Essence or context?

Abstract

Cast in the form of a gloss on the passage on Hanslick from The Oxford History of Western Music, this essay considers such topics as musical beauty (versus the musical sublime), the relationship of musical form and content, the status of music as an artifact of culture rather than phenomenon of nature, the function of metaphor in the perception and description of music, and the ontological status of musical structure—in all cases framing its formulations as responses to the writing of Nick Zangwill (whose reply will be found in this volume).