Also sprach Zarathustra

Dopamine Series · 5 Oct, 2025

"Note: In the Dopamine Series, I share especially beautiful fragments or pieces of classical music with the aim of making classical music interesting to those who have never experienced it before. However, I strongly encourage you to listen to the entire work—only by experiencing the whole piece can you truly understand what the composer intended to express."

Excerpt: 2:31–5:11

Excerpt: 21:22–26:27

When I was a sophomore in college, the Vienna Philharmonic came to perform in Taiwan. In theory, that should’ve made me really happy—but I remember feeling quite disappointed when I saw the program (Academic Festival Overture, Brahms: Symphony No. 3, and Also sprach Zarathustra). I wasn’t a fan of Brahms, and at the time, I didn’t know Richard Strauss at all, let alone his Also sprach Zarathustra. So honestly, I was really disappointed.

However, I was in the middle of a passionate love affair with classical music back then, so I decided I absolutely had to go hear their performance. Since I couldn’t change the program, I made up my mind to get to know those pieces as well as I could—to listen to them until they felt familiar, and to try to discover their beauty.

And unexpectedly, during that process, I realized that Also sprach Zarathustra was absolutely incredible. God, how could anyone come up with something so catchy and so dopamine-inducing? From that moment on, I fell in love with Also sprach Zarathustra—and with Richard Strauss himself, who even became my third favorite composer.

That’s the story of how I got to know Richard Strauss and this piece. The two excerpts I chose above are, to me, the most beautiful parts of Also sprach Zarathustra, and I wanted to share them with everyone here.

Excerpt: 3:00–5:12

By the way, the trumpet sound in this part of the melody on the album is really beautiful — I personally love it so much!