The most popular interpretation of musical meaning is stated generally as 'music is a tonal analogue of emotive life.' the article demonstrates the failure of the expression theory to provide adequate ground for a metalanguage of music. The theory's chief fault is that it attempts to make a science of musical signification and that this science is primarily psychological and secondarily musical. Musical signification lies in four areas rather than one: semantic, Symbolic, Figural, And behavioral (j.P. Guilford). A proper metalanguage (...) can only be built on methodology which demonstrates these mutually important modes of cognition. (shrink)