The analogy with chemistry doesn't work. There is only one "chemistry theory": the one that describes reality. The table of elements changes because our experimental understanding of reality improves.
There is no one true "music theory". Music theory as it is typically taught is no more than an elaborate system of nomenclature of the stylistic preferences of European music in the last three centuries. It is a cultural description of a cultural phenomenon.
To get into more specifics, when explaining music theory at an elementary level, you might say that a frequency ratio of 1:2 is called an octave and all the notes with an octave relationship to each other are considered equivalent. That is true, if you are making European-style music. Most other cultures around the world have a name for the interval called the octave, but most of them don't consider all octaves to be the same note. "octave equivalency" is fundamental to Western music, but it's not a universal law, it's a stylistic choice. To imply otherwise by claiming that your explanation of this European convention is essential to music writ large is to do a disservice to the many musical cultures around the world that don't follow that convention.
> The harmonic series is relevant, but you can't start from the harmonic series and find your way to Western classical music.
As big as fan as I am of being aware of non-western musical culture, I was commenting on the specific idea of moving from the harmonic series to a specific musical culture (the western classical one). This is why the chemistry analogy is (roughly) appropriate, because there are in fact a substantial number of (western) music theorists who consider there to be only a single western classic music theory.
I try to almost never use the words "music theory" without prefixing them with a temporal and/or geographic cultural qualifier (though I likely often fail here).
There is no one true "music theory". Music theory as it is typically taught is no more than an elaborate system of nomenclature of the stylistic preferences of European music in the last three centuries. It is a cultural description of a cultural phenomenon.
To get into more specifics, when explaining music theory at an elementary level, you might say that a frequency ratio of 1:2 is called an octave and all the notes with an octave relationship to each other are considered equivalent. That is true, if you are making European-style music. Most other cultures around the world have a name for the interval called the octave, but most of them don't consider all octaves to be the same note. "octave equivalency" is fundamental to Western music, but it's not a universal law, it's a stylistic choice. To imply otherwise by claiming that your explanation of this European convention is essential to music writ large is to do a disservice to the many musical cultures around the world that don't follow that convention.