This volume is concerned with the philosophical presuppositions of musical interpretation. The nineteen previously unpublished essays address such interrelated questions as the nature of musical interpretation in relation to works or music, whether works of music are fully embodied in scores, how strictly all markings of a score should be respected, what pertinence historical research has for musical interpretation, and how decisive the known or reconstructed intentions of a composer should be.

The contributors investigate the aesthetic, cultural, and historical aspects of musical interpretation, and their relation to interpretation in other human practices. In addition, they investigate such fundamental distinctions as those between musical and non-musical phenomena, and between musical and linguistic meaning.