Hanslick With Feeling

Hanslick With Feeling

Abstract

Among most contemporary philosophies of art, Eduard Hanslick's Vom Musikalisch-Schönen is regarded as an irredeemably formalistic tract denying any aesthetic relevance of feeling in the aesthetic appreciation and discussion of music. Challenging this position, I show that Hanslick's outlook is consistent with an expressiveness in music that can be appreciated and discussed aesthetically in relevant metaphorical terms which reveal how the music « looks and what its beauties are ».

Résumé

Parmi les philosophies de l'art contemporain, le Vom Musikalisch-Schönen d'Eduard Hanslick est considéré comme un traité formaliste strict, qui nie toute pertinence esthétique du sentiment dans l'appréciation et la discussion sur la musique. Malgré cette prise de position, je vais montrer que le point de vue de Hanslick n'exclut pas une expressivité musicale sujette à une appréciation et à une discussion esthétiques en termes métaphoriques pertinents, qui révèlent « l'allure » de la musique et « quelles en sont les beautés ».

The consensus of most contemporary philosophers of art is that Hanslick's On the Musically Beautiful is an irredeemably formalistic tract.1 It vehemently denies that the aesthetic apprehension of instrumental music includes feeling either of the composer or of the listener. Hanslick, so it is widely believed, acknowledged as aesthetically relevant only music's formal or technical characteristics.

I think that this contemporary view of Hanslick's alleged formalism may be due in part to his vigorous and oft repeated denial that music could in any way represent or express the « garden-variety » emotions or ordinary emotions. It hardly follows from this that for Hanslick the only possible aesthetic apprehension of music would be its formal aspects. As Beardsley has noted, denial of the expression theory of music does not necessarily result in formalism; an expressive theory of music is possible.

The Expression Theory has called our attention to an important fact about music--namely, that it has human regional qualities. But in performing this service it has rendered itself obsolete. We have no further use for it. ... 'This music is joyous' is plain and can be defended. 'This music expresses joy' adds nothing except unnecessary and unanswerable questions.2

The interpretation of Hanslick as a musical formalist may be due to an all too hasty inference from his conviction that (1) « from all customary appeals to feeling, we can derive not a single musical law. » Yet, earlier Hanslick stoutly maintains (2) « the view that the ultimate worth of the beautiful is always based on the immediate manifestation of feeling.