Abstract

The Bells of Sevastopol: On Nietzsche's First Musical Composition. This article offers an interpretation and new dating of Nietzsche’s early musical compositions. These documents – harmony exercises and small compositions – are crucial for understanding the beginning of Nietzsche’s study of music. Of these musical scores, the most interesting is the so-called “melody fragment.” This short “melody” is not simply an adolescent’s attempt to write music; it is instead an interesting document on the intellectual activity of the young Nietzsche during the years of the Crimean War. A comparison of some notebooks of the period reveals similarities that allow us a precise dating. Moreover, this “melody” suggestively recalls the death knell after “the fall of Sevastopol.”