Paradoxically, the alphabet enabled the Greeks to reduce the massive polyphonies of their oral culture by selecting and logically (visually) connecting what had been simultaneous and musical. If the Greek means of abstracting and conceptualizing was by logical connection, the abstract art and science of the twentieth century proceeds by the contrary means of pulling out the “logical” (visual) connections in space and time. This returns that art and philosophy of today to musical form. If the Greek drive to abstraction had been to eliminate the acoustic and musical in favor of visual and logical connectedness, our nonrepresentational and abstract art and science assumes a complementary pattern.