Abstract

The tradition of modern philosophical hermeneutics could be told in such a way that from Schleiermacher to Gadamer the process of universalization can be seen (Grondin 1994). In Heidegger and Gadamer hermeneutics became universal in a way that now everything is a possible subject of understanding. Among those items of the hermeneutical universe are not only spoken sentences and books, but also pictures, movies, dance and other aesthetic phenomena. Gadamer himself has spelled out the insight that the universe of understanding is broader than items that literally consist of language mainly with regard to images and pictorial representations (Gadamer 2013, 135ff). But among those items are also musical works, musical interpretations and musical improvisations. It is not only the meticulous reading of a musical interpretation of a symphony by Mahler or the hearing of something as music and not as mere noise in the world that embodies understanding. Already hearing the difference between something being an interpretation and something being an improvisation embodies understanding.