtedly.
Still, Nietzsche allowed art to be pathetic. In its triumphant moments,
art provides a totality, a universal whole that can be beautifully endured.
Succumbing to the sensation of art allows one to share in the pathos of
the universal resonance. "We tolerate pathos only in art; actual living
beings are supposed to be straightforward and not too loud" (8,441;
1877). An uncomplicated person can carry out scientific tasks without
a trace of pathos, and is capable of showing "how poindess it was for
man to have worked his way into this pinnacle of feeling" (8,428;
1877). Suddenly, the world of pathos appears in a different light. All
affects and passions reveal their unappealing and even laughable ori-
gins. The same applies to the elation of music, which can relinquish the