This opening section presents preliminary results from a hermeneutical approach to music. Hermeneutics is primarily a method for interpreting texts, including music. Moreover, building on the ideas of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricœur, and later Gianni Vattimo and Jean Grondin, hermeneutics can also be understood as a way of engaging with the world with a listening attitude. This concept of ‘listening’ has heavy ethical implications, but it can also be applied as a method for analysing and performing music as an interpretive act, open to the otherness and uniqueness of the message.