MUSC 6658 Henry Spencer

Reading Response to Hanslick’s “On the Musically Beautiful”

1. Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904) argues that music should be analyzed scientifically in a

reaction against the standardization of programmatic and EMA music from composers F.
Liszt, R. Wagner, and H. Berlioz. The result, in Hanslick’s antithesis, has been a drop in the
quality of music due to the belief that “the content of music is… the representation of
feeling” (p. xxii). Scientific analysis, Hanslick’s thesis, argues “the beauty in music is
inherent in its tonal relationships” (p. xxii). How might other philosophers we have studied
react to this theorem?

Frederick Hegel (1770–1831) of the German idealist school defined aesthetics as “the
science of sensation, of feeling” (Cooper, 139). While not directly applying his concept to music,
but to the fine arts, Hegel places science and feeling in the same sentence. In Hegel’s search for
an all-encompassing truth he understood that feeling was inseparable from analysis. His work on
aesthetics, or “philosophy of fine arts”, would fly in the face of Hanslick’s synthesis because he
view is “the aim of art [gives] outer sensual shape to inner spiritual content” (Richter, 166). This
idea supposes that spiritual content and feeling are related.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) argued for a logical contemplation of artworks. In this
process Heidegger moves beyond traditional “aesthetics”. While not fully arriving at the same
scientific pursuit as Hanslick, Heidegger too dismisses the purpose of feeling in the logical
analysis of artworks, wherein, form takes precedence. A ‘thing’ becomes ‘equipment’ “from the
impression of from on some matter” (Cooper, p. 233). Explicitly not looking for beauty,
Hiedegger

2. Hanslick presumes that “feeling theory…ignores hearing entirely and goes directly to
feeling” (Hanslick, p. 30). “Hearing” is this context would allow the listener the ability of
appreciating the “ideal content” of tonal relationships. In recognition of this content Hanslick
acknowledges that “[music] is a kind of language which we speak and understand yet cannot
translate” (Hanslick, p. 30). If music is a language, is it possible to conceive it without
becoming affected?

Hanslick defines ‘feeling’ as “becoming aware of our mental state with regard to its
furtherance or inhibition, thus of well-being or distress” (Hanslick, p. 3). If the content, or
purpose, of music is not the statement of feeling, Hanslick argues that semantics of a musical
language are tonal ideas. Hanslick’s theory works well for a listener and critic, as it may serve
them well to keep feelings at a distance in order to gauge the success of work rationally. In
addition, musicians too overwhelmed by their emotional response to the sounds of music may
not practice or perform well (or maybe so!). Nevertheless, there is a distinction in the work of
Clive Bell (1881-1964) that produces a synthesis of Hanslick’s two premises. If “the starting-
point for all systems of aesthetics… [is] the personal experience of a peculiar emotion [(aesthetic
emotion)], the Bell argues its origin is from the appearance of “significant form” (Cooper,
p.180). Significant form functions as the appearance of “idea” and is manifested in a similar way
to Hanslick’s musically beautiful. Bell produces an aesthetic theory which does not deny the
state of feeling produced by an artwork, and yet still compliments that feeling to the
apprehension of an underlying formal system.

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MUSC 6658 Henry Spencer

3. Hanslick states that “by means of the imagination as the activity of pure contemplation
[instead of feeling]…we become aware of beauty” (Hanslick, p. 4). This pits two organs of
the mind in a struggle for the beautiful. If imagination “draws its vital impulse from our
sensation and rapidly transmits ours sensations to intellect and feeling”, Hanslick would
argue it is a precursor to any feeling we may assume. What other philosophers that we have
studied reference the imagination? How do they describe its function?

R. G Collingwood (1889-1943) agrees “the work of art is something mental, an

imaginative”. In a study of the ontology of artworks Collingwood recognizes the appearance of
art first and foremost within the mind of the artist and again as “a real artifact” (Cooper, p. 250).
Both Hanslick and Collingwood would recognize that “music…is made of the collection of
noises, it is the tune in the composer’s head” (Cooper, p.256). When Collingwood references the
value of “listening intelligently [to]….reconstruct the imaginary tune” there is an echoing of the
stress Hanslick laid upon listening for “the tonal forms in motion”. The point of difference
between the two is predictably the feeling attributed to art. Collingwood, reflecting upon the
existence of an ontology of art, posits the works creation as the need the artist to “articulate their
emotions.

4. Hanslick’s statement “people have begun to look at artworks in relation to the ideas and
times which produced them” is exemplary of the understanding precursory to modern
hermeneutics (Cooper, p. 38). In contemplating artists’ work from the past, Hanslick
differentiates between modes of “aesthetic” and “art-historical” procedures, arguing that an
aesthetic approach is inappropriate in the analysis of older works (Cooper, p. 39). How
might modern hermeneutists approach this problem

Hanslick notes that his thesis is bound to music from all eras (although the earliest era
mentioned is the Baroque) (Cooper, p. 38). He fails in recognize the changing histories changing
aesthetic. Hans-Georg Gadamer might argue that Hanslick’s thinking is itself historicized. His
perspective of the musically beautiful is spawned as a result of growing programmatic
popularity. The wide variety in earlier genres such as the mass show that programmatic music
itself did not appear contemporaneously with Hanslick.

Bibliography
Hanslick, Eduard. Translation by Geoffrey Payzant. On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution towards
the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub. (1986). Print.
Cooper, David. Aesthetics: the Classic Readings. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, (1997).
Richter Peyton E. ed. Perspectives in Aesthetics. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (1967).