Imitative Music

"But the analogy discovered by the composer between these two must have come from the immediate knowledge of the inner nature of the world unknown to his faculty of reason; it cannot be an imitation brought about with conscious intention by means of concepts, otherwise the music does not exprss the inner nature of the will itself, but merely imitates its phenomenon inadequately. All really imitative music does this..."(The World As Will and Representation, 263)

Sorry to post a second Phillip Glass piece in a row, coincidental I promise, but when reading Schopenhauer's critique of imitative music this collection of songs came to mind immediately. While I understand the root of Schopenhauer's negative opinions on imitative music I have always liked the Metamorphosis series and thought that it does a pretty neat job of musically demonstrating the process of metamorphosis.