Music as the game of being : considerations about George Steiner’s view on music

In his monograph on Heidegger and essay about music, George Steiner proposes a thesis on a direct analogy between music and Being. He writes that "Being, in Heidegger’s sense, has similarly to music its own history and meaning, dependence on a human as well as dimensions transcending mankind". Thus, Being is supposed to be something like the music of all existence, while music itself is supposed to be the discovering of Being. Steiner also states in his treatise on music that according to Greek mythology, ancient primeval violence, transcendence, otherness and non-human nature are inherent in music. Music is capable of depicting the experience of existence in its essence (G. Steiner Martin Heidegger Chicago 1987 and G. Steiner Über Musik in: Errata. Bilanz eines Lebens München 1999).