Eduard Hanslick’s treatise On the Musically Beautiful (OMB, 1854) is one of the most influential and debated treatises in the history of musical aesthetics, significantly shaping debates on music’s nature and its relation to emotion. Published in the mid-nineteenth century, this seminal work garnered international attention, influencing the discourse of major philosophers of music and aesthetic thinkers. Despite its impact, interpretations of Hanslick’s arguments remain strikingly diverse and often contradictory, leading to what Nicholas Cook aptly termed “the most-talked-about and least-understood essay on the true nature of music.”

This research project aims to offer a groundbreaking analytical reconstruction of OMB, tackling longstanding issues surrounding its complex structure and elusive argumentation. The treatise’s non-linear composition—where chapters and ideas unfold in an order distinct from their presentation—has perpetuated misinterpretations, particularly in distinguishing Hanslick’s views on musical form(s) and emotional expression. Through meticulous textual analysis, we will deconstruct OMB’s logical fabric, examining its structure to reveal the intricate interplay of Hanslick’s arguments.

Central to this project is an innovative, dual-level approach. At the micro-level, we will scrutinize key concepts and their contextual evolution within chapters, uncovering how Hanslick reused and refined arguments across various editions. At the macro-level, we will trace the overarching trajectory of the treatise, exploring its genesis and development throughout the book’s chapters and editions. This combined approach will clarify Hanslick’s nuanced positions on topics such as music’s expressive properties, its formal qualities, and the role of performance, without explaining away ambiguities presented by Hanslick’s arguments.

The project will also leverage cutting-edge digital humanities tools, to be provided on the platform Hanslick Online, which already hosts a digital edition of all ten versions of OMB. Through a detailed textual commentary, visualization tools, timeline diagrams, and semantic search capabilities, researchers and the public alike will be in a position to engage with Hanslick’s aesthetics in an accessible, interactive manner. These features promise to facilitate a nuanced and historically informed perspective that also bridges the gap between German- and English-language discourses.

Expected outcomes of this research include a digital repository enriched with commentary and annotations, as well as a series of scholarly articles and lectures. By shining new light on Hanslick’s arguments in their full complexity, we hope to reinvigorate Hanslick scholarship but also to enhance current debates in the aesthetics and philosophy of music.