In comparison with the most admired scholarly disciplines of the twentieth century Western World, musicology has only tardily formed concepts of its total field, or universe, and of its lowest common denominator. And these concepts, such as they are, have not yet made a dent upon the “excessive historicism” still entrenched in academic fortresses. Meanwhile, the natural and social sciences have advanced from positions of main reliance upon analytical techniques to bold syntheses of universal proportions, while in musicology, even mention of synthesis is not quite respectable. It should not be, but probably is, necessary to point out that except within a universal conceptual frame and in terms of a lowest common denominator, analysis is harzardous.