In late 1891, Gustav Mahler wrote the following to his friend, Emil Freund: “In the last few weeks I have been reading something so remarkable and strange that it may very well have an epoch-making influence on my life.” He was reading the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Mahler thought seriously about the philosopher’s writings often in the years prior to 1900 and although scholars have not ignored this relationship – indeed Nietzsche's name appears frequently in writings about Mahler – discussions of his influence have been examined within narrow boundaries or in service to other topics. Mahler's emphasis on “an epoch-making influence on my life” suggests that Nietzsche's ideas had more than a passing effect and may offer an important avenue for understanding the meaning of Mahler's work and elements of his musical style that has yet to be fully explored.

Mahler's interest in Nietzsche has previously been the subject of only two monographs. Eveline Nikkels's “O Mensch! Gib Acht!” Friedrich Nietzsches Bedeutung für Gustav Mahler focuses largely on the two men as individuals and the compelling, but mostly coincidental, commonalities of their lives. The first part catalogs these parallels, including experiences of nature and music, as well as the interest and correspondence with Nietzsche of Mahler's university peers. The second part looks at Nietzsche's influence on Mahler's symphonies, but, with the exception of her Nietzschean reading of the finale of the Second Symphony, lacks much discussion of the music itself, looking instead at texts, musical and epistolary. Pathos, Parodie, Provokation: Authentizität versus Medienskepsis bei Friedrich Nietzsche und Gustav Mahler by Albrecht Dammeyer takes a different approach, eschewing all personal references and focusing instead on how Mahler's compositions realize a view of music, especially the use of parody, described by Nietzsche. Dammeyer's works give equal weight to an investigation of Nietzsche's musical aesthetics and an exploration of Mahler's composition. The first section collects and interrogates all discussions of music in Nietzsche's writings, including the early works, those concerning Wagner, and passages of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The second section considers examples from Mahler's Third and Fourth Symphonies, the first movement of the Sixth, and the finale of the Ninth.