On the Musically Beautiful (OMB), published in 1854 by the Viennese critic and later university professor for the “History and Aesthetics of Music”, Eduard Hanslick, achieved an instant success in musicology and philosophy—a legacy that continues to resonate today. Its influence on nineteenth-century musical discourse is underscored not only by its many contemporary translations but also by the ten revised editions released during Hanslick’s lifetime.

Describing Hanslick’s aesthetics as a static or singular concept—as is usually done today—oversimplifies the complex evolution of his thought, especially in light of the ten editions of OMB. Hanslick reworked his treatise several times, with particularly substantial changes in the second edition of 1858. Recent Hanslick scholarship has contextualized such interventions within Habsburg educational policy and advocates an essentially dynamic perspective on OMB, viewing each edition as a distinct textual version (see the digital edition).

This new research project takes a closer look at the development of OMB by examining reviews of the first edition as a catalyst for changes in Hanslick’s argument. Alongside the more widely known reviews (Robert Zimmermann, Hermann Lotze), 26 reviews appeared between the end of 1854 and the end of 1857, when the second edition was published. The project team will process these reviews as annotated XML/TEI files and make them available on Hanslick Online.

Furthermore the extent to which Hanslick explicitly addressed or implicitly responded to criticism, and whether he borrowed passages from these reviews in ensuing editions will be analiyzed. This project on the earliest reviews of OMB thus not only enriches our understanding of Hanslick’s reception and the aesthetic and musical debates of the nineteenth century; it moreover contributes to the reconstruction of the emergence and development of a text that remains central to music philosophy today.