Digital Edition

Treatise (VMS)Reviews (in progress)Reviews of VMS (in progress)

The website “Hanslick Online” provides the writings of Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904), a central figure of nineteenth-century music, who acted as an aesthetic theorist, music critic, and the first professor for the “History and Aesthetics of Musical Art” in German-language academia. It presents findings of several third-party-funded projects, in which Christoph Landerer and Alexander Wilfing have been exploring the historical contexts of Hanslick and his works since 2014.

Particular attention is paid to the numerous adaptations these texts have gone through during Hanslick’s lifetime. Besides making these texts (so far, 1. Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, 2. Hanslick’s writings for the Neue Freie Presse, and 3. reviews of the initial edition of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen) publicly available, “Hanslick Online” also facilitates automated comparisons between textual variants. The website thereby fills a gap in Hanslick scholarship, which is currently focusing more and more on the dynamic evolution and fluctuation of Hanslick’s mindset.

The “Project” drop-down menu provides a brief sketch of Hanslick’s historical relevance from the nineteenth century to the present, explains the intention and purpose of the present website, and recounts the sequence of research projects, the results of which led to the preparation of “Hanslick Online.” The scholarly outcome of these research projects may be viewed under the “Activities” subheading (publications, presentations, and events).

Under the “Edition” drop-down menu, you will find the ten editions of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen and the option to compare variants by means of automated collation. By the end of 2025, Hanslick’s writings for the Neue Freie Presse and the reviews of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen will also be published, including TEI markup (in progress). As the culmination of the project series, a closing project has been granted in late 2024 that will fund both a commentary of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen and the visualization of various textual properties.

“Hanslick Online” is a work in progress, which we intend to expand in terms of content and digital functions in the not too distant future. If you have any ideas or suggestions for optimizing the digital edition and the website, or questions regarding Hanslick, the projects, and their scholarly outcome, please contact us via the contact details provided under “Team.” Advice on errors or gaps in our data sets are especially welcome!

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