Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 — Introduction (Sonnenaufgang)

Strauss finished Also sprach Zarathustra in 1896 and conducted the first performance in Frankfurt on 27 November of that year. He described it as freely after Nietzsche and gave the sections the titles of chapters from the book without attempting to set out its argument; asked about the philosophy, he said he had wanted to convey the idea of human development rather than write music of Nietzsche's kind. The opening, with its rising trumpet call over an organ pedal, was taken by Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 and has been detached from the work ever since.