Reception of the Western music tradition and a search for "harmonic synthesis" has invigorated comparative studies in Chinese musicology. Comparing the two traditions of musical art, Chinese researchers pay attention to a number of differences: the subject, the functions of music, the emotional impact on the listener and the musical language. However, the Chinese musical tradition in these studies is presented much more thoroughly than the Western one (its selected features remain unintelligible through its existential and ideological horizon), which has a limiting effect on comparative studies. This paper presents the main conceptual views of musical and aesthetic thought of the West on the issue of the relationship between the form and content of a musical work. It is noted that the meaningfulness of the musical form in Western thought can be understood not only in the aspect of the analysis of the language of music, but also in the metaphysical sense, which is fundamentally important in comparative studies. In order to reveal the inner connection of the musical form with the metaphysic of Western culture, the meaning of the Western idea of humanitas and the connection of man with the world are revealed. Special attention is paid to the dimension of the tragic/dramatic in the Western worldview. It is associated with the dynamic nature of Western civilization. The Chinese "harmonic attitude" and the Western "drama" are two fundamental types of the relationship between man and the world, which largely determine the characters of the two musical cultures. Prospects for the development of the methodological apparatus of musicology are seen in the interdisciplinary approach and the introduction of modern algorithms culturology in the field of musicology.