ABSTRACT
The most influential philosopher of music in the nineteenth century, and probably since, was by trade a music critic and journalist. As a philosopher and as a historian of music, in which latter capacity he was eventually awarded a more-or-less honorary professorship at the University of Vienna, Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904) was a talented autodidact. This mixed profile has much to do with the signal success of his contribution to the philosophy of music. Unlike any professionally trained philosophers of his day or the professional musicians who sometimes thought to emulate them (such as Richard Wagner), Hanslick was able to ground his discussion of aesthetic principles in a solid, empirical understanding of the modern musical canon and to express his views on matters of genuine philosophical significance in terms immediately intelligible to laymen as well as professionals in either field.
