Kretzschmar's Guide to the Concert Hall was first issued in three volumes in 1887–90, encompassing symphony and suite, sacred vocal works, oratorios and secular choral works. The work went through many editions, increasing steadily in size. In the 1930s it was further expanded by other editors, and Hans Mersmann added a fourth volume, on chamber music. Even by 1919 it comprised over 2,100 pages. By then its historical scope was vast: the first volume alone spanned music from Gabrieli (demonstrating Kretzschmar's advocacy of the Baroque) to ‘the modern suite and the most recent developments in the Classical symphony’. This last category included all the symphonies of Brahms, Bruckner (except No. 8) and Mahler (except No. 9). The work was enormously popular in the German-speaking world.

Kretzschmar modestly termed what he wrote at the time ‘essays’ or ‘articles’, their task being specifically ‘to elucidate works’, in particular to bring out their ‘ideal content’ (Ideengehalt). Later, in 1902–03, he formulated the idea behind these essays as a manifesto, entitled ‘A Stimulus to Promote a Hermeneutics of Music’. In the introduction to his collected writings, he wrote of the relationship between the Guide and the ‘Stimulus’: