"Facing Time" thus becomes more than a formal exercise in composition.

Sometimes he enjoys it as a purely formal exercise.

This stance is used in some formal exercises, for example the tsundome.

The work is vivid and dramatic, not a formal Minimalist exercise.

But in general, the hearing was a formal exercise in mutual admiration.

He has not succumbed to the temptation of formal exercise.

This could be regarded as a purely formal exercise, his seat immediately taken over by a substitute.

He declined to look at his pieces, even such formal exercises as fugues.

Critics of deconstructivism see it as a purely formal exercise with little social significance.

Although it sounds like a formal exercise, the effect is sensuous and visually intriguing.