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    Hanslick's formalist thesis holds that musical content co... — Carmelics
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    Supports→Music's ability to express subjective life is undermined by Hanslick's negative argument in On the Musically Beautiful.

    Hanslick's formalist thesis holds that musical content consists solely in 'tonally moving forms,' not representational or emotional states.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Music lacks the stable semantic mapping that language has, so emotional content claims are projections rather than intrinsic properties.
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    • 2.The same passage evokes different emotions in different listeners, suggesting emotions are subjective responses, not objective musical content.
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    • 3.Pure instrumental music communicates successfully without titles or programs, indicating formal properties alone suffice for musical meaning.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Composers intentionally design passages to express specific emotional trajectories, making expression a compositional goal, not listener projection.
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    • 2.Cultural training shapes emotional responses consistently; this regularity suggests emotions are encoded in musical structures, not purely subjective.
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    • 3.Formalism cannot explain why a minor key feels sad and major feels bright—these associations must involve extra-formal representational content.
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    Composers intentionally design passages to express specific emotional trajectori...Cultural training shapes emotional responses consistently; this regularity sugge...Formalism cannot explain why a minor key feels sad and major feels bright—these ...Music lacks the stable semantic mapping that language has, so emotional content ...
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    Music's ability to express subjective life is undermined by Hanslick's negative ...Pure instrumental music communicates successfully without titles or programs, in...The same passage evokes different emotions in different listeners, suggesting em...

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