ABSTRACT
This brief sketch of Dilthey’s observations concerning the role of music in German culture provides both a reminder of the essentially idealistic tradition of nineteenth century German social science and philosophy, and also a yardstick, a benchmark as it were, by which to view the later developments of a sociological approach to music. In the study of music in society, the rise of interdisciplinary cooperation going beyond sociology and anthropology is more noticeable precisely because of the conventional assignment of the study of music to the humanities. Music now depends on complicated rules. On the basis of differential application of complicated rules to the setting and creation of music, Simmel goes on to differentiate between types of music and typical social settings. Music is a social-psychological and not a psychic expression. Through the process of socialization, individuals become familiarized with the approved pattern of musical expression of their groups.
