There are also national differences in the definition of historical musicology.

In English, the word "Harmonie" exists only a technical term of historical musicology.

Traditionally, historical musicology has been considered the largest and most important subdiscipline of musicology.

Today, historical musicology is one of several large subdisciplines.

In practice, these research topics are more often considered within ethnomusicology (see below) and "historical musicology" is assumed to imply Western Art music.

The methods of historical musicology include source studies (esp.

In its most narrow definition, historical musicology is the music history of Western culture.

According to Richard Middleton, the strongest criticism of historical musicology has been that it by and large ignores popular music.

Within historical musicology, scholars have been reluctant to adopt postmodern and critical approaches that are common elsewhere in the humanities.

The terminology of historical musicology is "slanted by the needs and history of a particular music ('classical music')."