ABSTRACT
Amid the general distress before a dreaded dictation exam, future theorists could be seen practically sharpening their pencils with their teeth in their eagerness to get started. Allan Keiler's work repeatedly and brilliantly addresses the very interesting problem of the metalinguistic properties of music. Music theory explicitly concerns itself with that voice but clearly needs to do more in terms of linking the nature of that voice to general human values. It needs to broaden its engagement with music. The most devastating aspect of this reaction to music theory and analysis is not the claim that it is ideologically malodorous but rather the growing perception that it is simply no longer interesting. Cultivating the mind-body connection may bring audiences close to the secret of music's power: perhaps we would find that music is the art form that most successfully models the human integration of mind and body.
