Music is different from all other artforms because it alone is an expression of itself rather than something else. Notes and melodies, unlike phrases and colors, do not try to represent anything but can instead be appreciated simply for what they are. Rather than representing the Will through indirect means as depictions of its real-world manifestations, Schopenhauer believed music was a direct manifestation of the Will itself.
It is interesting to consider Schopenhauer’s discussion of music as the universal language and what this means for covers and interpretations? Here I am left thinking about Walter Benjamin’s discussion of the translator who always only ever touches the circle.