Career Summary

Wallaschek first qualified for his academic career in 1887 with a Habilitation in philosophy at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. After working in London 1890‒95, he lived from 1896 in Vienna, where he wrote another Habilitation in psychology and music aesthetics at the University of Vienna, under the physicist and theoretical scientist Ernst Mach and the philosopher Friedrich Jodl (1849–1914). From 1897 he held a position at the University of Vienna, becoming a professor there in 1908 and a full professor in 1911, while also working as a music critic. He also taught music aesthetics and the Vienna Conservatory 1900‒02. He is regarded as a founder of Viennese comparative musicology.

His books include Ästhetik der Tonkunst (1886), On the Origin of Music (1891), and On the Difference of Time and Rhythm in Music (1893), and Das k. k. Hofoperntheater (1909).

Wallaschek and Schenker

In 1896, Ernst Mach wrote a postcard to Schenker in which he informed him: "Dr Wallaschek lives at Vienna IV, Waaggasse 11, in case you should wish to be in touch with him" (OJ 12/47, [1]). He is once mentioned in Schenker's diary: "A feuilleton in Die Zeit (Wallaschek) sounding the alarm against the moderns!" (OJ 1/6, p. 34: Feb 8, 1907).