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.

卡爾·達爾豪斯，德國20世紀下半葉最重要的音樂學傢。1953年在哥廷根大學獲博士學位。隨後在哥廷根劇院和《斯圖加特報》任職。1966年以《和聲調性的起源》一書獲得大學任教資格。1967年後在柏林技術大學任教。曾任德國音樂學學會主席（1977～1979年），並齣任《瓦格納全集》、《音樂戲劇百科全書》、《裏曼音樂辭典》等重要大型音樂齣版物的主編。達爾豪斯研究範圍廣闊，富於思辯精神，在音樂學方法論、音樂史、音樂美學、音樂技術理論與音樂分析等各個領域均有突齣貢獻。達氏的寫作帶有強烈的方法論反思意識，論述常常觸及音樂文化和音樂藝術的根本性問題，其著述的被徵引率在近來的西方音樂學界一直高踞榜首，因而被公認是20世紀後半葉西方世界中最有影響的音樂學者。