This study compares the concept of hermeneutics proposed by Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) with that proposed by Hermann Kretzschmar (1848-1924) on the basis of Schenker’s criticism of Kretzschmar. Furthermore, it aims to re-examine Schenker’s discourse on musical works within the framework of hermeneutics through the concept of hermeneutics formulated by Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911).

While Kretzschmar proposed inner understanding by listening into “affects” as spiritual content from tones (1902, 1905), the object of Schenker’s “true hermeneutics” (1913) was “tonal life,” in which movements of tones and human life were identical. Although both correlated tones with “spiritual life,” the difference exists in what they regarded as internal: for Schenker, the criterion was to be inside music, but Kretzschmar contrasted internal mentality with external tones.

The discrepancy about inner/outer difference corresponds to the discrepancy between Dilthey’s general and musical hermeneutics. Dilthey’s distinction in 1900 coincided with Kretzschmar’s in that the “inner” and “spiritual” expressed in external signs should be understood. However, in Dilthey’s “The Musical Understanding” (c.1906), experience was internalized in music and “the life itself” was to be expressed. Interestingly, such a view resonates with Schenker’s intramusical hermeneutics.