A common tendency throughout the history of thought concerning the nature of music has been to attribute to it a peculiar power to represent the dynamic of the universe. The tradition has perhaps its most developed expression in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. The strict formalism present in Eduard Hanslick’s treatise, On the Musically Beautiful, clearly stands in stark opposition to such ways of thinking. And yet the book’s final paragraph ends with a paragraph in which music is referred to (...) as the ‘sounding image of the great motions of the universe’.The present paper examines the extent to which this apparently Schopenhaurian moment in Hanslick can be reconciled with the formalism promoted by the rest of the book. I argue, in opposition to differing claims to the contrary made by Mark Evan Bonds, and by Christopher Landerer and Nick Zangwill, that the original concluding paragraph is inconsistent with the rest of Hanslick’s argument. At the same time, the paragraph cannot simply be written off as a slip of the pen. Rather, it seems to reflect an anxiety on Hanslick’s part about musical formalism failing to provide any account of why the art of music is valuable. (shrink)

In his article “Kant’s Musical Antiformalism” (Young 2020), with additional clarifications (Young 2021),1 James O. Young argues that Kant is an “antiformalist.”.

In his On the Musically Beautiful, Hanslick vigorously argued that musical beauty depends neither on the representation nor on the evocation of feelings. However, despite his formalism, Hanslick regards the performance of a musical work as a moment of emotional release. Given the tension between the formalist nature of Hanslick’s general theory and this expressionist drift in his conception of the performer, in this article I pursue two objectives: 1) to argue that there is, in fact, an important internal inconsistency (...) in Hanslick’s theory regarding the nature of performance, and 2) to deepen and render intelligible this perspective of performance. Although internally inconsistent, this perspective, in its search for a synergistic conciliation of the composer’s creativity with the performer’s expressivity, is worthy of analysis. (shrink)

The main objective of this study was to analyze the influence of tactical and situational variables on offensive sequences during elite European handball matches. A sample of 55 games and 5.857 offensive sequences from the European Handball Federation Champions League, the selected teams were classified as the top eight teams in the league, were analyzed using X2 and logistic regression analyses. Results indicated that positional attacks [odds ratio = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.28–0.42; p < 0.001] and fast attacks decreased the (...) probability of success for an offensive sequence by 66% and 54% when compared with counterattacks. Offensive sequences that start in the attacking zone seem to be less effective than those that start from a situation of “ball in center.” Additionally, offensive sequences that finished in the defensive zone of the observed team were 3.19 times more effective than those that ended before the 9 m zone. We concluded that compared with offensive sequences where the shot is performed from the 9 m zone, the chances of an offensive sequence ending successfully are 3.65, 3.60, and 2.21 times higher, for offensive sequences where the shot is performed from 9 m, 6 m, and the defensive zone, respectively. On the other hand, many variables seem to impact the performance of handball teams. Nevertheless, a significant challenge remains, and more research needs to be conducted to analyze the obstacles that teams need to overcome while attacking in the most effective way possible. (shrink)