Eduard Hanslick's on the Musically Beautiful

Eduard Hanslick's <em>On the Musically Beautiful</em> (<em>Vom Musikalisch-Sch nen</em> 1854) written and published before the author turned 30 is a watershed document in the history of aesthetics and of thought about music generally. <p/>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.<br>