Sketches and scores are kept by the Foundation Paul Sacher in Basel, while images and films of the production are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Jean-Louis Barrault, the director of the theatre company, created a scenic version of Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra and requested music from Boulez with whom he had collaborated for years.

While the French text based on Nietzsche's work by Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt was printed in 1972, a version with Barrault's additional instructions was published by Gallimard in the series Le Manteau d'Arlequin in 1975.

[2] The music remains unpublished; sketches and scores are extant in the collection Pierre Boulez of the Foundation Paul Sacher in Basel, while images and films of the production are held in part by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

[1] Boulez was especially interested in the episode "L'éternel retour" for which he composed music which has been described as at the same time static and moving forward ("in sich stehende und doch weiter schwingende Musik").