Monelle, Raymond.  "Symbolic Models in Music Aesthetics."  The British Journal of Aesthetics 19 (Winter 1979): 24-37.

Abstract

Langer's view of musical symbolism is based on a symbolic theory derived from Whitehead, the model of which is the "word".  But she is forced to recognize that music relates in a different way to a different sort of mental activity.  It is suggested that the "word" be abandoned as a model of the musical symbolic process, and the religious symbol be substituted, as it is described by Paul Tillich.  Music, in symbolizing the transcendent, "partakes of the essence" of what it stands for, and thus contains an analysable sensuous component and an ineffable transcendent component.  [Abstract from The Philosopher's Index]