This study represents an interdisciplinary investigation of music cognition from both theoretical and empirical perspectives drawing principally from research in neuropsychology, and philosophy. The main aim of the thesis is to produce a coherent model of music cognition, reconciling empirical findings, current accounts of musical expression, and broader cognitive models. With this aim the investigation divides into two parts: first, examining musical expression of emotion, and second, exploring music cognition as a whole and its place within global models of cognition. A particular focus is the subdivision and independence of music subsystems, notably the separation of music and language and to what extent these are functionally, and neuro-anatomically separate cognitive systems.