Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Music and language; 2. Origins; 3. Music theory and the genealogy of knowledge in Condillac's Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines; 4. Music and original loss in Rousseau's Essai sur l'origine des langues; 5. Sensible sounds: music and theories of the passions; Conclusion; Biography; Index.

Promotional Information

This study analyses reflections on music and considers ways in which it facilitates links between language and meaning.

Reviews

'Thomas distills these and far more recondite arguments with admirable clarity, and, what is more, he persuades the non-philosophically inclined reader of the relevance of his investigation.' Musical Times '... it provides an invaluable chronicle of some fascinating developments in the idea of a musical language within neo-classical theories of representation.' British Journal of Aesthetics