"Eduard Hanslick: Vom Musikalisch-Schönen," ed. by Alexander Wilfing in collaboration with Meike Wilfing-Albrecht and Daniel Elsner; digital edition of all ten versions including TEI markup and automated comparison (original) (raw)

This edition is based on the ten editions of Eduard Hanslick’s treatise “Vom Musikalisch-Schönen: Ein Beitrag zur Revision der Ästhetik der Tonkunst” (“On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music”), published between 1854 and 1902 in occasionally revised textual versions. Whereas editions 1 to 3 (1854–1865) were published by Rudolph Weigel (Leipzig), Johann Ambrosius Barth (Leipzig) produced the treatise from edition 4 onward (1874–1902). Other sources like sketches, setting copies, proof copies, etc., are not known as of today, since Hanslick’s estate has been lost during the Second World War. The printed copies thus are the only available templates for our digital edition. The articles or chapters, from which this treatise presumably originates and which were partly published in advance, did not figure into this edition. The editions of the original treatise—transcribed and corrected by Meike Wilfing-Albrecht—are reproduced as faithfully as possible, the spelling is retained. Errors that were corrected by Hanslick himself within the editions—e.g., the change from “psychisch” (psychic) to “physisch” (physical), 2.13, from edition 9 onward—are also reproduced faithfully. Only evident errata (e.g., “Mnsik” instead of “Musik,” 5.6, in edition 3) have been corrected without indication. Paragraphs are maintained (except for poems) and changes between editions are indicated by the following markers: contraction → &; subdivision → a and b; addition → 3rd decimal place; deletion → number gap. A revised collation feature is currently being developed. Page numbers and breaks can either be shown or masked by using the “annotations” menu. Verse breaks are indicated by using slashes /. The footnotes have been converted to endnotes with jump marks and have been numbered consecutively instead of using the original asterisks * to provide a more precise attribution. Up to edition 7, the headings of individual chapters were only displayed in the table of contents. For the purpose of manageable navigation, they were incorporated into the transcription of editions 1–7. The printed copies of “Vom Musikalisch-Schönen” contain several fonts, the meticulous reproduction of which, however, did not seem sensible for the purpose of a digital edition. The German main text is set in Fraktur script throughout, while Latin, French, Italian, or English passages are usually produced in Latin typeface (especially prominent in the extended original French quotation in 2.43, but also, for example, in “Dr.” on the title page). Since this difference in typeface has no semantic relevance, the present edition refrains from any respective visual demarcation. Text passages formatted in bold face, however, are reproduced according to the templates (cf. 1.31). In the original, moreover, textual emphases are marked with spaced letters, which have been turned into italics for our online edition. The music examples shown in chapters 2.19, 2.25, 2.28 (edition 1) as well as 2.19 and 2.17 (editions 2–10) have been typeset anew and arranged according to the original template by our colleague Vasiliki Papadopoulou, for which we thank her sincerely. Only the bracket breaks diverge from the original, as they are only due to the smaller printing format of the respective hard copy and thus have no semantic validity. Hanslick probably had the musical examples set for this specific purpose, but their print templates are not known either. In the example of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Che farò” (2.27, from edition 2 onward), the deviations in syllable division between editions are not indicated separately. These can be checked against the respective facsimile reproduction. The TEI annotation of “Vom Musikalisch-Schönen” was provided by Alexander Wilfing, who oversaw the entire edition process. In a first step, names, works, and places were marked up as entities, each of which can be color-coded in the online edition by using the “annotations” menu. In the index—where persons (historical as well as fictional) and works are further linked with each other—and the detailed information of annotations, the spelling of the GND data base was used for person names (if available in each case), and that of GeoNames for place names. In the case of names / places, only names / places themselves and terms which are directly related to names / places were marked, but not groups of people that have such references. For example, “Griechenland” (“Greece”) and “griechisch” (“Greek”) are annotated, “Griechen” (“Greeks”), however, are not, which then also applies to “Gluck” and “Piccini”, as opposed to “Gluckisten” (“Gluckists”) and “Piccinisten” (“Piccinists”) (2.43). Such terms can, of course, be found via full-text search. The logo of “Hanslick Online” was designed by Olivia Reichl.