ABSTRACT
ASPECTS OF RECENT MUSIC-THEORETICAL literature imply various views of and criteria for satisfactory musical explanation. The Structure and Function of Musical Theory: there is no doubt that the question as to whether musical discourse or more precisely the theory of music should be subject to the methodological criteria of scientific method and the attendant scientific language is a question, except that the question is really not the normative one of whether it should be or must be, but the factual one that it is, not because of the nature of musical theory, but because of the nature and scope of scientific method and language, whose domain of application is such that if it is not extensible to musical theory, then musical theory is not a theory in any sense in which the term ever has been employed. Strong words these, and indubitably true; except that there remains the possibility of musical explanation in another mode of discourse.
