Eduard Hanslick

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Lore & Background

Eduard Hanslick was born in Prague, Bohemia (then in the Austrian Empire), the son of Joseph Adolph Hanslik, a bibliographer and music teacher from a German-speaking family, and one of Hanslik's piano pupils, the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Vienna. At the age of eighteen Hanslick went to study music with Václav Tomášek, one of Prague's renowned musicians. He also studied law at Prague University and obtained a degree in that field, but his amateur study of music eventually led to writing music reviews for small town newspapers, then the Wiener Musik-Zeitung and eventually the Neue Freie Presse, where he was music critic until retirement. Whilst still a student, in 1845, he met Richard Wagner in Marienbad (now Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic); the composer, noting the young man's enthusiasm, invited him to Dresden to hear his opera Tannhäuser; here Hanslick also met Robert Schumann. In 1854 he published his influential book On the Beautiful in Music. By this time his interest in Wagner had begun to cool; he had written a disparaging review of the first Vienna production of Lohengrin. From this point on, Hanslick found his sympathies moving away from the so-called 'music of the Future' associated with Wagner and Franz Liszt, and more towards music he conceived as directly descending from the traditions of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann — in particular the music of Johannes Brahms (who dedicated to him his set of waltzes opus 39 for piano duet). In 1869, in a revised edition of his essay Jewishness in Music, Wagner attacked Hanslick as 'of gracefully concealed Jewish origin', and asserted that his supposedly Jewish style of criticism was anti-German. It is sometimes claimed that Wagner caricatured Hanslick in his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as the carping critic Beckmesser (whose name was originally to be Veit Hanslich). Hanslick's unpaid lectureship at the University of Vienna led in 1870 to a full professorship in history and aesthetic of music and later to a doctorate honoris causa. Hanslick often served on juries for musical competitions and held a post at the Austrian Ministry of Culture and fulfilled other administrative roles. He retired after writing his memoirs, but still wrote articles on the most important premieres of the day, up to his death in 1904 in Baden.

Reader's Guide

Eduard Hanslick is noted as one of the first widely influential music critics. While his aesthetics and his criticism are typically considered separately, they are importantly connected. Hanslick's tastes were conservative; in his memoirs he said that for him musical history really began with Mozart and culminated in Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. He is best remembered today for his critical advocacy of Brahms as against the school of Wagner, an episode in 19th century music history sometimes called the War of the Romantics. The critic Richard Pohl, of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, represented the progressive composers of the 'Music of the Future'. Being a close friend of Brahms from 1862, Hanslick possibly had some influence on Brahms's composing, often getting to hear new music before it was published. Hanslick saw Wagner's reliance on dramatics and word painting as inimical to the nature of music, which he thought to be expressive solely by virtue of its form, and not through any extra-musical associations. On the other hand, he referred to extra-musicality when he asked, 'When you play Chopin's mazurkas, do you not feel the mournful and oppressive air of the Battle of Ostroleka?' (Hanslick 1848, p. 157). The theoretical framework of Hanslick's criticism is expounded in his book of 1854, Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (On the Beautiful in Music), which started as an attack on the Wagnerian aesthetic and established itself as an influential text, subsequently going through many editions and translations in several languages. Other targets for Hanslick's heavy criticism were Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf. Of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, he accused both Tchaikovsky and the soloist, Adolph Brodsky, of putting the audience 'through hell' with music 'which stinks to the ear'; he was also lukewarm towards the same composer's Sixth Symphony. Hanslick was an outspoken opponent of the music of Liszt and Wagner, which broke down traditional musical forms as a means of communicating something extra-musical. His opposition to 'the music of the future' is congruent with his aesthetics of music: the meaning of music is the form of music. It is along these lines that Hanslick became one of Brahms's champions and often pitted him against Wagner.

Did You Know?

• Hanslick met Richard Wagner in 1845 in Marienbad, and Wagner invited him to Dresden to hear Tannhäuser.
• Johannes Brahms dedicated his set of waltzes opus 39 for piano duet to Hanslick.
• Wagner attacked Hanslick in a revised edition of his essay Jewishness in Music, calling him 'of gracefully concealed Jewish origin'.
• It is sometimes claimed that Wagner caricatured Hanslick as the critic Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, originally to be named Veit Hanslich.
• Hanslick accused Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto of putting the audience 'through hell' with music 'which stinks to the ear'.

From Prague Student to Empire's Chief Critic

Eduard Hanslick's professional trajectory was shaped by a dual education that few of his contemporaries could claim. Born in Prague in 1825 to a bibliographer and music instructor, he trained in music under the renowned Václav Tomášek at just eighteen while simultaneously pursuing a law degree at Prague University. It was this amateur musical curiosity that first drew him to the page, producing reviews for small provincial newspapers before landing a position at the Wiener Musik-Zeitung. In 1864 he assumed the chief music criticship of the Neue Freie Presse, a post he held without interruption until his death. Beyond journalism, Hanslick secured an unpaid lectureship at the University of Vienna that matured into a full professorship in the history and aesthetics of music in 1870, eventually earning him a doctorate honoris causa. He also served on competition juries and occupied a role within the Austrian Ministry of Culture. His published output was vast: a two-volume history of Viennese concert life, a nine-volume survey of modern opera spanning 1875 to 1900, and a collection of essays. Even after retiring and completing his memoirs, he continued reviewing major premieres until his final years in Baden.

The War of the Romantics

Hanslick's most enduring public identity is bound to the bitter factional struggle of nineteenth-century Viennese music, often called the War of the Romantics. A committed conservative, he championed what he saw as pure, self-contained musical form and opposed the programmatic, drama-driven works of Wagner and Liszt. His break with Wagner came gradually: the young student who had eagerly attended Tannhäuser in Dresden in 1845 had, by 1854, penned a scathing review of the first Vienna production of Lohengrin. From that point his sympathies aligned firmly with the lineage of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and above all Johannes Brahms, who dedicated his piano-duet waltzes (Op. 39) to the critic. On the opposing side, Richard Pohl of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik voiced the progressive "Music of the Future" camp. Hanslick's pen was equally sharp against Bruckner, Hugo Wolf, and Tchaikovsky, whose Violin Concerto he dismissed as music that "stinks to the ear." Wagner, in his 1869 essay on Jewishness in music, attacked Hanslick personally, calling him "of gracefully concealed Jewish origin," and it is often suggested that the carping critic Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger was modeled on him.

On the Musically Beautiful and the Philosophy of Form

The 1854 treatise Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (On the Musically Beautiful) remains Hanslick's most consequential intellectual contribution, a work that began as a pointed rebuttal of Wagnerian aesthetics but evolved into a foundational text in the philosophy of music. Its central argument is that music's expressive power resides entirely in its own formal structure—melody, harmony, rhythm, and their interplay—rather than in any narrative, pictorial, or emotional content borrowed from outside the art. Hanslick viewed Wagner's dependence on libretto, dramatic staging, and word-painting as a fundamental corruption of music's nature. Yet the position is not as rigidly formalist as it is often presented; in an earlier 1848 essay he acknowledged that listening to Chopin's mazurkas evokes the "mournful and oppressive air" of a Polish battle. The book went through numerous editions and translations into several languages, cementing Hanslick's reputation as one of the first widely influential music critics whose aesthetic theory and practical criticism were inseparable. His framework continues to shape how scholars discuss the relationship between musical form and meaning.

A Life Between Prague and Vienna

Hanslick's personal story is inseparable from the cultural crossroads of the Austrian Empire. Born in Prague in 1825, he grew up in a German-speaking household; his father Joseph Adolph was a bibliographer and music teacher, while his mother was one of his father's piano pupils, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish merchant. This mixed heritage would later become a weapon in Wagner's 1869 polemic, which derided Hanslick's "gracefully concealed Jewish origin" and accused him of an "anti-German" style of criticism. Musically, Hanslick's closest personal bond was with Brahms, a friendship that deepened from 1862 onward. As a trusted confidant, Hanslick likely heard new compositions before publication and may have exerted some influence on Brahms's compositional choices. In his later years he settled into a rhythm of academic duty, administrative service, and public criticism. After completing his two-volume memoirs in 1894, he retired from his professorship but never fully stopped writing, continuing to review significant premieres until his death in Baden on 6 August 1904.