The other arts speak of mere shadows, says Schopenhauer. Music speaks of the essence, the thing-in-itself, and so “expresses the innermost nature of all life and existence.” An image of heaven, even a secularized version, may or may not include paintings and statues. We take it as granted that there will be music. While language is man-made, music exists independent of human thought, like gravity or thunderstorms. If a trumpet blares in a forest and there is no one to hear it, it still blares. Music, Schopenhauer once said, would exist even if the world did not. Music is personal in a way the
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
