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Noon Edition

Avengers Assemble Podcast

 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ETHER GAME! This week on the Ether Game Weekly Music Quiz Podcast, we're exploring musical superheroes of all kinds in a show we're calling "Avengers Assemble!" Can you name this heroic tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, April 3rd at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Richard Strauss (1864–1949): ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA: Introduction

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; Zubin Mehta, conductor. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Don Quixote (London)

Strauss's tone poem opens with a perfect fifth, a musical interval that is often associated with heroes. For instance, you can hear the perfect fifth in John Williams's music for the 1978 film Superman. Strauss's hero in Also Sprach Zarathustra is a different kind of Superman, the "übermensch." This tone poem is based on the philosophical novel of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche, where the concept of an übermensch plays a key role. The übermensch is a hypothetical, intellectually superior person that can create their own moral compass, independent of religion or some other kind of societal value system. Nietzsche's philosophy is often applied to interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that, naturally, also features Strauss's tone poem.

Music Heard On This Episode

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