「音樂與符號」相關研究與「音樂概念的多面向性」有密切關係。本文以音樂與符號為研究議題，「音樂到底是什麼？」是關注與思考的首要對象。藉由整理與解讀從古希臘時期的 Musiké，歷經普及於中世紀的拉丁用詞 Musica，到今日以不同語言呈現，卻系出同源的術語 Musik（德）、Music（英）、Musique（法）或 Musica（義），處於不同時空、不同社會環境與文化的西方音樂思想家、理論家、實踐者多面向的「音樂」概念，值得審視；其中包括自二十世紀後半葉以來，受到語言學理論與方法的啟發與影響，以符號作為理解音樂本質基本概念的思考。 而在「認識音樂符號」之前，本文將先論述「音樂是符號系統嗎？」並釐清符號如何成為理解音樂本質的基本概念。至於以「音樂是國際語言嗎？」的問題思考做為本文結語的意圖，主要在突顯將音樂看成是語言、甚至是國際語言的見解並非理所當然。因為，音樂與語言之間雖然存在著一定的相似性，卻在重要的結構組成要素方面，有著天壤之別的差異。

The related research of “Music and the Sign” has close relationship with “music concept’s multidimensional characteristic”. This paper adopts music and the sign as the topic of research. “What is music” is the prime object that to be focused and deliberated. The term of music was evolved from Musiké in Hellenistic times, through Musica that generally used in the medieval times, till today we use the terminology such as Musik in Germen, Music in English, Musique in French, and Musica in Italian. Although these terms represent different language, they are all come from the same root. By analyzing and understanding this, the multiple concept of “Music” that lies in different space and time, and different social environment’s music philosophers, theorists, and practitioner, are very worth of investigating. In particular, since the latter half of the twentieth century the music research has been inspired and influenced by linguistic theories and methods, the sign become essential to understand the basic concepts of music. Furthermore, before the section “Comprehend of music sign”, this article will first discuss “Is music a system of sign?” and to clarify how the sign becoming the basic concepts of understanding the nature of music. As for the intention of using the question “Is music a international language?” as an ending in this essay, is mainly to stress on the a opinion that to consider music as a language, or even a international language is not certainly right. It is because that although the similarity between music and language is surely existent, in their importance of structure’s component elements, they are vastly different.