Emotions in Music: Hanslick and His False Follower

Abstract

Nick Zangwill (2004, 2007) appears to be acquiring the status of repudiator-in-chief of emotion in music. He is invoked in this role by such authors as Kraut (2007, p. 67), Bonds (2014, p. 5), Robinson (2014), Young (2014, pp. vii, 1, 3–4, 151), Davies (2017) and Kania (2017). His ‘manifesto’ paper (2004) was recently reprinted in Lamarque and Olsen (2018, pp. 574–582). This development is unfortunate, because Zangwill, for all his radical-sounding theses, actually argues against views that hardly anyone holds. What is more, some of his arguments in favour of the obvious seem confused and defective. But as for his really radical thesis that ‘Music, in itself, has nothing to do with emotion’, he provides hardly any justification. What is more, contrary to what Zangwill believes, such justification is not to be found in Hanslick, who in fact sees emotional content as a relatively important element of music.

Exploring the role of traditional music elements in music art appreciation based on the hierarchical analysis method

“…The items of traditional music that have been listed in the intangible cultural heritage at all levels are even more worthy of being cherished and inherited. The gradual emergence of non-heritage protection programs in recent years has brought some Chinese traditional music back into the limelight [2][3]. Through understanding the types of non-heritage conventional music programs, listening and feeling the musical characteristics, the main performance content, cultural background, etc., so as to improve the understanding and aesthetics of music, through the music to feel the strong historical and cultural connotations behind the ancient art, to strengthen the cultural self-confidence, and to reach the inheritance of culture [4][5].…”