Eduard Hanslick's On the Musically Beautiful: A New Translation [Hardcover]

Eduard Hanslick'sOn the Musically Beautiful(Vom Musikalisch-Sch??nen, 1854), written and published before the author turned 30, is a watershed document in the history of aesthetics, and of thought about music generally.

The notion of absolute music, which lies at the heart of the treatise, is now more than ever at the center of discussions about music, particularly that of the Classic and Romantic eras. Rothfarb and Landerer's translation includes three introductory essays offering fresh perspectives on Hanslick, and on the origins, publications, and translation history of his treatise, as well as its central concepts and philosophical underpinnings. The volume also includes thorough annotations, a readers' guide, a glossary of important terms and concepts, and an appendix, which comprises the original opening of Chapter 1, substantially rewritten in subsequent editions, as well as the original ending of the treatise that was excised by Hanslick in later editions. The book's ideas, cogently and often wittily expressed, are mandatory reading for anyone interested in eighteenth and nineteenth-century music and its cultural and intellectual background.

Translators' Preface

Introductory Essays

1. Origins, Publication, and Translation History of the Treatise
Christoph Landerer, Alexander Wilfing, Lee Rothfarb

2. Introduction to Hanslick's Central Concepts
Christoph Landerer, Lee Rothfarb

3. Philosophical Background
Christoph Landerer, Lee Rothfarb

Readers' Guide: Alternative Routes Through the Treatise
Lee Rothfarb, Christoph Landerer

On the Musically Beautiful, 10th edition
Preface
Chapter 1, The Aesthetics of Feeling

Chapter 2, The Representation of Feelings is not the Content of Music

Chapter 3, The Musically Beautiful

Chapter 4, Analysis of the Subjective Impression of Music

Chapter 5, Aesthetic Compared to Pathological Perception of Music