ABSTRACT
By the “pertinence” of a particular musical theory, I mean ascertaining those aspects of the total musical fact which it is in a position to describe. Within the semiological perspective which I have adopted, it means knowing whether the theory describes the immanent structures of a piece of music, the compositional strategies which produced it, or the strategies of perception to which it gives rise. I am referring here to the semiological theory (Molino 1975, Nattiez 1987) which makes a distinction between three levels: the neutral, the poietic and the aesthesic.
