IS MUSIC THE EXPRESSION OF ETERNITY?
Music, time and human will in the philosophy of Schopenhauer
Amongst the arts, music has a special place, philosopher Schopenhauer says: in fact, it does not reproduce or repeat any idea of the beings and things which are in the world. Because of this, it is very difficult to produce a discourse related to music that is totally objective, especially when nothing, in the title of a piece of music, gives an indication of its meaning. Music is not the reproduction of any human phenomenon. However, it seems that it is a phenomenon in itself: an immediate reproduction of the will. Actually music is released from objectivity.
For Schopenhauer, music may be perceived only in time and through time. It is the same for the will in general, during which an individual becomes aware of the self. By taking on the shape of temporality itself, music seems to find again the beginning of the world, of which it is a repetition. The time of music is the time of the individual human being, the time of existence and the time of the will. That is why music is a privileged means of expressing emotions. And an element like the melody may be associated naturally to interiority.
Music depicts all movement of the will, everythig that is implied by the term ‘sentiment’: music is the language of all passions, even if it can be examined by reason. Music does not express any phenomenon, but the essence of the phenomenon, the will itself. Music voices the core of the sentiment.
During a piece of music, intervals express the multiple forms of the will and their realization, Schopenhauer says. And he adds that they tell the secrets of the human will. For him, the melody is a manifestation of the will in its higher state.
Musical emotions and infinity
If music is like the will, what does it imply? That the music listener has an auditive consciousness, where music can appear, where musical images can be created: a musical vision may emerge from the sounds that are heard. Through sound, music unveils a plural temporality: music expresses the essence of temporal relationships like delay, recall, waiting, extending, anteriority, contraction, anticipation, simultaneity, posterity, reminiscences and returns, effects of speed and surprise, philosopher Christian Accaoui says.
Yet musical time is not similar to scientific time. Musical time is full of human consciousness and sensible life, reconciling thought and sensibility. Sound, like beings, begins, grows and dies. In an ensemble or an orchestra, different instruments play different parts containing different musical notes: it creates a plurality of temporality. Combined with silence, it creates in the mind of the listeners a sense of eternity. Especially when the music has ended, the mind may experience eternity.