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Home , Eduard Hanslick, Marie Wilt, Max Kalbeck, Pauline Lucca, Theodor Billroth

Hanslick, Eduard

Eduard Hanslick Cities an countries Birth name: Eduard Hanslik , born in , studied law in Prague * 11 September 1825 in Prag, Königreich Böhmen, and Leipzig and worked as civil servant in various minist- heutige Tschechische Republik ries in Klagenfurt and until 1861. Beginning in † 6 August 1904 in Baden nahe Wien, Österreich 1861 he taught as professor for musical and the history of at the . He died Music aesthetician, music historian, music critic, in Baden near Vienna in 1904. musicologist, jurist, civil servant, Hofrat (honorary title Biography for senior civil servants) Law student and civil servant “The autobiographer has to combat a powerful temptati- on: he should spare his readers those things that do not Eduard Hanslick was born in Prague on 11 September, interest them even if for him they are valuable and unfor- 1825. His father, the library official and private scholar gettable. To omit painful battles and sad events is less dif- Josef Adolf Hanslik, was of Czech-Catholic descent. His ficult; it is, I would even say, a commandment of good mother’s parents were Jewish, but she was baptized befo- manners, a natural thoughtfulness. However, so much re being married. They spoke German, and because of that is dear, jovial and good which we experience, the ab- the lack of public schools, Eduard and his two brothers, solute best that life has to offer – friendship between and to some extent his two sisters as well, were instruc- men! I had the good fortune of having excellent friends ted by his father himself in all subjects including piano. in Vienna.” Later he received instruction in piano, theory and compo- (Eduard Hanslick, Aus meinem Leben (From my Life), sition from the Czech composer Wenzel Johann Toma- 1894. New edition by Peter Wapnewski, Kassel schek. In spite of his musical talent and passion, Hansli- 1987, p.130) ck studied law in Prague and Vienna from 1843 to 1848. He passed doctoral and judicial office exams and for the next 13 years he carried out his function as an official in Profile the fiscal offices of Vienna and Klagenfurt, as well as in With regard to gender issues, it is the variety of close fri- the Ministry of Education in Vienna starting in 1852. endships with men that characterize Eduard Hanslick’s biography and career. This focus also meant the almost total exclusion of women – with the exception of singers Music journalist and music researcher – from all of his professional activities. Among other fac- tors, Hanslick himself attributes his career as music While still in Prague, Hanslick wrote concert reviews, fir- critic and writer, as well as the creation of the first profes- st for the Prague journal “Ost und West” (East and sorship for musical aesthetics and music history at the West), and as a correspondent in Vienna starting in 1846 University of Vienna, to his exceptionally good connecti- – purely as a passion without remuneration. In doing so ons. They were based on longtime friendships with men he made his first contacts to other newspapers and aut- from his days as a student and his career as ministry offi- hors, to editorial journalists and also to musicians – such cial and were deepened by encounters within the context as – who wrote to him in response to of the Vienna salon culture, travels undertaken together, his articles. In Vienna he worked for Frankel’s “Sonntags- and frequent private music-making constellations which blätter” (Sunday Pages) and for the “Kaiserliche Wiener made almost no concessions to social standing or profes- Zeitung” (Imperial Viennese Newspaper) and eventually sional hierarchies. Hanslick played piano well and pos- he became music editor for the “Wiener Zeitung” (Vien- sessed exceptional talent for communicating, both as ora- nese Newspaper) (1848-53, with an interruption during tor and in conversation. The fact that he was well-known the time he spent in Klagenfurt). From 1853 until 1864 due to his writing on musical aesthetics, his public and he wrote musical reviews for the “Presse” until some of academic lectures, and his work in the feuilleton press the staff founded the “Neue freie Presse” (New Free was another important factor in this network of relati- Press) and took him along with them. onships.

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Socializing and salons His work as ministry official gave Hanslick no inner satis- faction. “At least it left me with enough free time to conti- In addition to networking through the music feuilleton nue my favorite studies. (…) For this purpose, for press and though making music with musically enthusia- months at a time I fairly regularly went straight from ea- stic colleagues and superiors at the ministries, the social, ting to the court library and there I read scores and half-public daily routine also offered plenty of opportuni- books until the chime rang for us to leave. Scores mostly ties for men to make, deepen and cultivate friendships. from old , which always interested me the most. “This small society was in the habit of coming together at The books were mostly on the aesthetics and history of the same restaurant not far from the ministry for lunch music. Heavens, what all did I read and extract there! I after office hours. In the evening our circle expanded sig- had to depend on myself for these studies. There was no nificantly in the dining hall of the hotel ‘Ungarische Kro- one to whom I could turn for advice” (ibid., p.150). ne’ (Hungarian Crown’). Not only did almost all Tirole- The result of these studies is the work “The Beautiful in ans of importance – especially the Reichstag members – Music”, which was published in Leipzig in 1854 by the pu- go there as friends of Ehrhart and Walther, but musici- blishing house of Rudolf Weigel on the letter of recom- ans and writers often went there to see me. They knew it mendation of “Rudolf von Eitelberger, who was very fa- would be more convenient to talk to me in the evenings vorably disposed toward me, and had published several at the ‘Ungarische Krone’ than at the Ministry of Educati- of my essays as editor of the ‘Literaturblattes der Wiener on or at my small apartment. There was many a jovial, Zeitung’” [Literature Pages of the Viennese Newspaper] stimulating evening spent there and often the big table (ibid., p.151). And even though Hanslick held no doctora- was not sufficient for the unexpected additions. We saw te in a philosophical discipline (but rather in law), the excellent men at our table; I will name them randomly as philosophical faculty subsequently and without hesitati- they occur to me: Billroth, Brahms, Nicolaus Bumba, Am- on accepted the work as postdoctoral lecture qualificati- bros, the singers Sontheim and Niemann, Dingelstedt, on. In addition to his duties at the Ministry of Education, Gounod (after the premiere of ‚Romeo and Juliet‘), Mo- Hanslick was now also able to give lectures on the histo- senthal, Herbeck, Dessoff, Max Maria Weber, the govern- ry and as private lecturer at the Uni- or of Styria Baron Kübek, Graf Albrecht Wickenburg, the versity of Vienna – at first without being paid – as long provincial governor Graf Belrupt from Bregenz, the pro- as the lecture hours did not conflict with his office hours. fessors Wildauer, Adam, Wolf, Hlasiwetz, von Lützow, The lectures, which took place daily between 5:00 and Josef Bayer, the Africa traveler Miani and more” (Hansli- 6:00 pm, enjoyed great interest. Not only did students ck, 1987, pp. 132-133). from all faculties come to listen, but also state officials, Further encounters – in this case also with women – ca- barristers, doctors and artists. Because of the great de- me about through the Viennese salons: “The women we- mand, including from women, who were not admitted to re the attraction, of course. Not only in Vienna has it be- these university lectures, Hanslick organized another lec- en observed that in the families of large Jewish bankers ture series on the history of music in a public hall. “My the women and daughters are finely educated, of char- lectures were the first ones on music in Vienna, and the- ming behavior and receptive to all things beautiful, while refore more or less the beginning of the popular-scienti- most of the men have trained their minds solely for the fic type of lecture that soon thereafter became the fashi- stock market and only use it there” (ibid., p.134). The on.” (ibid., p.175). Hanslick nonetheless ended this series husbands “did not bother them,” the wives were admired after three cycles, although even three ministers (Graf and idolized; the intellectuals and artists, however, used Leo Thun, Graf Wickenburg and Schmerling) attended the social setting above all to socialize with each other, his last events. The huge success of his lectures and pre- chat, perform literary and musical works, and to get im- sentations prompted the Minister of Education, Graf Leo pulses, inspiration or assignments – and, more often Thun – both a member of his audience and his professio- than not, to heartily polemicize against the upper social nal superior – to grant Hanslick the title and status of as- classes to which their hosts belonged. sociate professor. To create a salaried professorship in music at the university required the intervention of for- mer colleagues and superiors at the highest levels of va- Music author and professor rious ministries – all of which were both influential and

– 2 – Hanslick, Eduard interested in music, as well as being Hanslick’s chamber more from a region that was only familiar with Judaism music partners or occasional travel companions. On 1 Oc- in the form of the traveling peddler.” (ibid., pp. 220-221; tober, 1861, Hanslick was relieved of his duties at the Mi- see also Ludovavá, “Einige Prager Realien zum Thema nistry of Education and employed as tenured professor Hanslick”, in Antoniček, 2010, pp. 163-181) at the University of Vienna for the subject Aesthetics and In his autobiography Hanslick only makes short mention History of Music. Regarding his later, rather ambivalent of his late marriage in the year 1876 to the much younger relationship to the University of Vienna, see Theophil An- singer Sophie Wohlmuth – who gave up her theater care- toniček, “Eduard Hanslick und die Universität Wien” (in: er to marry the fifty year-old – and of his relationship to Antoniček, 2010, p.195-203). his two sisters. Here as in his other writings, the only wo- From then on he was consulted as representative for the men who are depicted are almost exclusively singers or subject of music in all important boards and cultural individual, particularly distinguished musicians and wri- planning in and internationally. ters such as Clara Schumann or Johanna Kinkel or the music patron, the Grand Duchess Helene of Russia (see also the section “In relation to”). Hanslick and women Small side notes and attestations of patriarchal misogyny such as in the following estimation of ’ Hanslick grew up with two brothers and two sisters in suitability for marriage allow the surmise that despite Prague. Whereas his father lived in Prague until his dea- these demonstrations of appreciation, Hanslick’s attitu- th in 1859, his mother Karolina, born in 1795, daughter de toward women was not based on the principle of equa- of the Prague Jewish banker and businessman Salomon lity: “The independence and self-sufficiency of his charac- Abraham Kisch and his wife Rebeka, died young at 48 or ter can also be observed in the fact that Brahms, in no 49 years of age – her exact date of death is unknown – way immune to the allure of the feminine, still never let but presumably in 1843 or 1844. “I was attached to my- himself get caught. The most beautiful golden cages mother with passionate tenderness. Unpretentious, acti- stood wide open. But he doesn’t want to let himself be ve, and as kind-hearted as she was wise, she lived utterly chained. ‘When it comes to marriage,’ he said to me on- and solely for her family. She knew only two pleasures ce, ‘it is like the operas. If I had already composed an ope- once her daily work had been done: the theater and Fren- ra, even if it had been a failure in my opinion, I would cer- ch literature. She inherited both inclinations from her fat- tainly compose a second one. But I can no longer make her, and they were both decisively passed on to me. (…) up my mind on a first or a first marriage.’ Brahms, A few years later, I had just taken up my study of law, my who can hardly bear even the smallest restriction on his mother died in the jolliest of ages. I was attached to her personal freedom, would probably not have been the hap- with most tender of loves. How often did I suddenly piest of husbands.” (Hanslick, 1987, p.224) jump up from my school work and rush to her room whe- Hanslick’s of gender roles becomes more suc- re I embraced and kissed her and then return to my cinct in his evaluation of women as musicians. The fol- tasks, in equal parts strengthened and uplifted. With her, lowing quote has to do with the establishment of the first the happiness of youth evaporated – actually the feeling governmental examination board for music teachers in of youth itself. Now the gravity of life was at my door.” the year 1865, of which he was a member: “Today the (Hanslick, 1987, pp. 12-14) number of candidates who voluntarily subject themsel- It is remarkable that Hanslick never mentions his mot- ves to this exam is already much higher than those who her’s Jewish origins, and even expressly denies his own are required to do so. And what is particularly striking – Jewish lineage, which he derives from her. “That fact I almost want to say regrettably – is the great majority of that Wagner later, in 1869, smuggled me into his ‘Juda- girls who take this exam so that, equipped with an go- ism’ – that could not offend me less. Wagner couldn’t vernmental certificate, they can give voice or piano les- stand Jews; therefore he liked to think that everyone he sons.” (ibid., p.182) In the essay “Ein Brief über die ‘Cla- couldn’t stand was a Jew. It would flatter me to be bur- vierseuche’” (A letter on the ‘piano plague’) (Hanslick, ned by Father Arbuez Wagner at one and the same stack 1884, pp. 572-575) his estimation of the skills of women of logs as Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer; unfortunately I pianists and piano players is given in detail: “(…) Music must refuse this honor, for my father and all of his forefa- conservatories are in the business of providing education thers were staunchly Catholic farmer’s sons, and further- for orchestral musicians and promoting new talent. For-

– 3 – Hanslick, Eduard merly, they also adhered to this tendency, granting piano Hanslick subsequently quotes Dr. Otto Gumprecht who playing a subordinate rank at most, usually relegating it also denounces feminine virtuosity and expressly warns to private instruction. Today this ratio threatens to be re- parents “to train their daughter as artists or only as mu- versed; the number of piano students exceeds that of the sic teachers.” The “regrettable creatures”, whose “talents violin or wind in most conservatories. Let us single out are shared by hundreds” are later “nothing but a lifelong the next best annual report of the Vienna Conservatory. burden to themselves and others,” while the world “is on- In 1875 it was attended by 316 piano hopefuls, of which ly served by the extraordinary”. 254 were girls; in 1876, 448 piano students of whom Reflecting on his role as music critic, Hanslick described over 300 were girls; in 1880 it had about 400 piano stu- his estimation of female musicians as follows: “Especial- dents, of which 340 were girls! (…) The reader will have ly the army of woman pipianists, the little singers, violin noticed the disproportionate prevalence of female pia- fairies and violin witches! They all wanted to be heard nists in the figures given above. A terrible societal symp- and evaluated. The more modestly some of them may ha- tom! Indeed, in our current lament, female piano players ve considered their , the more articulately they appea- deserve their own verse, and not the most cheerful one. led to our pure human feeling. One was seized by pity. Having acted as permanent music critic for the Viennese Out of pure pity, irreplaceable evenings were sacrificed, ‘Neue freie Presse’ for years, I can look far back and mea- the same rhapsodies by Liszt, nocturnes by Chopin, fanta- sure the steady accretion of female concert performers. sies by Wieniawsky were endured a thousand times, sim- With regard to piano virtuosity in it is current- ply because the ‘virtuoso’ supported a sister or mother wi- ly very much like the situation in England with regard to th her art. She wants to give lessons, or put on concerts novel writing – both are almost completely in the hands out in the provinces, both of which can only be accomplis- of women. If we look through English bookseller adverti- hed if she has a favorable concert review from Vienna. sements, there is one novel of male origin for approxima- And so it is always the plagued critic who helps out and tely a dozen novels of female origin; a review of our con- must write about performances that are completely irrele- cert tickets results in approximately the same ratio betwe- vant to him and his life.” (Hanslick, 1987, p.399) en male and female pianists. Yes, in some seasons male Widespread gender stereotypes and Hanslick’s inclinati- piano virtuosos are already disappearing beneath the do- on for misogynist polemics also reveal themselves merci- minance of their ‘ivory tickling’ sisters. Any expert would lessly in his review of the first volume of the Liszt biogra- admit that the reign of damsels over the piano that has phy “ als Künstler und Mensch (Franz Liszt as currently established itself everywhere does not greatly Artist and Man)” (Leipzig 1889) by the music writer Lina benefit either the damsel or the piano. The analogy with Ramann, which appeared in the “Neue Freie Presse” in the novel authors does not quite end with regard to quali- Vienna on 22 December, 1889: “This kind of grandly con- ty; we have many competent woman pianists, a few that ceived biography (570 pages) of persons still living al- are first-rate, but only here and there does one ever achie- ways have something awkward about them and automati- ve the heights of accomplished masculine artistry. This cally arouse mistrust in the objectivity of the biographer, remains the exception that confirms the rule – the rule especially when, on top of it all, they are dictated by pas- that women, due to their more delicate physical and men- sionate admiration. (…) Just paging through the first ch- tal organization ought to restrict themselves to a more apter we were convinced that the author of this Liszt bio- narrow artistic field, usually that of delicate or miniature graphy must be a novel writer or a woman.” (Klassik Stif- and that even in their most lustrous representa- tung Weimar, Goethe and Schiller Archive, Sign. GSA tions their art lacks something ultimate and decisive. I 59/378,2-860) Hanslick allows that Lina Ramann endea- would prefer to say absolutely nothing about the practi- vors to be “true”: “her book does give the impression of cal and social disadvantages of the alarming increase in sincere feeling.” In his opinion however, she did not wri- the virtuosity of young ladies. Who does not feel the te like a serious biographer, but rather like a “novel wri- most heartfelt pity for all these young girls who choose ter”, who had fallen in love with her own hero unawares. piano playing as their life’s purpose and seek to make a li- He attests to her “sentimental garrulity” that transforms ving on that bit of virtuosity! The regret is all too sure to insignificant events into novel scenes and quotes long come for having invested such endless amounts of effort passages as evidence. He also deems Ramann’s publicati- and work into a skill that is no longer worth public pro- on of the second volume of the “Gesammelten Schriften duction and which is of almost no interest anymore.” von Franz Liszt” (Collected Writings of Franz Liszt) mere-

– 4 – Hanslick, Eduard ly as “spoutings of the exaggerated Liszt cult”. na Kinkel, the pianist and composer Ingeborg von Brons- The effects of his polarizing gender image on his aest- art, the dancer Fanny Elsler and many others. Additional hetic theory of music, as set forth in his dissertation, women singers were presented in his music reviews and “The Beautiful in Music” (1854) was investigated by Inge portraits. Kovács and Andreas Meyer in their essay, “Nichts für ‘sc- Appreciation höne Seelen’? Aus den Anfängen der akademischen Mu- sikforschung [Nothing for ‘Beautiful Souls’? From the Be- As music critic and one of the first professors on a musi- ginnings of Academic Music Research]”: “And for Hansli- cology faculty at a German-speaking university, Eduard ck, following Hegel and in complete opposition to the be- Hanslick played a decisive part in the construction of the ginnings of philosophical aesthetics in the eighteenth cen- heroic tale in music at the almost complete exclusion of tury, aesthetics means ‘investigating the beautiful object women. His reviews were always amusing to read, and and not the perceiving subject’. This decision, however, their descriptions of people were apt and written with a is not neutral with regard to gender politics. For it is wo- sharp wit. But the wit often turned into polemics and the- men, as Hanslick knows, who, ‘by nature are more depen- se were not seldom at the expense of women. Hanslick’s dent on feeling.’” (Kovács, 2010, p.72). By categorizing extraordinarily good connections among men from the feeling, sentiment and passion as typically feminine, wo- educated classes and government circles gave a particu- men are automatically excluded from his understanding lar emphasis to his aesthetic convictions – which also, by of art, which is based solely on schooling in the way, led him to a number of grave misjudgments – and reason. and made him the most influential and feared Viennese “Pope of Music.”

Research In Relation to The status on the latest research on Eduard Hanslick wi- As in his music reviews, Eduard Hanslick also recorded th regard to gender is currently represented by the essay numerous encounters with artists and portraits of compo- by Marion Gerards, “‘Faust und Hamlet in Einer Person‘ sers, performers, singers, writers, music writers, famous (Faust and Hamlet in One Person): The Musical Writ- contemporaries and friends in his autobiography “Aus ings of Eduard Hanslick as Part of the Gender Discourse meinem Leben, Berlin 1894,” quoted here from the new in the Late Nineteenth Century”, which was published in edition by Peter Wapnewski, Kassel 1987. Extensive desc- the conference papers “Rethinking Hanslick. Music, For- riptions can be found here; In addition to the description malism, and Expression” (Grimes, 2013, pp. 212-235) of his father, they include encounters and friendships wi- and came about in connection with the conference “Edu- th Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, , Jo- ard Hanslick: Aesthetic, Critical, and Cultural Contexts” hannes Brahms, to whom he had an intimate friendship on 24 and 25 June, 2009 at University College in Dublin. – Brahms dedicated the Sixteen Waltzes op. 39 to him – In it, Marion Gerards thoroughly examines Hanslick’s , Hector Berlioz, Antonín Dvořák, Johann Strauß (father music reviews (as well as some texts by the music histori- and son), Julius Schulhoff, Joseph Hellmesberger, Giaco- ans and ) with re- mo Meyerbeer, Henri Vieuxtemps, August Wilhelm Am- gard to gender images. She documents that in general, bros, , Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Jose- the music descriptions of these authors are firmly ancho- ph von Eichendorff, , Friedrich Hebbel, red in the gender discourse of their time and – particular- Adolph Bernhard Marx, and numerous other friends, col- ly regarding the description of instrumental music – fall leagues, dignitaries and high officials of the Viennese ad- back on the contemporaneous concepts of masculinity ministration. and femininity when attributing value and significance In addition to rather short passages about his mother, to musical works. his two sisters and his wife, the singer Sophie Wolhmu- Need for Research th, notes on encounters and relationships with women in- clude the pianists Clara Schumann and Wilhelmine There is no gender critical examination of Hanslick’s re- Clauß-Szarvady, the singers Marie Wilt, Mathilde Wildau- views, descriptions of works and portraits regarding the er, Jenny Lind, Pauline Lucca, Désirée Artôt, Christine treatment of male and female roles in the opera, the desc- Nielsson and Carlotta Patti, die Musician and poet Johan- riptions of women singers and other women musicians,

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etc. in the German-speaking realm. In addition, Hansli- ck’s role in the creation of the musical canon in the nine- teenth century, along with the reception and effects of his critical music publications – which to some extent still need to be gathered together in the newspaper archi- ves – should be examined more closely.

Authority control

Virtual International Authority File (VIAF): http://viaf.org/viaf/19696720 Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (GND): http://d-nb.info/gnd/118545825 Library of Congress (LCCN): http://lccn.loc.gov/n50017763

Author(s)

Martina Bick, 13. Dezember 2013

Editing status

Editorial staff: Regina Back, (deutsche Fassung) Meredith Nicollai, (English version) Translation: Jennifer Hohensteiner First edit 27/02/2014 Last edit 28/11/2017

mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de Forschungsprojekt an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Beatrix Borchard Harvestehuder Weg 12 D – 20148 Hamburg

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