Schopenhauer Part II -- Frank Ocean covers "At Your Best (You are Love)" by Aaliyah

https://youtu.be/CVXtn_OS2vM

"The inexpressible depth of all music, by virtue of which it floats past us as a paradise quite familiar and yet eternally remote, and is so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain" (264, The World as Will and Representation)

I think this passage makes the argument that music's ability to make us feel is due to the way in which it objectifies (in Schopenhauer's sense of the word) our will, our suffering through pain and desire, by exposing its idea as in the Will. When he write "but entirely without reality and remote from its pain", Schopenhauer is referring to music's ability to at once quiet our will while at the same time uncovering its essence which is the Will. I chose this song because I think that it is entirely immersive despite its seeming particular-ness. It stirs emotions, at least for me, while not bathing in them or making them more than what they are in their form. I also like this selection because I think that it serves as strong support against Schopenhauer's dismissal of any music with words as Ocean's voice serves as the primary instrument and thus harmoniously unites words and sound without forcing one to contort itself into the other.