• Introduction


• 1: The Type/Token Theory Introduced


• 2: Types I: Abstract, Unstructured, Unchanging


• 3: Types II: Platonism


• 4: Defending the Type/Token Theory I


• 5: Defending the Type/Token Theory II: Musical Platonism


• 6: Musical Works as Continuants: A Theory Rejected


• 7: Musical Works as Compositional Actions: A Critique


• 8: Sonicism I: Against Instrumentalism


• 9: Sonicism II: Against Contextualism

In this original and iconoclastic book, Julian Dodd argues for what he terms 'the simple view' of the ontological nature of works of pure, instrumental music. According to the simple view's first constituent thesis - the type-token theory - such works are eternally existent types of sound-sequence-event and, hence, items discovered rather than created by their composers. According to the simple view's second constituent thesis - timbral sonicism - musical works are identical just in case they sound exactly alike.