response to 9-26

Part of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of music that is interesting to me has to do with his explanation of why and how music affects me. He states that music “floats past us as a paradise quite familiar and eternally remote, and is so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, […] it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain” (264). Music expresses the inner nature of the will, which is the universal joy, pain, sadness, desires, and peace in everyone’s mind.

I also found it interesting that he says the structure of music imitates the universe as a whole. He states that music is a universal language and imitates the both inorganic and organic will of the entire world. The planet is represented by the low tone base harmony that moves slowly. The world is what all matter and species evolve from, just like the low tones and slow rhythm are the origin and base of music. The intermediate ripienos, higher pitch harmonies, represent the plant and animal worlds; the higher the pitch, the more advanced the species. Finally, the melody represents man because he is able to reason. The melody is “one thought from beginning to end, and expressing a whole”; man has the intellectual ability to unconsciously connect these thoughts (259). Thus, the whole world through music works in harmony together. I never really thought of music this way; I don't know if I agree, but it gave me something to think about.