Musicians imagine music by means of functional models which determine certain aspects of the music while leaving others open. This gap between image and the experience it models offers a source of compositional creativity; different musical cultures embody different ways of imagining sound as music. Drawing on psychological and philosophical materials as well as the analysis of specific musical examples, Cook here defines the difference between music theory and aesthetic criticism, and affirms the importance of the "ordinary listener" in musical culture.

Introduction 1 (9)
Musical form and the listener
Musical and non-musical listening 10 (12)
Experiencing music as form 22 (21)
The perception of form: some tests 43 (28)
Imagining music
Production versus reception 71 (14)
Imagining music 85 (37)
Knowing and listening
The two sides of the musical fabric 122(38)
Appreciation and criticism 160(27)
Composition and culture
Composition versus prediction 187(29)
Reification and explanation 216(28)
 References 244(15)
 Index 259