Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics invites submissions for a special issue on Eduard Hanslick’s seminal treatise On the Musically Beautiful (1854). Confirmed contributors to the special issue are Jane Hines (University of Cambridge) and Stephen Hinton (Stanford University). Guest Editor is Alexander Wilfing (Austrian Academy of Sciences).
Even after more than a century of sustained research, Hanslick’s On the Musically Beautiful (OMB) continues to challenge musicologists and philosophers of music alike. This special issue welcomes contributions addressing a broad range of questions about the origins, reception, and philosophical interpretation of Hanslick’s aesthetics.
Regarding historical influences and aesthetic context, contributors might explore what sources of inspiration Hanslick drew upon in formulating the basic tenets of OMB. Did he engage directly with central figures of nineteenth-century thought such as Bernard Bolzano, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Theodor Vischer, or did he offer an eclectic synthesis of contemporary influences?
Questions of reception and legacy remain equally compelling. How were Hanslick’s ideas received by later aesthetic theorists such as Theodor W. Adorno, Roman Ingarden, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose work arguably exhibits traces of his supposed formalism? What transformations or critiques did his ideas undergo in subsequent aesthetic discourse?
The text of OMB itself raises persistent interpretative challenges. Did Hanslick allow for emotional expression in music, and if so, what kind? Did he identify the musical ‘work’ with the score, or did he consider auditory elements and performance essential to aesthetic judgment? Did he reflect on the historical dimension of music and musical beauty, or did he endorse an ahistorical formalism? Finally, does OMB present an inherently consistent argument, or does it contain theoretical tensions that may account for both the longevity and diverse interpretations of this work?
Contributions addressing these and related questions are warmly invited, providing fruitful avenues for both historical and systematic approaches to OMB. Submissions should not exceed 8,500 words (including footnotes and bibliography), must be written in English, and should be prepared for anonymous peer review. For detailed formatting guidelines, please consult the journal’s website.
Articles must be submitted by October 15, 2026, via https://estetikajournal.org. The special issue is planned for publication in September 2027. If you have any questions, please contact the editors.
Estetika is a leading journal for philosophical aesthetics in Europe, indexed in Web of Science and ranked Q1 in Philosophy, Literature and Literary Studies, and Visual Arts and Performing Arts. It is a diamond open access, non-profit journal supported by Charles University in Prague and Helsinki University Press.