The idea of "theory" in science, math, and music Thanks for your thoughts! I'm also interested in the idea of a musical theory as something that's made to be broken, and even going beyond that, of theory as something that can be generated at the same time as the thing it's describing. For instance, Messiaen (a famous composer) invented "modes of limited transposition" as he was first using them. Do you think that relates to any mathematical or scientific use of the word "theory"?