"Since [Tarasti's] is unquestionably the most fully developed narrative theory in the literature, this book is an important landmark . . . " —Music & Letters

Music is said to be the most autonomous and least representative of all the arts. However, it reflects in many ways the realities around it and influences its s

Byron Almén proposes an original synthesis of approaches to musical narrative from literary criticism, semiotics, historiography, musicology, and music theory,

This handbook for advanced students explains the various applications to music of methods derived from linguistics and semiotics. The book is aimed at musicians

Musical semiotics is a new discipline and paradigm of both semiotics and musicology. In its tradition, the current volume constitutes a radically new solution t