hmm … the concept of “musical narrative”, as many reading here may know from their undergraduate study of music and aesthetics, is philosophically problematic.

Beethoven’s Pastorale (or Moonlight), Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony, and the third movement of Mahler’s First Symphony (or Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies), are not “musical narratives”. (Vivaldi’s Four Seasons apes its suppressed literary text.)

I suggest those wanting to discuss this topic seriously review philosopher of music Jerrold Levinson’s “Music as Narrative and Music as Drama” (and his “Film Music and Narrative Agency”) in his collection Contemplating Art (Oxford U. Press, 2006).