A Return to Musical Idealism

In disputes about the ontology of music, musical idealismthat is, the view that musical compositions are ideashas proven to be rather unpopular. We argue that, once we have a better grip on the ontology of ideas, we can formulate a version of musical idealism that is not only defensible, but plausible and attractive. We conclude that compositions are a particular kind of idea: they are completed ideas for musical manifestation.