Music semiology (
semiotics) is the study of signs as they pertain to
music on a variety of levels. Following
Roman Jakobson,
Kofi Agawu adopts the idea of musical semiosis being introversive or extroversive--that is, musical signs within a text and without. "Topics," or various musical conventions (such as horn calls, dance forms, and styles), have been treated suggestively by Agawu, among others. The notion of
gesture is beginning to play a large role in musico-semiotic enquiry.