Robert Peters <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>There is this famous Nietzsche quotation: "Without music life would be
>a mistake / misunderstanding." (Ohne Musik ware das Leben ein Irrtum.)
>Does anyone know when and where he said this and what the context is?

This passage is from Nietzsche's 1888 work _Twilight of the Idols_.  It
is contained in a list of aphorisms at the beginning of the treatise,
and so has no immediate context.  The complete aphorism (# 33) reads:

   "How little is required for pleasure!  The sound of a bagpipe.
   Without music, life would be an error.  The German imagines even God
   singing songs" (tr.  Kauffman, in _The Portable Nietzsche_ Penguin
   1982, p.  471).

Another amusing aphorism from that work (#22) is:

   "'Evil men have no songs.'  How is it, then, that the Russians have
   songs?"

Nietzsche was quite a character.

Regards,

Edward