Dancing with Dionysus: Nietzsche, Music, and the Affirmation of Life

Written by Kerem Muldur

“I would only believe in a god that could dance.”

Music and dance have always been affiliated with different concepts by different groups: some believe that they are the key to enjoying life, and some relate music and dance to losing control of oneself. On the other hand, Nietzsche saw music as the optimal form of art that constitutes a tool to transform society. 

At the start of the 19th century, Europe was experiencing one of the greatest cultural transformations of human history. Enlightenment scientists and naturalism led to Atheism and Deism taking control over Christianity. At the surface, that transition looked like just a change in the way we see the world, from belief to truth, from dogma to experiment. However, Christianity was not just a set of rules that defines the order of the world and the relationship of people, but rather a system that gives people a reason to embrace both the sufferings and enjoyments in life, together with the belief in the afterlife. With a lack of Christianity’s explanation for our existence, people delve deeper into the existence and why we are created. 

Arthur Schopenhauer came up with the answer of Nihilism to the existentialist question, explaining that life doesn’t really have a real meaning and we don’t have a total purpose. Even though Friedrich Nietzsche was influenced by this philosophy a lot, he is completely against Nihilism; in fact, he doesn’t truly appreciate the anticipation against Christianity^[1]:

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more nights coming on all the time? Mustn't lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Isn't the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."

Imagining writing those shoutouts to humanity about the death of God and still cursing religion. That contrast actually explains Nietzsche’s own interpretation of life: Yes, we should live our lives, with laughter, with dance, with ecstasy: we don’t need an external religious system to not ruin our goals and hopes about life. He spoke out against the devaluation of this ephemeral life with the promise of a better afterlife. 

Richard Wagner, one of the most famous classical composers, had a notable effect on Nietzsche’s thought world. Wagner’s exuberant music was the perfect anthem for humanity to enjoy the harmony as a group, appreciating life, power, and ego. These ecstatic classical music nights were like the Rock concerts of their time, where people still lost themselves in the melodies and the rhythm, where the electric guitars were placed with violins^[2].

Wagner and his artwork influenced Nietzsche to write The Birth of Tragedy, where he analyzes the origins of Greek tragedy and develops his famous distinction between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian represents order, clarity, form, and rational structure, while the Dionysian symbolizes chaos, ecstasy, instinct, and the dissolution of individuality within collective experience. Nietzsche argued that ancient Greek tragedy was the highest artistic achievement because it successfully fused these opposing forces into a single form. The Apollonian element appeared in the structured dialogue and dramatic imagery, which gave shape and meaning to experience, while the Dionysian element emerged through the music of the chorus and the communal emotional intensity it created^[3]. Through this union, tragedy allowed spectators to confront the suffering and irrationality of existence without falling into despair. According to Nietzsche, this delicate balance collapsed after playwrights such as Euripides and the rational philosophy of Socrates reduced the mythic and musical dimensions of tragedy, replacing them with excessive rationality^[4]. 

Representing the Dionysian thought in Germany, Nietzsche’s ideas weren’t taken so seriously in an Apollonian idealistic Germany. Apollonian atmosphere in Germany disturbed Nietzsche so much that he rejected his German identity and prided about his Polish roots:

“My ancestors were Polish nobles (Nietzky); this character appears to have been well preserved despite three generations of German mothers,”[66] he wrote, and later expressed an even firmer stance regarding his Polish identity: “I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly without any German blood.”[67] In another text he wrote, “The German nation is a great nation only because there is a considerable amount of Polish blood in its veins […] I am proud of my Polish descent.”

Nietzsche believed that his surname might have been Germanized. In one of his letters, he wrote, “I attribute the origin of my blood and my name to the Polish nobility, who were called Niëtzky, who about a hundred years ago abandoned their homes and their nobility and finally yielded to unbearable pressure by becoming Protestants.”

In conclusion, Nietzsche’s early philosophy emerged from a mixture of cultural crisis, artistic influence, and philosophical debate. While the decline of Christianity created a moral and existential vacuum in Europe, Nietzsche believed that art could provide a new way for humanity to confront suffering and affirm life. Through the concept of the Dionysian and its union with the Apollonian, he argued that the healthiest culture is not one that escapes suffering through religion or suppresses it through rationality, but one that transforms it into creativity, art, and collective experience.

References:

1. Celestini, F. (2024). Nietzsche and Wagner: The Logic of Contradiction. In D. Trippett (Ed.), Wagner in Context (pp. 104–112). chapter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2. Scruton, S. R. (2026). Nietzsche on Wagner. Sir Roger Scruton. https://www.roger-scruton.com/articles/31-understanding-music/181-nietzsche-on-wagner

3. Scott, J. (n.d.). 20th WCP: Nietzsche's portraiture: Wagner as worthy opponent. Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cult/CultScot.htm

4. Westacott, Emrys. (2025, April 29). Why Did Nietzsche Break With Wagner? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/why-did-nietzsche-break-with-wagner-2670457