Acknowledgments I. Four Areas in Question 1. Music and Its Language The unanswered question of music as a language Musical 'languages' and musical change The non-referentiality of music 'All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music' Deryk Cooke's The Language of Music Music and language: comparison or theory? Historical change and musical terminology Mousike Continuity, change and purpose The importance of transitions Revaluations 2. Classical Music The 'classical' in classical music Canon of works or relations of address? Beginning of the concert Balance and vision The orchestra, format and history Orchestra and orchestration Composer and conductor: specialisation Forms and their origins Forms, listening and formal analysis: the symphony 'Classical' music and modernism Serialism Recording and the 'classical' composer Collaborative music and listening 3. Tuning and Dissonance Music, dissonance and noise Music, sounds, and acoustics Formalism or musak Historical reference I: The Greeks Historical reference II: The Middle Ages The Middle Ages: sounds and symbols The Middle Ages: polyphony Historical Reference III: tonality The contemporary argument: three views The contemporary argument: directions Dissonance and today's ear 4. Performance: Sound and Vision Musical performance and spectacle Locating sounds The significance of sound and vision Barthes and the body: 'The Grain of the Voice' Three points of position in sound and vision Performance in transition Musical reproduction and its technology Reproduction and performance Forms in transition 'Musica Practica' or musical image? II. Two Case Studies 5. False Relations and the Madrigal: An Alchemy of England's Golden Age in Music Golden Age or period of transition Madrigal and the madrigalists: employment and publication The madrigal and religious controversy Music by metaphor and rhetoric Imitation and ornament Madrigal, ballett and ayre The ayre and the singing voice The period and its prospect Performance and contemporary cultural argument 6. Rock Today: Facing the Music Diversity of forms and its implications Regional comparison: disco music in Jamaica, India and the USA Meanings and options in once place Identification and revolt The Who, 'My Generation, and David Bowie, 'Fashion' Groups 'Real' experience or convention genre? The rock song I: radio The rock song II: 'shifters' and the term of address The rock song III: position, polysemy and innovation Albums I: Sergeant Pepper and The Dark Side of the Moon Albums II: new form or sell-out? Albums III: implications for the contemporary scene The current prospect: synthesisers and video Notes and References Select Bibliography and Record List Index