Interdisciplinary Focuses of the General Theory of Music

Abstract

The general theory of music includes a number of lower-leveled theories: on the one hand, there are compositional ones, such as those of polyphony, harmony, musical form and others; on the other hand, there are non-compositional ones, such as those of musical semiotics, psychology, acoustics and others. From a philosophical point of view, music can be considered in terms of time, space, energy, etc. Unlike the provisions of classical aesthetics, “musical content” is construed as a unity rather than as a dyad or a triad. From a semiotic point of view, Charles Peirce’s classical model, an icon — an index — a symbol, may be interpreted in some newer way. New descriptions of musical forms are referred to psychology due to the use of the notions of inertia and its imbalance, tension and relaxation, etc. A linguistic approach to “musical content” allows to develop a specific notion analogous to that of a lexical unit (both in and out of the context), together with some other notions. A certain way to consider musical phenomena in terms of axiology is offered as well.

Keywords

Music theory, scientific integrity, inclusion of the categories of philosophy, aesthetics, semiotics, linguistics and axiology into music theory.