Ancient Music in the Aesthetic Theory of Eduard Hanslick

Abstract

In his seminal work Vom Musikalisch-Schönen Eduard Hanslick came to the conclusion that the ancient world did not know music in the proper sense of the word. In Hanslick's view it was essential for a piece of music to exhibit “sonically moving forms”. As may be seen from the analysis of the appropriate passages in the Platonic corpus, nothing comparable to that concept of Hanslick’s existed in the ancient philosophy of music; it was by quite other qualities that the ancient world assessed the instances of mousiké.