ABSTRACT
Formalism is a philosophical stance that the value of music lies in the music itself and that the meaning is primarily intellectual. Sometimes this is referred to as Absolute Formalism. While this position can be applied to all art, it may have particular explanatory value for music. After all, “could it even be music, the formalist might ask rhetorically, if it did not have form? Formless sound, so it might be said, just is not music.”1 Although there are ancient precursors to these views in the writings of Aristoxenus, Philodemus, and Sextus Empiricus,2 we will focus our attention on more contemporary accounts. Eduard Hanslick and Edmund Gurney promoted formalism strenuously in the 19th century, and Clive Bell and Leonard Meyer expounded upon these ideas in the 20th. We will review these major contributors in turn.
