Vom Musikalisch-Schönen / Ein Beitrag zur Revision der Ästhetik der Tonkunst

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

26949

Title

Vom Musikalisch-Schönen / Ein Beitrag zur Revision der Ästhetik der Tonkunst

Language

de

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Eduard Hanslick's seminal treatise argues that music's beauty is an objective, self-contained formal reality, not a representation of emotions. Rejecting the notion that music must depict feelings, Hanslick champions the intrinsic value of tonal structures, asserting that musical beauty exists independently of the listener's subjective emotional state or extra-musical concepts.

Summary up to 500 words

In *Vom Musikalisch-Schönen*, Eduard Hanslick presents a rigorous defense of absolute music against the prevailing 19th-century Romantic doctrine that music's primary function is to express or depict specific emotions. Hanslick argues that music is an autonomous art form whose beauty resides strictly within its formal elements—melody, harmony, and rhythm—rather than in any external narrative or emotional content. He fundamentally distinguishes between 'feeling,' which refers to subjective emotional states, and 'emotion' as a specific musical content. While Hanslick acknowledges that music can evoke feelings in the listener, he insists it does not represent them. He critiques the 'pathological' tendency of critics and composers to seek emotional narratives in abstract instrumental works, citing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as a prime example where the addition of a chorus and text detracts from pure musical beauty. Hanslick explores the distinction between composition and performance. He posits that composition is an objective creation where the composer forms an independent beauty, whereas performance is a subjective reproduction where the performer injects personal feeling. Although performers can breathe life into a score, the composer creates the objective structure. Hanslick acknowledges music's powerful physiological impact on the nervous system but insists this is a physical reaction, not an aesthetic one. He argues that the intense emotional power of music often stems from a physiological response rather than an aesthetic appreciation of form. True musical appreciation, therefore, requires focusing on the internal logic and development of the music itself, rather than projecting personal sentiments onto it. The work serves as a foundational text defending the formal principle of beauty, asserting that the beauty of a musical piece is specific to its tonal connections and independent of any foreign, extramusical thought-world. This objective beauty exists regardless of whether it pleases an observer or is even observed, challenging the notion that the beautiful must have a purpose or aim at awakening specific feelings.

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Categories

• Philosophy
• Music