Abstract

I begin by defending Heinrich Gustav Hotho’s foundational edition of the Lectures on Aesthetics (LA), contra Gethmann-Siebert. In doing so, I also defend Hegel against the common conceit that his comprehension of music was somehow deficient. Reference to Kant’s transcendental aesthetics then allows us to grasp how, in Hegel, meaningful tones arise from the vibratory oscillation between selfhood’s presiding unity and its temporal ideality or self-positing. Further elements of musical architecture, e.g., rhythm, harmony and melody can likewise be traced back to temporal oscillation. Indeterminate meaning arises through beautiful music’s absolute Ur-Ton, which resonates into the soul of the listener. The temporal vanishing of musical tones is a pre-linguistic expression of meaningfulness itself, and its ambiguous oscillation between the human and the divine.