 While Kant was likely not a formalist (see the entry  history of western philosophy of music: from antiquity to 1800, section 3.6),  Young (2020: 180) observes that he was considered one from as early as the 1820s, as evident from the work of the Swiss composer Hans-Georg Nägeli (1773–1836). Nägeli gives early formulations of various standard formalist views. He argues that music does not have any determinate emotional character, as shown by the fact that people cannot agree on it if asked. Accordingly, music does not convey specific affects (Affekten), but merely moods (Stimmungen). It does not have any content (Inhalt), but merely form (Form) (Nägeli 1826: 32).