This book is an introduction to the esthetics of music. Aesthetics, which were of prime importance in thinking about music in the nineteenth century, are today sometimes suspected of being idle speculation. Yet judgments about music and every sort of musical activity are based on aesthetic presuppositions. Carl Dahlhaus gives an account of developments in the aesthetics of music from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. He combines a historical and systematic approach. Central themes in music are grouped together to illustrate both the historical course of events and a systematic unity of the essential elements in the aesthetics of music. For this edition, the late Carl Dahlhaus provided an annotated bibliography. William Austin has added books for the English-speaking reader, and has also supplied notes to the text to help the student.

卡尔·达尔豪斯，德国20世纪下半叶最重要的音乐学家。1953年在哥廷根大学获博士学位。随后在哥廷根剧院和《斯图加特报》任职。1966年以《和声调性的起源》一书获得大学任教资格。1967年后在柏林技术大学任教。曾任德国音乐学学会主席（1977～1979年），并出任《瓦格纳全集》、《音乐戏剧百科全书》、《里曼音乐辞典》等重要大型音乐出版物的主编。达尔豪斯研究范围广阔，富于思辩精神，在音乐学方法论、音乐史、音乐美学、音乐技术理论与音乐分析等各个领域均有突出贡献。达氏的写作带有强烈的方法论反思意识，论述常常触及音乐文化和音乐艺术的根本性问题，其著述的被征引率在近来的西方音乐学界一直高踞榜首，因而被公认是20世纪后半叶西方世界中最有影响的音乐学者。